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SPRcom
Posted December 1, 2011
In Kolbet¿s near-future setting, environmental concerns have led to fossil fuels being banned in the generation of electricity in America, which in turn has led to millions of people suddenly losing access to electricity with catastrophic results. What follows is a fast-paced thriller that takes Luke around the world and around America, searching for the truth behind StuTech¿s technology. Along the way he encounters the usual sorts of thrills and spills you¿d expect in a story of this sort, and it all leads to a suitably dramatic climax. Kolbet clearly understands the demands of the genre and writes clearly and well when he needs to, but this novel didn¿t quite work for me. The elements are all in place here, and the action set pieces in particular are written with vigor and a good eye for the telling details, but some problems with the setting kept bouncing me out of this one. Fatally, I struggled to find the basic premise convincing. The banning of fossil fuels in power generation makes sense ¿ it¿s likely something like this is going to happen sometime in the next fifty years ¿ but I kept wondering about alternative and sustainable energy. It¿s unlikely that wind, hydro and geothermal power would be able to completely replace oil and coal plants, but apart from a fleeting aside about wind turbines (we¿re shown wooden turbines being sold at a market, which is a bit lame ¿ wooden? Seriously?) they don¿t get a mention. And what about nuclear? It¿s not mentioned either. I was also concerned that the ramifications of the great black-out weren¿t followed through. Given that suburban and rural areas, small cities even, are without power, I would have expected far more in the way of death and destruction. I would have expected big cities heaving with refugees, widespread and grinding poverty and starvation everywhere. It didn¿t seem to be quite the lawless and apocalyptic place it really needed to be to justify the hyperbole around the loss of electricity. And what about all the other uses for fossil fuels ¿ international air travel, for example (which contributes between two and five per cent of carbon emissions globally) doesn¿t seem to be a problem. Similarly, I was never entirely clear on the nature of StuTech technology. Kolbet emphasised the miracle of broadcast power, but I couldn¿t figure out exactly how the power was generated. It¿s possible that the whole thing makes sense, but I didn¿t feel I was given all the pieces necessary for it to fall into place. These elements were a real problem, because without a clear statement of what¿s gone wrong (or a massively over-the-top one even, given the genre) Luke¿s motivations seem a bit watery. When Kolbet threw in, about halfway through, that the miracle substance A.R.C. didn¿t just conduct electricity but could potentially cure spinal injuries (and, it¿s implied, Luke¿s niece¿s respiratory illness) I got the feeling that he was trying to compensate for this lack of drama by giving Luke something else to fight for. That¿s probably a mistake. I needed only one miraculous power of the secret stuff to keep me going; adding another unrelated super-power made me question the whole enterprise. There are also a few uncertainties of character that let this novel down. Luke¿s motivations get a bit confused as the action goes on: the love affair with the boss¿s d
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.RunningCrazy
Posted November 9, 2011
Off the Grid is a great thriller that kept me guessing until the end. Luke is a character that you want to see take down the corrupt and selfish CEO of StuTech. I am looking forward to reading more from this author in the future.
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LendMe™
Overview
Today electricity is delivered wirelessly, a technological revolution that saved the world from a drastic energy shortage. One company has the monopoly to deliver this power through the air, but this stranglehold thrusts thousands of cities and millions of people into an eternal blackout.Luke Kincaid’s hometown wasn’t the first to be forced off the grid, but when the blackout leads directly to his parent’s deaths, Luke has just one company and one man to blame. It’s time to fight back. It’s time to fight StuTech.
So it’s quite a shock when Luke finds himself at StuTech as a model ...