The Tunguska Event

Just after 7 AM on June 30th 1908 a massive air blast occurred over Tunguska in Siberia – the Tunguska event – caused by a meteorite or comet fragment. The blast released the same amount of energy as 185 Hiroshima nuclear bombs. The object is thought to have been around 120 feet in diameter. It will happen again, it’s just a question of where and when… 

Ever since I first saw a picture of the flattened trees radiating out from a central location in a desolate region of Siberia when aged about 11, I was fascinated by what could have caused the devastation that occurred there in 1908. Various theories were put forward;

 A crashed UFO

A miniature black hole striking the Earth

Antimatter collision

Or of course an exploding comet fragment of meteorite.

Well, recently Italian scientists who have been searching for remnants and evidence of what could have caused the explosion, think they may have found evidence of a stony fragment at the bottom of lake Cheko. The story can be read HERE.

I also found a great U-Tube video taken from the wonderful Carl Sagan’s cosmos program. It’s not on long and well worth a watch.

 

Fascinated and equally concerned by the event, I decided to weave the facts into an action thriller, which turned into Robert Spire’s second adventure IMPACT POINT. Why not click on ‘Look Inside’ on the Amazon page and read the first few chapters…

IMPACT POINT Kindle Book : What The Readers Are Saying.

Check out a sample of Amazon reader reviews for IMPACT POINT. At £1.99/$2.99 why not give it a go and see what you think?

ECO-THRILLER MEETS SCI-FI

“This is the author’s second Robert Spire thriller and I was looking forward to it after reading Tipping Point. An intriguing mix of environmental thriller and sci-fi action as we follow environmental lawyer Robert Spire who – since his first adventure in Tipping Point – has now been signed up to GLENCOM, a kind of environmental MI6. He is asked to investigate, after the discovery of two dead blue whales, and is assisted by an attractive San Diego-based marine biologist and ex-marine Travis Dexter as he travels to some exotic locations in search of answers to the whale deaths and a meteorite stolen from the home of a Californian based philanthropist. The book is an unique blend of environmental, sci-fi and action adventure thriller which becomes more sinister as the adventure proceeds. The Impact Point of the title is soon revealed. A seemingly well researched and enjoyable read.”

A JOLLY GOOD READ

“I can recommend this book as an entertaining, exciting read. I intend to purchase more titles by this author in the near future.”

‘Point’ Action-Thriller: Two Novel Compilation

Get TIPPING POINT and IMPACT POINT  in one great Kindle double novel pack. Download both Robert Spire eco-action thrillers at the same time and save ££/$$! Treat your Kindle to some eco-environmental action adventure thrills today and save money. What a great deal!

I can’t guarantee the books will be twice as good however!

NASA’s Missing Moon Rocks.

“The US space agency Nasa recently announced that many of the Moon rocks brought back to Earth from two Apollo space missions have gone missing. They were given as gifts to the nations of the world. So what happened to them?

Towards the end of the Apollo 17 mission on 13 December 1972, Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt – the last men to have set foot on the Moon – picked up a rock.

Cernan announced: “We’d like to share a piece of this rock with so many of the countries throughout the world.”

His wish was fulfilled.

President Richard Nixon ordered that the brick-sized rock be broken up into fragments and sent to 135 foreign heads of state and the 50 US states.

Each “goodwill Moon rock” was encased in a lucite ball and mounted on a wooden plaque with the recipient nations’ flag attached.

Moon rock collected during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 was also distributed to the same nations and US states.

There were 370 pieces gathered for this purpose from the two missions. Two hundred and seventy were given to nations of the world and 100 to the 50 US states.

But 184 of these are lost, stolen or unaccounted for – 160 around the world and 24 in the US.

The rocks were distributed to countries ranging from Afghanistan to Trinidad and Tobago.

“Gaddafi’s government was given two Moon rocks – they’re missing. Romania is missing its Apollo 17 goodwill Moon rock,” says Joseph Gutheinz Jr, the Texas-based lawyer and former Nasa agent, who has become known as the “Moon rock hunter”. His search continues… story credited to BBC News

Speaking of missing Moon rocks, New Robert Spire thriller IMPACT POINT out now on the Kindle involves Spire in the investigation of multiple blue whale deaths after two of the world’s largest ever creatures wash up on both sides of the Atlantic. The mystery deepens following the discovery of the mineral olivine in the mammal’s blood.

The death of philanthropist Julian Smithies in the USA opens up a new lead after a rare and valuable olivine-rich meteorite is stolen from his home.

Spire finds himself on a dangerous adventure as he and marine biologist Dr Sally Rivea travel to the Bahamas in an attempt to uncover the clues. The more they discover, the more the terrifying truth is revealed. Can the seemingly inevitable cataclysm be prevented?

Robert Spire’s latest adventure might be the world’s last…

Asteroid Grazes Earth

A 36 foot diameter asteroid flew past Earth on Friday 28th January at just 60,000 miles distant. For comparison purposes, the moon is only 250,000 miles away, so a very close shave!

Interested in an action-packed adventure with a similar theme? Get your hands on IMPACT POINT, out soon on Kindle.

Impact Point: Action-Adventure Thriller. 2012; End Of The World?

MYSTERIOUS WHALE DEATHS…

When the World’s largest ever creature – a blue whale – dies in front of Robert Spire on his local Welsh beach, the UKs Department of the Environment and local population are ill prepared. When a second whale washes up dead on Myrtle Beach on the opposite side of the Atlantic, the scientific community starts asking questions.

A QUEST FOR METEORITE FRAGMENTS…

Environmental lawyer Robert Spire; newly recruited to the UKs Global Environmental Command Unit – GLENCOM, flies over to South Carolina to investigate. Whilst there, he meets marine biologist Dr Sally Rivea, also assigned to the case. Meanwhile, ex-marine Travis Dexter is on the run in Nevada after he discovers the body of his employer – philanthropist Julian Smithies- murdered in his home. The only object missing is a recently discovered, rare and valuable meteorite.

A FUTURE GLOBAL CATACLYSM…

On the island of Andros In the Bahamas, four sport divers make a startling discovery at the bottom of Mystery Cave blue hole. Sixty miles offshore in the Caribbean Sea, drilling on the Proteus oil rig turns to disaster as the drill penetrates something hard on the ocean floor. Dr Rivea, at a loss to explain the high levels of the mineral olivine in the whale’s tissue samples, accompanies Spire to the Caribbean in search of answers, but what they discover doesn’t bear thinking about…

Eco-Thrillers: A New Genre?

Perhaps it’s time to treat your Kindle to a new thriller? How about an Eco-thriller? This blog is devoted to the books currently out there which combine action, adventure and thrills, with a threat – either natural or man-made – to the environment, which causes local or even global disaster and destruction. Sound like a good recipe? Read on…

You don’t have to be a ‘Tree-hugger’ – no offence to trees or hugging intended – to enjoy these types of books. In fact, although these titles are all fictional, not only do you get a decent story and fast-paced read, but the books are quite often very informative and laced with science, so the reader also usually learns something in the process…What could be better?

Eco-thrillers have actually been around for a good while. The 1950s and 1960s were filled with “Our planet is getting mad” themes, which were told through the numerous science fiction films that came out during that period.

“The Day The Earth Stood Still,” based on author Harry Bates’ short 1940s story, “Farewell To The Master,” which came with a message from outer space that Earth needed to be saved from mankind, is probably one of the most well-known of those films, but I dare say, not many people have heard of the book, or even the author.

More recently, movies such as  “The Day After Tomorrow,” about the sudden halting of the Atlantic Ocean Thermohaline Circulation, based on the 1999 book, “The Coming Global Superstorm,” by Whitley Strieber and Art Bell,  and Richard Matheson’s  last man on the planet, “I am Legend,” based on a book of the same title, actually written in 1954, brought environmental disaster movies to the masses.

These are great examples of the eco-thriller disaster genre, which are based on books from decades ago. We also have British authors like JG Ballard who, in 1962 wrote “The Drowned World,” a story about solar radiation melting the poles, causing soaring temperatures which leave Europe and North America submerged in tropical lagoons.

Another British author, Charles Eric Maine was writing eco-thrillers back in 1958 with “The Tide Went Out,” about mankind’s nuclear tests busting open the Earth’s crust which causes all the oceans to run into the planet’s interior, and you guessed it, environmental disaster ensues…great stuff!

So, it seems the eco-thriller genre is really a sub-genre which has been around for decades, just more usually dressed up as science fiction it would seem.

I have read a decent selection of eco-thrillers and have also written one myself. Below is a little information on my favorites in the genre. You can make your own minds up as to whether you think this genre is for you. There is also a list of the books that I haven’t yet read, but ones that are certainly on my Kindle download list!

I’m actually surprised that the eco-thriller genre doesn’t have its own niche on Amazon, but maybe that will change soon, as there’s plenty of great books out there. Whilst the world doesn’t face the same kind of threats as it did in the 1950s, one hopes, it does face mounting environmental ones, which should mean that the eco-thriller genre will be around for a long time to come.

Let’s just hope we’re all around long enough to read them…!

So, in no particular order then, here’s my list;

The Rapture by Liz Jenson.

When a wheel-bound psychologist is assigned to help a young girl locked up in an asylum to decipher her seemingly crazy rants and random scribbling’s of natural disasters, her first thoughts, naturally is that the girl is crazy. When certain events appear to come true however, it soon appears that the girl might not be deranged after all but have the ability to foresee a future global environmental catastrophe.

A well written, pacey novel with an interesting subject matter – 3.5 eco-stars

Ordinary Thunderstorms by William Boyd.

Not so much an eco-thriller, but included on the basis that the main protagonist is a climate scientist.  This book is about Adam Kindred who, following a fleeting meeting with a man in a restaurant has his life turned upside down after he has to go off radar in London whilst all the while trying to prove his innocence following a murder he didn’t commit.

A vividly written novel with simmering drama – 3 eco-stars

Arctic Drift by Clive Cussler.

The master of adventure novels pulls off another great adventure-thriller with a global warming/environmental theme. Dirk Pitt becomes involved with a search for a mineral which may be capable of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Expect science, thrills, adventure, action and good story-telling – 4.5 eco-stars

Tipping Point by Si Rosser – yes me!

An action-adventure thriller with an environmental twist is the best way I could describe my book.  Robert Spire, the main character is an environmental lawyer, but little time is devoted in the book to any legal back-story, this is no legal thriller. Instead Spire is immersed in a global adventure following the mysterious deaths of two climatologists. Action and thrills take place in Wales, London, Paris, San Francisco and the Arctic as Spire goes on a quest in search of answers. Meanwhile global environmental disaster looms…

I won’t rate my own book, but here’s what the readers are saying;

“Tip top global adventure”

“Enjoyable action-thriller”

“Great yarn, couldn’t put it down”

“Well-crafted environmental thriller”

“Simmering suspense”

Terminal Freeze by Lincoln Child.

This book I thought was a great read. Again, you could argue that this is a techno-thriller, but in my view it has all the elements of an eco-thriller. A team of scientists monitoring climate change near an old disused Artic base discover something – a prehistoric creature frozen solid in an ice cave. The sponsors of a nature programme funding the project fly in to film the creature as it is thawed from its ancient resting place. Needless to say, all hell breaks loose!

Fast-paced, scary, vividly written Arctic thriller – 4.5 eco-stars

IMPACT POINT by Si Rosser – Yep, mine again!

Robert Spire’s second adventure, takes him from Wales, London, the USA and the Bahamas in search of the cause of multiple blue whale deaths. When traces of the mineral olivine are found in the mammals blood, the mystery deepens. Meanwhile, a rare and valuable meteorite gets stolen from slain philanthropist Julian Smithies’ Californian mansion. Is there a connection? The more Spire finds out, the closer he comes to revealing a future cataclysm that may end all life on planet Earth.

Robert Spire’s latest adventure, might be the World’s last…

Here’s another bunch of great sounding eco-thrillers that are on my to read list; Enjoy!

Freezing Point and Boiling Point

I Am Legend

The Tide Went Out

Drowned World

Wet Desert

Thaw

The Wave

Wildfire

Vapor Trails

Melting Down

Ultimatum

Cold Earth

Flood