Walter J Williams, The Rift

First published back in 1999, the predominately science fiction author Walter J. Williams released his epic disaster tale entitled 'The Rift'.

The tale is centres around a handful of characters, namely the rebellious schoolboy Jason Adams and his newly acquainted travelling partner Nick Ruford. When a massive earthquake hits Missouri, Mississippi and Louisiana, the landscape is left in ruins. Chaos ensues as the nation's infrastructure collapses, leaving the surviving inhabitants refugees within their own land.

Littered with detailed and beautifully involved subplots, each one telling their own individual stories; the storyline marches on at a breathtaking pace. With a carefully laid out plot, Williams draws the individual character's stories together, delivering a natural yet seamless tale.

Nuclear Power Stations are hit hard by the earthquakes, resulting in a far more deadly turn of events. The Mississippi pours across the landscape flooding the areas with the critically damaged levee system.

Aftershocks pound the now thoroughly devastated landscape on frequent occasions, sending the survivors into repeated states of panic. Where some take to rescuing their fellow man from within the rubble, others see a new and deeply disturbing opportunity from the ensuing pandemonium.

A fanatical preacher who has spent years obsessing over the supposedly foretold apocalypse, sets up a massive camp for his newly acquired followers. With the days going by and sheer survival becoming more and more difficult, so the preacher's sanity deteriorates until there is nothing left but a madman and his cult.

On the other side of the tale, a newly appointed sheriff who is also an active member of the KKK, begins an unsympathetic program of genocide, killing off men, women and children with his unrelenting extreme prejudice.

With each twist and turn in the tale, and when you think it's safe to re-build, the world shakes you off your feet once again. Surviving the earthquake is pure luck, surviving the after-effects it soon appears is the real challenge.

With a deliberate play on words for the novel's title 'The Rift', Williams spends a large proportion of his epic novel taking on the challenging and important issues of racial prejudices, whilst incorporating the theoretical idea that the New Madrid quake was the result of a failed rifting of North America. Multiple layers of elaborately constructed storyline produce a powerful novel delivering a novel where 'To Kill A Mockingbird' meets 'Ambush In Waco'...with earthquakes!

Williams tackles the issues of race and religion head-on, delivering a powerful message throughout. Williams incorporates actual historical elements into the novel, with clear parallels drawn to the likes of Huey Pierce Long (The Kingfish) as well as important true to life events such as the inspirational uprising in 1943 at the Sobibor concentration camp and the haunting events of the Jonestown Massacre in 1978.

The characterization of each individual, no matter how involved their part is in the developing tale, is truly exceptional. The reader can build up a gradual yet deeply set love for a whole host of the characters, whilst a slow burning rage builds deep within towards the fascist and corrupt characters that become so focal to the storyline.

The tale, although somewhat epic in length, remains fast paced and gripping throughout. Williams takes a while to get the tale in full swing, carefully detailing the characters individual lives before the inevitable earthquake rips their world apart.

The novel wraps up neatly, with a successful and truly satisfying ending. Williams avoids a clich d over emotional conclusion, instead playing for a blunt yet altogether fitting grand finale.

'The Rift' is nothing short of a gripping and truly powerful novel, packed with action and tension, whilst dealing with difficult social aspects and the cruelty capable of our fellow man. Running at a total of 932 pages, Williams crams in as much as he can into this incredible and heart-wrenching tale.