Rock & roll takes on new meaning in The Rift, Walter Jon Williams's huge book about a magnitude 8.9 earthquake centered under the southeastern United States. This is a major departure from the intricate science fiction tales Williams usually writes (City on Fire, Aristoi), but he applies the same thoroughness, complexity, and great character development to this disaster yarn. Some readers might balk at the book's size (it's a doorstopper), but consider the subject: the biggest earthquake in recorded history, a monstrous disaster that lays waste to entire cities from Chicago to New Orleans, flings one of the world's largest rivers out of its banks, and within 10 minutes obliterates countless lives. But the earthquake is only the beginning of this horror story--fire, flood, and chaos follow, and ordinary people are pushed to the limits of ability and sanity as they are transformed into survivors:

Marcy thought the tremor was just another aftershock, but then she saw the flash brighten the shining steel of the Gateway Arch, and turned south to watch in awestruck horror as the bright fireball rose over south St. Louis. Bright arching trails of flame shot out of the fireball, like Fourth of July rockets, as debris rose and fell.... It is the Bomb, Marcy thought. It is the End.... The bubble of fire rose into the heavens, and its reflection turned the Mississippi to the color of blood.

Williams follows the fates of nine people in the earthquake's aftermath. Among the most compelling, considering the racial and political tension characteristic of the American southeast, are the stories of sheriff Omar Paxton, a card-carrying KKK member from a small parish in Louisiana; the Reverend Noble Frankland, a fundamentalist preacher with well-stocked bunkers and fanatic followers; and General Jessica Frazetta of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the woman in charge of somehow repairing the damage. Each character's story would make a terrifying disaster novel on its own, and Williams handles them all deftly, weaving their threads through the apocalyptic postquake landscape. The Rift is a magnitude 9 novel--you'll walk gingerly on the quiet earth when you're done reading. --Therese Littleton

From Library Journal
A devastating earthquake strikes the American heartland along the New Madrid faultline, destroying homes, severing communications, and changing the course of the Mississippi River. As the inhabitants of cities from Missouri to Louisiana seek to recover from the catastrophe, the earth continues to shudder, and with it comes a breakdown in the lives of the survivors. With the same vigorous eloquence he brings to cutting-edge sf, the author of Voice of the Whirlwind depicts a continent divided not only by the forces of nature but by the all-too-human rifts that separate individuals from each other. Part social commentary, part disaster novel, this near-future drama should appeal to fans of cataclysmic fiction. Highly recommended for general and sf collections. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Contemporary disaster yarn from the accomplished science-fiction and fantasy author (City on Fire, 1997, etc.). Ever since the great earthquake of 181112, the fault beneath New Madrid, Missouri, has remained quiescent, and life proceeds as usual for the Mississippi Valley's modern-day inhabitants. Teenager Jason Adams lives in Cabells Mound with his batty New Age mother; Jason hates the Swampeast and wants to live in California with his father, who doesn't want himthough he does send a spiffy telescope for Jason's birthday. Black unemployed weapons- systems engineer Nick Ruford drives south to visit his estranged wife Manon and their daughter Arlette, for whom he's bought a beautiful birthday present. Omar Paxton, Spottswood Parish's new sheriff, has openly admitted his Klan affiliation, while the President keeps a wary eye on his further political ambitions. Nuclear engineer Larry Hallock supervises a routine refueling at his Mississippi Delta power plant. Options trader Charlie Johns makes millions gambling on a sudden economic downturn. Park Ranger Marcy Douglas conducts tourists to the top of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. General Jessica Frazetta of the Army Corps of Engineers, responsible for the entire Mississippi basin, worries more about actually rising floodwaters than hypothetical earthquakes, while Bible-thumping radio preacher Noble Frankland, convinced that the End Times are nigh, has stockpiled foodand guns. And then the earthquake hits. Measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale, it lasts ten minutes. Dams and levees break, fissures open to belch sulfur, water, and sand, the Mississippi changes course, and St. Louis and Memphis are flattened. As the true extent of the disaster slowly emergesthere'll be international ramifications toomany of the characters will interact in surprising and intriguing situations. Rousing adventures involving an impressively vivid cast of characters: a plausible, sturdy, compelling doorstopper. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
The rift is literal. The huge quake devastates the American Midwest, reduces much of the United States to a new stone age. Now another quake is coming that will kill tens of thousands, destroy major metropolitan areas and even change the course of the mighty Mississippi.
— Jim Killen

FROM THE PUBLISHER

It starts with the dogs. They won't stop barking. And then the earth shrugs - 8.9 on the Richter scale. It's the world's biggest earthquake since Lisbon in 1755, and it doesn't hit California or Japan or Mexico, but New Madrid, Missouri, a sleepy town on the Mississippi River. Seismologists had predicted the scope of the disaster . . . but no one listened.. "Within minutes, there is nothing but chaos and ruin from St. Louis to Vicksburg, from Kansas City to Louisville. Every bridge down, every highway torn, every house gone.. "America's heartland has fallen into the nightmare known as the Rift - a fault line in the earth that wrenchingly exposes the fractures in American society itself. As a strange white mist smelling of sulfur rises from the crevassed ground, the real terror begins for the survivors, who will soon envy the dead, including Jason Adorns, a teenager separated from his mother; Nick Ruford, an African-American engineer searching for his estranged daughter; Noble Frankland, the TV preacher whose visions of hell have become all too real; Larry Hallock, a technician working frantically to prevent a nuclear meltdown at his power station; and Omar Paxton, a sheriff and Ku Klux Klansman who seeks racial vengeance in the turmoil of disaster.

FROM THE CRITICS

Pixel Planet

The Rift is an excellent modern-day adventure novel that fans of speculative fiction and action/adventure novels should seek out.

Publishers Weekly

Catastrophe strikes twice in the same place, or so it seems from the second thriller this year (after Peter Hernon's 8.4: Forecasts, Jan. 4) detailing the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in the Mississippi River Valley. Working on a smaller scale than in his world-building science fantasies (City on Fire, etc.), Williams imagines the chaos that would attend a tectonic shift registering 8.9 on the Richter scale ("the worst the geosphere can do to us") along the New Madrid fault line, where a quake of similar intensity in 1811 radically altered the landscape. The result is a formulaic scenario straight out of--or destined for--a disaster film epic, replete with cinematic scenes of modern cities in ruins and a cast of clich d characters who represent the best and worst of humanity attempting to survive under harsh circumstances. Though the plot alternates wide-angle views of awesome natural destruction with intimate personal moments, it jells around the shared adventures of Nick Buford, a black engineer, and Jason Adams, a white teenager. Nick and Jason recapitulate the travels of Huck Finn and Jim as they raft down the Mississippi from Missouri to Louisiana, searching for Nick's displaced family and along the way encountering the requisite share of good guys (General Jessica Frazetta of the Army Corps of Engineers, self-sacrificing nuclear technician Larry Hallock) and bad guys (doom-spewing preacher Noble Falkland, racist sheriff Omar Paxton). Superficial exploration of "the rift" the quake opens between races, social castes and cultures serves as padding between the tale's climactic aftershocks. Williams has written more stimulating fiction, but this holds its own as beachside entertainment. (Aug.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

A devastating earthquake strikes the American heartland along the New Madrid faultline, destroying homes, severing communications, and changing the course of the Mississippi River. As the inhabitants of cities from Missouri to Louisiana seek to recover from the catastrophe, the earth continues to shudder, and with it comes a breakdown in the lives of the survivors. With the same vigorous eloquence he brings to cutting-edge sf, the author of Voice of the Whirlwind depicts a continent divided not only by the forces of nature but by the all-too-human rifts that separate individuals from each other. Part social commentary, part disaster novel, this near-future drama should appeal to fans of cataclysmic fiction. Highly recommended for general and sf collections. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Gary K. Wolfe - Locus

It may be evidence of Williams's real ambition here that [disaster] passages, for all the roiling, bucking spectacle they provide, eventually take a back seat to what emerges as...a disturbingly incisive exploration of racial and religious intolerance in the American heartland....[I]ts antecedents include...Huckleberry Finn and Elmer Gantry.

Kirkus Reviews

Contemporary disaster yarn from the accomplished science-fiction and fantasy author (City on Fire, 1997, etc.). Ever since the great earthquake of 1811￯﾿ﾽ12, the fault beneath New Madrid, Missouri, has remained quiescent, and life proceeds as usual for the Mississippi Valley's modern-day inhabitants. Teenager Jason Adams lives in Cabells Mound with his batty New Age mother; Jason hates the Swampeast and wants to live in California with his father, who doesn't want him￯﾿ﾽthough he does send a spiffy telescope for Jason's birthday. Black unemployed weapons- systems engineer Nick Ruford drives south to visit his estranged wife Manon and their daughter Arlette, for whom he's bought a beautiful birthday present. Omar Paxton, Spottswood Parish's new sheriff, has openly admitted his Klan affiliation, while the President keeps a wary eye on his further political ambitions. Nuclear engineer Larry Hallock supervises a routine refueling at his Mississippi Delta power plant. Options trader Charlie Johns makes millions gambling on a sudden economic downturn. Park Ranger Marcy Douglas conducts tourists to the top of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. General Jessica Frazetta of the Army Corps of Engineers, responsible for the entire Mississippi basin, worries more about actually rising floodwaters than hypothetical earthquakes, while Bible-thumping radio preacher Noble Frankland, convinced that the End Times are nigh, has stockpiled food￯﾿ﾽand guns. And then the earthquake hits. Measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale, it lasts ten minutes. Dams and levees break, fissures open to belch sulfur, water, and sand, the Mississippi changes course, and St. Louis and Memphis are flattened. As the true extent of thedisaster slowly emerges￯﾿ﾽthere'll be international ramifications too￯﾿ﾽmany of the characters will interact in surprising and intriguing situations. Rousing adventures involving an impressively vivid cast of characters: a plausible, sturdy, compelling doorstopper.