Thriller About Natural Disasters

[FireDispatcher]

Could someone please refresh my memory as to the title of a book about a group of monks with an intricate brass clock/globe that predicted natural disasters? The novel opened in the 1880's as Krakatoa was erupting and finished on LaPalma with the hero trying to avert an earthquake or volcano. It involved a secret society trying to mitigate the effects of natural disasters with engineered solutions. It was quite exciting. Thank you.

 

[oregonjade]

You aren't talking about the one that mentions ley lines and ends up in Antarctica, are you? (Thinking not, but checking just to make sure...) And it sounds interesting, so I hope someone knows what it is!

 

[Choc]

I hope someone recognizes the title from your discription. I'd definately be interested in giving it a try. Sounds good

Thanks FireDispatcher

Ps....Welcome to BAR

 

[FireDispatcher]

After the first chapter about Krakatoa, the modern part of the book began with a field of under-ocean wells releasing gas that could cause a natural disaster from pressure building up inside the earth; a ship or submarine was caught in the updraft, causing an engineer to go and investigate. He discovered an immensely wealthy secret group who undertook engineering projects around the world to prevent earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, etc. It was headquartered in a hidden monastery in Tibet (I think) where the monks had a huge, intricate brass globe with gears and cogs that imitated the earth's plate movement and predicted where/when the next disaster would occur. There was a beautiful woman, her evil brother and the protagonist who ended up on the island of La Palma trying to prevent half the island from sliding into the sea and causing a tidal wave that would destroy the eastern shore of America. Thank you for your posts!

 

[FireDispatcher]

Finally.....

Found it!
It is "Deep Fire Rising," by Jack du Brul. Thank y'all for helping.

 

[Fore Check]

I strongly recommend the other Du Brul books in the Phillip Mercer series, starting with Vulcan's Forge and working forward to Deep Fire Rising. They are all fantastic!

 

[Fore Check]

I just finished this book a few minutes ago. Good read!

Spoiler

Call me a romantic, but if Du Brul spent so much time and effort establishing (even though rather thinly) Mercer's realization that he could actually "love" a woman in the sense of having a lasting relationsip, I was a bit disappointed that she dies in his arms in what seems to be a rather abrupt ending to the book. The combination of that occurence and the fact that the book ends so quickly following the action climax without an epilogue attached is almost cliche in and of itself. A quick glance at the first few pages of the next book of the series, Havoc indicates that some of the blanks left in the ending of Deep Fire Rising are filled in there.

 

[Fore Check]

I just finished reading Havoc this morning. Yet another good read! Although all of Du Brul's "Mercer" books reference at least part of one of the previous books in the series (well, except for Vucan's Forge, which was the first one) - Havoc is the closest thing to a "sequel" to the previous book in the series (Deep Fire Rising) as any of them.

In other words, if you read Deep Fire Rising, I *strongly* recommend you read Havoc as a follow-up. I will also *strongly* recommend that if you want to read Havoc that you read Deep Fire Rising first.

Spoiler

I found the ending "post-script" of Havoc to be a pretty cool and interesting license taken by Du Brul - supposing that Nikola Tesla panicked and orchestrated the crash of the Hindenburg, killing a key occupant who's "luggage" would have allowed Albert Einstein to develop the nuclear bomb 10 years earlier than it was; further supposing that if the bomb was developed 10 years earlier that it would have been used as a deterrant that would have pre-empted World War II all together.