I put up with the awfulness of tense. Often, in the same sentence he'd use present tense and past tense. But when the women began throwing themselves at his hero, I hated it. Yet I kept on because I was interested in the ideas, but when even the intelligent women became helpless I'd had enough. Too bad because the sci fi aspects were intriguing. ( )

This is a very entertaining story, very well written, that develops in a nice pace . When I was reading it, it reminded me the book "The Survivors" by Angela White in certain moments, mainly when the focus was on the army created after the chaos was in place. Also the NBC's TV-Series "Revolution" came to my mind, but this story is unique in a sense that the plot is directed to crude oil vanishing. Our hero is an ex-CIA agent named Alex Cave, that by coincidence witnesses the first case of crude oil disappearing from a tanker when he is sailing on his boat on close waters to the event. After reporting the incident, he is asked to investigate what is going on by his friend and Director of National Security, Martin Donner, and count on the help of Christa, a young physicist, and Bull, a supervisor at the All Alaska Oil Company. The story is full of very well developed characters, on a plot easy to follow and full of twists and keeps you cheering for your hero during the whole book. There are other parallel stories that are interlaced to the main plot in a very natural way, all converging to the apotheosis at the end. There are lots of brilliant sequences in action, some dose of romance and all the good ingredients that make this book a must read for all fiction lovers that want to spend some hours entertained. It took me around sixteen hours to read the whole book. I can cannot wait to read the next episode on Alex Cave adventures!
This book was written by James M.Corkill and I received an electronic version for reviewing. I was not requested to provide a positive review. Opinions expressed here are my own.
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I was given a copy of “Dead Energy: An Alex Cave Adventure,” by author James M. Corkill, in exchange for an honest review. I met Mr. Corkill through [...]. He was in a forum discussing his books and needed to gather some reviews. Through our brief conversations, I only knew that the book was a Sci-Fi. Needing a break from the fantasy of dragons and magic, I decided, this would be a perfect book to read.
The U. S. Coast Guard is called in about the Americrude oil tanker “Scorpio” who has dispatched a mayday call. Before the Coast Guard can reach the tanker, Alex Cave, reaches the ship first. Coming back from the San Juan Islands on his 35 ft. sailboat, he pulls his boat up next to the tanker and boards. Once aboard, he realizes that things are amiss. The crew is missing. The boat riding higher than it should. The life boats are still onboard. Something terribly wrong has happened!
By the time the Coast Guard makes it to the Scorpio, Alex Cave has done his investigation. Commander McBride who has the knack of being an ass, starts his questioning of Cave. CDR McBride, not happy with the cocky attitude he is getting from Cave, calls into check this guy out. It comes back that Alex Cave is a professor at the Univ. of Montana and teaches geology and geophysics. Then the kicker comes over, he’s also the special advisor to the Director of National Security. (This just tells you that Cave isn’t an ordinary man)
The mystery of the missing crew grows even more when the bodies are found inland in the snow on Mt. Baker. There aren’t any footprints surrounding the bodies. The coroner finds that the blood in the bodies has been dehydrated, but not with the means of heat. Through Cave’s contacts he finds that there is two more tanker ships abandoned in waters surrounding America’s coast.
As things are spinning out of control and gas is becoming tainted or missing. Marshall Law is enacted. It becomes every man, woman and child for themselves. A crazy militia group surfaces, who at first offer military type protection to those who come to their compound. As the militia group undergoes a drastic change in command, things get out of control and tempers flare. Then a mistake is made on their behalf. They seize Cave and his associates.
Even odder things begin to surface. A crystal like substance is being distributed and found in gas. People are acting weird and under the control of some entity. Nobody is certain what is going on or who is behind it all. That is until a man in a hospital describes what he witnessed at a store. With his description, things seem to start falling into place and Cave and his associates start formulate what is going on. Only question is, are they going to be able to solve this mystery and save humanity?
This was a well written book. With all the craziness that was going on, it was easy to follow. As the story flips flops back and forth between characters, you aren’t lost or confused. I also found that the description of the scenes throughout the book were perfect. Sometimes you will run across a new author that spends too much time describing people or the scenery. This isn’t the case with this book. He gave you just enough to build a picture in your head and not be overwhelmed.
I was impressed also by the way the story transitions between each character. It’s easy to follow the dialog without feeling lost in the story. With the amount of people that he introduces, you were able to follow the conversations and not get lost with who said what.
I was fortunate to be given the second installment in the Alex Cave Adventure, Cold Energy. I’m really excited to see where the book Dead Energy left off and where the new one begins. I have high hopes for this author and his work ( )