Prairie Fire

by Dan Armstrong

Gripping, compelling; this is the populist novel of the 21st century, and this author is the new Upton Sinclair. With the excitement of a James Bond thriller, this novel takes the reader from the wheat fields of Kansas to the bedrooms of those who own the international banking system, meanwhile involving the world s stock exchanges, the commodities market, the massive world drug trade, the intelligence community, and a presidential campaign. While this novel is as fresh as the morning paper, you will not find it there. This is well informed, deep background set against the objective fact of the rapidly diminishing world grain reserves, climate change, and peak oil.

Wm. H. Kötke, author of The Final Empire

498 pages, Paperback

First published April 19, 2007

About the author

: Dan Armstrong is a novelist and the owner and operator of the website Mud City Press, an online magazine focusing on the environment and sustainable agriculture.
Dan has published nine novels through Mud City Press. Two, Taming the Dragon (2007) and Prairie Fire (2007), are fast-moving suspense stories written with an environmental backdrop. Puddle of Love (2009) is a racy, contemporary mystery/ghost story set in a brothel in eastern Oregon. Chain of Souls (2010) is an historical novel set in India 1948 after the death of Gandhi. The Eyes of Archimedes Book I: The Siege of Syracuse (2013) , The Eyes of Archimedes Book II: The Death of Marcellus (2015), and The Eyes of Archimedes Book III: Zama (2017) are an historical trilogy set during the Second Punic War (218-202 BC).
Cornelia: The First Woman of Rome (2018) is another historical novel set in Rome (135-121 BC). It follows the life of Cornelia Scipionis and her three children during the first years of the Republic's demise. Blake College (2019) is a supernatural mystery set in Eugene, Oregon in 1970. The Jewel Case (2020) is a historical fiction based on Sigmund Freud's controversial "Dora: An Anaylsis of a Case of Hysteria." Dan has also published an edgy collection of short stories The Open Secret and Twelve Other Tales of the Unknown (2014) .

Dan graduated from Princeton University in 1972 with a BSE in Aerospace Engineering and has been a free-lance writer since 1980. He has published articles in the Register Guard, the Oregonian, the Eugene Magazine, the North Coast Times Eagle, the Eugene Weekly, Locally Grown, Oregon Tilth Magazine, the Landwatch Newsletter, Acres USA, and numerous websites. He is the staff writer for the Southern Willamette Valley Bean and Grain Project. He served for three years on the board of directors for the Lane County Farmers’ Market and was also as a member of the Lane County Food Policy Council from 2008 to 2011. Dan won the Wayne Morris Now Award for community service in 2010. Dan lives in Eugene, Oregon with his wife Judith and has a 32 year-old son, Tyler.

Reviews

[Isaac Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange book. The story was good and interesting, but the writing is god awful. Bizarre out of place sex scenes, racist caricatures and so many spelling and grammatical errors. All that aside, it made for a fun quick read.

[Doranne Long · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have just completed reading Prairie Fire, having read Taming The Dragon first. I am very impressed!!!
I think these books are very well written, and real page-turners. I think they would make great action-packed movies. Dan Armstrong has expertly interwoven many  human and earth conditions/issues into these stories.
I will never look at the world quite the same again!

[Susan Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't expect to like this book but had recently watched "Food Inc" (the documentary) and since we are small farmers my sister recommended this book. Get thought-provoking and good writing. Started slow but I ended up really liking it.