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Three Gorges Dam
CHINA'S WESTERN FRONTIER IS A POWDER KEG.
ITS BUDDHIST AND MUSLIM MINORITIES ARE ABOUT TO LIGHT THE FUSE.
Michael Brannigan and the People's Republic of China are concluding a triumphant week. The PRC's top energy consultant has fallen in love with Australian geophysicist Kylie Ryan while traveling in Xinjiang Province. President Lao Ming is in Beijing hosting a game-changing summit with the United States. CNN is broadcasting the new the Communist juggernaut has surpassed the US.
Brannigan’s train is retracing Marco Polo's historic journey. When the Silk Road Express reaches the Far East’s Far West, his team of engineers will assist the Chinese in developing the world's richest oil fields. Brannigan is heading deeper into the Taklamakan Desert as President Lao's motorcade approaches the end of its parade route. In a few hours, Lao will celebrate his victory in the Hall of Purple Light.
All that changes in two blinks of an eye. China's Young Turks and Fighting Monks rock the country. Caught up in the violence, Brannigan's love affair meets a tragic end. The Reds and rebels engage in an escalating cycle of provocations and reprisals. In the midst of the turmoil, Brannigan returns to China for a hush-hush assignment at Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric facility. There he overcomes his demons and finds lasting happiness. Everything is coming up aces.
UNTIL THE UNTHINKABLE HAPPENS.
ITS BUDDHIST AND MUSLIM MINORITIES ARE ABOUT TO LIGHT THE FUSE.
Michael Brannigan and the People's Republic of China are concluding a triumphant week. The PRC's top energy consultant has fallen in love with Australian geophysicist Kylie Ryan while traveling in Xinjiang Province. President Lao Ming is in Beijing hosting a game-changing summit with the United States. CNN is broadcasting the new the Communist juggernaut has surpassed the US.
Brannigan’s train is retracing Marco Polo's historic journey. When the Silk Road Express reaches the Far East’s Far West, his team of engineers will assist the Chinese in developing the world's richest oil fields. Brannigan is heading deeper into the Taklamakan Desert as President Lao's motorcade approaches the end of its parade route. In a few hours, Lao will celebrate his victory in the Hall of Purple Light.
All that changes in two blinks of an eye. China's Young Turks and Fighting Monks rock the country. Caught up in the violence, Brannigan's love affair meets a tragic end. The Reds and rebels engage in an escalating cycle of provocations and reprisals. In the midst of the turmoil, Brannigan returns to China for a hush-hush assignment at Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric facility. There he overcomes his demons and finds lasting happiness. Everything is coming up aces.
UNTIL THE UNTHINKABLE HAPPENS.
433 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 5, 2018
5 people are currently reading
469 people want to read
About the author
Thomas V. Harris
2 books8 followersThomas V. Harris divides his time between Mercer Island, a few miles east of Seattle, and Highland Lake in Bridgton, Maine. A native New Yorker, he graduated from Harvard College with a degree in political science and Cornell Law School with a specialization in International Law.
Mr. Harris is a Pacific Northwest trial lawyer who currently serves as a full-time mediator at Washington Arbitration & Mediation Service (WAMS). He is also a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, the International Society of Barristers, the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, and the American Board of Trial Advocates.
Mr. Harris is a Pacific Northwest trial lawyer who currently serves as a full-time mediator at Washington Arbitration & Mediation Service (WAMS). He is also a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, the International Society of Barristers, the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, and the American Board of Trial Advocates.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 19, 2018
Three Gorges Dam
First I would like to thank NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.
Three Gorges Dam is packed with thrilling politically charged events on a panoramic scale. Discord amongst the many factions of the Chinese regional landscape including Buddhist monks in Tibet and the Muslims in the Uighur region provide ample opportunity for unrest and eruption. Terrorist attacks occur in Beijing, along the Silk Road, in Hong Kong, and culminate at the world's largest hydroelectric plant - the Three Gorges Dam.
American energy consultant Michael Brannigan and Australian geophysicist Kylie Ryan fall in love while on business in China. Their fates become transformed by the upheaval occurring all over the country.
I thoroughly enjoyed the political and cultural aspects of this book. I would have preferred to see these developed to a much greater extent. I found the focus on the personal relationship between Brannigan and Ryan too extensive and trite. A bit more editing would also provide a more polished result.
Overall I enjoyed this book.
First I would like to thank NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.
Three Gorges Dam is packed with thrilling politically charged events on a panoramic scale. Discord amongst the many factions of the Chinese regional landscape including Buddhist monks in Tibet and the Muslims in the Uighur region provide ample opportunity for unrest and eruption. Terrorist attacks occur in Beijing, along the Silk Road, in Hong Kong, and culminate at the world's largest hydroelectric plant - the Three Gorges Dam.
American energy consultant Michael Brannigan and Australian geophysicist Kylie Ryan fall in love while on business in China. Their fates become transformed by the upheaval occurring all over the country.
I thoroughly enjoyed the political and cultural aspects of this book. I would have preferred to see these developed to a much greater extent. I found the focus on the personal relationship between Brannigan and Ryan too extensive and trite. A bit more editing would also provide a more polished result.
Overall I enjoyed this book.
June 1, 2018
I do admire what the author tries to do with this book, but I can't love his style. We follow the Chinese Premier around, car, bodyguards, generals and all, for chapters at the start, while an American trade delegation kicks their heels in a figurative antechamber and Tibetan protestors practice self-immolation on live news. We alternate between Chinese soldiers trying to put down dissent with brutal force and Michael Brannigan, an American engineer here for the oil and gas.
When the dissenters attack the Silk Road train, with its tourist-luring sumptuous furnishings, the tale pulls together. Michael Brannigan survives, tries to aid others and later turns out to be a helicopter pilot; useful if you want to get a bird's eye view of the Three Gorges Dam, far from ideally built in a tremor-prone fault zone. Kylie Ryan, an Aussie lady and geophysicist who falls for his charms, is also a pilot, which doesn't initially matter as she is seriously wounded in the terrorist attack on the train.
As this is a thriller much time is spent establishing who might want to do what and why. Fairly dramatic imagery is employed non-stop. Don't expect to like what you see.
The style, as I say, is choppy, with a particularly odd feature being conversations of up to sixty one-lines, which is repeated over and over and over. I was wondering if the author had dictated this work. Also the tale is told in present tense, sometimes reading awkwardly as the narrator has to tell us what had happened the previous night. I would enjoy this well-researched story better if the writing flowed. Also - that is no way to end a story. Other readers may enjoy this more than I did.
I downloaded an e-ARC from Net Galley. This is an unbiased review.
When the dissenters attack the Silk Road train, with its tourist-luring sumptuous furnishings, the tale pulls together. Michael Brannigan survives, tries to aid others and later turns out to be a helicopter pilot; useful if you want to get a bird's eye view of the Three Gorges Dam, far from ideally built in a tremor-prone fault zone. Kylie Ryan, an Aussie lady and geophysicist who falls for his charms, is also a pilot, which doesn't initially matter as she is seriously wounded in the terrorist attack on the train.
As this is a thriller much time is spent establishing who might want to do what and why. Fairly dramatic imagery is employed non-stop. Don't expect to like what you see.
The style, as I say, is choppy, with a particularly odd feature being conversations of up to sixty one-lines, which is repeated over and over and over. I was wondering if the author had dictated this work. Also the tale is told in present tense, sometimes reading awkwardly as the narrator has to tell us what had happened the previous night. I would enjoy this well-researched story better if the writing flowed. Also - that is no way to end a story. Other readers may enjoy this more than I did.
I downloaded an e-ARC from Net Galley. This is an unbiased review.
April 18, 2018
I predict that this first time novelist could have a successful future in writing action thrillers.
The action and disaster scenes are powerful. However I felt the tension was diluted by too many locations and by supporting characters not fully developed beyond their names and/or nationalities and political agendas.
The plot I felt was too ambitious with storylines too far ranging. I felt I was not as fully engaged in parts of the story as I should have been. Ranging from Tibet with its fighting monks and civilian dissidents, to the Uighur region with its separatists around Kashgar, to the Chinese president and his advisers and staff in Beijing, to the 3 Gorges Dam. Also the settings move to Shanghai, with scenes in Hong Kong, Sydney and also touching on a couple of other Asian countries outside China.
I felt that Brannigan made a well developed and believable hero, and there was a touching love story with many obstacles. With Brannigan absent in some chapters I found my interest waning.. I thought those chapters belonged in another book where the various rebels and their beliefs were more strongly portrayed. As I had travelled in the Uighur region in the far west of China and through Tibet, I hoped to read more about those oppressed people, but that is for a separate book, hopefully by the same author.
2.5 stars to 3 stars
The action and disaster scenes are powerful. However I felt the tension was diluted by too many locations and by supporting characters not fully developed beyond their names and/or nationalities and political agendas.
The plot I felt was too ambitious with storylines too far ranging. I felt I was not as fully engaged in parts of the story as I should have been. Ranging from Tibet with its fighting monks and civilian dissidents, to the Uighur region with its separatists around Kashgar, to the Chinese president and his advisers and staff in Beijing, to the 3 Gorges Dam. Also the settings move to Shanghai, with scenes in Hong Kong, Sydney and also touching on a couple of other Asian countries outside China.
I felt that Brannigan made a well developed and believable hero, and there was a touching love story with many obstacles. With Brannigan absent in some chapters I found my interest waning.. I thought those chapters belonged in another book where the various rebels and their beliefs were more strongly portrayed. As I had travelled in the Uighur region in the far west of China and through Tibet, I hoped to read more about those oppressed people, but that is for a separate book, hopefully by the same author.
2.5 stars to 3 stars
June 11, 2018
First of all, my deepest thanks to both the author and Smith Publicity for sending me a copy to review!
Sadly, this didn’t end up being my cup of tea. While I do enjoy political intrigue and stories with interesting settings, this book was too technical for me to enjoy fully. It didn’t feel like a story so much as a news report.
The author wrote well enough until it came to the dialogue, which is where things got dicey. That’s not to say the dialogue was bad, but the way it was formatted was incredibly confusing, making it difficult to know who exactly was speaking at any given moment. We could have an entire page full of dialogue with absolutely no indicators like, Brannigan said, etc.
That’s not to say others who enjoy politically-charged books with cultural infusion won’t find much to love about Three Gorges Dam. You can tell Harris did plenty of research for his story and it shines through. Sadly, it just wasn’t something I could get into.
This review and others can be found on my blog: spinelessbookwyrm.wordpress.com
Sadly, this didn’t end up being my cup of tea. While I do enjoy political intrigue and stories with interesting settings, this book was too technical for me to enjoy fully. It didn’t feel like a story so much as a news report.
The author wrote well enough until it came to the dialogue, which is where things got dicey. That’s not to say the dialogue was bad, but the way it was formatted was incredibly confusing, making it difficult to know who exactly was speaking at any given moment. We could have an entire page full of dialogue with absolutely no indicators like, Brannigan said, etc.
That’s not to say others who enjoy politically-charged books with cultural infusion won’t find much to love about Three Gorges Dam. You can tell Harris did plenty of research for his story and it shines through. Sadly, it just wasn’t something I could get into.
This review and others can be found on my blog: spinelessbookwyrm.wordpress.com
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews