Polar Shift

“A Novel from THE NUMA^® FILES” and “A Kurt Austin Adventure” is a blend of science fiction—with “the scientific discovery of the century” repeated here and there—and 21st century (2004?) international action thriller. The bad guys have Gant and Margrave at the head of the pack, working for the same purpose but with opposing reasons: They want to cause a geological polar shift by bombarding the earth with electromagnetic energy so as to cause a disruption in the world’s telecommunications systems, believing it would be temporary. But the actual fact is that once the shift starts, there will be no halting it, with the destruction of all living things on earth in its wake. While Margrave’s intention is to force the “Elites” that surreptitiously rule the world via multinational corporations to a bargaining table, Gant actually wants to take over the political world order by owning the world’s telecommunications facilities shortly after the “temporary” disturbances. Gant is a ruthless maniac that would go to any length to achieve his aim, giving orders to eliminate anyone that might pose a threat without blinking an eye. The good guys have Austin and some brilliant and beautiful people leading them, doing their damnedest to first, ensure that the grand-daughter (Karla) of a dead electrical genius (Kovacs) that might possess the “antidote” for a polar shift attempt is not eliminated by agents of Gant, then second, race against time to apply the antidote to checkmate the bad guys.

The author’s major aim was probably more to entertain. When the plans of Gant and Margrave became known to Austin and his team, I was left wondering why they didn’t just put them under arrest. Instead the author let them attempt to unleash their hidden agenda, so that Austin and his people will have something to keep them busy, trying to stop them.

The “the scientific discovery of the century” finally turned out to be living “dwarf” mammoths and a crystal city found inside a spent volcano in a remote Siberian island named Ivory Island. The mammoths were miniature versions of their giant ancestors, previously thought extinct, but now thought to have survived by adapting to the diminishing food sources. The people that built the crystal city inside the mountain had been smart enough to domesticate the mammoths and used them as beasts of burden much the same way horses have been treated.

August 19, 2015. Review initially written in 2014. Novel first published in 2005 by G. P. Putnam’s Sons; this Berkley Books (Penguin Group) edition being published in 2007; ISBN 978-0-425-21048-2.