BOOK REVIEW: Red Hot Sky by Gordon Gumpertz

Red Hot Sky

• Paperback: 350 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace (October 12, 2011)
• Language: English

CO2 buildup in earth's atmosphere reaches a tipping point. Global weather destabilizes, turns chaotic. Ice storms, dust storms, floods, blizzards, hurricanes, tornadoes pummel the earth nonstop. A secret computer model reveals that the frantic weather will peak out, and radically transform world climate into an alien environment devastating to human survival. 

Scientists Ben Mason and Claudine Manet, developers of the computer model, are lovers as well as lab partners. While they work frantically to head off the approaching catastrophe, a disgraced Russian general hacks into their model and sees earth's bleak future as his opportunity for ultimate world power. 

Ben, who had left the CIA to develop the computer model at the national lab, is reactivated by the Agency and sent on a perilous mission to block the rogue general's plot. Claudine, not realizing that Ben is on a secret mission, misunderstands his absence, putting their relationship on thin ice. Claudine is placed in charge of a massive NASA project that, if completed on time, could stop the approaching doomsday climate change. But her project is stalled by bureaucracy. And Ben, his cover blown, is on the run in hostile territory. The climate change calamity steadily approaches, threatening to turn the planet into a simmering wasteland.

Ben Mason, a scientist with NSL and an ex-CIA agent has created a computer program that predicts in a very short period of time, the Earth will heat up and the water will revert to the poles.  This makes for a scary scenario for the inhabitants of the planet as well as, creating an opportunity for certain people who wish to control the water when the events occur.

With less than seven years in which to figure out a solution, Ben and his girlfriend/lab partner, Claudine Manet, have now become targets and they try to devise a plan in which to divert the upcoming catastrophe.  The two go into hiding but Ben has been reactivated by the CIA to go undercover in Russia to find, Yuri Kulganin, a General in the army who has a power trip and plans for the world's future.

While Claudine is left out of Ben's life, she continues on with her own projects, Cloud Stimulation, and finding political red tape to be her biggest frustration.  There is someone at the top trying to stop her work and Claudine realizes she is left without support and those who want her silenced are closing in.

I thought this was a interesting read and found myself drawn into the story of Ben and his mission to save Earth from turning into another Jupiter type planet.  I thought that the essence of the story gave the readers the shivers as you contemplated what the author was sharing.  The situation presented has a breath of real life quality to it that your imagination cannot help but dwell upon.  The idea is presented in an entertaining perception that you continued to follow Ben on his journey.

I wasn't fond of Claudine, I found her to be one-dimensional and lacked any clarity to the story.  I found her to be self-centered and devoid of emotion.  I really enjoyed reading about General Kulganin and the antics that his position in the story ensured.

I would give Red Hot Sky a four out of five stars and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading end day scenario type books.  Author, Gordon Gumpertz, delivers a great tale of doomsday proportions that will make you think.

**  Reviewed by me...as I see it~!! **