July 27th, 2017
Brian Hill
Eschatology Studies
Mr. Hill
A Look at Michael Reisig's 'The New Madrid Run'
The New Madrid Run is a unrealistic but entertaining story of Travis Christian's miraculous survival of a vague apocalypse that falls upon the world. There are hints of pole reversals and planetary alignments. In many ways it reminded me of the 2012 apocalypse expected by crazy spiritualists. It
begins with earthquakes and a tsunami that is actually high enough to swat Mr. Christian's
plane out of the air causing him to crash. After crash landing his plane in the
ocean close to a boat, he faces drowning and a wattery death as he swims to get to the boat which
offers his only hope of survival. After getting aboard the boat he meets a big unfriendly dog
that is capable of eating him for lunch and has little tolerance for this unknown person.. Over time he wins over the heart of the dog and they
become friends. Eventually while sailing, he meets other survivors that include a
couple and a Japanese Samurai. He meets them through ridiculous chance meetings with other boats or survivors floating on debris in the water. Travis is confronted by pirates and desperate survivalists and later on in the story, well armed corrupt minutemen, in
challenging confrontations. He faces all these obstacles with the help of his new friends as
they try to
navigate the flooded United States mid west which is now an Ocean, as they navigate their
way up near New Madrid who's fault line has caused a major earthquake which has split north
America. The entire face of the earth has been radically changed
and altered by the unforeseen and not well detailed disasters.
Making it to Arkansas, he returns to property he owns where he
expects to ride out the
post-apocalyptic nightmare. Quickly becoming aware of a local power hungry and corrupt
militia trying to set up its own government, the story concludes with a confrontation with
the Arkansas based armed group. Of course our hero wins. At times the book is
silly and unbelievable but that just helped contribute to it's entertaining quality. It reads like
an Indiana Jones adventure with villains, and catastrophe, a maiden in distress and our great
hero overcoming all these tribulations and winning the girl. I enjoyed the book, but
regretted that there wasn't more of it for me to read. I would
recommend it to anyone who likes short and fun end of the world
stories that are not convoluted and complicated. Quick read and
good fun.
