The Atomic Express

Rating:
Summary: A Wild Ride! Two Thumbs Up!!!
Review: I grew up in the West Utah desert, north of the Nevada Test Site and right next to Tooele Army Depot and Dugway Proving Grounds. My father was the only civilian chemist for 50 miles during the 60s and 70s. It was weird out there, but I grew up thinking it was weird like that everywhere. This year (2004), while researching the effects of exposure to nuclear weapons testing, I found out about Mr. Miller's books UNDER THE CLOUD, which maps the nuclear fallout nationwide, and this "work of fiction", THE ATOMIC EXPRESS. Reading THE ATOMIC EXPRESS, I was stunned!!! Did this man travel to my hometown and follow people around writing about their antics? Stuff like he describes (vividly and vibrantly by the way) in THE ATOMIC EXPRESS went on all the time as I was growing up near the Nevada Test Site! Mr. Miller accurately and sympathetically unveils all the different characters that really do find themselves stuck living and working at and around nuclear weapons testing sites. He also takes the reader on quite an entertaining romp through the different players attempts to make sense of the insensible and to respond sanely to the insane. Mr. Miller calls this a work of fiction? Having grown up out there by NTS for 13 years, I call it psychic channeling!!!

Rating:
Summary: Call your Member of Congress
Review: No doubt, at one time, man had the ability to learn from her mistakes.  Sadly the gods, angered by man's hubris, arrogance and over-reaching, must have withdrawn it.  Richard Miller in The Atomic Express tries to teach us something about our recent mistakes; at least when fiddling with the atom.  He weaves a set of parables inhabited by inmates from a latter-day Catch 22.  If you have any doubt, just sneak a peak at pages 314 to 316 for a blow by blow description of Rhinehart trying to defuse a hydrogen bomb, named "Mickey," left at Ethel's roadside cafe near the U.S. test site.  Or, if you're more in the mood for classic catch 22's, try page 326 where the army officer can't tell one of the bomb's designers about the results of a test, because the scientist is a civilian.  Hmmm.  Read all about it as our government puts all our lives at risk.  As Research Director of the Hanford Veterans Cancer Mortality Study, I urge responsible citizens to read this book.  What it tells us is what we didn't hear the last time.  How often must we be reminded. Long ago we were warned by the Sioux, "this is the fire that will help the generations to come, if they use it in a sacred manner.  But if they do not use it well, the fire will have the power to do them great harm."  Read this book and call your Member of Congress!

Rating:
Summary: Don't Read This Book If You Treasure Complacency!
Review: Warning: this book contains materials which will provoke high amusement and deep thought. The author operates at many different levels and will keep you wondering what just happened, what is about to happen, and how on earth human beings could ever have allowed such things to take place. Not only did I find this combination of satire, adventure and modern history to be totally engrossing while I was reading it, I found that I couldn't put down some of the issues raised after I'd already finished the book. If you are also a reader who enjoys being shaken up, hop aboard this train for a wild ride.