Rating: 
Summary: Y2K??
Review: THE COMING OF THE GLOBAL SUPERSTORM warns of the coming end of civilization following the one-two punch of a global warming followed by devastating ice age. Art Bell and Whitley Streiber suggest that the seeming paradox of intense heat can cause a sudden melting of the polar ice caps, which in turn, can cause a disruption of the North Atlantic Gulf Stream. It is this weakening, they note, that will result in the massive and lightning quick advance of the polar ice to the previously warm Northern Hemisphere. Within days, then hours, the entire North American continent, Europe, Russia, and North Africa will be ripped apart by a superstorm unprecedented in ferocity. This part of their book has just enough reasonableness in its logic to invest their claims with some sobering apprehension. For those who have seen the film, THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, upon which this book is based, were treated to some truly amazing special effects of New York being inundated by a massive sea surge.The problem with accepting their premise is two fold. First, several prominent climatologists have refuted the idea that such a catastrophe could strike within days. These weather experts agree that yes, such a flooding and freezing could occur, but only after thousands of years. What the reader has to face is the hard choice of which set of experts to believe. No one wants to accept the doomsday scenario of Bell and Streiber, so there is the natural tendency to scoff at their claims. Bell and Streiber, to their credit, admit that it would take courage and foresight to accept their thesis. To make their claims more enticing they resort to methods of persuasion that are superficially glitzy but do not fall into the category of hard scientific empiricism. And this brings me to their second problem. Bell and Streiber have written their book as a sort of oddly blended HAB THEORY wedded to CHARIOTS OF THE GODS. In these latter books, their authors posit the existence of previous civilizations that were quickly wiped out by natural phenomena. No reputable scientist can accept a premise that relies on an underpinning of sensational pulpist writing of lost civilization. Further, Bell and Streiber intersperse their text with a fictional viewpoint of a climatologist who passes judgment on the oncoming superstorm. As long as they stick to their hard science discussion of the mechanics of ice flow, their account is oddly compelling. But the fictionalized viewpoints and digressions on lost civilizations intrude to the point that the reader shakes his head and wishes for more prose on ice flow and less on the lost glories of Atlantis. If indeed Bell and Streiber are correct in their premise that the downfall of human civilization is a heartbeat away, then someone else will have to warn humanity in a way that appeals more to the head and less to the heart. The possibility of being right is no excuse for being unconvincing.
Rating: 
Summary: Good as entertainment only
Review: Just remember this book is brought to you by the same people that said the world as we know it would end 1/1/2000 when the computers melt down. Y2K came and went and we are all functioning normally, therefore, I can't see how anyone can take anything this collaboration has to say seriously. Maybe if you are into remote viewing, whatever that is.
Rating: 
Summary: An entertaining 'what-if' scenario.
Review: As most fans of Art Bell and Whitley Strieber know, this is the book that inspired Roland Emmerich to write and direct The Day After Tomorrow. For that reason alone it is a must read for any disaster movie/novel fanatic. Bell and Strieber use a combination of myth interpretation, amatuer and/or pseudo-science speculation and fictional dramatization of the actual prophesied event to educate/scare the reader with their theory that a single and quite massive 'superstorm' might bring about either a new ice age or global flood. Whichever it might be depends on what time of year the storm is unleashed on an unsuspecting world. Some of the examples sited are a tad suspect. I am fairly certain that Carl Sagan debunked the moon-is-a-broken-off-part-of-Earth theory way back when Cosmos was a first run television series and, while each culture may have a flood myth, this does not necessarily mean that a global flood occurred. Just about every region of the world will flood at some point or another and it is a long stretch to imply that the myths are linked to a single event. The less said about the use of an astrological calender, the better. Nonetheless, if you are as big a fan of Mrrs. Bell and Strieber as I am, then you will probably find this book an entertaining 'what-if' piece of infotainment, but I remain a 'wait and see' skeptic in regards to whether or not said superstorm actually exists.
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