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Book review : Shut Down by William Flynn



Shut Down by new author William Flynn is quite possibly the first actual "Peak Oil novel" written by a long-time member of the peakoiler community. For those unfamiliar with the concept of Peak Oil, as defined by geophysicist King Hubbert, it is the point at which maximum crude oil production is reached, after which the rate of oil production enters terminal decline. If that does not sound like too big of a problem, read the book and let Flynn take you on a whirlwind tour of what the peak oil community has been discussing and pondering about over the past years - about the inter-connectedness of everything in today's modern society, finance, politics, agriculture, logistics, and it all starts where we get most of our energy from - crude oil.

The book starts, innocently enough, with the main protaganist, Kelly Lee, turning up as usual at her workplace, a Starbucks coffee shop, on an ordinary Monday morning. What happens next is what the community calls a "fast crash", as events reminiscent of a souped-up version of the near-economic collapse of 2008 quickly unfold, only this time, unlike 2008, the economic collapse turns out to be a real and permanent one, with a major trigger event setting the stage as the author takes us on a Tom Clancy-style incursion by fighter jets which ends in a retaliation that takes out the most important of Saudi Arabia's oil facilities. This, combined with another massive bank implosion, devolves society quickly into chaos, as Kelly has to embark on a journey amidst the deteriorating sitation to first find her family, and next to seek safety and shelter together with her friends Joe and Bill.

It was a good read. Frankly, I have not touched an honest-to-goodness paperback book in the past couple of years due to work commitments and so on, but I found that I literally could not put this one down, finishing it in what must have been something like near-record time. It is that good. The author evidently knows his stuff - and this, from a fellow peakoiler who knows the scenarios and material depicted therein intimately. It was like, wow, this is what we had been talking about all these years, condensed into one book, summarized into a single, action-packed, terrifying narrative. For those who do not know what we mean by "fast crash", get the book, read it, and be prepared to be blown away. Get the book now.

William Flynn is no other than fellow peakoiler eastbay, one of our very own, and longtime member of peakoil.com. I met up with him about a couple of weeks back while he was over here in Singapore and he gave me an early sample of the book to look at. It was good. Literally couldn't put it down.

Just received word from him that after some minor edits, the book is now again available on Amazon. If you're wondering what he's been up to the past few months, well this is it, heh. He was doing some promoting while he was here, and has also submitted a request for the local libraries to consider it for inclusion in the library system.

Any support or help to spread the word would be appreciated, especially now that one of our own members is now a bonda-fide published author, and the topic is on a possible Peak Oil fast-crash scenario, no less. Do check it out

Sweet! Something to read on the beach this summer. I just bought my copy, will be here Monday, can't wait.

Yeah, thanks for posting this, Lowem. I'm glad you liked the book. And it's always nice to meet up with you when I travel to Asia. You and your family are fortunate to be in Singapore.

It's been a very, very busy past six months, but my fast-crash novel, Shut Down, which I've been working on since shortly before Christmas, is now complete. For those who wish to read a book review, our local community paper wrote a very nice one.

On Amazon you'll notice it's called, Volume I. There is a valid reason for that, but it may be long time, like six months, before we find out what it is. If you have any feedback, you can pm me or email me at the email address posted on my information page right here.

Here's the link, but it's in pdf for those with a slow internet connection. The article is on page #1, so you won't wait too long to load: http://www.nw-connection.com/archives/N ... 1_v2-1.pdf

lowem wrote:Shut Down by new author William Flynn is quite possibly the first actual "Peak Oil novel" written by a long-time member of the peakoiler community.

heh

Congratulatiosn Eastbay.

Thanks everyone. Your kind words and support is very kind and uplifting.

eastbay wrote:Thanks everyone. Your kind words and support is very kind and uplifting.

I am currently rereading Yergins The Prize so this should be a nice antidote to that.

Always good to see contrasting opinions.

babystrangeloop wrote:

lowem wrote:Shut Down by new author William Flynn is quite possibly the first actual "Peak Oil novel" written by a long-time member of the peakoiler community.

heh

Oops, I should be a little more specific.
Kunstler doesn't exactly visit here very often.

(Quoted) personal attack deleted.

Hmm, that's odd, we must have very different kinds of English teachers, since I think the writing is ok. But what do I know, despite an A1 in GCE A-Level General Paper, as English is not really my native language.

What I do know is that one of the people who helped Eastbay in the early drafts *was* an actual English teacher, so there you are. I'm sure I don't want to go into long arguments of "my English teacher is better than yours", so let's leave it at that. It's probably more a matter of opinion about having longer or shorter sentence structures and such, n'est-ce pas?

There *were* some small anomalies I did detect, such as forgetting a period at the end of a paragraph, things like that, just hope that the recent edits were able to fix most of these. But hey let's try to have some support here for a member of peakoil.com. For specific issues you can PM him, or email if you have the address.

Besides, if anyone here thinks he/she can do better, you're always welcome to try your hand at writing your own and putting it up on Amazon. I will be happy to help write yet another book review for you

The one missing period was found. It fell to the bottom of the page and is now placed where it belongs. All other anomalies are repaired.

I'll correct another: your kind and supportive words are very uplifting!

I shouldn't post from my phone, but the nearest computer is miles away.

lowem got a thread started on this new book before I could, but I just want to chime in and say IMHO this book is damn good.


"Shut Down"

This book is about what in the heck will happen to average, typical PEOPLE when peak oil starts to bite. What is it going to be like to live through (or try to live through) the shut down of commercial and governmental services that major energy dislocations will bring? Kunstler's "World made by Hand" is his vision of a sustainable society that might exist after the oil runs out----EastBay's book is about the death throes of this society.

lowem wrote:Hmm, that's odd, we must have very different kinds of English teachers, since I think the writing is ok.

I think BSL's review came over as unnecessarily harsh, but I certainly wouldn't agree with a policy to delete all negative reviews entirely.

If anyone doubts Eastbay's writing ability they are free to read the first 6 pages on Amazon.com by clicking search inside this book. I'm not going to review a book based on 6 pages, but I thought the book looks interesting and I may look into picking it up once I get through some of my backlog.

Is there any plans to distribute in the UK or in £s? I would only pick it up in softcopy anyway so it probably isn't too hard to register on some US website, but would obviously involve exchange rates, fees and extra hassle.

I've just ordered it

It's a shame it's not available in Europe as I had to pay shipping costs.

This novel is intended to serve primarily as a warning and therefore I hope it reaches out and touches people outside our community. After a few of you have finished reading it, it I think it might be great fun to have an engaging discussion about it, especially regarding the likelihood of a peak-oil fueled, 'fast-crash' scenario unfolding in the manner portrayed in the novel.

Then hand your copy to someone who is still wearing the rose-colored glasses ... then hear what they say.

pstarr wrote:Oh Goody! It'll be a real hit at my summer Christian Reading Group. We'll just slip it in between If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of Your Boat by and A Call to Die: A 40 Day Journey of Fasting from the World & Feasting on God !! I can't wait!!

Funny!

And pstarr, thanks for your productive and encouraging comments during the very, very early stages of this project.

Although it may not prove popular, I quite intentionally left the word God out of this story. In fact, although the word does not appear, He only receives a brief and indirect reference or two.