This is the worst type of science fiction - recycled plot (evil folks use secret weapon to effect sun & temperature), incredibly bad characters (not a soul is memorable or realistic from the black GOP President to the sunspot scientist to the crazy villian), horrible dialogue (written in "bookese" - that language that only those in bad novels speak). The structure is hap-hazard as it jumps from DC to Siberia to science labs to military bases without a shred of coherence.

I mean, this thing is 530 pages long!!! Now, that statement should be followed with caveats - the print is VERY large and there are 59 chapters with wide areas of blank space. But the real problem is that at least 3/4 of the book is pure drivel with the usual fallacies books of this type have. Someone with evil intentions uses a secret weapon for their own purposes, thus outwitting the entire spy and intelligence folks. Hard-working scientific folk and a few unselfish public servants struggle to save the world from disaster. In fact, it's almost like a James Bond movie except without the witty dialogue, hot babes, fancy gadgets and polished effect. There is no "hero" or "heroine" as such. Instead we get a ridiculously long parade of nonentities that come and go at will with all the authenticity of a Hollywood marriage. Needless to say, this one rates an F-.

Having just finished this novel, my overall impression is disappointment. It started off with a lot of promise but quickly deteriorated. If Hewson had stuck with a story of just the damage that could be caused by heightened sunspot activity, it could have been not only credible, but fascinating. However, the eco-terrorism angle (carried out by a hippy-like commune called "The Family", no less) seemed so preposterous, I found myself barely scanning the sections dealing with their terminally ill (yet still sex-crazed?) genius leader, Charley. Worse yet, was the dialog. It was as bad as it gets. Many of the statements throughout the book made absolutely no semantic sense to me, yet the characters participating in the conversations got their gist perfectly. I wondered initially what I was missing (or if they may have been communicating telepathically). Unfortunately, it didn't take me long to realize this book just wasn't very well written. Don't waste your time on this one unless you have nothing else to read.