Last Gasp

Read Last Gasp Storyline:

A large, dense, frightening novel from the UK author of This Sentient Earth. In 1990 the ocean's oxygen-producing plankton are dying from pollution. Maverick oceanographer Theo Detrick predicts a disastrous drop in the air's oxygen content within 20 years. Nobody believes him. Polluter-industrialist J.E. Gelstrom is furiously empire-building. The US/USSR military have abandoned nuclear weapons for a better deterrent--environmental warfare. Marine biologist Gavin Chase teams up with Detrick's daughter Cheryl to gather facts & alert the public. The climate warms, the protective ozone layer thins, equatorial regions become uninhabitable. The military, led by maniacal Major Madden, unleashes environmental weapons while retreating to secret, sealed labs to breed mutants able to survive anaerobic conditions. Eventually the dying Gelstrom has a change of heart & gives funds to Chase & friends who work desperately to reverse the ecological transformation. Hoyle's ear for American dialog is nonexistent. His narration is sluggish, weighed down by self-conscious message-mongering. But the apocalyptic premise here is plausible. In the final 100 pages his morbid imagination propels matters to a tensely absorbing conclusion.--Kirkus (edited)