"From Thine Own Well: Canada After The Fracking" tells an environmental dystopian story a few decades after the Canadian government passes "The Agreement", a piece of legislation that removes liability from resource extraction corporations.
The story itself is quite enjoyable. I believe it depicts a realistic view of what could happen if resource extraction is done solely with short term profit in mind. The author clearly has an intimate understanding of the area the story takes place, and this shines through in the writing.
Where the story falls a part a little for me is the characters. For starters, there is just too many of them. You never really get attached to a single character, as the story is constantly moving from character to the next, without a whole lot of depth given to any individual. The quickness and ease at which a lot of the relationships form between characters is a bit hard to believe, especially since we are told at the beginning that there is great distrust between people in this society. If people feel the need to open carry at all times for fear of others, does it make sense to become instantly enamored with a stranger who just stalked up behind you?
There's a moment towards the end of the story that is honestly absurd in the way it is resolved for one of the "good" characters. To me it took away from the impact of the ending, and seemed unnecessary to begin with.
Overall, the story is quite good and worthy of a read, but has a few faults that keep it from being great.
Rating: 3/5
You can find "From Thine Own Well" at Amazon:http://www.amazon.com/Thine-Own-Well-Canada-Fracking/dp/0991831535/
And Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22701617-from-thine-own-well
Norm Hamilton can also be found at his website: http://www.normhamilton.ca/writer/
The story itself is quite enjoyable. I believe it depicts a realistic view of what could happen if resource extraction is done solely with short term profit in mind. The author clearly has an intimate understanding of the area the story takes place, and this shines through in the writing.
Where the story falls a part a little for me is the characters. For starters, there is just too many of them. You never really get attached to a single character, as the story is constantly moving from character to the next, without a whole lot of depth given to any individual. The quickness and ease at which a lot of the relationships form between characters is a bit hard to believe, especially since we are told at the beginning that there is great distrust between people in this society. If people feel the need to open carry at all times for fear of others, does it make sense to become instantly enamored with a stranger who just stalked up behind you?
There's a moment towards the end of the story that is honestly absurd in the way it is resolved for one of the "good" characters. To me it took away from the impact of the ending, and seemed unnecessary to begin with.
Overall, the story is quite good and worthy of a read, but has a few faults that keep it from being great.
Rating: 3/5
You can find "From Thine Own Well" at Amazon:http://www.amazon.com/Thine-Own-Well-Canada-Fracking/dp/0991831535/
And Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22701617-from-thine-own-well
Norm Hamilton can also be found at his website: http://www.normhamilton.ca/writer/