Dr. Susan Crockford has written a “jaws style” novel about people being eaten by polar bears. Here’s what she emailed to me earlier today. – Anthony
This is a polar bear attack thriller. What Jaws did for the beaches of New England, Eaten does for northern Newfoundland. Terror and carnage abound as hungry polar bears come ashore in droves seeking any food available, including human prey.
Set in the year 2025 at the edge of the Arctic, the story considers future possibilities no one has yet contemplated.
In this tale, the occupants of 100s of small towns and isolated outports spread across northern Newfoundland are quite unprepared for an early spring onslaught of hungry polar bears. People haven’t just been killed, they’ve been eaten. As the attacks multiply, people find they are not safe even in their own homes.
Local residents, Mounties, and biologists struggle with a disturbing new reality: they have a huge polar bear problem on their hands, and if they don’t find a solution quickly, dozens more people will die gruesome deaths, and hundreds more polar bears will be shot.
A Newfoundland seal biologist gets help from an expat Alaskan carnivore specialist as they team up with officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to address the threat. Stopping the carnage and the relentless terror will be the biggest challenge they’ve ever faced as they struggle to prevent this from being the most horrifying disaster in Newfoundland’s history.
From science to science fiction?
I’m a scientist but I grew up in a family of storytellers and avid fiction readers. When it was clear the time had come to try my hand at writing a novel, it felt like a logical progression from science writing, not a leap. Starting with polar bears just felt right.
And here’s why: for years, polar bear specialists have being playing “what-if.”
They’ve used computer models to predict polar bear responses to computer-predicted sea ice conditions 25-90 years into the future and insist their prophecies will become reality unless human behaviour changes. They like to call their “what-if” science.
I decided to play too – except I call my “what-if” a novel.
Arguably climate science fiction with a twist, some call this genre “speculative fiction” or “technothriller.” I’ve included a “recommended reading” list at the end of the book for those who want to follow up on the science background but the book is primarily for readers who prefer their science “lite” and those who love a good story.
See the YouTube book trailer (feel free to distribute): https://youtu.be/3Zw9DCvPTD8
More detail and links here: www.susancrockford.com
The paperback is ready to order and will ship as soon as the books are printed; the ebooks are available for pre-order and will download November 30, 2015. Price for the paperback is US$14.49; for the ebooks US$6.99
Here’s where to buy it:
Paperback book or Kindle ebook on Amazon, click here: [temporary Kindle link, until Amazon gets it linked to the paperback page]
ePub version (via Smashwords, which ships to Apple, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo), see https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/592875
LIMITED TIME OFFER for the ePub version: November 30, 2015 until December 3, 2015 only
FREE with promotion code GW98Q (not case-sensitive)
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Dr. Susan –
The first chapter was great – a page turner for sure.
Thanks Don!
Susan
duunnn dunnn… duuuunnnn duun… duuunnnnnnnn dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnn dunnnn
It’s always embarrassing to fall asleep with your face on the keyboard.
You don’t recognize the theme music?
You forgot the /shark tag
[Does a /shark tag turn off all of the bytes? Or only the sharp ones? .mod]
http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/properties/shermanslagoon/art_images/cg4a0a1062ece7d0.jpg
I read the first chapter now available prior to the book coming out. It is wonderful.
In the first chapter I was intrigued by this line from the character RCMP Joe Carroll, “. . . the [seal] hunt’s gone belly-up.”
John
Good work Susan! I look forward to reading it. Such a story is the best way to deliver the science. People are more likely to read emotionally charged stories than dry science.
Thanks Jim. I agree – I have a number of relatives in that category myself.
Susan
My wife brought home a video from the library. It had a number of “bonus features”. One of them was an interview with the producer.
He talked of how they searched for a story that would communicate the message they wanted to convey.
They found one. (I think it was a short story they stretched into a movie to leave the desired impression on people.)
The movie was the original “They Day the Earth Stood Still”.
The message was the need for the United Nations.
It has been remade with a new message.
Be on guard for the impressions (values) others seek to impress on you.
Preordered for my Kindle! It will make for good summer reading down here in Chile! We had a record long ski season. I’ve been suspecting the polar bears will be coming down from the Andes anytime now.
Perfect, just in time for the gathering of Paris-ites.
In the name of mass hysteria, why not all our governments are doing it, I shall prey for those poor stranded Northern Canadians, trapped between the Killer Ice Bears and the awakened forests.
Doomed.The stunted trees of the boreal forest are relentless.
Only flamethrowers can save them, but Prime Minister Pretty Boy and his sidekick Nutlee have shut down the Oil Sands.
What did you not get the peer reviewed science?
Environment Canada’s Science(I shit you not, they use this term) has conclusively guessed that once atmospheric Carbon Dioxide levels reach 500 to 7000 parts per million, the trees will become mobile once more, fresh, well rested by their centuries of slumber, no longer starved by low co2 levels they will march forth to settle their score with man and his steel technologies.
Tolkien of course.
No human infrastructure is safe, they are coming for your water mains,foundations, highways.
There is no escape when trees can leap in front of your automobile.
Will order the paperback, Susan’s Book,, if I can’t find where I tossed that Kindle thing .
Should be a best seller up here near the Arctic circle.
Wait, wasn’t it killer bees headed north? If we’re lucky, the bears will be distracted by the honey. Now all we need are termites to go north to take care of the forests, though the woodboring beetles might be able to handle the job.
Thank you Doc! What a wonderful idea for a book.
I am in.
I would love to see a book from youself and Tisdale 😉
“The life and times of ENSO the AMO/PDO Polar bear”
Will this book be available in PDF form for some of us? I didn’t see the option above?
TIA
Regards Ed
Ed and others looking for a pdf (rather than a dedicated ebook format).
send me a message via the “comments-tips” page on my polarbearscience blog.
I’ll see if we can work out an arrangement.
Susan
Books are good.
We should welcome … books.
Books cannot hurt us. They are inanimate … made of paper which is easily burnable … I do not recommend burning books … or burning humans as the remedy of the ills of global society.
Books do not exhibit flatulence! A contributor to Global Warming! Have your ever seen or heard a book fart!
No no. Not at all.
Therefore the UN FCCC must proclaim, by Bon Ki MOON Emperor General OF ALL HUMANITY and DIVINITY on DAY ONE that BOOKS will not be killed for Sport OR Vengeance or just the FUCKING AROUND of it by the “Delegates” and “Parties” assembled to drink “The Blood” and dine “On The Flesh” and frolic at their respective tax payer expense for having a bloody fucking good time of it, BIRDS IN THE AIR ALL for the group pic. And the Parade of the Children Prostitutes … Giving Respect to Emperor Moon by offering their vaginas for impregnation by Moon … Priceless. 😉
Ha ha
Not funny. People in the north are actually being killed by polar bears. Why? Because there are way more bears than there ever have been thanks to the ban on killing them.
Hi Susan,
I’ve never been stalked or met a Polar Bear and likely never will. However, a few years back I was hiking a faint trail up a hill and a bear was coming up the hill from the other side. We met at the top. Of the several options I could think of only taking his picture seemed to have any potential. So that is what I did.
I use one of the pictures as my graphical representation (or avatar) that appears on some sites, but not WUWT. I’ll but the link here but don’t know if he will appear.
http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/4d34420d24ee64cef72a6fc4191e1175?s=55&d=wavatar&r=G
This is a cinnamon bear (Ursus americanus cinnamomum), a color phase of the American black bear. We met in central Washington, USA.
“I’ve never been stalked or met a Polar Bear and likely never will.”
Yeah. Central America is like that.
Hey, that happened to me! I was killed and eaten by a polar bear!
I got a Nobel Prize for it!
Then I went into climate science. That is when I really let loose and started writing REAL fiction!
As a fan of horror looks like a good story.
I do hope there is a scene where a climate scientist giving a speech on how Polar Bears are innocent victims of humans despoiling the earth is interrupted by ravenous flesh eating Polar Bears.
But was it peer reviewed?! /sarc
To Susan Crockford,
Good luck with the book and many thanks for your tireless efforts in the fight for the integrity of science.
I’m reminded of a joke:
If you and your friend are being chased by an angry polar bear, you don’t have to outrun the bear. You just have to outrun your friend.
Chris
Chris Wright… that reminds me of a story…
I took my granddaughter deer hunting when she was 11 (she’d just passed her Hunter’s Safety Exam).
Alas, no deer were harmed, and as we exited the ground blind in the dark I said I wanted to go check the game camera, but maybe she should go first since there might be bears.
She laughed and said “That’s ok Wally-Pop, I think I can run faster than you!”
“…the most horrifying disaster in Newfoundland’s history.”
I thought that was Squires as PM. /sarc
In my experience the worst bear is a garbage addicted bear. Such as bear is a dead bear walking. But on the way to its death, it may hurt or kill people.
“I never saw a Purple Polar Bear,
I never hope to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I’d rather see than be eaten by one.”
Apologies to Gelett Burgess…..
Two Polar Bears were standing on an icy ridge looking down on the last remaining humans as a result of Global Warming. The younger bear said “let’s run down there and eat one.” The older bear said “let’s just walk down there and eat ’em all.”
I think there is a different version involving a couple of bulls and some heifers.
Susan’s site is great. Any time the weather network runs one of their polar bear or walrus stories I always paste a link in the comments to Susan’s site. Get some real info to people. http://www.polarbearscience.org
Oh yea here is a funny one. Unrelated but this is some Egyptians discussing Obama’s speech calling climate change the biggest threat.
Two polar bears come upon an igloo.
First bear : These things are delicious.
Second bear: What do you mean? It’s just ice.
First bear: Yes but they have a warm chewy center, Let’s eat.
As a land seal (human), I know I should give great space to polar bears, so I live in Florida.