Storm Kings

June 15, 2013

Sandlin (Wicked River) here takes the reader on a wild ride through several centuries' worth of weather history and lore as he explores the topic of supercell tornados, called "storm kings" by the early settlers of the North American plains, and the scientists who investigated them. Listeners are treated to interesting sidelights including Benjamin Franklin's electrical experiments, the origin of the term meteorology, and the story of the development of the Fujita Scale. The steadfast narration by Andrew Garman keeps listeners engaged with the material. VERDICT Recommended for libraries with collections of history and meteorology. ["This remarkable and gripping book will appeal to those studying the history of science, the U.S. military, and weather forecasting," read the review of the Pantheon hc, LJ 2/15/13.--Ed.]--David Faucheux, Louisiana Audio Information & Reading Svc., Lafayette

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 3, 2012
James Espy, the first meteorologist in America, thought of tornadoes as “rapidly rising column of air” that operated according to the laws of steam power, pumping warm air into cold; his lifelong rival, William Redfield, maintained that the storms were “gigantic whirlwind, spinning around a moving center like a top.” Though they were essentially espousing “two halves of the same process,” they were never able to reconcile their differences and find common ground. Sandlin, however, deftly synthesizes and illuminates the duality of his title—both the tornado itself, which early settlers in America referred to as “the Storm King”; and the individuals who made it their life’s work to document, predict, and better understand those despots of the plains. Legendary storms roil throughout the text, from the funnel of fire—or as one eyewitness (whose eyeballs were consequently seared) described it, “the finger of God”—that destroyed Peshtigo, Wis., in 1871, scorching over a million acres and killing 1,500 people, to the Tristate Tornado of 1925, which rampaged for 219 miles across parts of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. On ground level, Sandlin describes mankind’s efforts to comprehend storms, from Ben Franklin’s famous kite experiment to the F1–5 intensity rating system developed by Japanese immigrant Tetsuya Fujita. Sandlin makes talking about the weather much more than a conversational nicety—he makes it come brilliantly to life. 16 pages of b&w illus. Agent: Danielle Egan-Miller, Browne and Miller Literary Associates.