An American engineer must overcome the objections of environmentalists as well as the machinations of terrorists to complete a tunnel under the English Channel on time and under budget. Robert Byrne’s The Tunnel (1977) is an action-thriller in an engineering setting. This was Byrne’s first engineering novel. Writing in Behold […]
Disasters
5 posts
An engineering consultant (who specializes in failure analysis) must remain true to his independent judgment when his client and his employer both seek to cover up evidence of dangerous problems in a mid-town Manhattan skyscraper. In his 1984 novel, Skyscraper, Byrne describes an intricate confluence of corruption, corner-cutting, and poor […]
A young engineer applies innovative analysis to determine that a dam designed by his firm’s most senior engineer is in imminent danger of collapse and then must take matters into his own hands when his findings are ignored. Robert Byrne’s The Dam (1981) pits the analysis of a brilliant but […]
After a famous wooden roller coaster injures passengers with the violence of the ride, an engineer hired to evaluate new safety modifications must analyze and diagnose a disturbing series of malfunctions before the grand re-opening. Thrill features an engaging cast of characters: the stalwart and straightlaced midwestern engineer, the mad […]
Few novels capture the drama, the passion, and the excitement of engineering. To do justice to the subject, the author must be conversant with engineering science and practice. In addition, the author must write with sufficient power and clarity to make the relevant technical details clear to a non-technical audience […]