I read the excerpt “Bubble and Squeak” from the collection G is for Gerrold. Here’s the thing: it’s the best part of the book, talking about a relationship between two characters and what happens. Do look it up! The format of the book overall is one of rotating perspectives following a large cast of characters. This is a disaster book, and at first it reminded me of Lucifer’s Hammer by Niven & Pournelle, but that book gets to the “what next” stage after a disaster. Ripple goes into great detail about a cataclysmic earthquake/tsunami but stops as the disaster ends.
One of the reasons I wanted to write about this book, though, is that it’s the first one that I have read through Patreon support. They were releasing monthly chapters but I ‘cheated’ and waited a couple of months until the entire set was published as I found out about the book fairly late. They offered a full download for anyone who was a $7/month payer, so I joined for a month and downloaded the book. It’s a no-frills PDF, and there are a few typos, but it’s a really good value going right to the authors!
Patreon support: thumbs-up
The book as a whole: read the short story unless you are a Gerrold completist.