The Boom

How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World

By: Russell Gold

Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor

Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Russell Gold, a brilliant and dogged investigative reporter at The Wall Street Journal, has spent more than a decade reporting on one of the biggest stories of our time: the spectacular, world-changing rise of "fracking". Recognized as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and a recipient of the Gerald Loeb Award for his work, Gold has traveled along the pipelines and into the hubs of this country’s energy infrastructure; he has visited frack sites from Texas to North Dakota; and he has conducted thousands of interviews with engineers and wildcatters, CEOs and roughnecks, environmentalists and politicians. He has also sifted through reams of engineering reports, lawsuit transcripts, and financial filings. The result is an essential audiobook - a commanding piece of journalism, an astounding study of human ingenuity, and an epic work of storytelling.

Fracking has vociferous critics and fervent defenders, but the debate between these camps has obscured the actual story: Fracking has become a fixture of the American landscape and the global economy. It has upended the business models of energy companies around the globe, and it has started to change geopolitics and global energy markets in profound ways. Gold tells the story of this once-obscure oilfield technology - a story with an incredible cast of tycoons and geologists, dreamers and drillers, speculators and skeptics, a story that answers a critical question of our time: Where will the energy come from to power our world - and what price will we have to pay for it?

©2014 Russell Gold (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. Recorded by arrangement with Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Decent book with some history but clear narrator isn't familiar with oil & gas industry

Pretty good book. Attempts to show both sides but not entirely neutral presentation. A lot of shale history and some connections I hadn't realized previously.

Narrator clearly didn't attempt to learn oil and gas terms. Several mispronounced terms... even company names.

Some wheat, but lots of chaff

What did you love best about The Boom?

I learned a LOT about fracking from it.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Back for a second listen on the fracking facts

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

Ditto the Shlumberger comments elsewhere. How hard can it be? Type "Schlumberger pronunciation" in a Google search and turn up the volume.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

More than you want to know about Aubrey McClendon

Any additional comments?

Why all the Chesapeake Oil stuff? Charge less for a smaller book that sticks to the topic advertised please.

Bad accents.

Informative, even for those in oil and gas. The performer mispronounced many words and did awful with accents.

Exceeded all expectations

I was expecting a jaded anti hydraulic fracturing story but what I found was a balanced, fascinating book. As an energy industry member I'm familiar with the technology but I really enjoyed how the business of oil was woven into the story.

Excellent overview of fracking

I highly recommend this for anyone with an interest on the history and impacts of hydraulic fracturing. Well written and well read. This gives an excellent overview of the history of fracing/fracking by personalities and through science. It also provides a balanced perspective on the impacts - both environmental and economic.

Reads Like High Adventure - Balanced, Informative

This is professional journalism. The book presented the history, the geology, the science and technology, and, through a lot of professional journalistic legwork, the current (some now 'recent') state of affairs in the industry.
Personally, I wanted to know more than what smart-ass comedians, the biased and agenda-laden media, and empty-headed petitioners had to say, and the book delivered.
Through vignettes, the book gives the reader a glimpse into many levels of the industry - from the highest echelons to lowest field hand to the communities and individuals that sit on top of promising geological formations.
I came away with a view that the real "superstars" in America are the businessmen (but fat chance they'll be recognized as such anytime soon given current popular anti-business leftist sentiments).
The book was balanced, showing how it is an environmentally dirty business (and where in the processes it is dirty), and how it has improved, and where it still lacks. Intriguing was the account of the Sierra Club 'scandal', (where they took natural gas donations and teamed-up with that industry against the coal industry - which seemed reasonable to me - shut-down one dirty industry at a time, but the President of the club handled it badly and suffered for it). Also interesting was the history of various mid-size domestic natural gas drilling companies from the perspectives of their founders and their leaders - purely inspiring.

great book

author seames unbiased on veiws as well as very researched. it was easy to get through and i would buy another of Russell's work in the future

Really 125 characters are needed?

Informative level of detail. Clear picture Of economics behind the boom. A little more detail on both sides of the environmental issue would have been a plus.
The input user interface for this review needs improvement.

Somehow the author manages to stay balanced

I know that being "balanced" on fracking is next to impossible, but he somehow manages it, and gives plenty of lovely info and anecdotes. Highly recommended.

Fracing, good or bad? Turns out it's both

An informative, entertaining, and balanced report on the natural gas industry in the United States. Russell Gold goes into the background and history of oil and natural gas exploration in the United States, and the technology behind it. He then explores the ramifications of fracing wells, which have had a large impact on the cost and supply of petroleum products, while presenting challenging environmental issues.