Structure of Sand

As an engineer in San Francisco, Ron Jenkins hires on at a renegade firm to earn money for his country escape. The effort takes him beyond brightly lit office buildings into deadly hospital basements and radioactive rooftops of US big business. The cardinal rule for good engineering design is similar to your doctor's oath and duty: cause no harm via errors and omissions. Sadly this wise paradigm is rarely underscored in engineering ethics. So entering our workforce, young engineers are easily co-opted by Pollyanna superiors, who risk borderline design because it boosts profits. Newly arrived at their seat of power, top executives radiate brash confidence as safety concerns evaporate and excuses proliferate.

Thrown into such chaos, Ron must balance the demands from his boss for quick and cheap design, against the immutable laws of physics, the picky restraints of local building codes, and ridged national union strictures. As a third generation engineer Ron knows technological rip-offs and low-ball construction as well as anyone and delves into the deceits. Structure of Sand weaves this hidden board room tech reality into the domain of ordinary citizens, framing topics such as equality, global warming and terrorism from an engineering perspective. It is a cautionary tale of possible catastrophic failures or great achievements, filed with exciting twists of love, drama and thrill.

-- C. J. Roner