Clark Kent lives in Metropolis – which we all recognize as a fictional place – and, knowing that, we can go along with anything that happens there, like the way that simply slipping on a pair of eyeglasses hides the secret identity of Superman.
David Baldacci sets his thriller “The Collectors” in Washington DC, and since we know that place exists, it is a little more difficult to accept those single-bound leaps beyond believability.
Bringing back the eclectic Camel Club from a previous novel, Baldacci sends the aging protagonists on the trail of a spy ring. Members of the informal group, led by a former CIA hit-man who now calls himself Oliver Stone, are little more than misfits, but the ex-spy keeps them on the trail by pulling clues out of thin air, the way many fictional detectives manage to do.
The second storyline is too strong to be called a sub-plot, and might have made a better stand-alone book. The daughter of a career conman sets out to scam the casino owner responsible for her mother’s death. Unfortunately, the book ends with the casino owner on his way to exact his revenge for the theft of his money, a cliff-hanger for the obvious sequel.
Meanwhile, the Camel Club detectives finally discover that a coworker has been donning a hat and a fake beard and completely fooling everyone as to his identity. While comic book readers have accepted the Clark Kent glasses disguise for decades, it is pretty hard to believe that a US Government employee can’t recognize a long-term coworker wearing a silly hat and fake beard.
Still, his writing style is compelling, and the eccentric characters are a hoot. It’s too bad Baldacci didn’t split the book into two separate stories, but readers know that’s exactly what sequels are for.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008
Amazonia
Those of us who are video-game challenged have action author James Rollins, who provides slam-bang, over-the-top, Indiana-Jones style stories with more gobbling-up than a vintage Pacman.
In fact, Rollins has penned the novelization of the latest Indiana Jones movie, a paperback due in May, and in Amazonia he demonstrates why he is suited for that task.
Like the great action stories, Amazonia features a trip into the deepest, darkest regions of the rainforest, a sort of fountain-of-youth expedition on behalf of a pharmaceutical company. The mission begins when a member of a failed previous mission walks out of the jungle after being missing for years.
The thing is – he went into the jungle as an amputee, and stumbled out four years later having re-grown his lost arm.
There is a fortune waiting for whoever discovers the source of the medical miracle, and two pharmaceutical companies send in teams, with the second led – naturally – by a psychopath who will stop at nothing to steal whatever the first team finds.
Rollins crafts his quest with one chase after another, with the unfortunate first expedition falling victim to giant caimans (those alligator-like snappers), land-roving piranhas, panthers, a plague of locusts, and poison dart blowguns.
There is almost a videogame quality to the way the poor souls are dispatched, but Rollins keeps the action fast and furious, and it is nearly impossible to put the book down, even if some of the events have an eye-rolling outlandishness. (I couldn’t figure out why the psychopathic second-expedition leader had to blow up the source of the miracle-cure after obtaining only the tiniest quantity. The drug company might have bought it by the barrel!)
The book is a barrel of fun, regardless, and readers will likely begin a quest to read the rest of Rollins’ full-of-action adventures.
In fact, Rollins has penned the novelization of the latest Indiana Jones movie, a paperback due in May, and in Amazonia he demonstrates why he is suited for that task.
Like the great action stories, Amazonia features a trip into the deepest, darkest regions of the rainforest, a sort of fountain-of-youth expedition on behalf of a pharmaceutical company. The mission begins when a member of a failed previous mission walks out of the jungle after being missing for years.
The thing is – he went into the jungle as an amputee, and stumbled out four years later having re-grown his lost arm.
There is a fortune waiting for whoever discovers the source of the medical miracle, and two pharmaceutical companies send in teams, with the second led – naturally – by a psychopath who will stop at nothing to steal whatever the first team finds.
Rollins crafts his quest with one chase after another, with the unfortunate first expedition falling victim to giant caimans (those alligator-like snappers), land-roving piranhas, panthers, a plague of locusts, and poison dart blowguns.
There is almost a videogame quality to the way the poor souls are dispatched, but Rollins keeps the action fast and furious, and it is nearly impossible to put the book down, even if some of the events have an eye-rolling outlandishness. (I couldn’t figure out why the psychopathic second-expedition leader had to blow up the source of the miracle-cure after obtaining only the tiniest quantity. The drug company might have bought it by the barrel!)
The book is a barrel of fun, regardless, and readers will likely begin a quest to read the rest of Rollins’ full-of-action adventures.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Not a Bad Bool, just...
It’s not particularly new anymore, but it was when I started it. I’ve finally made it through Lisey’s Story, the Stephen King offering that Nora Roberts has called a haunting romance. She says she loved it.
I believe it might have been a better book if she had written it.
Without question, King has earned the right to pen novels however he likes, and some of his quirks are assumedly stylistic traits. Readers have varying tastes as well, accommodating terse writers like Lee Child, whose action story might begin:
There were three men. One was a killer. The two with guns would be victims in a matter of minutes.
If that first sentence alone had been included in Lisey’s Story it would have sounded more like:
There might have been a question as to exactly how many men (if they were men at all, but you can be assured – yes, you can! – that they were indeed men) were at the point at which they intended to be. At least, they were pretty sure they were there. Truth be told (if you can handle the truth…) it was a trio, that is to say, there were three of them.
You get the idea.
Lee Child’s description of the book might read: A writer’s widow faces trouble. Buys a gun. Travels to a secret world to get power. Boom. No more trouble.
Obviously, there is more to it than that, but if King’s invented words and parenthetical insights were eliminated, Lisey’s Story might be closer to “Lisey’s Short Story.” It isn’t a bad bool (I mean book, “bool” is one of King’s invented terms…), it’s simply one in need of a reader who enjoys the constant forays into the thinking processes of the characters, a reader with patience.
Or a good skimmer.
I believe it might have been a better book if she had written it.
Without question, King has earned the right to pen novels however he likes, and some of his quirks are assumedly stylistic traits. Readers have varying tastes as well, accommodating terse writers like Lee Child, whose action story might begin:
There were three men. One was a killer. The two with guns would be victims in a matter of minutes.
If that first sentence alone had been included in Lisey’s Story it would have sounded more like:
There might have been a question as to exactly how many men (if they were men at all, but you can be assured – yes, you can! – that they were indeed men) were at the point at which they intended to be. At least, they were pretty sure they were there. Truth be told (if you can handle the truth…) it was a trio, that is to say, there were three of them.
You get the idea.
Lee Child’s description of the book might read: A writer’s widow faces trouble. Buys a gun. Travels to a secret world to get power. Boom. No more trouble.
Obviously, there is more to it than that, but if King’s invented words and parenthetical insights were eliminated, Lisey’s Story might be closer to “Lisey’s Short Story.” It isn’t a bad bool (I mean book, “bool” is one of King’s invented terms…), it’s simply one in need of a reader who enjoys the constant forays into the thinking processes of the characters, a reader with patience.
Or a good skimmer.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Crichton's NEXT
Imagine this. You friend is telling an entertaining story. A bird flies up and begins to quote Shakespeare, sing county music, and mimic the voice of Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry.
More than likely, you’d quickly find yourself listening more to the bird and less to your friend.
“Next,” Michael Crichton’s latest techno-thriller is a lot like that. He tells a story so well that Hollywood makes movies of them, stories like Jurassic Park and Andromeda Strain. He takes a scientific principle, like dinosaur DNA or deadly virus, and puts it to the fictional test.
“Next” tackles the human genetic code, and to lessen the burden of that weighty and ethical subject, Crichton introduces nearly three dozen named characters and – seemingly – just as many subplots. One of those subplots introduces Gerard the talking bird, who flies in and invites the reader’s attention span to fly out.
The plot centers around a scientist involved in an experiment that has human DNA injected into a chimpanzee. Later, he discovers that the chimp not only survived the experiment, but gave birth to a DNA-enhanced child that talks like a boy, thinks like a boy, and – cleaned up with a haircut, blue jeans and a soccer jersey – looks just like a chimp with a haircut, blue jeans and a soccer jersey.
Or, maybe the plots centers around the president of a foundering genetics lab who’ll do anything to save his company. Or, the single-mom attorney chasing down her son’s kidnappers. Or, the bounty hunter and his assistant. Or, the aging billionaire philanthropist.
You get the idea.
Amazingly enough, Crichton’s style keeps the pages turning, even if it isn’t clear which name goes with what character. “Next” is fun, and funny, with enough of the author’s research facts mixed in to provoke some actual thinking.
More than likely, you’d quickly find yourself listening more to the bird and less to your friend.
“Next,” Michael Crichton’s latest techno-thriller is a lot like that. He tells a story so well that Hollywood makes movies of them, stories like Jurassic Park and Andromeda Strain. He takes a scientific principle, like dinosaur DNA or deadly virus, and puts it to the fictional test.
“Next” tackles the human genetic code, and to lessen the burden of that weighty and ethical subject, Crichton introduces nearly three dozen named characters and – seemingly – just as many subplots. One of those subplots introduces Gerard the talking bird, who flies in and invites the reader’s attention span to fly out.
The plot centers around a scientist involved in an experiment that has human DNA injected into a chimpanzee. Later, he discovers that the chimp not only survived the experiment, but gave birth to a DNA-enhanced child that talks like a boy, thinks like a boy, and – cleaned up with a haircut, blue jeans and a soccer jersey – looks just like a chimp with a haircut, blue jeans and a soccer jersey.
Or, maybe the plots centers around the president of a foundering genetics lab who’ll do anything to save his company. Or, the single-mom attorney chasing down her son’s kidnappers. Or, the bounty hunter and his assistant. Or, the aging billionaire philanthropist.
You get the idea.
Amazingly enough, Crichton’s style keeps the pages turning, even if it isn’t clear which name goes with what character. “Next” is fun, and funny, with enough of the author’s research facts mixed in to provoke some actual thinking.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
The Cussler Machine
The machine is large, and cranked into high gear. The exact design isn’t clear, but it’s probably shaped like an antique aquatic car, and powered by a twelve cylinder, 3,760 horsepower marine diesel. From a specialized conveyor belt jutting out from the side comes book, after book, after book. The machine is the Cussler.
Clive, to be more specific.
He’s probably America’s number-one action author, and is responsible for three different action lines – with heroes Dirk Pitt, Kurt Austin, and Juan Cabrillo. There are a couple of titles just out and several due this year from Clive Cussler, Paul Kemprecos, and Jack Du Brul, the three men primarily responsible for the action-output.
“Polar Shift” has been out long enough to find in paperback. It’s a Kurt Austin adventure with Paul Kemprecos doing the bulk of the writing. To his credit, he is able to maintain the flying-at-the-edge-of-believability quality of Cussler’s style, and duplicates the wise-cracking, pulp-fiction dialogue that fans have come to expect.
A group of well-funded bad guys have invented a giant spark plug that they dangle from a huge ship, and when they throw the switch, it creates tidal waves, boat-sucking whirlpools, electrical flares, radioactive rays, a shifting of the earth’s crust over the core, and car chases. (To be honest, the car chases are an indirect result.) The pretty archeologist is threatened by thugs, the dwarf wooly mammoths are threatened with extinction, and it falls to Kurt to save the day.
Cussler novels have long been filled with technical jargon. The bad guy never wields a rifle. He’s usually described as having a gas-operated Automat Kalashnikova modernized AK-47 7.62mm with machined receiver capable of 600 rounds per minute. The pilot never flies a simple airplane; it’s always the same lengthy description.
Kemprecos manages to tone down the internet-driven descriptions and keep the fiction moving at a Cussler-inspired pace, and fans will find familiar lines and action a’ plenty…enough to satisfy until the next unit is ejected from the machine.
Clive, to be more specific.
He’s probably America’s number-one action author, and is responsible for three different action lines – with heroes Dirk Pitt, Kurt Austin, and Juan Cabrillo. There are a couple of titles just out and several due this year from Clive Cussler, Paul Kemprecos, and Jack Du Brul, the three men primarily responsible for the action-output.
“Polar Shift” has been out long enough to find in paperback. It’s a Kurt Austin adventure with Paul Kemprecos doing the bulk of the writing. To his credit, he is able to maintain the flying-at-the-edge-of-believability quality of Cussler’s style, and duplicates the wise-cracking, pulp-fiction dialogue that fans have come to expect.
A group of well-funded bad guys have invented a giant spark plug that they dangle from a huge ship, and when they throw the switch, it creates tidal waves, boat-sucking whirlpools, electrical flares, radioactive rays, a shifting of the earth’s crust over the core, and car chases. (To be honest, the car chases are an indirect result.) The pretty archeologist is threatened by thugs, the dwarf wooly mammoths are threatened with extinction, and it falls to Kurt to save the day.
Cussler novels have long been filled with technical jargon. The bad guy never wields a rifle. He’s usually described as having a gas-operated Automat Kalashnikova modernized AK-47 7.62mm with machined receiver capable of 600 rounds per minute. The pilot never flies a simple airplane; it’s always the same lengthy description.
Kemprecos manages to tone down the internet-driven descriptions and keep the fiction moving at a Cussler-inspired pace, and fans will find familiar lines and action a’ plenty…enough to satisfy until the next unit is ejected from the machine.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Break No Bones
Time to break out the shovels and dig into the latest Temperance Brennan suspense story. Tempe, as she is called, is the forensic pathologist creation of novelist Kathy Reichs, who writes her crime stories in a way that would do CSI proud.
In “Break No Bones,” Doctor Brennan is teaching an archeology class, and finds recent bones at the ancient site. The county coroner is deathly ill, so it’s up to Tempe to prescribe an ID for the victim.
Forensic pathologists will revel in the graphic detail given to the cutting, slicing, and dicing in the procedures – the rest of us can look up the medical terminology or skip over the passages. (It’s forgiven just like looking away when the CSI gets up-close and personal in TV autopsies.) In fact, if you’ve seen “Bones” on the Fox network, you’ve been watching Doctor B at work.
“Break No Bones” is the ninth book in her series, but Reichs manages to seamlessly present the backstory, allowing first-time readers to keep up with seasoned fans, and Tempe is a down-to-earth character with a real-life outside the morgue.
The story involves a free health clinic in South Carolina, a missing private eye, and bodies that begin turning up as regularly as Southern hospitality. It doesn’t take much detective work to figure out what is going on, but that may be a good thing, since Tempe is more of a Watson than a Holmes. She huffs and blusters, and in the end, the crime gets solved.
Fans of Patricia Cornwell will find an updated heroine. Especially if short sentences appeal. And clause fragments. Really.
Even for those who’d rather be outside while the autopsy is on, Reichs provides a solid story, a believable character, and an understanding of the science that brings it all together.
In “Break No Bones,” Doctor Brennan is teaching an archeology class, and finds recent bones at the ancient site. The county coroner is deathly ill, so it’s up to Tempe to prescribe an ID for the victim.
Forensic pathologists will revel in the graphic detail given to the cutting, slicing, and dicing in the procedures – the rest of us can look up the medical terminology or skip over the passages. (It’s forgiven just like looking away when the CSI gets up-close and personal in TV autopsies.) In fact, if you’ve seen “Bones” on the Fox network, you’ve been watching Doctor B at work.
“Break No Bones” is the ninth book in her series, but Reichs manages to seamlessly present the backstory, allowing first-time readers to keep up with seasoned fans, and Tempe is a down-to-earth character with a real-life outside the morgue.
The story involves a free health clinic in South Carolina, a missing private eye, and bodies that begin turning up as regularly as Southern hospitality. It doesn’t take much detective work to figure out what is going on, but that may be a good thing, since Tempe is more of a Watson than a Holmes. She huffs and blusters, and in the end, the crime gets solved.
Fans of Patricia Cornwell will find an updated heroine. Especially if short sentences appeal. And clause fragments. Really.
Even for those who’d rather be outside while the autopsy is on, Reichs provides a solid story, a believable character, and an understanding of the science that brings it all together.
The Alexandria Link
Don't ask suspense author Steve Berry why his secret-agent character is nicknamed "Cotton."
In his latest Da Vinci style thriller, Berry makes a point of saying it's "a long story." If the explanation is longer than "The Alexandria Link" it's no wonder readers are left guessing. At 500 pages, there should be plenty of time for character basics (like their nicknames) - but Berry relies on Action! Action! Action! in chasing down the lost library at Alexandria, a collection of scrolls that disappeared 1,500 years ago.
The premise that the library still exists could make for an interesting book, but in "The Alexandria Link" the hunt is reduced to a series of cryptic scavenger hunt clues.
Plenty of readers will love Cotton Malone, a former agent for the U.S. Justice Department, who tired of the chase and settled down in Copenhagen to run a bookstore. (Berry also doesn't explain his character's decision to leave the US and his young son behind.)
His ex-wife no sooner appears in the shop claiming their son has been kidnapped, when the store explodes and the two are left clinging to an upper-story window ledge, arguing over their failed marriage.
Cotton Malone speaks several languages, has special agent weapons training and a photographic memory, but he doesn't recall a handgun with an ammunition clip is not a "revolver." He forgets his training too, particularly in removing his bullets so the gun will go Click, Click, Click and the enemy will stand up in triumph - the way they always do, presumably.
There's also a European business cartel in league with al Qaeda, a biblical mystery involving the major religions, a double-crossing government employee, and a plot to kill the US president.
As to the origin of Cotton Malone's nickname, Berry may be saving that for another five-hundred-page-thriller.
In his latest Da Vinci style thriller, Berry makes a point of saying it's "a long story." If the explanation is longer than "The Alexandria Link" it's no wonder readers are left guessing. At 500 pages, there should be plenty of time for character basics (like their nicknames) - but Berry relies on Action! Action! Action! in chasing down the lost library at Alexandria, a collection of scrolls that disappeared 1,500 years ago.
The premise that the library still exists could make for an interesting book, but in "The Alexandria Link" the hunt is reduced to a series of cryptic scavenger hunt clues.
Plenty of readers will love Cotton Malone, a former agent for the U.S. Justice Department, who tired of the chase and settled down in Copenhagen to run a bookstore. (Berry also doesn't explain his character's decision to leave the US and his young son behind.)
His ex-wife no sooner appears in the shop claiming their son has been kidnapped, when the store explodes and the two are left clinging to an upper-story window ledge, arguing over their failed marriage.
Cotton Malone speaks several languages, has special agent weapons training and a photographic memory, but he doesn't recall a handgun with an ammunition clip is not a "revolver." He forgets his training too, particularly in removing his bullets so the gun will go Click, Click, Click and the enemy will stand up in triumph - the way they always do, presumably.
There's also a European business cartel in league with al Qaeda, a biblical mystery involving the major religions, a double-crossing government employee, and a plot to kill the US president.
As to the origin of Cotton Malone's nickname, Berry may be saving that for another five-hundred-page-thriller.
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