Book Review - Tom Clancy's "Biostrike" by Jerome Priestler

Biostrike, one of Tom Clancy's "Powerplays" (but actually written by Jerome Preisler), is a bit of an enigma. It's not that I didn't enjoy the read; it's just a feeling that I've read a rather long excerpt of a book rather than a complete book itself.

Let me explain. The plot centres around the criminal mastermind Harlan DeVane, who has developed a biological disease capable of wiping out selected groups or individuals - depending on the trigger used. The whole world has been infected without knowing it and considerable space is given to explaining how this is done.

This particular criminal mastermind has a grudge against Roger Gordian, head of UpLink Technologies, who is not only a highly successful businessman but is also on a mission to improve the world in general. As a trial run the virus is triggered in Gordian, whose team of agents battle frantically to save him.

I think the main problem with this book is that it gets rather bogged down by its own cleverness. The author has obviously done a great deal of research to make the biology and technology sound realistic. Unfortunately, at times he seems to be at pains to let you know this, and the effect is almost like the book is "showing off" this painstakingly gained knowledge. Its use of terminology sometimes becomes irritating when you don't actually need a detailed run-down of, for instance, how an e-mail server works. (Okay maybe some people don’t have any idea how an email server works, but I don’t think they’d find it particularly interesting to find out).

The upshot of this is that there is not very much action in the book. What there is has been (for the most part) very well written, sometimes exceptionally so. There just seems so little of it amongst the sea of definitions. I liked the technology, but you need more than that to make a good novel. Story’s need to be more about characters than about things, and Biostrike doesn’t really get the balance right here – the people are usually in the background of the storytelling, which tends to alienate the readers.

As I said, I did actually enjoy this book for the most part. I wouldn't exactly recommend it whole-heartedly; then again if you're not an action freak and you like science you probably will enjoy this. Much of the explanatory text is essential to the story line; some just gets in the way. The characters were relatively believable if not exactly engaging - I guess that with the high-powered positions some of them hold, it was inevitable that they wouldn't be totally believable to us common folk though!

If you like your books thoughtful and somewhat of a slower pace, then Biostrike could well be the book for you. If you like action-packed adventure, leave it well alone. I wouldn’t exactly call it science fiction but it certainly owes something to that genre – I guess the term “techno-thriller” would be the most fitting.

CaptainD - Book Reviews Blog

Book Review - Mister Monday by Garth Nix

I hadn’t even heard of the book Mister Monday by Garth Nix, (well to be honest I'd never heard of Garth Nix either) but I got it for free when I pre- ordered another book -okay I admit it, the final Harry Potter book. This is rather ironic because Nix’s book has more originality in this first book of the (presumably seven-book) series than Harry Potter has managed in all six so far. Ah well, it’s difficult to gauge exactly what makes a certain book, series of books, or author so hugely popular – but at any rate I can thank JK Rowling for not only her own series of enjoyable books but also for introducing me to this little gem.

The book’s probably aimed at the early to mid teen market, though the odd word or expression might challenge them, so naturally it’s entertaining light reading for an adult. What impressed my most with this book though was the sheer force of imagination used to create this world – it borrows a little from biblical terminology and Greek mythology, but overall there is a whole knew history of the universe within these pages. It’s an interesting one at that, and the decay that causes the problems which the book’s hero has to face is also portrayed interestingly (albeit the reason for this isn’t gone into in too much detail). Without going into too much detail about it myself, it’s enough to say that the world – in fact the whole universe – that we know are a “secondary realm” to the original, which is supposed to monitor the secondary but not interfere. The administration of this is done in a House that defies spatial expectations in a way that the TARDIS could only dream of.

Called into this house on a mission he doesn’t begin to understand is Arthur. Here again Nix receives bonus points from this reviewer – he’s an asthmatic, and there are far too few heroic asthmatics in film and literature. (Normally any asthmatic / allergy sufferer / person who wears glasses is instantly portrayed as a geek and normally pretty hopeless. Since I’m asthmatic, suffer with allergies, and wear glasses, I take exception to this!!) Of course most chase scenes involving asthmatics would tend to end very quickly, which is probably another reason there aren’t any… - but near the start of this book Arthur receives a very odd visit from someone who gives him a key in order to satisfy a will agreement. Expecting the boy to die within seconds, he is very surprised when Arthur doesn’t – and Arthur himself is very surprised to find that contact with this key is somehow helping his breathing to improve. (Thus there can be chase scenes!) Incidentally, the way Nix writes the effects of Arthur’s asthma is quite good, though medically it’s not always quite accurate – not that that would matter much to the average reader!

After a while Arthur finds himself drawn into the House after the first realm’s meddling puts everyone in serious trouble here in the secondary realm. Aided only by the key, a former mortal called Suzy, and a green frog (who is the current incarnation of the first part of the Will that was drawn up epochs ago but reneged upon by the Lords of the individual Days), he must confront Mister Monday and put all right with the Lower House. If he can do that, then the first of the seven days will be sorted out – and the first of the Keys to the Kingdom restored to its place.

The writing styles is a little over-simplistic – not necessarily in terms of vocabulary but mainly short sentences everywhere. This seems to be a technique that a lot of authors use when writing primarily with a younger audience in mind, but it annoys the hell out of me – there is simply no flow to the writing when all the sentences end after a few words. Despite this the book draws you in with its inventive ideas and often interesting characters, and the action is portrayed very well. Quite a bit of humour is injected into the proceedings, and this helps things along. There were one or two instances of things being referenced in the book - Marylin Monroe air vents, for instance - that I wasn't sure teenagers would necessarily pick up on, and made me wonder if Nix had one eye on the adult audience as well. With the depth of the plot and some slightly gruesome sections it’s perhaps surprising that Nix chose to write for as young an audience as he did, though probably the writing style will mature as Arthur gets older. (Though I’m not sure about that as the second book – “Grim Tuesday” – actually starts just a day after the first book finishes!) Despite obviously being part of a series, the book ends satisfyingly as far as the plot for this book goes. It did feel like there were a few loose ends, but I suspect they were deliberately held back for explanation in a later book.

All in all, Mister Monday is an excellent read if you’re looking for a fantasy book with a difference. I’d guess that the ideal audience for this book would be ages 14-16, though if you’re older and fancy some engaging light reading it’s a good choice as well. Having not heard of it before I suddenly found myself with a free copy, I think I’d like to read the rest of the series at some point.


Official Garth Nix Website


CaptainD - Book Reviews Blog

Book Review - Esio Trot

Before embarking on this review, perhaps I should explain just how I, a thirty year-old old (at the time) adult with no children, came to be reading this book in the first place. Well, the story goes like this:

Picture the scene: my wife and I are walking down the road carrying some shopping home, when we pass by a yard sale in someone's front garden. "Oh, a yard sale", I think to myself, "I've never actually seen one of those before in real life". As we are about to pass by we are unexpectedly assailed by a wail from a young girl: "Pleeeeeeeeeease buy something, we haven't sold aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanythiiiiiiiiing".

Being of a somewhat kind and generous nature we stop and gaze upon the motley assortment of worn-out tat that the girls are trying to sell. (They are enterprising little blighters - they have advertised their sale on a nearby electricity box.) There is little or nothing of any real interest there but I do spy a couple of books. On closer inspection one of them is the book you are about to read a review of. "Oh, Roald Dahl", I think, "I really enjoyed his books when I was a child". Seeing my interest one of the young entrepreneurs lowers her asking price with amazing speed from 50p to 25p. Not wishing to curb such enthusiasm (albeit perhaps fiscal impropriety), I agree. Thereupon I am presented with a much-travelled version of Esio Trot for the princely sum of a quarter of one pound sterling.

Shortly after this we hear one of the girls say, "but you forgot that thing that you sold for a pound earlier…" This girl was very quickly shushed by the little con merchant who had hailed us earlier. She beamed at us, embarrassed but mostly unabashed. A born Arthur Daley, that one. They would not admit to the covert operation that the money raised would be put to.

I can just imagine the next passersby and what they would hear… a plaintive "Pleeeeeeeeeease buy something, we haven't sold aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanythiiiiiiiiing".

And that, dear reader, is the entire sordid affair.


Anyway...

Esio Trot is the story of Mr Hoppy. Mr Hoppy is a very shy man who loves flowers and his downstairs neighbours. His flowers possibly know of his great affection for them, but Mrs Silvers in the flat below him certainly doesn't. They exchange pleasantries every day from their balconies, but that's as far as it gets. Oh if only Mr Hoppy could find a way to break through his shyness and become Mrs Silver's hero…

Alas and alak, Mrs Silver's love is directed towards something else - a small tortoise named Alfie. However she is worried about Alfie because she thinks he is too small - in fact she won't let him watch TV in case he sees the giant tortoises in other countries and becomes insanely jealous (good thinking, huh?!?). Mr Hoppy sometimes wishes he were a tortoise that she might love him. Then he has an idea… what if he can make Alfie bigger, and thus win Mrs Silver's heart? A grand scheme is hatched in his mind, and he gets to work on a plan involving 140 tortoises of various sizes and a tortoise catcher…

"Esio Trot" is, as some readers may already have noticed, "Tortoise" backwards. This is because tortoises don't read forwards (hadn't you noticed?). This forms a large part of the story - but telling you that won't spoil your enjoyment of the book.. Obviously this is aimed at young children (probably about 4-8, I would have thought), but I enjoyed it as a complete change from the norm (having just finished an international espionage thriller immediately before reading this!) and as a major trip down memory lane. I remember quite a few Roald Dahl books from my childhood - primarily The BFG & James and the Giant Peach - and remember these with great fondness. So the nostalgia factor was pretty high, and it was quite a bizarre thing for me to read an entire book in about 20 minutes (being a fairly slow reader and usually tending to like long books). The story is obviously simple but told with the creativeness that Dahl was famous for and humour that even young children would enjoy.

The book is also illustrated by Quentin Blake. Dahl and Blake were one of the most famous Author-Illustrator teams there have ever been and Blake's deceptively simple, immediately eye-catching style complements Dahl's story perfectly. The images somehow manage to combine the "just thrown together" and "precisely crafted" methods into an homogeneous whole.

Before the story itself there is a small intro about why tortoises are no longer imported into Britain (the government put a stop to it because of the appalling conditions the tortoises were kept in while in transit, with many of them dying as a result before they reached these shores), and after it there is an even shorter biography of Roald Dahl (sadly nothing about Quentin Blake).

For more information see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quentin_Blake


The book has a happy ending (for all the characters) and is sure to delight any child who reads it. I'm sure the target audience will love it, but as a (rather unexpected) step back in time I greatly enjoyed it for what it was, too.


CaptainD - Book Reviews Blog

Book Review - Asterix and the Golden Sickle

For those who've never seen an Asterix book before, it's not about the adventures of an *. It's a comic book series (nothing like the Marvel comics, but it's cartoons in differentiated cells, so I guess it must be classed as a comic) about the adventures of the eponymous hero, Asterix, a cunning little warrior. He is always accompanied by his best friend Obelix, a menhir delivery man. While perfect for children, there is a lot about the books that can appeal to adults as well. The stories are set in Gaul (approximately equivalent to modern-day France) in the first century, where all Gual is under Roman occupations...

Well, all except one...

There is a little village in Gaul that remains undefeated by the Romans. This is due to the incredible strength they receive from magic potion brewed by the Druid Getafix. With the upcoming Great Annual Conference of Gaulish Druids coming up, now would not be a time to break his sickle… which is of course what happens. And good sickles don’t grow on trees, you know – the only ones he considers worth using are those made by Obelix’s distant cousin Metallurgix in faraway Lutetia. So, off go Asterix and Obelix to Lutetia… but all is not what it appears… and Metallurgix is nowhere to be found…


Asterix and the Golden Sickle is classic Asterix. The drawing is well up to scratch and just as energetic as you’d expect, and the humour consistently hits the spot. Early on when while walking through part of the forest known for dangerous bandits, Asterix and Obelix have a conversation while absent-mindedly bashing the bandits. On seeing an Aquaduct being built, Asterix complains that the Romans are ruining the countryside with their engineering. A Roman in a chariot rushing past on the road, only to be pulled up for speeding. Heavy traffic congestion pinch points are known as “amphora-necks” instead of “bottle-necks”. Obelix leaving his menhir in the cloak room with a dainty female attendant who surely couldn’t have lifted it… and poor old Cacofonix (the bard) continues to have his musical.. um… genius unappreciated…

Though the Asterix series is really seen as something for children, for a quick (okay, very quick), enjoyable read, it’s great for adults as well. There are many little things that you will notice (some of those mentioned in the preceding paragraph, for instance) that a child simply would not understand, or at least would fail to understand why it was funny. The attention to detail in these books is fantastic, and you may have to read it several times before every nuance of the text or tiny detail in the drawings will be apparent. Even the names are funny, but how funny they are depends on how much you know – for instance, when I read this as a child, the name “Metallurgix” was just a name, but now of course I know that Metallurgy (Metallurgics) is the process of developing, testing, and refining metals. So if you ever read some of the Asterix books when you were young and still have them, try reading them again – I’m sure you’ll see them quite differently.


Overall

There’s nothing really that could have been better about this. Goscinny and Uderzo’s creations continue to be one of the most enduringly popular series of comic books (or, for that matter, any books) ever made – and with good reason. Asterix and the Golden Sickle is another one no fan of the series would want to miss out on.



CaptainD - Book Reviews Blog