King Solomon's Mines. H. Rider Haggard.

King Solomon's Mines.
by H. Rider Haggard.

Supposedly the first African adventure novel, this book contains interesting details of the white man's experience of Africa circa 1885, but since so much is obviously made up, there are some places where you're not sure how much Haggard is intentionally stretching the truth.

Two English men approach a white hunter to locate their brother whom the hunter (Alan Quatermain) knows has gone off to search for King Solomon's Mines. They enlist some native help, and discover a lost valley. One of their helpers happens to be the rightful king. They invoke a civil war, win it, and are led to the diamond mines by an evil and ancient witch, who then betrays them, only to wind up dead thanks to the efforts of African maiden in love with John Good. They escape with a few diamonds and live happily ever after, etc.

The plot is too simple for its time and genre, but laced with enough humor to keep your interest. Quatermain stars in 16 more books and stories, although he dies in the sequel to this one.

The Five Flamboys. Francis Beeding.

The Five Flamboys.
Francis Beeding.

Little, Brown: 1929.

This mystery/adventure gets a regular guy involved in an international espionage scheme involving the overthrow of the Roumanian government. It's truly impressive the number of plot twists Beeding is able to invent.

Excellent Hitchcockian adventure, even though it predates Hitchcock. One interesting thing about reading pulp fiction from this era is that, because the authors generally didn't spend much time concerning themselves with high quality of writing (sort of like writing a blog, don't you think?), a lot of colloquialisms come through, rendering several sentences absolutely unintelligible. In this case, outdated British slang makes a few spots even harder to figure out...

Character-wise, the evil villain is fairly interesting, as well as self-reflective, and the super-spy who helps the narrator is flat, but very cool in a pre-James Bond sort of way.

Great Author Alert! Jean-Patrick Manchette!

The books I blog are generally ones I read 3-4 years ago (I keep a handwritten journal. I am a nerd.) So, rather than wait that long to tell you about a modern author, I will tell you now: Jean-Patrick Manchette. French. Noir. Crime. I'm on chapter four, and I can already tell it will be one of my favorites!

Genesis. W. A. Harbinson

Genesis.
W. A. Harbinson.
Dell: 1982.

Mad genius joins the Nazi's in the 30's to build flying saucers. By the 1970's, he is starting to control world governments from his secret base at the South Pole. UFO investigators who learn too much are either captured and turned into robots (electrodes in the brain) or are killed.

Part techno-thriller, part sci-fi, overall a rather good book, despite how it may sound. The main flaw is that mysteries are solved by very long monologues by various characters; this is more like an (alternative) history lesson than anything interesting.

Much of the book is believeable. Some things stand out, such as ESP, but overall, I'd buy it. The writing is generally clear and concise, but when the author forays into more fancy writing, he does so with some small skill, unlike many genre writers.

UFOs and government cover-ups are fun topics and this book, though strictly one-sided, does not go overboard with the whole consipiracy thing.

Twelve Trains to Babylon. Alfred Connable.

Twelve Trains to Babylon
by Alfred Connable.
Little, Brown: 1971.

Jon is a spy, transferred to America several years ago. His job is to transfer messages or suitcases from one place to another. He is part of a vast network and nobody knows who anyone else is or what they do. All is well until a government agent discovers him and coerces him to find out who the other links in the network are. The network finds out he is discovered and needs to kill him in order to protect its secrecy. During all of this, he is also trying to decide which of two women he loves - and what is love, anyway?

Things get even more complicated when it is revealed that the spy network has been taken over by the mafia, and he has actually been smuggling heroin for the past several years. Soon, good guys become bad guys and vice versa, and multiple people have had the same identity. This book is very complex and slightly confusing, but it makes for one of the best spy novels I've ever read. A 'classic' suspense story that emphasizes the action and mystery rather than dwelling on gruesome people or graphic details as in most modern suspense stories. Very well written, and it is interesting to watch Jon change - again, it is refreshing to have a dynamic character is what is formally, at least, pulp fiction.

A Skeleton in God's Closet. Paul Meier.

A Skeleton in God's Closet
by Paul Meier.
Thomas Nelson & Sons: 1996

A fast-paced archaeological thriller about the discovery of Jesus' bones. Since it was published by a Christian publisher, the ending (the bones are a hoax) is a forgone conclusion, yet the book would really have been more interesting if it had not been a hoax.

The author is very concerned with teaching the reader about modern archaeological methods - a bit ironic, since some segments of Christianity reject any archaeological finding beyond 6,000 BCE.

At any rate, the bones' discovery necessarily rocks the Christian world. It is in describing the emotional and spiritual effects of the discovery that the author falls short of good writing -- the reactions are unbelievable, uninteresting, too simplified, or just plain dumb. Meier should perhaps stick to writing non-fiction, as that might be more his forte.

Memoirs of an Invisible Man. H. F. Saint.

Memoirs of an Invisible Man
by H. F. Saint.

My penchant for invisible man stories has already been stated; this one is an excellent adventure. It is essentially an extended chase scene: man who becomes invisible after industrial explosion is hunted by government. But Saint has put a lot of thought into the details of how an invisible man could hide, and his efforts come off very well in a wholly believeable story.

My dad said he thought there was a lot of sex in the book - I hadn't remembered that the first time I read it, but noticed some now; nothing really extraordinary, and I'm a bit puzzled by his way of remembering the book. I just remembered being able to clearly visualize several scenes, and not wanting to put the book down.

The chase-plot works because the chase gets increasingly complex as the story progresses - at the end there is actually no physical chasing or hiding - just information chasing & hiding.

May 23, 2005

Toxin

Robin Cook. Berkley: 1999.

Called by the AP a "heavyweight of a book" and the "most socially significant work" of Cook's, and recommended by my father as making him want to stop eating meat, this fluff of a novel centers around a jerk surgeon whose daughter dies from e coli. We're supposed to feel for him because he doesn't have the money to fix his 10-year old Mercedes, and the poor guy can't sell his Tudor house in the city.

This book must be loved by the meat industry. Instead of the plot line being created by a run-of-the-mill health hazard violation, this thing starts by two greedy backwards hicks and an evil corporation with a secret committee that kills people who ask too many questions. Thus, the story takes place in fantasy-land instead of the heart-land. We're left with the feeling of relief that any danger to/from our meat can only come from psychos, not from the way things really are.

The writing is atrocious, plot inane, characters flat. The only saving grace is the nice medical descriptions of the dying girl, as bad as that sounds.

April 9, 2005

The Onion Field

Joseph Wambaugh. Delacorte, 1973

The "true crime novel" of the first execution-style killing of an L.A. Police officer.

Starts off very slowly with background information on the four major players. The night of the actual crime is interesting, but the book doesn't really get good until the aftermath of the crime (about halfway through the book.)

The two killers, unfortunately for the author, are so well and extensively dealt with in the book, that we almost feel sorry for them - it's not their fault they're sociopaths and lack the ability to feel sympathy or remorse, is it? The author makes a few tear-jerking attempts to keep our sympathies with the two cops, but ultimately, it is the killers whom we will remember.

February 10, 2005

This Present Darkness

Frank Peretti. Crossway Books: 1988.

A Christian fiction, spritual warfare novel. Revolves around a small town being taken over by an evil rich man who is into Eastern religion/witchcraft/devil worship/pagan rituals (no distinction is ever made - anything not along the narrow path is lumped together in one evil structure.) Angels are called by prayer and protect the humans and kick some demonic butt.

Overall, a very good novel with ordinary by somewhat dynamic characters. I think the author fails on two points: first, the demons, with their 'human' flaws and weaknesses are more sympathetic to the reader than are the perfect - and perfectly boring - angles; second, the angels' ultimate victory in the end is not due to "prayer cover" as the book states, but due to these same imperfections and vices in the demons! Although still a good Christian message, it is not at all what the author intended...