Ketchup

These guys totally rock! If I was blurbing Riptide, I'd say it was "Engrossing and unique, a vertical adventure full of lethal traps and surprises!" Love the pirate history. Love the engineering. Love the mission. Great fun. Love it. Go read this book if you haven't already.

In the meanwhile, I thought I'd try a walk on the other side of this dynamic duo. Deep Storm is the solo novel that I found first from Lincoln Child... and HOLY FREAKING BALLS OF FIRE, BATMAN! This guy is insane! Talk about your wild science fiction ideas wrapped in a present-day burrito of tension, technology and explosive finales!!! Yeah, that's my blurb. "This book is a fat burrito of pleasure!" That oughta sell some copies.

I don't want to give anything away, so once again I won't speak to the plot, but this is one pulsing-pounding high concept thriller. Wow.

Labels: Deep Storm, Douglas Preston, Lincold Child, Recommended Reading, Riptide

I’ve also managed to read a few books this summer, and lately I’ve been on a tear for Douglas Preston. I guess I’ve been living under a rock! This guy’s books are awesome good fun.

First we have The Codex. I won’t get into plot descriptions except to say I had to wonder if Preston has actually visited the interior jungles of Honduras. This book literally reeked of swamps and bugs. It was fun but didn’t hit me as hard as Blasphemy. There were a few threads in the narrative that only barely tied together or faded suddenly into nothing, which left me to the book an overall grade of a “B.” There was never any question that the hot feisty heroine and the cool-headed hero would fall madly in love — that’s just a given — but there were two other characters in the line-up who were especially original and fantastic, Borabay and best of all Don Alfonso. When a character's dialogue makes you laugh out loud, you know it's being done right. In my mind, these two carried the book.

Next up was Tyrannosaur Canyon, which I liked even better than Blasphemy. A+. What I’m noticing about Preston’s work is that his books are remarkably accessible and straightforward despite the unique, high concepts involved in each book. I admire that a lot. At least 60% of Tyrannosaur Canyon is straight-out action, and yet it’s loaded with science, paleontology, geology, and cutting-edge military tech. Perfect. As someone who grew up steeped in science fiction, I had to smile when one heroine declared that the big surprise at the end was so unexpected that even generations of science fiction writers never imagined such a twist... I mean, at least 100 pages before the big twist was officially revealed, I was thinking of books and films like Calculating God, Assemblers of Infinity, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but honestly: A+. This is great stuff. Highly recommended.

Labels: Douglas Preston, Recommended Reading, The Codex and Tyrannosaur Canyon

For anyone (like me!) who hasn't read Douglas Preston yet, jeez, people, get out there and get into his stuff.

I picked up a copy of Blasphemy at the behest of an online friend. Naturally it sat in my to-read stack for months. You all know how much leisure reading I'm doing these days... nearly zilch... but I had the chance to bring a book with me on a short vacation last week.

Whammo! Talk about your high-octane big idea tech thriller! He's got God. He's got science. Romance. Politics. Explosions. Dark caves and burning deserts. Just as important, he's got readability. The eye moves easily through every page & there's no surprise why this guy's on the top of the NYT bestseller lists.

I guess I'm done gushing now. But I'm going out to read more asap.

Labels: Blasphemy, Douglas Preston, Recommended Reading, wow