Up Country – Nelson Demille

Summary: Evidence of a 30 year old murder has recently come to light. There are a few catches, though: There was only one witness to that crime, and that witness may have died in the intervening years. The murder happened in the aftermath of a significant battle in Vietnam. The witness was a combatant for North Vietnam. How do you find the witness, if he lived through the rest of the war? How do you pick the investigator to assign? 

Paul Brenner, recovering from the aftermath of “The General’s Daughter” ; in truth he retired after that debacle. He’s called back to active duty and coerced to go back to Vietnam (for a third time), only this time during peacetime. Why can’t diplomatic requests be put through to talk with the witness? Is his government lying to him? What’s so important about the dead man, or the murderer?

Is there any way that Paul can make it back from Vietnam a third time, especially with the information he discovers while investigating this murder?

Setting: Vietnam, 1990’s – flashbacks to 1968 and 1972

Plot: Paul Brenner (last seen in “The General’s Daughter”) is contacted by his old boss and asked to take one last assignment. Next thing he knows, he’s on a plane to Nam, for the third time in his career. He’s got contacts he’s supposed to meet up with, who will give him information and assistance, as required. Before he even leaves the airport though, he catches the eye of Colonel Mang, a fairly powerful member of the Vietnam National Police Force, and in the course of the story, brazenly pisses Mang off and starts getting in trouble before his assignment even truly begins.

Once free, he has to find his way from the very bottom of the country to the very top, avoiding detection and questioning (by Mang’s men) the whole way. He’s “aided” in his journey by his first contact, an ex-pat who speaks Vietnamese, and a few additional people he meets along the way. What happens when he finds the witness? Will the witness even be alive? Based on the information the witness has, will Paul be able to tell what’s really going on?

Criticisms: This was a hard book for me to read, as I have a great deal of empathy for Vietnam vets. This book gives a glimpse into some of the experiences of a Army infantryman, surviving jungle warfare any way he can. The book can feel a bit ragged, but Demille was an established writer when this book came out, and I believe that the narrative style used in this book was chosen on purpose. Some readers might find the emotions that this book dredges up to be a bit strong. My next read will be much lighter, possibly a comic book, with pretty pitchures.

Wrap-up: Nelson Demille is one of my favorite writers. He’s a Vietnam Veteran, and this is one of only a couple of his books that touches on his experiences in the war. I would give this book an A++++++++, if such a grade existed in my arbitrary scale. I did, however, mark the final grade down a bit for subject matter. His work in technically perfect, no runs, no hits, no errors. I have read this book at least 10 times, and this last time through, I caught one single outright mistake. One. In this entire book. He should have caught it, his editors should have caught it, his proofers should have caught it, I’ve never caught a single bald-faced, point-blank mistake by Demille before, in any book, in any form or any fashion. That’s how good he is. As far as the attributes of the book itself? This is a book about a tortured soul, and his journey to peace and redemption. It’s set in a war zone; if you’re staunchly anti-war, this book will reinforce your beliefs, based on the accounts of some of the atrocities committed by both sides. If you support the troops no matter what, this book will make you weep for the pain that the characters go through almost reliving these times with them. I cannot recommend a book any higher than this one, if you can stomach a true fiction war novel.

Grade: By my arbitrary scale, I give this book a solid A.  I’ll save the elusive A+ for a book with more universal appeal.

The Cat Who Walks Through Walls – Robert Heinlein

Summary: Colonel (Senator?) Richard Ames Campbell is being recruited to save the world. A stranger is assassinated at his dinner table, he and his girlfriend get booted out of their apartments, and they’re chased off the habitat in the company of a man who was supposed to kill them both. Now he’s being recruited for a mission (across multiple timelines and dimensions) to save all existence.

Setting: Distant future, across multiple dimensions and timelines (Heinlein’s “World as Myth”).

Plot: Richard Campbell is an ex military commander who currently writes salacious novels. He’s out to dinner with his girlfriend when a man approaches their table and tries to enlist Campbell in a plot to murder a prominent citizen of their habitat. Before the unwanted visitor can get the particulars across, he’s mysteriously shot from afar. In the course of investigating the murder (and the requested “hit”) Campbell and his girlfriend are evicted from their apartments, and kicked out of the habitat.

His girlfriend turns out to be an operative with an organization whose grasp surpasses the boundaries of time and space; they jump around in different time lines to try and steer the present into more beneficial outcomes. Richard’s hesitant to join the organization, but his participation is vital (according to the group’s research) in saving a certain computer system.

Criticisms: I don’t have any major criticisms of this book.  

Wrap-up: As far as Sci-Fi is concerned, if you were to ask anyone (who’s familiar with Sci-Fi) who the masters of the genre are,  Heinlein would be in the top 3 of every respondent, along with Clark and Asimov.

If you’re already a Heinlein fan, this is a little gem which ties together with most of the other “World as Myth” books. If you know who Lazarus Long is, you’ll have a small step up on other readers. If you’re not a Heinlein fan but have been eager to try a new author (or genre), this would be a good choice, as it’s not dependent on the other novels but can be read as a good stand-alone book.

Heinlein exhibited his famous sense of humor (and solid grasp of the absurdities of the current political situation when he wrote the book) perfectly with this book, and it would be a good primer for a burgeoning Sci-Fi (or Heinlein) fan.

Grade: By my arbitrary scale, I would give this book an A-.

The Wheel of Darkness - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Summary: Aloysius Pendergast is back. If you haven’t read any of the Pendergast novels, you’re missing out. Stop reading this review, and  go pick up one of the earlier novels, I would suggest Cabinet of Curiosities. Anyway, Pendergast is a special agent with the FBI, who investigates strange crimes. I’m not certain that he really takes any direction from the FBI at this point, he just uses his badge to open doors that would be closed to the general public. He’s chasing down an ancient Tibetan artifact which has been stolen from a monastery deep in the mountains on the border of China and Tibet. This monks are convinced that the artifact is linked with the end of the world, and it must be brought back to its home.

Setting: Current day Tibet, China, London, and an intercontinental ocean liner.

Plot: Pendergast is studying Tibetan meditation at a monastery in Tibet when he’s asked by the monks to chase down a box that’s been stolen. They have the identity of the thief, just need Pendergast to chase him down. Pendergast chases the thief and the box across Asia and Europe, finally catching up with the box on an intercontinental ocean liner where the artifact starts driving anyone who gazes upon it insane.

Pendergast’s superior intellect is his only usable weapon against the artifact, but will it be enough? 

Criticisms: None whatsoever. If you haven’t read any other books in this series, you may want to read the earlier ones first, as the series reads in order, and there are some significant spoilers in this book regarding the earlier books.

Wrap-up: Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child hit the ball out of the park on this one. They’d been writing this series for long enough (at the time of this book) that the characters are still fresh, and this is one of the best in the series. If you like mysteries, and don’t mind a bit of supernatural content thrown in, there’s not a series that I’d recommend more than this one.

Pendergast is superbly written, and has a lot of idiosyncratic traits that endear his character to the reader. His roots are in New Orleans, and he’s portrayed as a syrup voiced Southern gentleman, almost a renaissance man; he’s a master of a wide assortment of disciplines, from art and music to unarmed (or armed) combat. One of the best written characters I’ve ever had the pleasure to read. There are 11 books in the series (thus far), so once you get to know Pendergast, you can have a nice long trip with him, if you wish.

Grade: By my arbitrary scale, I would give this book an A.

Virtual Mode – Piers Anthony

Summary: Colene is walking home from school, and discovers a strange man collapsed in a ditch. They learn how to communicate and Darius brings her a story of a land where magic reigns. She assumes that he’s crazy and when he’s able to travel back to his own dimension, she realizes that he was telling the truth the whole time. How can she get back together with him?

Setting: Starts in Oklahoma in the 1980’s, includes travel to other dimensions.

Plot:  Colene is a 14 year old high school student. She’s popular enough but she’s got some significant issues, among them that she’s suicidal, and her parents marriage is a sham. Her father is a philanderer, her mother is a practicing alcoholic. She meets Darius, a king from another dimension, when he’s beat up by hoods in her neighborhood. She nurses him back to health in secret and he tells her of his mission – to find an appropriate queen. We already know that Colene wouldn’t be appropriate for his purposes, but they fall in love anyway; at least he does. She think's he’s crazy, but accepts his story for something to grasp onto and believe in. He finds out that she’s suicidal, and that she wouldn’t meet the qualifications to be the queen (because of her negative attitude), so he decides to return to his home dimension (with her help) and try finding a queen another way. His leaving demonstrates to Coleen that he was telling the truth, and cements her feelings for him. Unfortunately, she’s separated from him by virtue of being dimensions away.

Darius returns to his home dimension, and finds a way that he and Colene can be together, so he sets up a method of joining their dimensions so that they can join back up. Colene is eager to get out, and grasps on the opportunity to reunite with Darius (now that she knows he’s not crazy), but first they have to actually find each other. Enter the telepathic horse, the old woman who can’t remember the past but can see the future, and the homicidal intergalactic emperor. 

Criticisms:  Piers Anthony is an accomplished enough writer that if you’re interested in sci-fi and fantasy in the first place, you won’t find any gaping holes in the plot. He’s one of the masters of the genre, and definitely knows his business.

Wrap-up:  This was a hard read, and forced me to reevaluate whether this belongs on my bookshelf in the first place. It’s not my favorite series by him, but it’s pretty well written. What made this so hard is that he’s such a good writer, and he deals with some uncomfortable issues. Colene is suicidal, and cuts her wrists to flirt with death. She’s been raped in the past, and this affects her psyche and her daily life. Darius falls in love with her (he’s in his 20’s and she’s 14), but for this book at least, they don’t consummate their relationship. This book attempts to deal with alcoholism and a father who’s unfaithful to his wife.

Are Colene’s psychological aspects realistic? I truly don’t know. I’ve never been a 14 year old girl, and I don’t know what it feels like to be in ones head. I guess what’s a little disturbing is that Piers Anthony apparently does and, from the outside at least, he appears to do the whole “teen angst” thing quite ably, 5+ years before it occurred to Kurt Cobain. That’s pretty impressive for a (at the time) 57 year old man, but it’s still a bit uncomfortable.

If you’re already a Piers Anthony fan, chances are you might have missed this series, and it’s worth a look. If you’re not a Piers Anthony fan but wanna give him a try, I would recommend starting on one of his one-shots first (I can make some recommendations if you need some), then trying out another of his series first. This one’s a bit heavy.

Grade: By my arbitrary scale, I would give this book a C+.

High Crimes – Joseph Finder

Summary: Claire’s a law professor at Harvard, and everything’s going right for her. She’s got a beautiful daughter from a previous marriage, tenure, and she’s married to the man of her dreams. Or is she? Following a break-in at their house, her husband is chased down by the government and the military for a horrendous war crime he’s accused of committing 13 years earlier. Claire takes the reins and leads her husband’s defense team, trying to keep him alive and out of military prison.

Setting: United States, 1993 and flashbacks to Central America, 1985

Plot: Claire is a tenured professor at Harvard, a rising celebrity due to her involvement with a highly publicized case, and is happily married to a wonderful man. Her life starts falling apart around her when her husband is accused of war crimes in an undeclared war in Central America, and chased down by the FBI. She pursues a vigorous legal defense for him, taking on the military justice system in a bid to get down to the truth, or at least to keep her husband out of prison. Are those goals mutually exclusive?

Criticisms: No significant criticisms. The book is written about a pretty graphic series of events during an undeclared war. Most of the graphic events covered are described from a more narrative style, rather than from a gritty, realistic perspective.

Wrap-up: Finder does a good job of dumbing down some of the more technical concepts (regarding armaments, etc.), and while his courtroom scenes aren’t quite as polished as Grisham, he’s quite effective at capturing the courtroom drama. Most of his books are written more about the corporate world and corporate espionage, so this was a nice change-up, and nicely demonstrates his versatility as a writer.

Grade: By my arbitrary scale, I would give this book a B.

The Other Side of Midnight - Sidney Sheldon

Summary: One word - Vengeance. With a capital V. An "In Your Face", over the top grandiose exposition of Vengeance, with a steaming side order of ruining someone's life over the course of a couple of decades.

Setting: Europe and the United States, between the 1930's and the late 1940's.

Plot: Standard Sidney Sheldon fare; an exceptionally written, internationally set, character based drama. Noelle gets jilted by a US pilot who's on temporary assignment to the RAF. She spends the next few years plotting how to get even with him, then delivers on her promise (with a truly surprising Sheldon twist). It's hard to classify Noelle as the antagonist or protagonist in this story; she's definitely a "bad" character (the story opens with her on trial for murder), but she's been forced into her circumstance by her (sometimes naive) dealings with other characters. I was rooting for her by halfway through the book, and trying to guess how she would deliver her vengeance to the aforementioned pilot. This book begins with the adventures of a handful of main characters through the turbulent time of France, England, the United States and Greece in the years and months leading up to the Second World War, and their story continues through the war, and a few years immediately following.

Criticisms: This book has only a few issues, mostly with what some of the characters are able to accomplish with limited resources. Some of the female characters are able to throw themselves on the mercy of handy benefactors who have obviously been inserted into the plot specifically for those purposes (if that makes any sense). There is some further development of those characters though, so he didn't completely forget about those characters once they'd accomplished what he'd originally needed them for. A few were obviously secondary creations though.

Wrap-up: Sidney Sheldon did a very good job with this book, one of his better ones. It was initially published in 1973, and while some of the terminology is quite dated, as a historical drama it performs within its internal time period fairly smoothly. The international settings are brilliant, and Sheldon demonstrates again how well his descriptions can be used to paint pictures that you can see and feel, almost more vibrantly than if you experienced them yourself. There are a few minor holes in the plot, but the stumbles are artfully concealed with reasonable explanations, given the time periods involved.

Grade: By my arbitrary scale, I would give this book a solid B+.