Buckyballs? Antimatter? Earth-Generated Water? Oh, My!
Amazon says:
Banes & Noble thinks:
|
Author: James Rollins
Title: Sandstorm Genre: thriller Not long ago in a fit of creativity, I suggested to the Ms that she write a kid's "chapter book" series combining a few of those elements that the current generation of pre-teens seems hooked on. One's Harry Potter and the other... oh, no, I ain't givin that idea away, not with J. K. Rowling now firmly ensconced as one of the richest women in the world. It seems, however, that the idea of merely collecting and agglomerating a slew of popular topics is neither original to me, nor is it limited to kiddy-lit. Why, I just finished reading a stew of a whole bunch of popular topics combined under one "plot." Unfortunately, while Sandstorm may have used a bunch of other authors' ideas, author James Rollins neglected to keep that certain je ne sais quoi that made each of his precursors special - or at least popular... The Stew, errrr, Plot Thickens Safia Al-Maaz, the hard-driven curator of the Kensington Middle Eastern collection at the British Museum, is knocked from her (lonely) bed by the bizarre explosion that turned most of the antiquities in her care at the Museum into cinders. Lady Kara Kensington, Safia's childhood friend, immediately decides to mount an expedition into the deserts of Oman in search of the mythical lost city of Ubar. A brace of U. S. agents - these are brainiacs with a bit of brawn as well, Painter Crowe and Coral Novak work for a clandestine agency within DARPA - bull their way onto her team, for they've automagically determined that the mysterious blast was most assuredly the result of an explosive matter-antimatter interaction. Rounding out the search party are Safia's grad student Clay and her ex-fiance, archaeologist Omaha Dunn (any resemblance to the name "Indiana Jones" is pure coincidence) with his baby brother Danny. Hey, this little expedition would be duck soup, good for about 180 pages, if it weren't for the unfriendly attentions of another clandestine team that's also on the trail of this potential source of naturally-occurring antimatter. That not-so-merry band is captained by Painter Crowe's ex-partner (and -lover), Cassandra Sanchez, who only a few days before had spectacularly defected from their DARPA partnership with a world-class hacker and secrets merchant. Oh, and to make matters all the more interesting, there's also a mystical element - an Amazonian tribe of women who all look exactly like Safia, like to strut around naked, can disappear at will, and can control animals. Such fun... Now all we need is a mysterious city hidden beneath the sands of the Empty Quarter, a city that can only be found by solving a series of riddles, and presto! We've got ourselves a best-seller! Where's Dan Brown When You Need Him? Notice the references to antimatter (Angels and Demons) and a series of puzzles (The da Vinci Code)? Yep, it looks as though Rollins has been studying at the feet of Dan Brown, whose rather clumsy thrillers have recently captivated the English-speaking world... If imitation's the sincerest form of flattery, Dan ought to be rather red-faced right now. Who Shot J. R. R.? Lemme see: the most popular motion pictures of the past three years are based on a trilogy that's in about its nine-millionth printing: The Lord of the Rings. Like every trilogy since, LOTR features a fellowship that sets off on a quest while toting around a talisman with special powers, a talisman that could lead to the world's ruination if it fell into the wrong hands. Frodo's, errr, Safia's companions make up a nice little fellowship, right down to a couple of innocents who happen along by accident (Clay and Danny = Sam, Merry, and Pippin) and some great warriors (Painter and Coral = Aragorn and Boromir). And, of course, there's the quest for Mor... er Ubar, not to mention a little magic, a little betrayal (Saruman?), and a few people with vital secrets their lineage has maintained for hundreds of generations. Oh, and that little love story between Safia and Omaha? Think Aragorn and Eowyn. Got that Bullwhip on you, Harrison? What's there left to say about a tale with the unmitigated gall to name an archaeologist "Omaha" (I guess "Nebraska" would have been a little over the top)? For what it's worth, the practice of naming your kids after cities in your home state seems to be more common in Wyoming and Texas than among the Cornhuskers. And Every Thriller in the Past Ten Years Of course, there has to be a shadowy worldwide organization that's attempting to get its hands on this alleged source of unlimited power - that's a given in current thriller plots. You absolutely must have a squad of ice-water-veined ex-Rangers/SEALs/what have you that sell their deadly services to the highest bidder. Deliver me from this plot. Pretty please? Ugh. Who gave this Guy a Keyboard, Anyway? Into each book a little chaff must fall: it's par for the course. A good editor is supposed to clean up goofs, but apparently Rollins has reached the status of a Stephen King, wherein he no longer feels the need to listen to his editor. He should, however. Here are some reasons why: - People do not have "lanky" hair, even if you do describe it that way at least three times. - Will you give up on the word "limned" already? - Iron or other material from a meteorite is not "meteoric," it's "meteoritic." "Meteoric," believe it or not, refers to the weather. - Will you stop with that Ludlumesque habit of italicizing words at seeming random? Finally, as a scientist it galls me to see authors collecting random snippets of popular science out at the fringes and incorporating them into their work without testing the assertions with people who actually know something. Buckyballs, antimatter, earth-generated water, oh my! Overall Skip Sandstorm. It's derivative of other people's ideas and quite badly written to boot. all content copyright © 2001-present by scmrak
|