Matt Reviews Things » Books

His Father’s Son – Bentley Little

matt — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 01:47:37 +0000

I’ve read most of Bentley Little’s horror novels, and they’ve been pretty consistent in what they offer. Start with an interesting idea; race onward in an inventive, typically gory, fashion; arrive at a resolution that doesn’t really live up to the rest of the book, but the ride was so fun you’re okay with that. A typical Bentley Little novel involves something supernatural, and lives in a world that isn’t quite like the real one.

With His Father’s Son, Little makes his first foray into “the real world” in a novel — it’s basically a psychological study of an ordinary man and the way his life spins out of control after a shocking confession from his dying father.

What I liked:

The setup, up until the father’s confession in the hospital, was fairly excellent, and could’ve been the launch of a great book. Still could be, I guess — but it’s just not this one.

What I didn’t like:

Just about everything from that point forward. Characters react to events and undergo changes that are in no way believable. Much of the book’s action depends on what must be some of the most incompetent police forces ever put to paper (the author acknowledges this briefly via one character, then just continues on with it). The book’s resolution is not just unbelievable, it’s fairly insulting to the reader who has dutifully tread through the book to reach it.

Needless to say, I can’t really recommend this book. I do recommend the author, though, so I’ll link below to a few of his better works. If you like any of those, you’ll likely enjoy all of his books except this one. Here’s to hoping he returns to form the next time out.

The Lost Symbol – Dan Brown

matt — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 03:08:22 +0000

With The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown supplants James Patterson (*) as king of what I call the “popcorn books” — books that work best when read straight through in as few sittings as possible, with no reflection on what’s come before as you plow ahead. Whether you’ll like the book or not depends on how willing you are to do that, I guess.

(*) – Well, Brown supplants Patterson on a “quality of book” basis. With Brown’s extended hiatus and Patterson’s co-author book factory pumping out 6 books a year, he’ll never catch him in quantity.

If you’ve read The DaVinci Code or Angels And Demons, then you can guess the outline of the plot — Robert Langdon is called to a famous landmark, something bad happens, and he’s forced into a race against time to solve ancient riddles, accompanied by a love interest. The setting is Washington D.C. this time, and in a happy-enough change of pace, his love interest is actually age-appropriate.

As I said before, this book works best if you plow straight on through without reflection. Brown makes this easy to do, with his style of ending every single chapter on some sort of cliffhanger. In a way it’s like you are in your own thriller — don’t slow down, don’t look back, or the glaring plot holes will catch up with you and dampen your enjoyment of the whole thing.

Having said that, I have a few things about the book to get off my chest. I’ll put a spoiler-barrier on it for you, so you can skip it if you don’t want to know (and I’ll try to be a little vague, at least)…

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Around page 100 there’s a sequence where two computer types, one supposedly a sophisticated “hacker,” are trying to find the origin of an IP address (the numeric “address” of a device on the Internet). Just suffice to say — some of the stuff they say is just made up, and some of the things they are boggled by are very simple, routine safety measures. You might not notice if you aren’t an Internet professional, but trust me that none of it is realistic at all.

Of course, you don’t need to be an Internet professional to guess that the highly protected CIA database in question wouldn’t have magically given them the document that spurred their interest to begin with. And you just need to have a positive number for your IQ to know that if the CIA had the name/address of someone who was trying to break in to one of their computers, they would most certainly not call him up on the phone and ask him why he’s doing it. I mean, c’mon, did Brown’s teenage nephew ghostwrite this passage?

Other things that really bugged me: for such a smart guy, Langdon sure does fall for the same damn trick by the same damn person pretty easily the second time. Also, after spending the whole book establishing you need two parts of the sacred artifact to decode its secret, there’s a long time when none of the protagonists seem to realize that their “solution” only utilizes one of the parts.

Hmm, outside of the spoiler tags, lemme just say — when the action stops at the end, if you get bored with the exposition that goes on for 30-50 more pages, you can stop at any time. You won’t miss any big revelations.

Anyway, for all my ranting above, I do think this is a decent book, albeit #3 in the Robert Langdon series both chronologically and in quality. If you are a fan of the first two books, then I think you’ll like this one just fine. If you read and didn’t like either of those, well — why are you even reading this review? If you’re that one person left who is completely new to the series, then I recommend you start with Angels And Demons and continue on if you like that.

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Find more by Dan Brown at Amazon.com.

The Birthing House – Christopher Ransom

matt — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:25:57 +0000

The Birthing House is the debut horror novel from Christopher Ransom, a writer whose promise shines through about the first two-thirds of the book, after which it falls apart a bit.

The setup is compelling — let me just quote from the inside jacket copy:

Conrad and Joanna Harrison, a young couple from Los Angeles, attempt to save their marriage by leaving the pressures of the city to start anew in a quiet, rural setting. They buy a Victorian mansion that once served as a haven for unwed mothers, called a birthing house. One day, when Joanna is away, the previous owner visits Conrad to bequeath a vital piece of the house’s historic heritage, a photo album that he claims “belongs to the house.” Thumbing through the old, sepia-colored photographs of midwives and fearful, unhappily pregnant girls in their starched, nineteenth-century dresses, Conrad is suddenly chilled to the bone: Staring back at him with a countenance of hatred and rage is the images of his own wife….

The book sets all of the above into motion beautifully, separating Joanna from Conrad and introducing other characters to interact with him and send the story in different directions. However, this plot device soon becomes the books Achilles’ heel. Plot strands go off in different directions and don’t really meet up at the end, or even get resolved satisfactorily on their own.

If you haven’t read the book and you like surprises, steer clear of the spoilers below, covered in black. Or, mouse over the block to read them.

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The first disappointment is when the intriguing plot device that is the photo album gets promptly thrown into a fire and burned, never to return. The relationship between Conrad and Joanna, as well as the actual whereabouts of Joanna herself at times, is pretty inconsistent. And not in a “life has its ups and downs,” but more of a “bending things to fit the plot” way.

On a less spoiler-ish level, I will just say that the ending takes the delicate balance of psychological and supernatural that the book has built, and shoves it very hard to one direction, and not to good effect. I honestly don’t really know how to interpret the ending, and judging by the Amazon.com reviews, I’m not alone.

Even having said all that, Ransom is a skilled and imaginative writer. At only around 300 pages, you can read this book straight through and hang on every page. It’s only after you finish, when you look back, that the inconsistencies become more jarring.

Overall, I find The Birthing House to be a worthy read. I recommend grabbing it at your local library or waiting for the paperback — if Ransom goes on to become a megastar, you can always complete your hardcover collection later at your local Half Price Books or the like.

Despite this book’s flaws, I think that Christopher Ransom has a chance to be the Clive Barker to Joe Hill’s Stephen King for this new generation of horror writers. Whether he’ll fulfill that promise remains to be seen — I hope to find that his next book delivers from start to finish.