Review: Deeply riveting
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 9, 2013
`Resonance Key' reads like a train-wreck on nitro--author Owen Newport expertly hooks you in right in the first few pages, and I'm betting my left arm the suspense will keep your jaws dropped on the floor. The book has the self-sustained urgency of a Dan Brown thriller, but with actually good writing and none of Brown's all-too-frequent awkward turns of phrases. In essence, `Resonance Key' is so powerful, you'll be glued to your seat.`Resonance Key' is about a future dystopia that feels so close to the truth. Having recently read on `Scientific American' how the rate of depletion of Earth's resources, especially of fossil fuels and metals that are being quickly used up in the mass production of our beloved gadgets, will push countries to the brink of chaos and self-destruction, I feel that Newport's take on such a dismal future is deeply chilling.In the book, it is the future, and finally, the world's countries are desperate enough to actually engage in an all-out war for the planet's remaining resources. At the center of it all is a renowned innovator named Gideon Mansfield--his sheer brilliance has made huge contributions to the world's technologies, but even so such innovation has done little to stop the impending war on its tracks. Or so it seems. When Gideon's people end up mysteriously and horribly dead in Egypt, the grisly murders catapult Gideon and his friend Marcus on an epic journey to find the truth and bring about justice. But as the reader quickly realizes, the murder, like the tip of an ice berg, leads to a complicated, hellacious, mind-blowing plot that not only forces Gideon and Marcus to question their own complacent beliefs, but also tosses them on a double-edged path: they could die, or they could save the world. So how do they do it?Newport has a knack for expertly setting the stage--subtly turning up the little levers of suspense without you actually realizing it--so much that by the time the first indications of the subsequent climax begin appearing as you frantically turn the pages, you're just dying to sink your teeth in it. Moreover, I love how even villains such as Andre and Sabrina are given well-developed characters that pulse with believable motivations--you understand where they're coming from, which only lends more gravitas to their actions.Overall, `Resonance Key' is a terrific, extremely satisfying thrill ride. And I hope somebody buys the film rights so that Hollywood could actually make a movie version of it.