Review: A Rumble In The Jungle, with a stinger at the end
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 2, 2012
Once upon a time, you could turn on your TV any given Sunday afternoon,and flip the channels until you found a jungle adventure.  You know thetype.  It would be full of sweaty people forging their way deep into theunknown, and there was almost always something incredibly deadly andfrightening awaiting the unsuspecting expedition.  Usually more thanone thing.  In e-book form, Pohon Setan by Ben Brown is just such a story.You have a pack of inexperienced Aussie reporters led by the experiencedalcoholic veteran Bill Redcliff.  You have Chelsea, the newby thatmust find the courage to survive.  There's Baga, the friendly villager,Bradley Munroe, the kick-ass mercenary for hire, and the vile Qiang,human smuggler and general all-around villain.  Then, of course, there'sthe Indonesian jungle, a rumor of strange goings-on involving animalsacrifice, and the mysterious Pohon Setan.  I've been near the areamentioned in the story, in the jungles of north Australia.  Looking likesomething from a previous epoch, the crocs strike faster than a human canmove, and the cassowaries flashing through the shadows are fully capableof kicking a human to death.  They have nothing on the Pohon Setan, though.I'll not spoil things by revealing why.  It's clear to me that Brown hadway too much fun writing this story; it was entertaining and engaging, thedialog a hoot.  There are some grammar glitches that I have to mentionbecause they do stick out a bit, but I nevertheless enjoyed the read.There's no deep analysis of society or human nature here, but whosays every story has to be about that? This should entertain just aboutanyone, with the possible exception of anyone out there who actuallyhad the misfortune to encounter a Pohon Setan... The sci-fi short storyoffered at the end of the work, Rescue Unit 867a,  actually elevates thisoffering by a half star.  The premise of automatic rescue machinery isintriguing, the tsunami disaster setting relevant, and the messageconcerning humanity insightful; not a story you'll easily forget.Altogether, lets call it four-and-a-half stars, then.