Review: Don't make any other plans
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 13, 2012
It's unusual for me to be unable to put a book down, but I stayed up way too late to finish this one.The Dark Road by Marissa Farrar has a page-turning intensity reminiscent of classic Crichton. We follow Sasha, Josh, and a party of travelers in Thailand and Cambodia on a very ill-advised bus trip. The strange behavior and sealed lips of the locals don't prevent them from putting their urgent needs to get to Cambodia ahead of suspicions, and some will not live to complete the journey.I was concerned that I'd have difficulty distinguishing between the bus-load of characters, but Farrar did an outstanding job of giving each person a personality and appearance (and sometimes an agenda) that made them individuals, some likeable and others... not so much. We know early on there is more at work than mere risky travel conditions, but what has targeted the occupants of the rattletrap bus, and why?Alliances form and shift as the travelers struggle to make sense of the danger that pursues and surrounds them, and everyone is forced to reflect on their past lives, trials, failures, and dreams for their futures (assuming they have one). I don't know if Farrar has actually spent time traveling to this region of the world, and after a while I didn't care. Either she has, or she's done extensive research on the experience, or she has a vivid imagination, but ultimately it didn't matter. The setting was so well written that I felt the humidity, saw the jungle, heard the rain and the laughter of their tormentor, so whether it was from life, research, or imagination, I bought it totally and felt every scene.This is an author I recently discovered via her short story, The Body Farm. I've read several more of her works since then. Her Serenity series is also compelling, and I recommend it. (First book is "Alone.")The Dark Road was a gut-clenching, nerve-jangling adventure!