Review: Mish-mash entertainment.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 22, 2013
This was my third novel from the author, and I was extremely excited to start reading it. I was roughly 20% into the novel, and I was already bombarded by the following variety: Nazi secret, Antarctic research and exploration, bionic arms and limbs, pre-historic virus, frozen dinosaur, underground base, guns, poisoned darts, bombs, super-human capability assassins, Russian interest, environmental damage, evil business plan...phew! The list is just beginning to start. Every posible element of thrill that one may have gathered from various sub-genres of thrillers, have been put together into this cocktail, and the end result is this novel. In that sense, this is one mish-mashed tale of everything, making the reader pause to try grasping the narrative flow.Incidentally, the previous two novels were similar in this basic approach- borrow various elements from different sub-genres (sc-fi, espionage, adventure, etc.) and twine them around a central theme (in this case- a possible myth about Nazis having built a secret base in Antartica). As with his earlier writings, the narrative is lucid, and while it may not be very ordinary, is not literary either.The basic plot is that a huge area in Antartica starts to melt, raising concerns of environmental damage. A team of scientists exploring the incident stumble upon an underground man-made structure, which turns out to be diabolic, designed to kill anyone trying to access it unauthorisedly. The disappearance of these scientists, and then that of the rescue team subsequently, brings Robert Spire into the picture, who soon gets drawn into an inter-continental game of cat and mouse, with female assassins having bionic limbs chasing him with an intent to kill. It ultimately becomes Spire's responsibility to try and save the people around him, as well as a global catastrophe.Despite sounding critical on some of the issues highlighted above, the novel manages to entertain, overall. I did lose the flow at times, but ended up being decently entertained with all the break-neck action and adventure. Only, my humble suggestion to the author is try and bring lesser number of individual items of thrill in his next novel, and rather develop the plot and narration with fewer but more nuanced elements. I read his novels attracted to them primarily as eco-thrillers, so avoidable elements (like bionics, for example, or the unnecessary bit on two escaped jailed convicts) create diversions. Three stars for this one. But, will I await the next Robert Spire? Oh yes!!