Review: Made me want to buy the novels
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 20, 2011
I've never read any of Eisler before. Having read this one short story, I'm committed to reading more of his work in the future. The writing is clear, precise, interesting. The setting's evocative. Much of the narrative in this particular story revolves around the protag's thought processes regarding a potential attack. Will the bad guys do this, or this, or that? What's my response going to be? And so on. Intriguing, and never boring.That said, I don't think this particular story is served by pairing it with a very similar 3-chapter excerpt from an upcoming novel. In both pieces, the character is facing very much the same thing. Bad guys mean him harm, and he's got to figure out what his reaction will be. The Q&A; that follows these two pieces talks about the same issue: self-protection. I'm sure it's a common theme in Eisler's books, but I think it'll turn me off if I buy the novels only to find that he's writing the same scenarios over and over again.Oh well, only one way to find out.