The Exodus Towers by Jason M. Hough

Published by Del Rey on August 27, 2013

Camp Exodus has been overrun by a militia of immunes commanded by a less than angelic Gabriel, stranding Skyler in the wilderness where he's at risk of being attacked by subhumans. But even worse than subhumans are a new breed of ... armored subhumans? That won't make sense to you if you haven't read The Darwin Elevator, and even then it might not makes sense. In any event, since The Exodus Towers picks up the plot where The Darwin Elevator dropped it, you won't get much out of the second novel in this trilogy if you haven't read the first.

The troubles at Camp Exodus occupy the first half of this lengthy novel. Much of it seems like filler. One meandering plotline focuses on Samantha Rinn from Skyler's old scavenger crew, who spends much of the novel on a sort of wok release from her imprisonment in Darwin. A better plotline focuses on the ongoing power struggle between Tania Sharma, who is in charge (more or less) of the Orbitals -- some of them, anyway -- and Russell Blackfield, who is in charge (more or less) of Darwin -- part of it, anyway. Blackfield is in a power struggle of his own with a dude named Grillo, who has mustered a private army of religious zealots.

The story derails for quite a long time as Skyler takes on the immune militia. Significant plot advancement is relegated to the novel's final quarter. While those events are worth waiting for, they bring us no closer to the resolution of the mysteries that drive the trilogy: Why did aliens build the space elevators? Why did they release a disease that killed most humans while turning most survivors into zombie-like subhumans? What do the aliens plan to do next?

It's a given that science fiction depends upon a willing suspension of disbelief. The Exodus Towers occasionally tested my willingness, particularly when a group of immunes decides to engage in strange genetic experiments involving subhumans. As was true in The Darwin Elevator, I'm not sure the whole subhuman subplot works very well, even though it's central to the story. Perhaps the final installment will explain why subhumans are central to the story.

Characters are the strength of the first two novels in the trilogy, although it's best not to get too attached to anyone because Jason Hough kills them off rather freely. Relationships between the characters are convincing. The Exodus Towers is always interesting, including the chunks that add nothing to the overall story. It's good enough to persuade me to move on to the final installment, but it would have been better with fewer words.

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The Wasteland Saga by Nick Cole

Published by Harper Voyager on October 15, 2013

The Wasteland Saga is a post-apocalyptic trilogy. The first and best of the novels, The Old Man and the Wasteland, follows a scavenger known as the Old Man as he takes a journey of redemption. Carrying a Hemingway novel and engaging in an internal monologue with the character Santiago from that novel, the Old Man is tested as he engages in conflicts with nature, with other people, and with himself. The second novel, The Savage Boy, focuses on a young man who is overcoming a disability while taking his own journey of self-discovery.

The third novel, The Road and the River, doesn't seem to have been separately published. It contains echoes of the first novel -- too many echoes, perhaps, as I was left with the feeling that I'd read this novel before. The Old Man is on a mission (rescuing people trapped in a Colorado bunker). He travels through the Wasteland. He talks to, and takes advice from, Santiago. He's introspective. He faces his fears. He perseveres. He learns to trust himself. Sacrifices are made. Good conquers evil.

The primary difference between the third novel and the first (apart from the fact that the Old Man is driving a tank instead of walking) is the addition of the Old Man's granddaughter as a traveling companion. She sees the world with the clarity of innocent eyes and helps focus the Old Man's conscience. Also joining the Old Man is the Savage Boy from the second novel. Like the granddaughter, the Savage Boy is an archetype of purity. That's good in the sense that he's admirable, but the complexity of his character that we saw in the second novel is missing here.

Perhaps due to the story's familiarity, the first half of The Road is a River lacks the intensity of the first two novels. The novel begins to build dramatic tension in the second half and it springs a surprise at the end of the Old Man's journey. The surprise isn't particularly convincing but it sets up a high-impact ending.

As was true of The Old Man and the Wasteland, the most memorable aspect of The Road is a River is the Old Man. Forty years after the bombs fell, he's forgetting the past. He can't remember what a feather duster is called, or the name of the canned stew he always made when he was a student. He wants to return to a past that no longer exists, not because he longs for its comforts (he can't imagine any home other than his little shack) but because he longs for its values. He wants life to have meaning. He wants people to have dignity. He wants people to care about each other, to behave unselfishly. He wants a better world for his granddaughter than the one into which she was born.

While not as emotionally affecting as the first novel, The Road is a River has some touching, resonant moments. Nick Cole has modeled his writing style in these novels after Hemingway, and emotional honesty was Hemingway's strength. The story could easily become maudlin, but honesty saves it. On the other hand, the "story of salvage" theme is reprised from the first novel so often that it becomes tiresome, and I could have lived without the epilog. Still, The Road is a River is a fitting end to a strong trilogy.

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Identical by Scott Turow

Published by Grand Central Publishing on October 15, 2013

The identical twin crime novel has been done so often it's become a cliché, but Scott Turow knows that. Just when I thought I had it figured out and was disappointed that the story followed an obvious path, the plot twisted. Then it twisted again, becoming a different story altogether. Kudos to Turow for taking a familiar plot device and doing something new with it. Unlike some of Turow's other novels, Identical isn't a courtroom thriller. It is instead a novel about the intersection of politics and law. That's been done before too, but few writers do it better than Turow. Identical is set in the familiar legal terrain of Kindle County and features several secondary characters (including Sandy Stern) who are well known to Turow's fans.

Paul Gianis is a brand new attorney who, as the novel opens in 1982, will soon become a prosecutor in Kindle County. Paul is attending a picnic where several of the novel's principle characters are gathered, including Paul's twin brother Cass, his mother Lidia, his brother's caustic girlfriend Dita, and Dita's father, Zeus Kronen. After warning us that the day of the picnic will change Paul's life, Scott Turow jumps ahead to a 2008 parole hearing, where we meet Dita's brother, Hal Kronen, a wealthy real estate developer. Cass has nearly finished serving his sentence for Dita's murder. Also attending the hearing are Kronen's vice president for security, Evon Miller, and his private investigator, Tim Brodie. Paul, having departed the prosecutor's office for a lucrative personal injury practice, is now the majority leader in the state senate and a candidate for mayor. He isn't happy when Kronen publicly accuses him of playing a role in Dita's murder, an accusation that threatens to derail his campaign if Paul doesn't neutralize it.

Turow crams a lot of story into a few pages, and that's just the beginning. Turow sets up the central mystery, common to identical twin crime novels, early on: which twin did what? Occasional flashbacks to 1982 lead to an eventual answer. The answer is complicated by a present day plot twist (revealed about two-thirds in) that is relatively obvious, but Turow clearly intends the reader to guess some of what's happening. At roughly the same two-thirds point, Turow shocks the reader with several revelations that force Miller and Brodie (and the reader) to rethink the mystery.

The meat of the novel comes after Paul files a lawsuit for defamation against Kronen. Much of the story is about dirty politics and the ability of people with money to smear candidates they dislike. Turow adds a bit of drama to each character's life without sidetracking the main story, which contains enough family drama to drive a multigenerational saga.

Identical isn't quite as clever as Turow's best novels, but lesser Turow is still better than most writers of legal thrillers can manage. The story kept me guessing and my attention never wavered. Strong characters and a strong plot are enough to earn Identical a strong recommendation, even if it isn't my favorite Turow.

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Doomed by Chuck Palahniuk

Published by Doubleday on October 8, 2013

Is it possible to base an entire novel on potty humor? Not many serious writers would have the audacity to try, and few of those would pull it off as capably as Chuck Palahniuk. Doomed, the sequel to Damned, is a send-up of religion, Hollywood parenting, and hypocrisy in all its guises. Humor of this nature is difficult to sustain, so it's fortunate that Doomed isn't overly long. Sometimes Palahniuk's satire is too over-the-top to be effective; other times it is spot on. Most of the time, Doomed is amusing. On occasion, it is outrageously funny.

Dead, fat thirteen-year-old Madison Spencer, the daughter of a billionaire tax dodging environmentalist father and a New Age actress mother, is experiencing a mid-death crisis. She suffers from postmortem depression and is blogging about it on her PDA. Satan has trapped her on Earth, in a sort of purgatory. By communicating with the predead, Madison has inadvertently inspired a new religion called Boorism that is based on cursing, belching, racial slurs, and ... well, you get the drift. As Madison blogs about her own predeath (her motto: "I irritate; therefore I am"), she reveals some truly awful and truly funny events from her childhood, including one that takes place in a public men's room. (Warning: Not everyone will find it funny. A taste for the macabre helps. And since the incident involves an erect member that the little girl mistakes for something quite different, some readers will find it offensive.)

Riffs on Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle and on the Bible contribute to the offbeat humor, as well as an unusual prophesy of the End Times (which involves something called Madlantis, where dwells a baby-thing conceived inside a lipstick-and-chocolate coated latex sheath that is tossed out the window of a Lincoln Town Car as it drives down Hollywood Boulevard). I enjoyed the humor and the prose more than the story (which often seems to be searching for a point), but maybe Palahniuk's random acts of satire are the point. In any event, I enjoyed the novel so I'm recommending it, but this is far from Palahniuk's best work.

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The Case of the Love Commandos by Tarquin Hall

Published by Simon & Schuster on October 8, 2013

The Love Commandos are determined to change India's caste system. Believing that the custom of arranged marriages is detrimental to India, the Love Commandos facilitate marriages between members of disparate classes and religions. Although (as Tarquin Hall points out) India's hierarchy of class is slowly being replaced by a hierarchy of wealth that gives a rich Dalit more clout than a poor Brahmin, arranged marriages within castes continue to thrive -- much to the dismay of the Love Commandos.

Vishnu Mishra, a Thakur (or "lord"), has threatened to kill Ram, a Dalit (the lowest caste), if he comes near Vishnu's daughter Tulsi. With the assistance of the Love Commandos, Tulsi and Ram are preparing to elope. When Ram is kidnapped, Love Commando Laxmi, who is also an operative for Most Private Investigators Ltd, turns to her boss, Vish Puri, for help. The story becomes a murder mystery when Puri's investigation leads him to Ram's murdered mother. The killing implicates Mishra -- but could it be that easy? Puri has his doubts. His investigation is complicated by the appearance of his archrival, Hari Kumar of Spycatcher Private Investigators, and by the murder of a second woman, a researcher in a genetics lab.

Puri is rather impressed with himself and a bit of a braggart (he is, he says, "the best detective in all India"), an amusing trait that Hall milks for all its comic potential. If pride goes before a fall, poor Puri's ego is in for a battering. Puri is affectionately known as "Chubby" to his wife Rumpi. Puri's employees also have descriptive names -- Handbrake, Door Stop, Tubelight, Facecream (a/k/a Laxmi) -- but not much personality. The most memorable supporting character is Puri's mother (Mummy), who lives by the motto "old is gold" and (to Puri's chagrin) is a better detective than her son. A subplot has Mummy sneaking around hoping to catch a devious man who is either a pickpocket (the police don't believe her) or planning to murder his wife (the police don't believe her) or otherwise up to no good (the police would like her just to go home). The story follows three parallel tracks as Puri investigates the disappearance of Ram while his mother pursues her suspicions and Facecream (in the weakest part of the novel) takes an undercover job as a teacher.

Hall's prose reflects the lilting rhythms of Indian English. He takes the reader on a tour of India, from populous Jammar to the small villages where caste segregation is still blatant. You can almost taste the golguppas and smell the rajma chamal as characters visit food stalls. (Oddly enough, a number of recipes are appended to the novel as an extra treat for readers with culinary talent.)

The novel's laughter cloaks a serious theme: changing life in India. From imported shirts to "swanky" houses, India is becoming less parochial. Yet (as Facecream and a researcher in genetics opine) the hierarchy imposed by the caste system continues to be an impediment to national progress.

The Case of the Love Commandos isn't a novel that will leave a lasting impression on me, but it is a novel that provoked a smile on nearly every page. I enjoyed it enough to spark my interest in the first three novels in the series.

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