Locklands by Robert Jackson Bennett

Published by ‎ Del Rey on June 28, 2022

Locklands is the concluding novel of the Founders trilogy, following Foundryside and Shorefall. The central characters have established a new settlement called Giva that they enshroud in fog as they advance their war with Tevanne, trying to save as many people from conquest and slavery as they can. None of this will make much sense to readers who jump into Locklands without reading the first two novels.

Using the magic/technology of scriving, key characters are “twinned” with each other, sharing their thoughts as if they were inhabiting the same body. The same scriving allows multiple characters to join in something like a group chat. This might be the only way that people can truly understand each other and thus the only way to overcome mindless hate. Unfortunately, scriving only exists in fantasy.

We learn more in Locklands about the relationship between Clef and his son Crasedes, a father-son tragedy that departs from literary tradition by basin gtheir conflict on the desire to alter reality (although, in a less literal sense, that might be something that underlies most parental-child conflicts). Building on that foundation, Tevanne now wants to open a door into the substructure of reality, the boiler room holding the machinery that defines the reality we perceive. Tevanne’s plan is to force a reboot with the expectation that God will do it right the second time. Wiping out reality as a solution to humanity’s problems seems extreme, but Tevanne is one of the hierophants who shaped the current reality with scriving so he has a bit of a god complex.

The plot is an action/quest story that has central characters (led by Sancia, the first significant character we meet in the trilogy) venturing into battle to thwart Tevanne’s plan. The novel ends with an epic battle between Clef, Crasedes, and Tevanne. Other characters step into the battle as needed to secure a victory. Despite bogging down from time to time, the story reaches a satisfying conclusion.

Most central characters undergo a transformation over the course of the trilogy. Crasedes, who starts as more of a legend than an actual character, is given a meaningful role in Locklands, a role that has him seeking atonement. Clef starts the trilogy as a sentient but sleeping key, turns into a more substantial character who can’t remember much of his past, and regains those memories (for better or worse) in Locklands. Clef’s story is also one of atonement.

The need to sacrifice for the greater good is a constant theme in the trilogy. Several characters make sacrifices in Locklands: Beatrice, Sancia’s lover and partner, sacrifices the architecture of her relationship with Sancia; Sancia, who sacrificed some years from her life in the last novel, joins Clef in making a life-altering sacrifice that seems to have been destined since the first novel.

The grand lesson of this trilogy is that love conquers all — or more specifically, that we can’t fix the world by meddling with reality because “a better world can only be brought by what we give to one another, and nothing more.” A debatable proposition, but it’s fair to say that destroying reality and hoping God will build a better one isn’t a smart solution to humanity’s problems.

Characters have an annoying tendency to say “Oh no. Oh, no, no, no” every time they face adversity. The novel has too many hokey moments as characters embrace and profess their love before stepping into danger. The book is needlessly wordy, perhaps a hundred pages longer than it needs to be, but it does bring the trilogy to an exciting conclusion.

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The 6:20 Man by David Baldacci

Published by ‎ Grand Central Publishing on July 12, 2022

Travis Devine, former Army Ranger (because what thriller hero isn’t?), works in an entry-level finance job for the investment firm Cowl & Comely. Brad Cowl got a journalist fired for questioning his origin story. He claims to have built himself up from scratch after his parents squandered the family wealth, but he’s the squanderer. Yet he came into a boatload of money and became a Wall Street power player overnight. How did that happen?

Devine isn’t allowed on the 51st floor. Devine has little curiosity about the floor until Sara Ewes, a co-worker he once shagged (in violation of company shagging rules), is found dead in a company closet, having apparently hung herself. Of course, she was murdered. And of course, Devine is a suspect, in part because he stupidly evades disclosing his one-night stand with Sara. Nor does he tell the police about the mysterious, untraceable emails he receives that were sent by someone who had intimate knowledge of the crime. Why does Devine make these poor decisions? Only because the plot requires him to be kinda stupid.

In the time-honored tradition of thriller heroes, Devine decides to clear his name by finding the real killer. Not that he has much choice in the matter. A retired General recruits Devine to investigate his employer, assuring Devine’s compliance by threatening to expose a bad deed that he committed while he was still in the Army.

Devine’s investigation takes him to Sara’s parents (intolerant Christian missionaries from whom Sara was estranged); to co-worker Jenn Stamos, who seems particularly devastated by Sara’s death; and to Cowl’s live-in lover, Michelle, whose bikini-clad body he admires every morning when the 6:20 train passes Cowl’s swimming pool.

Devine lives outside of New York City in an apartment with three roommates. One is a Russian hacker. One is an entrepreneur who has started a dating site. One is a recent law school graduate. The reader will intuit that at least one of the roommates is not what he or she appears to be.

Much of the story — particularly a bizarre scheme to send messages with bikinis — is farfetched, but such is the way of the modern thriller. Still, some plot elements are clever and the story holds together. David Baldacci keeps surprises well hidden and plants enough false clues to prompt guesses whether characters are good guys or bad guys.

There is little depth to the characters, but tough guy protagonists aren’t known for their depth. Devine’s guilt about his military misconduct doesn’t suffice to make him interesting. Devine’s ability to outfight three attackers (he does that multiple times) substitutes for his absent personality, as is typical of tough guy thrillers. Yet gratuitous displays of toughness never dominate the plot. I consider that a plus; fans of gratuitous violence might disagree.

The story seems to set up Devine as the lead character in a new series, as if Baldacci isn’t juggling enough series protagonists without adding another tough guy to the mix. I recommend The 6:20 Man for the interesting story it tells, not because Devine stands out in the crowded world of thriller tough guy protagonists.

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Chrysalis by Lincoln Child

Published by Doubleday on July 12, 2022

Chrysalis is a mega-corporation. Two of its divisions are key to the plot. One makes drugs and medical devices. The other produces smart technology. The company makes a wireless device that consists of an earbud and a small screen that the user wears like glasses on the bridge of the nose, giving users a personal assistant and access to whatever data they need. The next phase of the product’s development will add an immersive virtual reality experience. The VR gadgets have been sent to a thousand lucky customers in the first round of the product rollout.

The novel begins with two researchers in Alaska searching for samples in a Neanderthal mass grave. One researcher murders the other to conceal an important find.

The main story begins several months later. Chrysalis has received an untraceable email that forecasts a death. Two more deaths occur, each victim a director of the company who attended a demonstration of the new VR device. This leads to a final email advising Chrysalis that the customers who received the new VR device will be killed if Chrysalis doesn’t pay a billion dollars. The email warns that recalling the device or notifying customers will trigger the mass killing. Another couple of deaths occur to solidify the threat.

Instead of contacting the FBI like any sensible corporate counsel would advise, Chrysalis’ counsel decides to hire Jeremy Logan, the internationally known ghostbuster. Why anyone thinks his unique talents are suited to corporate espionage is beyond me. Still, it wouldn’t be a Jeremy Logan novel without Jeremy Logan, so the reader needs to let that pass.

The novel’s twin mysteries are (1) how (and if) Chrysalis technology is behind the deaths that the extortionists have caused, and (2) who at Chrysalis is involved in the extortion. The answers are revealed more by luck and coincidence than the efforts of Logan, who spends most of his time following Chrysalis employees and asking questions that glue the plot elements together.

When it comes time to save the day by entering the VR world, Logan does the work instead of someone with IT knowledge because, he says, “I know as much as anybody.” Logan took one brief VR tour so he knows as much as the people who developed the technology? Well, he has as much hubris as anybody, but it makes zero sense that he would take on the task of virtually running around the insides of server architecture. Why isn’t the tech guru who guides Logan doing the work instead of Logan? And why is it left to Logan to save the day by pushing a button at the end of the novel? Only because it's a Jeremey Logan novel. Logan needs to do so something, and after making no serious contribution to the plot, he has to justify his starring role. I can’t imagine any reader buying into this story.

Chrysalis is interesting, but it develops little suspense. Obligatory machine gunning near the story’s end fails to rectify that problem. The conspiracy is too ridiculous to take seriously, a common failing of modern thrillers. Logan’s journey through fiber optic lines is just silly. Characters are devoid of personality, apart from bad guys being bad and everyone but Logan being afraid to take necessary action.

On the bright side, Lincoln Child keeps the story moving and creates a credible corporate atmosphere. Readers who enjoy tech thrillers and don’t care whether the plot is plausible might find something of value in Chrysalis. Readers who are looking for a credible, meatier story should look elsewhere.

RECOMMENED WITH RESERVATIONS

Upgrade by Blake Crouch

Published by Ballentine on July 12, 2022

It’s obvious to rational people that any number of existential crises threaten human survival, from climate change to bioweapons to environmental destruction. Upgrade asks whether boosting human intelligence would solve those problems. One side of the debate suggests that a genetic upgrade, unleashing full human potential, would make unintelligent people realize that the planet cannot sustain humanity’s current behaviors. The other side suggests that the problems are not caused by stupidity but by selfishness and greed, attributes that might well survive a genetic upgrade.

The protagonist, Logan Ramsay, works for the Gene Protection Agency. His mother was a brilliant geneticist who attempted to make a blight resistant strain of rice by introducing a genetically engineered virus that would be spread by locusts. The virus mutated and wiped out much of the world’s food production, creating a worldwide famine. Logan worshipped his mother but lacked her brilliance. He was working with her when the famine spread. That connection was enough to earn him a prison sentence. His knowledge of genetics was enough to get him a job at the GPA when his sentence ended.

Genetic experiments have been outlawed, but rogue geneticists continue to meddle with DNA. Logan’s team is raiding a gene lab when he stumbles into a trap. A virus infects his body, leading to an upgrade of genes that control intelligence, perception, muscle development, and other bodily systems. Logan doesn’t quite turn into Superman, but he’s smarter and stronger than everyone else. Why that happened is a mystery I won’t spoil.

Logan’s sister has also been upgraded. She wants to make the virus more easily transmissible, upgrading all humans to save the planet from human stupidity. Unfortunately, about 13% of the population exposed to her version of the virus will die. Well, you can’t save the planet without breaking a few eggs.

The novel becomes a thriller as Logan tries to locate his sister and thwart her plot. As the two antagonists try to kill each other, they are momentarily troubled by memories of good times growing up, but one advantage or disadvantage of the upgrade is the ability to compartmentalize emotion, switching it off as might a sociopath.

An epilog begins with a touching moment before it morphs into a preachy essay. Fortunately, most of the novel doesn’t linger over humanity’s drive to kill itself. Readers turn to thrillers to escape from reality, not to become depressed by it.

Upgrade offers a fair amount of escapism with fast moving action scenes. The novel reads like a treatment for a movie. In addition to chase scenes, shootouts, and several explosions, the story features familiar action movie elements: a misunderstood protagonist who tries to do the right thing while he’s being chased by government agents who view him as a criminal; the protagonist’s forced separation from his wife and daughter to keep them safe; siblings torn apart by differing loyalties.

A screenwriter making a movie version of Upgrade might delete some of the novel’s heavy-handed preaching. Or a studio might have Morgan Freeman come in at the end to give the preaching some gravity. Either way, I would probably enjoy the movie, just as — despite the epilog — I enjoyed the novel.

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Winter Work by Dan Fesperman

Published by Knopf on July 12, 2022

Most of spy fiction’s best novels are set in the Cold War. Winter Work comes at the end of that war. The Berlin Wall has been down for about four months. East Germany is transitioning to unification. The Stasi offices are closed; files that were not burned are being ransacked or sold.

Emil Grimm is a former Stasi officer who is now unemployed. He had a desk job, running the Stasi operation to spy on NATO. He worries that the unified Germany will prosecute him for treason, as if he had some duty to be loyal to West Germany when he was a citizen of East Germany. His more urgent concern is how to pay for his wife’s medical treatment until reunification brings her into (West) Germany’s system of free healthcare. Emil’s wife is dying of a progressive disease and can no longer move.

Emil has a dacha outside Berlin and an apartment in the city, closer to his shuttered headquarters. One of his neighbors, Lothar Fischer, is also a Stasi officer. On his morning walk, Emil discovers Lothar’s body. The Stasi are already there, supposedly investigating, but they are soon chased away by the local police, who feel empowered to do their jobs now that the Stasi are no longer a thing.

Lothar apparently shot himself. Emil knows he was murdered. Emil also knows that Lothar was up to something. Emil knows that because he was up to something with Lothar.

On the novel’s other front, the CIA’s DDO is trying to get in bed with a Russian who wants to sell the identities of all the former Stasi agents. Claire Saylor (a key characters in The Cover Wife) has been contacting former Stasi agents to see if they have information they want to sell. She’s going behind her boss’ back to get off-the-books help from Clark Baucom, a retired CIA agent. The DDO assigns another agent to keep her under control. That agent also has a central role in The Cover Wife, making Winter Work the origin story of their teamwork.

Claire and her partner take an interest in Emil. That interest leads to conflict with the Russian and to escalating tension as the story nears its climax. The action is never over-the-top — this isn’t a tough guy novel — but the risks faced by the novel’s central characters create fear that the reader shares.

Dan Fesperman is a reliable spy novelist. Winter Work is rooted in Cold War history, as Fesperman explains in his acknowledgements. I don’t usually read acknowledgements, but Fesperman’s explanation of CIA and Russian activities soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall adds interest to the story.

Given the horrible reputation of the Stasi, it’s intriguing that Fesperman makes Emil a sympathetic figure. As Claire notes, Emil is “an adversary who has already been defeated.” He doesn’t seem to deserve further punishment, particularly the kind of punishment that will be awaiting him if he’s caught. Emil’s disabled wife encouraged him to form a sexual bond with her caretaker. Emil’s devotion to both of them, the fact that he didn’t actually order anyone’s death as a Stasi agent, and his remorse for being on the wrong side of history make it possible for the reader to hope he survives. In the tradition of strong spy novels, Winter Work illustrates how fuzzy the line between good guys and bad guys can become in the shadowy world of espionage.

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