GeroW4lll
31st October 2009, 11:22 AM
My book reviews tend to be a little on the critical side, though I don't think as critical as that guy from zeropnctuation. Now because I was this critical of Dan Brown's work, I believe I need to keep everyone to the same standard. Or maybe this is just subjective favouritism. Then so be it.
Plot summary:
Postdated crosses start to appear next to roads, and these are soon followed by murders or attempted murders. The obvious suspect is a lowlife gaming addict who's mind must already be turned to mush from all the animated violence he's been exposed to. His obvious motive must be revenge for the cyber-bullying he's endured from people on a famous Blog site. If that was all I wouldn't bother to write this. Agent Kathryn Dance has to use her powers of kinesics - lie detection during interviews of suspects and witnesses, to stop the killer as his body count rises. At the same time her other cases are going to court, her love life is distracting, and then one of her family members gets accused of murder.
Deaver almost shamelessly uses this silly stereotype of unwashed anti-social gamers, just ready to snap and cause a Columbine style incident, in order to distract you until the story starts to unfold.
I've never been wild about his use of repeat characters like Lyncon Rhymes but the use of his repeat character named Kathryn Dance isn't very distracting. Maybe it's because I've not read much about her previously.
Internet culture is a central theme of the book and you can see that Deaver had access to a lot of research. Unfortunately it feels like he just didn't pierce that final layer of involvement, as he uses terms just slightly unlike you see them used here. For example, his use of the term avatar, which technically includes characters in WoW for example. We call them char's, short for characters, don't we? I've also heard them called toons, especially in WoW because of the cartoon-like style of the graphics. I have never heard anyone say they bought or sold an avatar on ebay. Even the picture in the top corner of my post might be called an avatar.
Deaver also doesn't see much of a difference between games, forums and 3d chartrooms. And while I have to concede that these things are growing into each other and are entangled and almost impossible to separate, his use of some terms from a specific area in the wrong context shows him up as a newcomer. You might expect that Jeffery Deaver has never been Rickrolled. His use of 13375p33k in the story, even calling it elite speak, gives a bit of a plastic feel. I suppose to outsiders it might give a feel of authenticity. But I am reminded of that scene in Boondock Saints where the cops says "bad television is to blame for this. This James Bond !@#$%^&* never happens in real life!" Of course, maybe his character was a bit of a smacktard.
Edit: OOPS! I forgot his biggest sin of all. All his characters type away furiously. Every one types away and the character starts moving, fighting, casting. Almost no one ever uses a mouse. These are RPG's! you have to use a mouse!
Perhaps I shouldn't be too harsh on him for these minor inaccuracies, as his characters mostly aren't internet people, and the world they go into is strange to them. Also, he's doing a lot better than many of his contemporaries.
I would say this book is really great, better than most. It had me glued from start to finish. It's one of Deaver's best in my opinion, though, still because of that one-layer-too-little feel, not quite as good as Blue Nowhere.
Plot summary:
Postdated crosses start to appear next to roads, and these are soon followed by murders or attempted murders. The obvious suspect is a lowlife gaming addict who's mind must already be turned to mush from all the animated violence he's been exposed to. His obvious motive must be revenge for the cyber-bullying he's endured from people on a famous Blog site. If that was all I wouldn't bother to write this. Agent Kathryn Dance has to use her powers of kinesics - lie detection during interviews of suspects and witnesses, to stop the killer as his body count rises. At the same time her other cases are going to court, her love life is distracting, and then one of her family members gets accused of murder.
Deaver almost shamelessly uses this silly stereotype of unwashed anti-social gamers, just ready to snap and cause a Columbine style incident, in order to distract you until the story starts to unfold.
I've never been wild about his use of repeat characters like Lyncon Rhymes but the use of his repeat character named Kathryn Dance isn't very distracting. Maybe it's because I've not read much about her previously.
Internet culture is a central theme of the book and you can see that Deaver had access to a lot of research. Unfortunately it feels like he just didn't pierce that final layer of involvement, as he uses terms just slightly unlike you see them used here. For example, his use of the term avatar, which technically includes characters in WoW for example. We call them char's, short for characters, don't we? I've also heard them called toons, especially in WoW because of the cartoon-like style of the graphics. I have never heard anyone say they bought or sold an avatar on ebay. Even the picture in the top corner of my post might be called an avatar.
Deaver also doesn't see much of a difference between games, forums and 3d chartrooms. And while I have to concede that these things are growing into each other and are entangled and almost impossible to separate, his use of some terms from a specific area in the wrong context shows him up as a newcomer. You might expect that Jeffery Deaver has never been Rickrolled. His use of 13375p33k in the story, even calling it elite speak, gives a bit of a plastic feel. I suppose to outsiders it might give a feel of authenticity. But I am reminded of that scene in Boondock Saints where the cops says "bad television is to blame for this. This James Bond !@#$%^&* never happens in real life!" Of course, maybe his character was a bit of a smacktard.
Edit: OOPS! I forgot his biggest sin of all. All his characters type away furiously. Every one types away and the character starts moving, fighting, casting. Almost no one ever uses a mouse. These are RPG's! you have to use a mouse!
Perhaps I shouldn't be too harsh on him for these minor inaccuracies, as his characters mostly aren't internet people, and the world they go into is strange to them. Also, he's doing a lot better than many of his contemporaries.
I would say this book is really great, better than most. It had me glued from start to finish. It's one of Deaver's best in my opinion, though, still because of that one-layer-too-little feel, not quite as good as Blue Nowhere.