Book Review: Gestapo Mars, by Victor Gischler

This was a fun read!

Once again, I took a chance on an author I've never heard of, and it has paid off.  This book just happened to catch my eye in the "new releases" section of the book store.

The title and outlandish cover (included here, in case there are other editions) caught my eye at the bookstore.  My first thought was "Nazis on Mars?" - what a bizarre concept!  Sure, there have been other novels about Germany/Japan winning World War II, but this is the first far-future treatment I've seen (almost 300+ years into the future).  Very interesting, but the subject matter wasn't immediately thrilling for me (yeah, yeah, don't judge a book by its cover - although sometimes this seems really appropriate).

That being said, the back-cover blurb of "...part Quentin Tarantino, Victor Gischler is a raving, badass genius" from James Rollins kept my interest.  I've only read The Doomsday Key by Rollins, but I really enjoyed it, so this was a good endorsement.  I was a bit concerned about the statement "A Carter Sloan Novel" on the front cover, which would normally lead me to believe that this was part of a series, but there was nothing else to indicate that there were previous books.  So, I bought it and added it to the book queue for a time when I needed a short book to read, and that time recently arrived.

The first chapter had me hooked.  I smiled on page two, and laughed out loud on page three.  That is an accomplishment - the opening pulled me into the story right away.  There is a ton of dialogue that is reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino - Mr. Rollins nailed that for sure.

Carter Sloan is an assassin who is employed by the Third Reich, and he is kept in cryogenic sleep until he is needed.  When they wake him at the start of the story, he has been asleep for 258 years, so he's a little pissed off.  This whole story is just a fun read.  For me, I would compare this to the Bruce Willis movie The Fifth Element, with Quentin Tarantino providing some of the dialogue and violence.  It is just a really fun, violent, funny, sex-filled adventure story, poking fun at life and politics in the right places, showing how things can become quite ridiculous.

The story also contains several original ideas that really add to the story.  The element of satire reminded me of The Mission Earth saga by L. Ron Hubbard, which I read back when it was first published in the 1980's.  While there is satire throughout Gestapo Mars, I did feel that the final battle scene, which contains a nod to Star Wars, starts to enter the territory of Douglas Adams and Craig Shaw Gardner with some of its silliness, briefly changing the tone of the story.  This isn't a story just about silliness, there is a serious element to it as well - just like The Fifth Element - so this scene was just a touch over the top for me.  But that is my only real complaint, and it is a relatively minor one.

While I was reading this book, I pictured Manu Bennett as Carter Sloan, playing his Slade Wilson character from the TV show Arrow,  For some reason, his voice just fit the dialogue for me.

I understand a sequel is in the works, and I'm definitely looking forward to it.  If I can find Gun Monkeys (seems like a gangster version of Gestapo Mars?) or Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse (which seems more like a Craig Shaw Gardner title), I will try to check them out (although my queue of books to read it quite large).

Feel free to comment, whether or not you've read the book.

Minor spoilers below for those who are interested in some of my favorite moments from the book.

SPOILER SPACE

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Here are some of my favorite moments from the book:

1. The Kardashian Effect - a person who was important or popular or interesting but nobody knows why.
2. Garden Meadow Bowel Fragrance - this is a major product in the future.
3. The robot prostitute that sounds like a pay telephone - "Your current session ends in two minutes and nine seconds.  To extend for another thirty minutes please authorize payment."

Book Review: Departure, by A. G. Riddle

I have a serious problem.  Every year, it seems like the list of authors that I read increases - exponentially.  This is somewhat surprising, given the large group of authors that I have no interest in (literally shelves of books in the SF/Fantasy section).  I typically don't by a hardcover novel by an author I've never read, and especially not one by an author that I've never heard of before - unless I hear a rave review someone that I know (it also depends on the words used in that review).

However, my purchase of this book happened under the right conditions:

1. I recently took a chance on Saturn Run, by John Sandford and Ctein, in hardcover.  This was mostly due to a rave review by Stephen King on the back cover.  So, score one for an author I did not recognize (it was a great read).
2. The content of Departure sounded pretty interesting.
3. I happened to have a coupon that allowed me to get the book relatively cheap for a hardcover.

I am very glad that this chain of circumstances happened the way it did, because this was a great read!

The key plot points from the book description are:

1. Passengers struggling to survive a crash landing, and they don't know where they are.
2. A handful of passengers seem to have pieces of information about what is going on.
3. A far-reaching conspiracy that could end the world.
4. The past and the future both come into play.

Why wouldn't this be a good book?  Well, there are lots of potential reasons for that, but let's get on with my thoughts.

Of course, things start off with a plane crash and the rescue of the passengers, but very rapidly becomes so much more than that  As the story unfolds, things get more complicated, and the mystery deepens.  You gradually learn pieces of the puzzle, while also wondering which characters are being honest, and I was very surprised to learn what was really going on when it was revealed.  There are some really interesting scientific ideas, and there is a somewhat different treatment of some all too familiar science fiction staples - certainly original, and not something that I've seen before.

Some of the characters suffer from what appeared, at least to me, to be very common concerns for many people, whether they would admit to it or not.  I won't discuss this further, since I feel it plays a part in the story.

I initially thought that the book ended rather abruptly, appearing to leave things a tad unresolved and a bit too open to future catastrophe.  The epilogue on the authors website (which the book discloses) addresses that nicely, and also makes elements of the story appear to be a part of the real world.

As a result of reading this book, I am definitely interested in checking out the Origin Mystery trilogy at some point, and I'm looking forward to more efforts from the author.

Book Review: Saturn Run, by John Sandford & Ctein

When I first saw this book, I was interested.  It is a first contact story.  Other similar stories that I have enjoyed include the following:

   Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke

   2001:  A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke

   Childhoods End, by Arthur C. Clarke

   The Mote in God's Eye, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

   The Engines of God, by Jack McDevitt

   Infinity Beach, by Jack McDevitt

   The Heechee Saga, by Frederik Pohl

Many books of this type, particularly ones that take place in relatively modern times (that is, the 21st century or earlier), focus mostly on the trip there, and the dangers of the trip, finishing up with contact only near the very end of the story, perhaps in the last 50 pages or so.

I was initially concerned about this book for several reasons.

First, it was by an author I was unfamiliar with, and in addition it was an author who mostly writes detective thrillers, not science fiction (although, the detective thrillers are bestsellers, which was a good sign).

Second, I was concerned that the book would mostly be uninteresting details about the trip, and would end in the last few pages with the alien contact.

Third, there were several reviews stating that the book was terrible and boring and some of these reviews spoke highly of Mr. Sandford's Prey books (which I have not read, so I can't offer a comparison, but given his writing style I would have to assume that they are very good if you are into detective stories). While this could be construed as a a dislike of science fiction - well, I would not classify this story as hardcore science fiction, it is more like NASA 50 years from now.  The real story here is about people.

The main encouraging news was a rave review by Stephen King (who mentioned that Michael Crichton, one of my favorite authors, would have loved this book, but could never have written it). So I decided to take a chance on it, and I'm glad I did.

From the opening chapter, the story is very enjoyable.  The characters are interesting, the dialogue is wonderful, and the ideas concerning the spaceship are really interesting (being a software engineer, I can relate to solving complex problems under pressure).  The makeup of the crew even reminded me somewhat of Michael Crichton's Sphere, which had a crew of specialists created specifically for a first contact scenario - although to a lesser extent in Saturn Run.

The backstory of Saturn Run is somewhat similar to that of 2001:  A Space Odyssey (rivalry/tension between super powers - in this case, the United States and China), and situations arise which lead to mistrust and violence, and as in 2010:  Odyssey Two, there is plenty of political intrigue and danger, and I felt that the human factor was well explored in the scenarios played out during the story.  As far as the journey is concerned, let's just say it isn't boring - there is plenty going on to keep the reader interested.

While reading this book, each of my concerns was dispelled, and I was happily surprised that contact occurs much sooner than the last 50 pages, although  it was not necessarily the type of contact I was expecting.  I'll say it is sort of like the next step between Carl Sagan's Contact and Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End and leave it at that.  I'll also say that I enjoyed this as much as, maybe even more than, several of the books I mention above, which is fairly high praise.

All in all, I felt that this was a tremendous read, and an unexpected story from an author who specializes in something completely different, and I do hope that Mr. Sandford and Ctein revisit this literary territory again in the future.