My latest listen was the unabridged version of The Lion's Game
My feelings were somewhat mixed about the book.
On the plus side, I really enjoyed the level of detail DeMille had regarding aircraft and aircraft operations. It was really cool to be able relate first hand to some of the aircraft in the book, and for his narrative to actually be correct regarding the details. Either he is a pilot, or he did very good research.
It was also really cool that many of the locations were places that I am intimately familiar with. Who would have ever believed that Craig Municipal and Monks Corner airports would appear in a major novel!
John Corey is a great character. He is strong, smart, resourceful, and a wise-ass. I really do like these detective characters who are sardonic/cynical/sarcastic. There seems to be many similarities between Corey and Spencer, another character that I like.
In this book, I also found the combination of 1st and 3rd person to work really well. I think in part it is because when in 1st person, we get insights into what the character is thinking, as well as what is he is saying and what is happening. Some of the best lines in the book are thoughts that John chooses not to utter.
The narration was absolutely superb. Brick performs the book rather than simply reading it. His interpretation of John Corey is inspired.
On the other hand, after the initial incident (I'm trying to avoid too many spoilers) it seemed like there were two independent story lines - Asad Kahlil and John Corey. I would have expected that the two would have been tightly woven... cat and mouse... John always just a half-step behind... But no, the suspense was sorely lacking. For most of the book, Asad did his thing, pretty much unfettered, and John sat around. Where was the chase? The only time I even wondered, much less was surprised, was about half-way through the book when (oh, I won't spoil that part). Granted, John finally did get a clue, and get off his butt towards the end, but it was a long time coming. While the ending had a modicum of excitement, I felt that overall, it was anti-climatic.
The book does raise some interesting points about what drives terrorism, especially the concept of blood feuds, retribution, etc. I don't know if DeMille intended it as such, but I found the book to less of a suspenseful book, and more of a scary book. Not Steven King scary, but really scary - because it illuminates one thing that drives terrorists, and drives home that we are all but powerless to stop people who truly believe that they have God on their side, and are more than willing to die for their cause. It also saddened me, because it highlighted that there are religious and cultural differences in the world that are unlikely to ever be resolved, and when to these you add anger over events that in some cases occurred thousands of years ago, it seems that we are doomed to a cycle of man killing man as long as man walks the earth.
Digg It!
Bookmark it!
Posted by David at August 12, 2005 09:27 PM