Reamde

Reamde is the latest book by science fiction author Neal Stephenson. This is not so much a science fiction story as a crime thriller. The action takes us to Seattle, China, the Philippines, British Columbia and Idaho. The events start at a resort in British Columbia owned by Richard Forthrast, the creator of an online RPG called T'Rain, the most popular multiplayer fantasy game. T'Rain is meticulously organized and detailed, though it is also used by players in China and elsewhere to leverage its financial structure for real financial gain. The trouble begins with Richard's niece, Zula, adopted from the Sudan, and Zula's boyfriend Peter. Peter is involved in a shady business deal, selling credit card numbers to a criminal named Wallace. When he has to borrow Richard's thumb drive to complete the transaction, Wallace's computer is infected with a T'Rain virus called Reamde. The Reamde virus encrypts Wallace hard drive and instructs that to decrypt it he must deliver a certain amount of gold to a certain place in T'Rain.

This bad luck sets off a chain of events. Wallace's boss, a Russian gangster named Ivanov, flies in to Seattle to find out why he has not received the expected goods for the money he paid. Ivanov comes to understand that his goods are being held hostage by a video game player in Xiamen, China. So after having Wallace killed, he flies Peter and Zula to Xiamen along with Csongor, a Hungarian hacker associate, and Sokolov, a former Russian special forces soldier, and other henchmen. In Xiamen Ivanov forces Zula and Peter and Csongor to track down the source of the hacker, and they find him in an old apartment building. But when Sokolov and his henchmen charge into the apartment they discover it's the wrong one, thanks to some subterfuge by Zula. Not only is it the wrong apartment, it is a very wrong apartment. Instead of young Chinese hackers, they storm into a room full of heavily armed terrorists led by terrorist mastermind Abdallah Jones.

This is where the crime story turns into an action thriller. The ensuing firefight between the gangsters and the terrorists sets off a chain of events. After Ivanov kills Peter, the terrorists kill Ivanov. Zula is kidnapped by Jones, and Csongor makes a futile effort to rescue her with the help of Marlon, the Reamde creator, and a Chinese girl named Yuxia who had served as their translator.

Zula is a strong young woman who survived the death of her birth family and her adopted parents. She draws on this strength to survive. She writes a letter and hides it, and she makes a daring escape attempt and nearly succeeds. She proves to be resourceful and defiant, though she has to act meek to let the terrorists think she is not a threat. Finally, in order to save her life when she thinks the terrorists are through with her, she tells them that her uncle is rich. This draws in Richard, who has started searching for his missing niece.

This story is full of action and suspense. It is different from most of Stephenson's novels. Anathem was a novel with some action, but it was driven by mystery and ideas. This is a novel of action. In one sense it is a character novel since the characters of Zula and Jones (and to a lesser extent Richard) are so dominant and their conflict drives part of the action. Some of the events are unlikely to the point of coincidence, though this is excusable until the very end. For the conclusion, all the characters end up in the same geographic location despite being separated by thousands of miles at one point, and despite their knowledge of the terrorists destination being extremely conjectural. I could fully believe they ended in the same destination, but not at the same time, just in time to deal with the terrorists.

The introduction of the fantasy world is an interesting facet, though it is not as fascinating as in Snow Crash. Admittedly, back then it was more of a novel idea. The adventures in T'Rain are played for suspense and for laughs. It is both tense and amusing when the land in T'Rain where Zula and the others must deliver the ransom gold to becomes overrun with hundreds of characters trying to waylay the virus victims. Yet while it is a fine thriller, it sometimes fails to keep the attention. B

Neonomicon

Neonomicon is a graphic novel written by Alan Moore and Antony Johnston and drawn by Jacen Burrows. The novel is very dark and explicit. It expands on the Cthulhu mythos by horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.

The opening section is about an FBI agent named Aldo Sax, a person who can see the connections in different cases. He tracks the murders to a nightclub where he finds a band singing in a strange language. Sax finds a drug dealer who agrees to sell him a new drug. However what he finds is not a new substance but a new language. When Sax is introduced to the language a whole new world of experience and thought is opened to him. While he believes what he now sees is the real truth, he slides into insanity and eventually murders a victim.

The rest of the novel follows FBI agents Gordon Lamper and Merril Brears as they follow through on the case years later. Brears is a woman who has had issues with sex addiction and a nervous breakdown before rejoining the bureau. Their interview of Sax in a mental asylum consists of them asking him questions and him responding in his strange new language. When they track down the same nightclub and drug dealer they end up finding only a crime scene with the body of his mother. The drug dealer himself vanishes.

In the third section Lamper and Brears follow a lead to a small coastal town. Here is where the story gets dark and weird. They go undercover and investigate a store that is a combination sex shop and occult emporium. The owners are fan of Lovecraft and are obsessed with his world. The characters in the story know the Cthulhu mythos, just like the reader, only in the story the elder ones are real. This technique blurs the distinction between fiction and reality and makes the horrific events feel more real. Referring to fictional characters and events as fiction (fiction that is widely known in the real world) and then seeing them come alive in the story is a literary feat. If the characters had not known of Lovecraft but only encountered these strange creatures, it wouldn't have had the same effect. This technique melds the fictional world of Cthulhu with the real world of Lovecraft.

The events that follow are horrific and disturbing. Brears must face her inner demons of her past as well as real threats. The artwork is gritty and graphic. The artist is adept at showing the human characters and the fantastic visions given life by the language of the elder ones. Two pages where Sax descends into madness consist of four nearly identical panes of him staring out at the reader as he calmly explains to his victim why he is carving him up. This graphic novel leaves a deep impression. The story is compelling, mixing sex and violence and the occult. The art brings out the dangerous emotions in the story. Together they make a memorable book. A-

The Devotion of Suspect X

The Devotion of Suspect X is a Japanese crime novel by Keigo Higashino. The crime in question is the murder of a man named Togashi by his ex-wife Yasuko. Yasuko's neighbor Ishigami hears the struggle and knocks on the door to her apartment, announcing that he can protect Yasuko and her daughter Misato if they will do exactly as he says. Ishigami proceeds to cover up the true nature of the crime and police.

With this setup, the story builds as an intellectual struggle between Ishigami and the police detectives searching for Togashi's killer. The detectives involve their friend Yakawa, a physics professor who knew Ishigami in college. Yukawa takes the opportunity to visit Ishigami and renew their friendship. Ishigami is as puzzled by the murder case as the detectives, and he begins to explore different possibilities. Every conjecture he makes is confounded by Ishigami's and Yasuko's alibis. Since the detectives have no other suspects, they work on breaking apart Yasuko's alibi. Some of the lengths they go to are quite demanding, which shows how much attention they have focused on the case.

Ishigami turns the investigation into his own mystery puzzle. He is a bit unsettled when Yukawa takes an interest in the case but he still deflects any suspicion away from himself and Yasuko. Ishigami's character is drawn well by his actions, illustrating both his intellect and his devotion to Yasuko. He is a math genius who is dissatisfied with his job as a high school teacher and tired of lazy students. Yukawa is a smart professor who encourages his students and enjoys solving mysteries. Yasuko is a stereotypical Japanese woman who is meek and has little power compared to the men in her life.

The twists in the investigation keep the detectives and Yukawa guessing, and they are surprising to the reader also. Every time they think they've found something, Ishigami has already anticipated it. Even right down to the last play, he comes up with options.

This book was better than I was expecting. While the language and characterization are a bit flat, the the developments in the plot are intriguing. Ishigami proves to be an intelligent and creative adversary. Yukawa, using his intuition, is determined to figure out what is wrong with the evidence at hand. I ended up being as surprised at some of the developments as the detectives in the story. B+

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much, by Allison Hoover Bartlett, is the second book I've received from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program. It tells the true story of John Gilkey, a book thief who stole hundreds of thousands of dollars of rare and antique books. Bartlett also tells about Ken Sanders, a bookseller who dedicates himself to finding the thief and getting him in prison.

Bartlett's book is part mystery, part ode to books and book lovers. She admits that while she loves books she is not obsessed with them enough to spend a fortune on a rare book, much less steal one. Yet she offers insights into the history and character of rare book collectors. There is also some psychological analysis of Gilkey, who rationalizes his thefts by using fraud and blaming his victims for being guilty. He is the classic criminal case who believes he is the true victim, and if he is caught it only makes him more justified in pursuing his desires. I found him chilling, for he has little conscience. His stated desire for stealing books is to amass a collection that would raise his esteem in the eyes of others. Yet he hasn't a clue about how others would really see him: as a cold-hearted thief.

Bartlett interviews Sanders and other booksellers, tracking the story of how Gilkey was finally caught. She provides some views and anecdotes about the bookselling business, but the center of the story is Gilkey, his crimes, and his personality that drives him to collect nice things to create an illusory image of himself. The writing is clear and interesting, mixing history and current events, action and analysis. Though a bit short and lacking a big ending, it was enjoyable to read. B+