Back to fiction… two short book reviews

As both readers of this blog know, I am an avid reader. But, I’ve been so busy with finishing up my graduate degree lately that I haven’t been able to get much reading done. Well, I finished the degree just before New Years and, as a reward, I’ve just finished chewing through new works by two of my favorite bubble-gum novelists, Under the Dome by Stephen King and Dead or Alive by Tom Clancy. Lots of people have asked me what I thought of them so I figured I would write this post.

Under the Dome is what I think of as the new King. The classic King novel is about some kind of monster and, after covering vampires, werewolves, evil clowns and mad dogs, he seemed to change a little, writing in more recent years about more human monsters. Under the Dome is a novel of the latter sort, which starts unapoligetacally with a crazy, sci-fi premise and allows its characters to respond truthfully. If you read About Writing, you won’t be surprised to see that King practices exactly what he preaches… it’s a good yarn, well-told. Like most of his stuff it’s a little too long, but the quality of the story-telling makes up for it. 

Plus, there’s a passage in there about an childhood experience one of the characters had with her father long before the story takes place that is pure gold… and a throw-away reference to Lee Child’s great character Jack Reacher, which made me smile.

I also just finished Dead or Alive, Clancy’s latest story about the exploits of Jack Ryan and… Jack Ryan. Clancy gathers all of his best heroes together in this novel, pitting John Clark, the Foleys, both Jack Ryans, the Caruso twins, Domingo Chavez and others against the villany of radical Islamic fundamentalism. It’s a great story which, even though it weighs in at 950 pages, reads fast and feels like it was edited down to the minimum. Clancy finds a way to get these characters together believably, gives them lots of bad guys to shoot and tells a fun story.

There’s a “with…” credit on the cover to someone named Grant Blackwood, who has also co-authored books with Clive Cussler and written on his own. I don’t know what role he played in this novel’s creation, but, to pick a nit, I was bugged by the over-use of some phrases and terms throughout (the ugly verb “crab-walk” must have appeared eight times) and wonder if the blame is his or Clancy’s.

Either way it’s a good read and ends with a nice revitalziation of the Ryan franchise. I’m looking forward to more.

By the way, if you’ve read this far, permit me to make a recommendation: if you like Clancy, check out the Amanda Garret series of novels by James H. Cobb. They fit right in with Clancy and Child and, as a plus, feature a strong female protagonist, something I haven’t seen myself in this sort of fiction.

Enjoy!