Deep Storm: A Novel
by Lincoln Child
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Book Reviews of Deep Storm: A Novel
Book Review: Really Disappointing
Summary: 2 Stars
I am a huge fan of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. I look forward every year to their collaborations and their individual endeavors. However, this book was really disappointing. I was thinking this book would be on par with Death Match but it's not. In fact, I began to wonder if Lincoln Child was getting paid by the word. He repeated himself a lot, got bogged down with mundane detail in several places, and bored me with descriptions like 'he opened the door, stepped out, then closed the door. Then Crane walked down the hallway.' I mean come on! I always thought that this author 'wrote up' for the reader, making me feel like he trusted his readers to be intelligent enough to handle the premise of the plot without having to explain the basic details of EVERYTHING. Instead, in this book Child speaks down to us, treating us like idiots. This book is a bore. It has nothing of the page turning intensity of Relic, Death Match, or any of the previous books. The only other book I have read that was this boring was Utopia, by the same author. I'm glad I didn't buy either one but only borrowed them from the library. If you have never read any of Lincoln Child's books, I highly recommend checking out some of his other stuff. Don't waste your time on this one.Book Review: A WILD RIDE ON "STORM"Y SEAS!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Five Stars!! "Deep Storm", Lincoln Child's mystery/techno-thriller/sci-fi novel, is a page-turning, wild ride on and under the ocean. The premise has Dr Peter Crane being recruited to assist in a troublesome investigation at the "Storm King" oil platform off of Greenland, but in reality it's about much more than that: "Deep Storm". Never fully letting us in on what is happening, Child keeps the twists and turns coming as new developments become 'curve balls' that delude as much as they inform the main character, Dr Crane, and the reader.
It's a fun read. And thrilling in places, like the amazing description of the Denmark seaside incident. In the first chapter, one of my least favorite topics began as one of the premises, which was discouraging, but I kept reading and Mr Child took us way beyond that 'red-herring'. While some of the characters are almost necessarily one-dimensional, other complex characters like Dr Howard Asher and Dr Michele Bishop keep things at a tense, believable humanistic level. Avoid spoilers and jump into this novel cold, it's better that way. Highly Recommended! Five ENJOYABLE Stars!!
(This review is based on an unabridged eBook digital download of 541 pages.)
Book Review: Not a bad book
Summary: 3 Stars
This book was ok at best. The premise was interesting and the story was fairly interesting. There were two main problems with this book for me. The first problem was the lack of originality when it came to characters. The military personnel were the take charge, don't listen to anyone but yourself even when it would be logical to do so, trust no one types and the scientist were the human, feeling, caring characters. The second problem was the lack of interaction between the characters. Most of the book consisted of explanation and description. There were times it would drone on forever and I would find myself skimming ahead. What there needed to be was human interaction and less description of every inner thought of almost every character. While I think this can be a helpful aspect to any book, the extent to which Child's describes the thoughts of each character becomes mind numbing after a while.
This was not a bad book and I did enjoy it for the most part. But, it is not highly innovative when it comes to the characters we come across. Had Child's spent a bit more time fleshing out these characters and making them a little less one dimensional, this book could have been a great read.
Book Review: My favorite of the Preston and Child 'solo' books
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been a fan of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child for quite some time now and I've read everything they've ever written. At times I've found their solo efforts to be hit or miss. I didn't care for Utopia, but I thougth Death Match, Tyranosaur Canyon and the Codex were all fine books.
This is my favorite. I don't know if it was the setting or the underlying plot of the whole book, the characters, not knowing who was the good guy or the bad guy or not knowing exactly what was going on till the very end that made this book so good. Perhaps a combination of all those things.
The setting is the bottom of the ocean. Peter Crane is brought into a secret research facility to investigate and find a solution to a series of mysterious illnesses. Once he's down there things get stranger and stranger. The pacing of this book is really excellent, the chapters just fly by, even when there's not any action (which there's plenty of) and as each chapter goes by, Child reveals a little bit more about what's really happening miles beneath the water's surface.
Highly recommended for any Preston and Child fan or people who just love a good, intriguing and smart read!
Book Review: Decent Plot, Non-Existent Characterization
Summary: 2 Stars
I'm a fan of Lincoln Child's work, but I didn't care very much for DEEP STORM.
This science fiction story has some good ideas and unexpected twists, but the characters lack depth and definition. As another reviewer commented, this book is written in a detached, "clinical" style -- you feel no emotional connection to anyone in the story. As a result, DEEP STORM lacks any true suspense, since I didn't truly care whether any of the protagonists made it through the story or not.
I also felt this novel started rather slowly, and had too many scenes filled with dry technical jargon. Lincoln Child plainly did some major research for his novel, but he failed to make it accessible or interesting to the common reader. I'm sorry, but extensive explanations about how to recapture data on a hard drive simply don't interest me.
DEEP STORM is smoothly written and has some decent moments, but overall I found it a disappointment for the reasons outlined above. That being said, if you like the early work of Michael Chrichton, you may want to give this work a try, because it is written in a similar spirit and style.