 |
The Labyrinth Key
by Howard V Hendrix
(Del Rey, $14.95, 320 pages, trade paperback; April 2004.)
Review by Stuart Jaffe
Do you like Tom Clancy? If so, you'll like this book.  It's
that simple. Any other comparison fails to capture the essence of Howard
V. Hendrix's writing and this tale in particular.
Why, you ask?
Dr Jaron Kwok worked for the US on a top secret project to build a
quantum computer for the main purpose of developing and cracking codes.
Sadly for him, his body is reduced to ash while in a Hong Kong hotel.
But wait! Is that actually ash or is it some kind of biological-nanotechnology?
And what is the meaning behind a surreal webcast Kwok sent out moments
before his disappearance? The race is on between the US and China to
develop the aforementioned computer, and now the police, NSA and numerous
others are all attacking these mysteries from different angles. The
clock is ticking.
Reading that limited summary, you may already see some of the similarities
with Mr Clancy's work, but allow me to take it all a bit further.
On the plus side, we are treated to a technothriller-meets-sf novel
which should appeal to and please most hard science-fiction lovers.
Just like ol' Tom, Hendrix drenches the prose with in-depth descriptions
of the technologies (both new and old) and the theories surrounding
them, while extrapolating a bit into the future of the Net and quantum
computing. He also provides a few intriguing characters that propel
the story through its many twists and turns.
On the minus side, we are treated to a technothriller-meets-sf novel
which should appeal to and please most hard science-fiction lovers.
Yes, I know I just repeated myself, but hear me out. This novel gets
all the hard sf and techno aspects down quite well. What's missing is
the thriller part of the description. What should have been an
intense, nail-biting, action-packed story in which each reversal and
discovery flips the reader into an "Oh my gosh!" moment ends up feeling
more like a science lecture. Sure, the science is interesting at times;
however, the point of story-telling is (first) to tell a story.
I have a problem with the fact that Ben, a character whose wife died
and who has thus not had a sexual experience in quite some time, finds
himself happily being treated to a lap dance, and what does he do? He
starts explaining quantum theories. Now, I don't want to spoil the plot,
so I'll say that the fishiness of this moment is supposed to be fishy,
but Ben (a rather intelligent fellow) doesn't seem to find it odd at
the moment of its occurring. I could come up with many plausible reasons
for his behaviour, but unfortunately the author fails to provide any,
and that is part of his job. No, I don't need everything handed to me
on a platter, but I do want to be able to trust that the author has
made conscious decisions with crucial (or odd) developments such as
this. That trust was missing as I read this book.
Besides, had I been given a little of what Ben was thinking, I could
then have seen that he was indeed clueless to the "fishy" situation,
thus heightening (or at least creating) some tension -- a key component
of a thriller. Alfred Hitchcock once explained suspense as watching
a man walk into a restaurant with a briefcase and knowing (although
the characters don't) that there is a bomb in the briefcase. Too often
in The Labyrinth Key, the reader is kept in the dark. Likewise,
we are also kept at a cold, analytical distance from the characters
-- another factor that takes away from any suspense. What the reader
is left with amounts to a good science story but not a thrilling one.
As Murphy's Law would have it, though, I see that many of the big names
in the genre thought The Labyrinth Key worthy of their praise.
So, my dear readers, the choice is in your hands. Do you trust them
or me, your faithful reviewer? Oh, I guess we don't have to be so dramatic
about it. Go read those first three sentences again. For better or worse,
I think they say it all.
Elsewhere in infinity plus:
|
|
