Alex's review
The Blonde by Duane Swierczynski
This book is the second by a young up & coming (formerly)crime novelist. Like a great many second novels this one falls into the "sophmore slump" trap. The Blonde has a couple of very compelling characters which keep it from being a total pile of crap- but mostly it suffers from one the dumbest sci-fi premises ever concocted. And this is from a reader who loves sci-fi.
Remember in "Speed" how the bus would blow if it went slower than 55? Well - in this book the nanobot infected protagonists will blow up if they wander more than ten feet from other humans (they are GPSed at all times).
(Hey look - a new verb: "GPSed"!)
It has a few characters borrowed from the first book, and they along with the criminials and their crimes are among the better drawn and more entertaining elements in this book. The author has a gift for the action scene - I'll give him that - and I'm sure this book will be optioned for a movie just as quickly as his first (far far su...more
Remember in "Speed" how the bus would blow if it went slower than 55? Well - in this book the nanobot infected protagonists will blow up if they wander more than ten feet from other humans (they are GPSed at all times).
(Hey look - a new verb: "GPSed"!)
It has a few characters borrowed from the first book, and they along with the criminials and their crimes are among the better drawn and more entertaining elements in this book. The author has a gift for the action scene - I'll give him that - and I'm sure this book will be optioned for a movie just as quickly as his first (far far su...more
