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Prodigal: A Novel
In his riveting debut, Hammerjack , Marc Giller unspooled a futuristic thriller of global intrigue, corporate espionage, and techno-terrorism. Now he delivers a gritty new novel of deadly resurrection and a no-holds-barred fight for the future. . . . Once an elusive hammerjack plunged into a virtual world of code, Lea Prism has been reborn as a corporate spook, hell-bent on ridding the universe of the anti-tech Inru terrorists. Their attempt to accelerate evolution robbed her of her once chance for happiness. Now the man she loved is nothing but a disembodied consciousness—and part of the computer matrix she has sworn to defend. But from the depths of a Martian volcano to the radioactive wasteland of Chernobyl, the Inru have launched one last offensive—giving rise to a final scenario more terrifying than anyone could imagine. The forces of technology are poised to distort the very worst of what nature has to offer . . . and the stage is set for battle.
528 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 21, 2021
3.0 out of 5 stars
Plateaus Halfway Through -- Downhill from There
August 3, 2007
This is the sequel to Giller's "Hammerjack." I was fairly impressed with that book and had high hopes for this one. As I read through it, it looked like my hopes were being met. Then I got to about the middle of the book. Up until then, the book had been moving along very similarly to "Hammerjack." Actually, it was a bit better. The characterizations were more consistent than in the earlier work. But, suddenly, the characters on the space ship (the second locale in the book) start doing the SciFi equivalent of splitting up and walking backwards in the dark in a horror movie. From that point on, the characters seem to have a lot of "dumb" moments. I also kept noticing inconsistencies in the settings. For instance, on page 295, one character has to climb a cliff after exiting from her ship:
"Dangling there, she looked back down in time to see even bigger fragments plunging into the water -- a drop far enough to dash her to pieces if she fell."
Giller makes a big production of her climbing that cliff -- implying it's a long way up. Yet, on the way back, she jumps down to the ship.
Worst of all, there's an awful lot of scientific ignorance on display. Some of the worst is on page 346 where a character is approaching Earth (from beyond the Moon's orbit) in a space ship:
"He stomped on the rudder pedals, banking left and right as Ghostrider lurched from side to side, bouncing him around violently. Nathan's attention darted between his instruments and the horizon.... Nathan punched it -- opening the engines wide, gradually taking control of his roll and pitch. The altitude indicators on his panel slowly leveled out, the gravity spiral releasing him from its grip. Nathan relaxed as he became weightless...."
This is a ship in space. Yet, Giller has it banking, rolling, and pitching with an horizon nearby. Also, what altitude and why is it leveling out? It's in space. It's also under acceleration. Yet, he's weightless. And, that acceleration brings up another problem. Earlier, these ships are spotted beyond the moon's orbit. Giller mentions that they will take 90 minutes to get to Earth. He also mentions that Nathan's ship breaks away and will get to Earth in 6 minutes. With my handy-dandy calculator, I figure that means he accelerated that ship at (at least) 565Gs with no ill affects. They have artificial gravity in the main ship, but there's no mention of it in this ship and the prose indicates it's not available. Plus, they seem to have some kind of FTL drive, but there's no mention of extra-solar travel. Plus plus, if they have artificial gravity, why are they using reaction jets? Plus plus plus, Nathan hasn't flown anything before. Yet, here he is flying a space-going, and atmospheric-capable, plane manually.
These kinds of things continue all the way through to the end. In fact, on the very last page, Giller drops a huge implausibility as a means of tying some stuff up. By this point, the book has degenerated into pulp fiction status. If the whole book had been this way, I would have given it a mere 2 stars out of 5. But, since the first half is very good, I'm raising my rating to an OK 3 stars out of 5. It's an interesting, action-packed, easy read. Just don't expect too much out of it.
Plateaus Halfway Through -- Downhill from There
August 3, 2007
This is the sequel to Giller's "Hammerjack." I was fairly impressed with that book and had high hopes for this one. As I read through it, it looked like my hopes were being met. Then I got to about the middle of the book. Up until then, the book had been moving along very similarly to "Hammerjack." Actually, it was a bit better. The characterizations were more consistent than in the earlier work. But, suddenly, the characters on the space ship (the second locale in the book) start doing the SciFi equivalent of splitting up and walking backwards in the dark in a horror movie. From that point on, the characters seem to have a lot of "dumb" moments. I also kept noticing inconsistencies in the settings. For instance, on page 295, one character has to climb a cliff after exiting from her ship:
"Dangling there, she looked back down in time to see even bigger fragments plunging into the water -- a drop far enough to dash her to pieces if she fell."
Giller makes a big production of her climbing that cliff -- implying it's a long way up. Yet, on the way back, she jumps down to the ship.
Worst of all, there's an awful lot of scientific ignorance on display. Some of the worst is on page 346 where a character is approaching Earth (from beyond the Moon's orbit) in a space ship:
"He stomped on the rudder pedals, banking left and right as Ghostrider lurched from side to side, bouncing him around violently. Nathan's attention darted between his instruments and the horizon.... Nathan punched it -- opening the engines wide, gradually taking control of his roll and pitch. The altitude indicators on his panel slowly leveled out, the gravity spiral releasing him from its grip. Nathan relaxed as he became weightless...."
This is a ship in space. Yet, Giller has it banking, rolling, and pitching with an horizon nearby. Also, what altitude and why is it leveling out? It's in space. It's also under acceleration. Yet, he's weightless. And, that acceleration brings up another problem. Earlier, these ships are spotted beyond the moon's orbit. Giller mentions that they will take 90 minutes to get to Earth. He also mentions that Nathan's ship breaks away and will get to Earth in 6 minutes. With my handy-dandy calculator, I figure that means he accelerated that ship at (at least) 565Gs with no ill affects. They have artificial gravity in the main ship, but there's no mention of it in this ship and the prose indicates it's not available. Plus, they seem to have some kind of FTL drive, but there's no mention of extra-solar travel. Plus plus, if they have artificial gravity, why are they using reaction jets? Plus plus plus, Nathan hasn't flown anything before. Yet, here he is flying a space-going, and atmospheric-capable, plane manually.
These kinds of things continue all the way through to the end. In fact, on the very last page, Giller drops a huge implausibility as a means of tying some stuff up. By this point, the book has degenerated into pulp fiction status. If the whole book had been this way, I would have given it a mere 2 stars out of 5. But, since the first half is very good, I'm raising my rating to an OK 3 stars out of 5. It's an interesting, action-packed, easy read. Just don't expect too much out of it.
March 2, 2016
Prodigal picks up right after the end of Hammerjack. Very little is explained in the beginning, so it is best to start with Hammerjack.
This book is a bit better than Hammerjack. Once you get past the fact Lea has quickly moved from hacker to special forces solider in the span of months, it is a good ride. The tension builds between the events on Earth and that happening on Mars. The Mars portion I liked a lot until it crossed over into a weird horror theme.
The author does need to be consistent. There is mention of quantum cables that allow data to travel faster than light. That's cool, but such a development would change the data landscape. Here it is just dropped when looking through a room. The biggest one is the mention of the ability of the space ship at Mars to jump. But it took 7 months to get out there, but it can jump back in a flash when the plot needs it on Earth immediately. I think this could have been handled a bit better.
The book posits the question about how far do we allow technology to change us. Are we the master or do we give up control? Do we merge or keep it at arms length? I think delving further into such questions and showing more of the outcome within the world that has been built would have made for a more polished book.
This book is a bit better than Hammerjack. Once you get past the fact Lea has quickly moved from hacker to special forces solider in the span of months, it is a good ride. The tension builds between the events on Earth and that happening on Mars. The Mars portion I liked a lot until it crossed over into a weird horror theme.
The author does need to be consistent. There is mention of quantum cables that allow data to travel faster than light. That's cool, but such a development would change the data landscape. Here it is just dropped when looking through a room. The biggest one is the mention of the ability of the space ship at Mars to jump. But it took 7 months to get out there, but it can jump back in a flash when the plot needs it on Earth immediately. I think this could have been handled a bit better.
The book posits the question about how far do we allow technology to change us. Are we the master or do we give up control? Do we merge or keep it at arms length? I think delving further into such questions and showing more of the outcome within the world that has been built would have made for a more polished book.
October 24, 2010
Interesting story and plot, but the author is a bit confused as to what "deep space" is, among a few other minor details.
August 3, 2018
Big improvement!
I hesitated to read "Prodigal" because I'd really come to hate Lea Prism by the end of "Hammerjack," and wasn't keen on reading a sequel with her as the lead. I wound up reading "Prodigal" just to get more of Avalon; but within the first few pages, I was pleasantly stunned to find I actually liked this new Lea Prism as well! Avalon also shines wonderfully, though sadly still underdeveloped.
Unfortunately the intriguing new storyline is hampered by a subplot about a cast of bland characters on Mars, that ends up making no sense at all. Also, Giller seems to have taken criticism that "Hammerjack" was too descriptive to another extreme, so now he won't describe ANYTHING. I had no idea what any of the characters looked like except returning ones from "Hammerjack;" in the opening scene I still, after multiple re-reads, don't know if the characters are journeying on wheels or hovering crafts, because he wouldn't tell us anything about the futuristic vehicles they were driving; and worst of all,
I don't honestly know if I'm hoping for Giller to write a third book. I'd like to see more of the good stuff, but I really don't want to read any more of Cray and Lea, unless he plans to improve the former's character as he did the latter.
I hesitated to read "Prodigal" because I'd really come to hate Lea Prism by the end of "Hammerjack," and wasn't keen on reading a sequel with her as the lead. I wound up reading "Prodigal" just to get more of Avalon; but within the first few pages, I was pleasantly stunned to find I actually liked this new Lea Prism as well! Avalon also shines wonderfully, though sadly still underdeveloped.
Unfortunately the intriguing new storyline is hampered by a subplot about a cast of bland characters on Mars, that ends up making no sense at all. Also, Giller seems to have taken criticism that "Hammerjack" was too descriptive to another extreme, so now he won't describe ANYTHING. I had no idea what any of the characters looked like except returning ones from "Hammerjack;" in the opening scene I still, after multiple re-reads, don't know if the characters are journeying on wheels or hovering crafts, because he wouldn't tell us anything about the futuristic vehicles they were driving; and worst of all,
I don't honestly know if I'm hoping for Giller to write a third book. I'd like to see more of the good stuff, but I really don't want to read any more of Cray and Lea, unless he plans to improve the former's character as he did the latter.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews