Inherit the Dead by Jonathan Santlofer (ed.)

Published by Touchstone on October 8, 2013

When twenty writers each contribute a chapter to a novel, the result can be fun or a disaster. Inherit the Dead is a little of both. Seeing how each writer adds his or her spin and comparing different writing styles is an enjoyable way to read a novel. Serial novels are more entertaining when each writer adds plot twists that are meant to challenge the writers that follow, although the resulting story often lacks coherence. This isn't that sort of novel. The writers were "following a plan" which I assume means a plot outline, and most of them did little more than that. Inherit the Dead has few twists of any kind, leaving the impression that none of the writers wanted to add a complication that would make the project more difficult for writers of subsequent chapters. More distressing is that few of the writers tried to imprint the story with a personality, resulting in a book that has none. Inherit the Dead is a remarkably bland novel -- not a disaster, not really bad, but nothing to be excited about.

Chapter 1 by Jonathan Santlofer sets up an ordinary premise: Ex-cop turned private detective Perry Christo is asked to find Angel, Julia Druscilla's missing twenty-year-old daughter. If Angel doesn't sign some trust documents on her twenty-first birthday, her share of a sizeable trust will be forfeited to Julia. Christo was booted off the police force for misconduct that remains unspecified until chapter 2's writer fills in the details, but we're given to believe that the accusations were false, making Christo a typical wronged-cop-turned-PI. Santlofer also appends a first-person narrative to the end of the chapter, voiced by someone who is following Christo. Some of the other writers do the same, but that aspect of the novel is largely abandoned by its midway point.

One reason to read a book with so many different voices (and, I suspect, one reason writers contribute their voices) is the possibility of finding a pleasing voice the reader hasn't previously encountered. I recognized the names of most of the contributing authors, but several I had not read before. Stephen Carter, Sarah Weinman, and Bryan Gruley all encouraged me to look for their work. Some writers who were more familiar to me made worthy additions to the novel, including James Grady, Lisa Unger, Dana Stabenow, Val McDermid, Mary Higgins Clark, C.J. Box, and Max Allan Collins. Strong chapters were turned in by exceptionally strong writers: John Connolly is the first writer to put serious flesh on Christo's bones; Ken Bruen infuses the story with his biting Irish anger; Mark Billingham restores Bruen's edginess to the story; and Lawrence Block ties together the loose threads with the skill of a seasoned writer.

The contributions of several writers (many of whom have done better work than they display here) failed to impress me. Marcia Clark's chapter was shallow, as was S.J. Rozan's. The chapters by Heather Graham and Charlaine Harris were better suited to a trashy romance novel. Alafair Burke made no significant contribution to the plot but decided Christo should be whinier -- a bad choice.

Inherit the Dead was written in support of a charitable cause, so kudos to the writers for taking the time to do it. It strikes me as false advertising, however, to list Lee Child as one of the writers. Child dashed off a three page introduction praising all the writers for being so wonderful but he didn't contribute a chapter of his own. However praiseworthy the other writers might be for contributing their time, any of them writing individually would probably have produced a novel with a stronger plot and fleshier characters.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

North Sea Requiem by A.D. Scott

Published by Atria Books on September 3, 2013

A.D. Scott tells a good story in North Sea Requiem. It is, unfortunately, a 200 page story that takes more than 300 pages to tell. The strong characters, rich atmosphere, and pleasant prose kept me reading but the dragging pace keeps me from giving the novel a strong recommendation.

Nurse Urquhart, the wife of the shinty team's coach, is also the team's laundress. When she discovers a boot in the tub of laundry, she's unnerved to find a leg is still wearing the boot. The story takes an even darker turn when a character who is important to the shinty team takes a large splash of acid in the face and throat, while a shinty player is severely beaten. Could a small town shinty rivalry really get so carried away? Or is something else afoot?

John McAllister finally has a story worthy of the front page of his weekly newspaper. Rob McLean is excited to report it and Don McLeod is itching to edit it, but they are unsettled to learn that people who work for the paper may know more than they're revealing. Meanwhile, reporter Joanne Ross investigates the fate of an American Air Force officer, Robert Bell, who was stationed at an RAF base in Scotland from 1951 to 1952 and whose airplane disappeared in the North Sea. It is now 1958 and Mae Bell, his widow, wants to know what happened. When she starts receiving threatening notes telling her to mind her own business, as did the victim of the acid attack (and, eventually, as does Joanne), the reader wonders how these events could be connected.

North Sea Requiem is a mystery that is often told with a surprisingly light touch given the gruesome events that underlie the plot. (The real mystery to me was: What the heck is shinty? Apparently it resembles field hockey.) The Highlands setting is easy to picture. Atmosphere, dialog, and characters are the novel's strength. The Scottish characters are quirky and quarrelsome and cantankerous, but they pull together when friendship is needed. Most of the men treat women as "wee fluffy creatures that should be kept on the mantelshelf and cuddled every so often" but Joanne Ross is determined to report real news, not just social events and recipes. She's also dealing with domestic drama, knowing that her divorce (like her friendship with McAllister) will fuel small town gossip. Scott's attempts to instill the story with emotion are too heavy-handed, but that's only mildly distracting.

The plot is slow to unfold as the first half of the novel develops the setting and the characters. The answer to the mystery is ... well, it's a little weird ... but a quarter of the novel remains when it seems to be revealed. Of course, with that much story remaining, there are more revelations to come. They are credible and surprising, but the final chapters leading up to the final revelations follow a predictable course. They also fail to convey the sense of urgency that Scott must have intended. Had the plot moved with more vigor after the characters and setting were established, this would have been a better novel. It is an enjoyable reading experience as it stands, but too drawn out to merit a strong recommendation.

RECOMMENDED

Day One by Nate Kenyon

Published by Thomas Dunne Books on October 1, 2013

The "evil computers become sentient and try to take over the world" plot has been done so many times that it's difficult to breathe fresh life into it. Day One doesn't even try.

The protagonist's name, John Hawke, is the first indicator of Day One's unoriginal nature. Hawke is a hacker turned journalist. In his less disciplined days, he was part of a group called Anonymous that stole secrets from the CIA (because that's what fictional hackers do, at least in mediocre novels). Hawke is disgruntled because he was recently fired by the Times (as he should have been) for hacking into a prominent person's computer, where he discovered child porn.

Hawke, now writing for a tech magazine, is investigating a company called Eclipse. Strange events start to occur all across Manhattan. Copiers and coffee pots become instruments of death. Tablets and cellphones download unauthorized programs. Predictable and uninspired scenes of urban chaos soon follow. These incidents appear to be related to something called Operation Global Blackout. Hawke's friend from Anonymous traced a recent attack on the Justice Department's servers to -- oh happy coincidence! -- Eclipse, putting Hawke in the center of the maelstrom.

The rest of the novel is an extended chase scene as a Computer Gone Bad tries to kill Hawke. Attempts at character development are shallow and unconvincing. Hawke, for instance, still carries scars from catching a glimpse of someone masturbating in a men's room when Hawke was nine years old. Seriously? Hawke has a three-year-old autistic child about whom he is Deeply Concerned, a cheap attempt to generate sympathy for the otherwise unsympathetic Hawke.

Nate Kenyon's awkward prose is often marred by clichés. Hawke avoids authorities "like the plague"; bankers and protesters mix "like oil and water"; people "changed on a dime"; people "vanished into thin air"; Hawke "had a few tricks up his sleeve." Dialog tends to be unrealistically melodramatic, as are descriptions like "Armageddon had descended in a split second's time." It's a remarkably survivable version of Armageddon, at least for Hawke and some of the book's principle characters. Sadly, they are such a pathetic group of whiners that I was rooting for Armageddon to prevail.

Much of the story is too preposterous to believe. The Threat That Endangers the World manages to turn New York City into a ghost town in seconds but can't seem to harm Hawke. The Threat not only has the ability to start cars by remote control, it can shift them into gear and steer them. It can also fill buildings with carbon monoxide by "rerouting" it from the building's heating system. Seriously? There's a switch a computer can activate that will let it poison everyone in an office building? Remind me to find that switch in my building and cover it with duct tape so it doesn't get flipped accidentally. Oh, and when the police and the FBI and the CIA receive orders to "shoot to kill" unarmed American citizens, they follow those orders blindly. Okay, that I might believe, but I'd prefer to think that cops might question illegal orders issued by unseen authorities.

The last "evil computers become sentient and try to take over the world" novel I read was mediocre. Day One is worse. Maybe it's time to retire the plot. As the title implies, the novel sets up a sequel (Day Two?). I will avoid it "like the plague."

NOT RECOMMENDED

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

Published by Orbit on October 1, 2013

There are echoes of C.J. Cherryh, Iain Banks, and Frank Herbert in Ancillary Justice. The novel is both familiar and fresh. The writing is powerful and tense. The plot -- about which I will say little, lest I risk spoiling it -- is intelligent and surprising.

The Radchaii are human but they consider themselves superior to other humans. The Lord of the Radch, Anaander Mianaai, controls Radch space with the help of thousands of genetically identical, linked bodies. Extra bodies seem handy (wish I had some) but they prove to have unforeseen consequences. The Radch rule by conquest, annexing other human worlds and forcing their inhabitants to join the Radch or to surrender their bodies to be used as ancillaries, otherwise known as corpse soldiers (an ancient practice that has been mostly abandoned). They justify their actions with the belief that they are imposing order and justice on the universe. They control annexed planets by coopting the privileged class, allowing them to retain their social status provided they embrace the Radch. The one exception is Garsedd, a planet the Radch destroyed because the Garseddai posed a threat the Radch could not tolerate.

The protagonist of Ancillary Justice, having been manufactured by the Radchaai, is sometimes a ship called Justice of Toren, sometimes an ancillary called One Esk, sometimes other ancillaries. As the novel begins, however, the protagonist is called Breq. All of those identities should be the same, but Justice of Toren/One Esk/Breq is having an identity crisis. No longer endowed with the abilities of an AI, Breq has the weaknesses of a human ... without quite being human. In the first pages, Breq saves a Radchaai named Seivarden (who once served on Justice of Toren) from hypothermia. The story then alternates between the present (Breq is tracking someone in order to obtain something ... more than that I won't reveal) and a past in which One Esk was serving the Radchaai, who had just used ruthless means to annex a planet called Shis'urna. The final element of the story is the Presger, a race of aliens who once made pests of themselves by dismantling Radch ships.

The novel's background is more intricate than I've sketched out here. It is initially confusing ... but initial confusion caused by complexity is better than boredom caused by pages of exposition. Everything falls into place well before the novel's midway point. Ann Leckie plays with gender and culture in ways that are interesting but subtle. Her prose is robust.

The story builds upon a familiar moral struggle -- whether to follow unjust orders if the penalty for disobedience is death. If doing the right thing will have dire personal consequences, is it best to do the right thing only when it will make a difference? And how does one know whether doing the right will make a difference? These are difficult questions and Ancillary Justice brings them into sharp focus in different ways. More than one character, not all of them human, must make a choice of that nature. Ancillary Justice makes the point that virtue is easy to achieve in the abstract but easily vanishes when the lives of the "virtuous" are at stake. It makes the equally salient point that it is easy to judge when it isn't your life that is at stake. At the same time, this isn't a preachy novel. Leckie leaves it to the reader to draw whatever lessons might be taken from it. The blend of philosophy and adventure, the imaginative culture-building, and the strong characters all add up to an impressive work of science fiction.

RECOMMENDED

Snow Hunters by Paul Yoon

Published by Simon & Schuster on August 6, 2013

In 1954, at the age of 25, Yohan leaves a prison camp in a UN truck and boards a Japanese cargo ship crewed by South Koreans. Captured by Americans after he was buried in snow during a bombing, Yohan is the only prisoner who declines repatriation to North Korea. Instead, he accepts an offer to apprentice for Kiyoshi, a Japanese tailor in Brazil, a country of which he has never heard where people speak a language he does not understand. Snow Hunters follows several years of Yohan's new life, with flashbacks to his interment and to his younger days, both before and after his country was divided.

Paul Yoon's debut novel is characterized by fine prose and honest emotion. It is filled with powerful images of war and poverty and of lives that are both unburdened and unaided by technology. The novel is built upon resonant scenes of Yohan's life: helping a blind prisoner play poker with medics; dancing in the snow with a tipsy nurse on Christmas; sitting with two Brazilian children, apparently orphaned, as they sell trinkets; Kiyoshi's tears when his hands become too unsteady to pin a jacket; Yohan's habitual search for lost or discarded objects. This is a story of small kindnesses in an unkind world, of people helping each other in surroundings of misery, of kindnesses repaid in unexpected ways.

Several themes echo through Snow Hunters: fate; the unitary nature of the world we all share; the changes -- generally for the better, temporarily for the worse -- that people and places undergo; the impact that seemingly insignificant people have on others; the simple pleasures of life; the changing perceptions of time ("how time could completely abandon someone" when love enters a life). Snow Hunters is a short novel, written with an economy of language that more writers should emulate, but the story is bigger than it first appears. The ending is perfect in its ambiguity because, for Yohan, it isn't the ending. He has more life to live, and how it will turn out is, as always, a mystery.

RECOMMENDED