Romantic entanglements and a covert mission help this aviation tale take off.
A flier’s new gig as an Alaskan bush pilot is impeded by hazardous weather, an arrogant inspector, and a hasty plan to rescue bear cubs in Auxier’s (Code Name: Dodger, 2012, etc.) adventure.
All Daniel Christopher “DC” Alva has to show for years of flight training is a dreary job flying Grand Canyon tours. So he’s willing to brave unfavorable weather when best friend and fellow pilot, Allen Foley, gives him a heads up on an opening at Southeast Alaska Seaplanes. Working as a bush pilot gives DC access to superior aircraft and could lead to a major airline position. Unfortunately, in Juneau, Alaska, Federal Aviation Administration Inspector Frederick Bruner may have it out for DC, citing him for minor infractions. Add to that pilot Ralph Olafsen’s aggressive behavior toward Bruner, and Southeast Alaska is in danger of the FAA shutting it down completely. Complicating matters is a few pilots’ desire to save three bear cubs, orphaned by poachers but facing termination from game wardens—to save money. Allen, Ralph (sans pilot’s license), and others initiate Operation Dirty Harry to ensure that the bears return to the wild. Mother Nature, however, not to be tamed, takes down a Southeast Alaska flier’s plane, while DC will have to fight to make certain Allen doesn’t suffer the same fate. The novel possesses both suspense and drama in spades. Check airwoman Holly Innes, for one, hides from a menacing someone actively looking for her—and getting closer. Popular local Tonya Hunter, meanwhile, creates a rift between DC and Allen, amorously toying with the friends, and in true soap-opera fashion, DC’s pseudo-ex Stephanie (they “sorta broke up”) makes a surprise appearance in Juneau. There are disappointingly no strong women: Tonya’s aimlessly manipulative, Stephanie’s clingy, and Holly’s authority is undermined by male pilots (“Lady, you need to get laid,” Ralph tactlessly declares). But aviator Auxier’s intelligent and comprehensive descriptions of the story’s numerous flights, or characters discussing them, will put readers in the pilot’s seat. There’s plenty of context to help understand the jargon and an exhaustive glossary at the end, even including a few terms not in the narrative.
Romantic entanglements and a covert mission help this aviation tale take off.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4802-7988-9
Page Count: 306
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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