Red Phoenix author Bond, who also collaborated with Tom Clancy on Red Storm Rising, takes his formidable war-game skills to South Africa, where he pits fascist Boers against Cuban communists. Yanks are, once again, policemen on the world beat. Armchair warriors suffering from post-Saddam letdown, as well as ground-war fans disappointed by the walkover in Iraq, should find considerable satisfaction in this lengthy (729-page), detail-rich treatment of a multifront war that flares up when ultra reactionary South African politicians send all their moderate governmental colleagues off on a luxury train knowing that the train is about to be blown up by black radicals. With the reformers out of the way, the fascists seize power, undo racial and political reform, and send their army off to reclaim the one-time colony of Namibia. The surprise blitzkrieg makes a spectacular start—and then promptly runs into unexpected and father fierce opposition from the Cuban forces still left in neighboring Angola. Castro has got on the phone and sold a backsliding Soviet Union on the idea of an aggressive combination of Cuban know-how and Soviet hardware that will demonstrate to the world the glory of renascent Leninism. In the best Schwarzkopfian fashion, the Cubans fly and ship a major expeditionary force to Africa and roll out a tricky three-prong counterattack against the beastly Boers. When the panicky South Africans nuke one of the prongs, it's time for the US to step in and sort things out. Observing much of the action but unable to capitalize on the opportunity is an American telejournalist who is out of favor with his network—but much prized by the pretty daughter of one of the nastiest of the fascist cabinet ministers. Not all the Boers are bad, by the way. Many, many battles and much, much war with not too much mushy stuff. The political doings that set the war machinery running are rather broad-brush and suffer in comparison to the well-done battle scenes but, still, it's likely to sell oodles.
Pub Date: June 3, 1991
ISBN: 0-446-51566-3
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1991
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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