Last-gasp cold war hostilities provide an American submarine commander the opportunity to avenge his father's death. Authentic naval detail distinguishes the debut of the author, an Annapolis graduate and submarine sailor. The plot-generating treachery at the highest levels of the former Soviet navy is a standard military thriller device, but the firsthand feel for life aboard a nuclear hunter-killer sub—as well as for warfare under the polar icecap—is fresh and welcome in this not-too-technothriller. At a time when the superpowers are supposedly dismantling their superweapons, second-generation submarine skipper Michael Pacino speeds U.S.S. Devilfish to the Arctic to sniff out a huge and remarkably stealthy new Russian sub. Commanding the fleet submarine Kalingrad over the nominal control of the boat's unhappy captain is unreconstructed Bolshevik Admiral Alexi Novskoyy—who's about to implement his private plan to knock international relations back to the late 40's with an unprovoked attack on the US. It's not his first time at wielding his own foreign policy. As a sub skipper back in the 70's, Novskoyy, without provocation, torpedoed an American boat that found his polar hiding place. The American captain in that incident was Michael Pacino's father. Novskoyy is not completely alone in his plot. He's got a mole placed at the very top of the Pentagon, an Air Force general who keeps assuring the President that the sudden appearance of the complete Russian northern submarine fleet off the American East Coast is just an exercise. The President may be buying that story, but the admiral in charge of America's Atlantic submarine fleet, Pacino's mentor and godfather, is having none of it. He sends his godson orders to do whatever may be necessary to call the Russians to heel. Tense and, when at sea, chillingly realistic. There's a hefty glossary at the end, but DiMercurio's action needs no technical assistance.
Pub Date: Aug. 18, 1992
ISBN: 1-55611-291-2
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Donald Fine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1992
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
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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