Digital (in)activity slows down an already ponderous suspense yarn.
The often reworked World War I–era espionage classic re-emerges on a new, interactive media platform that somewhat dilutes its inherent drama and suspense.
Richard Hannay’s desperate flight from both the long arm of the law and a murderous cabal of World War I conspirators has been entertaining audiences in one form or another for the last century. It’s not particularly surprising that the well-worn tale has now turned up as an ambitious, visually stylish app that seeks to bridge the gap between gaming and literature. All the classic elements of the intrepid Mr. Hannay’s adventure—from the grisly murder of the secret agent he harbors to his subsequent escape into the Scottish Highlands—are retained in the digital version. Split into 19 chapters that must be completed individually in order to progress through the story, the app also consists of several marginally interactive components that will be very familiar to role-playing gamers everywhere. Ghostly bits of clickable text, for instance, fade in and out over mostly static interiors and exteriors while two-dimensional characters appear on screen. Seemingly unimportant items like maps, newspapers and letters must be collected in order to fully understand unfolding events. Collectible Profile cards help keep track of the increasing cast of characters and their back stories, while chapters can be revisited in order to pick up missed items. Players/readers can also check out their progress at any time during the digital experience. Overall, however, the story plays like an old CD-ROM game from the mid-1990s, with only token stabs at utilizing the iPad’s next-generation capabilities. One feature that attempts to capitalize on the device’s “drawable” screen merely mimics mundane actions like opening a door or a window and feels particularly pointless. The pacing throughout—from glacial camera pans and push-ins to evaporating dissolves—is also problematic and painfully slow. Superior voice acting, however, is consistently good, from the main character down to each member of the supporting cast.
Digital (in)activity slows down an already ponderous suspense yarn.Pub Date: April 13, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: The Story Mechanics
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2013
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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