“Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.”—Carl Sagan

Extinction
by Mark Alpert

Every time a writer is compared to the late, great Michael Crichton, my heart skips a happy beat. I don’t think his large shoes will be filled any time soon, but I am delighted to see other writers trodding the same territory. Mark Alpert is a natural for these comparisons. With a degree in astrophysics and more than a decade on the editorial staff of Scientific American magazine, the man knows his science. Extinction is his third foray into the word of fiction.

After a brief prologue, readers are introduced to former soldier Jim Pierce. Himself an amputee, Jim has turned his engineering know-how to the world of high-tech prosthetics. In the novel’s opening scene, he’s having a consultation with a young soldier, explaining to the wounded man just how advanced these devices have become. The prosthetics Jim builds (and wears) are like something out of a James Bond film, and controlled wirelessly by the user’s brain—just like a natural body part.

Shortly after he leaves Jim’s workroom, an unexpected visitor arrives asking questions about Jim’s estranged, 22-year-old daughter, Layla. The visitor claims to be from the military, but that story quickly breaks down into threats and violence. Jim is more than an ex-soldier, he’s a former intelligence officer, and he knows a Chinese spook when he sees one. What the hell has his daughter gotten herself into?

Alpert’s tale is not a simple high-concept plot that can be summarized in a few sentences or even paragraphs. I suspect I should quit this synopsis while I’m ahead. Extinction deals with a variety of technologies involving machine-brain interfaces. Some are as innocuous as bionic limbs and eye glasses that function as eyes for the blind. Other technologies lead to the threat at the heart of this novel—a dangerous new artificial intelligence, a sort of human-machine hybrid that wants to rid the world of the vast majority of those pesky human components. It is this borg-like entity that may well pull the trigger on our extinction. And Jim Pierce and his daughter somehow get sucked into this high-stakes drama. I’ll leave it to you to uncover the details.

It is unsurprising that Mr. Alpert is at his best when delving into the science that is integral to the novel’s plot. Says one character:

“Just think of it! We won’t be tied to these fragile bodies anymore! If we can store a person’s memories in a sufficiently powerful processor, we can program it to generate new thoughts based on those memories. For all intents and purposes, the intelligence inside the processor would be identical to the one inside the person’s brain. And this will become possible very soon, within the next few decades. There are people alive today who will never die!”

An author’s note at the novel’s end gives readers a better idea of what is fact and what is fiction. It’s surprisingly difficult to figure out in this day-after-tomorrow-set tale. The science in this book is smart, fascinating, and has a really high gee-whiz quotient. Alpert delves enthusiastically into several different disciplines. It’s exactly what I want to see in this type of thriller. Further, Mr. Alpert has fashioned a fun, fast plot in which to imbed all that science. Yes, it is somewhat formulaic, but aren’t they all?

Mark Alpert brings a heap of knowledge to his fiction, and he’s great at explaining complex ideas and building a plot around them. However, it’s the actual mechanics of writing fiction where he’s weakest. This is most apparent near the novel’s opening. Some of the early exposition was truly graceless. Nor will he win any awards for the elegance of his prose. It’s serviceable, but nothing more. And, yes, there were a few plot contrivances. Alpert does better with his action sequences. They really propel the narrative in the second half of the novel. Character development is a mixed bag. A description of how Layla experiences music, for example, was a great insight into how she experiences the world. It was a lovely detail.

Most readers of techno-thrillers aren’t concerned about a little clumsy exposition. Most are looking for some smart, speculative science buried in a propulsive plot. They’re looking for a glimpse of that old Crichton magic. And they just might find it in Extinction.

It's not a masterpiece, but it's fine airplane reading

Micro
by Michael Crichton & Richard Preston

I was, and am, a huge fan of Michael Crichton's work. I never had very high expectations for this final novel, but that's no reflection on the choice of Richard Preston to complete the work. In any case, for better or worse, Micro lived up to my tempered expectations.

Like several of Crichton's earlier novels, Micro has a high concept hook. Most nanotech companies fabricate on a nano scale, but Nanigen MicroTechnologies has developed revolutionary shrinking technology. Not only can they reduce machines and robots, they can reduce living beings and then return them to full size. I won't get into all the details of the novel's set-up, but seven graduate students learn about this technology the hard way once they become a threat to Nanigen's president. Seven against one is much easier to manage when the seven (and one unlucky Nanigen employee) are half an inch tall. Before they can be dispatched quickly, however, the students escape into Hawaii's verdant "micro world."

Crichton's strengths and weaknesses as a storyteller remain consistent. His primary characters are more archetypes than individuals. Rather than Rick, Erika, Amar, and Karen, these students quickly show themselves to be the Leader, the Warrior, the Know It All, the Weasel, and so forth. Each has an assigned role to fulfill. Some barely live long enough to become typecast, because the micro world is treacherous. When you're half an inch tall, a beetle is not unlike a rhinoceros. Luckily, these students are unusually well prepared to survive their hostile surroundings--or unusually well informed about the danger they're in--depending on how you look at it. Among them there are experts in insects and arachnids, poisons and venoms, and the chemical defenses of plants and animals.

Crichton is great about translating the wonder of science. His amazing shrinking technology won't send me running to the textbooks this time around, but there's still plenty of gee whiz science to be enjoyed in Micro's pages. More than that, he effectively shows the beauty as well as the horror of the situation his characters are in. As for the horror, I have to admit that I found it especially disturbing this time out. I have no special fear of dinosaurs, but I am absolutely phobic about spiders and insects. There are scenes that I definitely could have done without reading, and if this is an issue for you as well, be forewarned.

Much like Jurassic Park, Micro has a picaresque quality, with its protagonists leaping from one threat to another. I hate to say it, but the plotting was pretty by the book. There was a police procedural subplot that never really went anywhere, and true surprises were few and far between. Despite this, I read the novel easily in a day (instead of saving it for my Thanksgiving flight like I was supposed to). Once I started, I didn't want to stop reading, and the pages flew past swiftly.

Preston appears to have done a good job finishing what Crichton left behind. There is no feeling that this is the work of another author. Still, I do find myself wondering how the novel would have differed had Crichton written it all. Alas, we'll never know. If you're a hard-core Crichton fan like me, by all means read this novel. Just don't expect this final work to be the man's masterpiece. And even if you're not a hard-core fan, if the premise sounds fun to you, you could do a lot worse for airplane reading.

Mailbox Monday: The giving thanks edition

Well, it's a few days early, but I'm ready to celebrate Thanksgiving!  It's my favorite holiday, and the only one that I never miss spending with my family.  I'm flying home to DC on the red-eye Wednesday night.  That's tough, but once I'm there, I get to stay for ten whole days!  So, I'm looking forward to seeing lots of family and friends, and eating a really great meal.  (My family can cook!)

Also, there is one thing I'm looking forward to on my red-eye flight--finally getting to read the new (and final) Michael Crichton novel, Micro.  Truthfully, my hopes aren't super high for the book, but it's still very special to me.  I never articulated it until he passed away, but Crichton was a hero to me.  I thought he was Human 2.0.  He was brilliant and talented and handsome and really, really tall!  I'd started reading his novels before I was ten years old, and they gave me decades of pleasure.  And this is the very last new one.  Sort of.  Sort of because it was finished by Richard Preston, but sort of for another reason as well...

When Michael Crichton passed away, I learned of a little-known pseudonym that I'd neither heard of nor read before.  He published eight novels under the name John Lange, and within 48 hours of his death, I'd acquired six of them.  I had one shipped all the way from England.  Hopefully, one day I'll dig up affordable copies of the other two, but for now I have a secret stash of unread early Crichtons.  I've only read one, and I'll be rationing out the remaining titles for the rest of my life.  That, my friends, is true fandom.  But for now, I'm thankful that I'll be reading his final work this week.

I am also thankful, as noted earlier today, to have joined Amazon.com's Top 100 Reviewers for the first time.  It was a long-term goal, and it feels good to have met it.  I'm less thankful for the miserable cold I'm currently suffering from, but if I can get through the next 48 hours, I'm golden.  I'm super thankful that my office is closing at noon on Wednesday, and that I won't have to return for 12 days!  And on that note...

I've Got Your Number
by Sophie Kinsella
Release date: February 14, 2012
Source: Paper galley from publisher

I read Confessions of a Shopaholic a few years ago and kind of hated it.  I thought the protagonist was an idiot.  But, as you've gathered, I've been desperate to lighten my reading and this fit the bill.  It was a pleasant surprise.  I started reading it as soon as I opened the package.  Review to come soon.

The Winters in Bloom
by Lisa Tucker
Release date:  September 13, 2011
Source: Finished hardback from publisher

I'm not sure why Simon and Schuster sent this book months after its release, and after I read and reviewed a galley, but, okay.  Thank you.

Special Topics in Calamity Physics
by Marisha Pessl
Release date: August 3, 2006
Source: Audible.com sale

I've been meaning to read this much-lauded novel for the past five years, and in addition to going on sale this week, I just learned that Pessl's second novel will be published this coming spring.  I now have a deadline.  Must read this book!

The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger
by Stephen King
Release date: June 24, 2003
Source: Free anniversary money from Audible.com

Since reviewing 11/22/63 on Amazon.com, a bunch of strangers have been leaving comments on my review telling me that I have to read the Dark Tower novels.  I've always been a little wary of them, but I'll try to get to this one before the year is out.

Anne of Green Gables
by L.M. Montgomery
Release date:  1908
Source: $.99 Kindle purchase

I've never read this classic, and it was suggested by helpful reader friends to assist with scrubbing the Umberto Eco from my brain.  I'm reading it now and it's delightful! 

Live and Let Die
by Ian Fleming
Release date: April 5, 1954
Source: Kindle Daily Deal ($1.99)

Just over a week ago, my friends Melissa and Mike convinced me to give James Bond films another go.  They were right; the re-make of Casino Royale with Daniel Craig was the best Bond film I've seen.  It was during this discussion that I said I really needed to read Fleming's original novels.  Now I'm one step closer.

Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes
by Stephen Sondheim
Release date: October 26, 2010
Source: Finished copy from publisher

Not only does the new Michael Crichton go on sale tomorrow, the new Sondheim does, too!  It's the second volume of his collected lyrics/memoir that began with this volume last year.  I was hoping the kind folks in Knopf publicity would honor my review request, and they did.  Sort of.  Someone SNAFUed and sent me last year's book instead of the new one:  Look, I Made a Hat.  Hopefully, I'll acquire a copy soon.  Look for the bold pink cover; it'll be a popular gift title this holiday season.

Books finished this week:

I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella
Too Much Stuff by Don Bruns


Currently reading:

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Native Tongue by Carl Hiaasen


So, what have you been reading?   What books have you acquired this week?  What will you be reading during your holiday travel/time off?  Please let us know in the comments.  And happy Thanksgiving to you all!

A slight Crichton is better than no Crichton at all

Pirate Latitudes
by Michael Crichton

I adored Michael Crichton's technothrillers. His period novels never really captivated me the same way. Nevertheless, I have to say that this latest and last is an enjoyable, if slight, entertainment. While the period and setting are surely as meticulously researched as every other work he's written, I almost felt like I was reading a pirate fantasy created by Crichton's inner child. While undeniably adult in its depictions of sex and violence (neither to excess, in my opinion), there was still a boy's adventure resting just below the surface.

The story takes a while to get going, as Crichton introduces the reader to the time, the place, and the large cast of characters led by Captain Charles Hunter, an Englishman of the Massachusetts Bay colony living in Port Royal, Jamaica in 1665. Hunter and his comrades are engaged in an ongoing, unsanctioned conflict with the Spanish plying the Caribbean waters. And that's all you really need to know.

Like Jurassic Park, this novel is a picaresque. Where in the former the characters careened from t-rex to pterodactyl to velociraptor, here it's from Spanish pirates to hurricanes to savage cannibals and more. The life of a pirate in the Caribbean--it's not a cakewalk! But I felt that Crichton plunged his rag tag troupe of characters into each new calamity with a twinkle in his eye. It's all good fun. And the best part of all may have been the novel's dénouement.

As I read, I couldn't help but think of Michael Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road. Set in a completely different time and place, the two novels have more in common than one might guess and seem to share a sensibility. Both are light entertainments written by serious writers looking back with great affection to the adventure tales that influenced the men they eventually became. While Pirate Latitudes is not one of his most substantive works, it's not a bad way to remember the wonderful Michael Crichton.