![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1){kind=small}
Once again, its taken longer for me to get to this review than promised.That being said:
G-8 and the Death Monsters
Summary:
One of the running antogonists in the series, Herr Doctor Kreuger, returns with yet another devious plan to defeat the allies. He has discovered a new kind of creature in the Amazonian rainforest. This creature is like a small, airborne jellyfish with long stingers. Moreover, he has figured out how to transfer human consciousness into these creatures. But, to get them to the size where they can be a viable threat, he needs access to elephants.
Fortunately, thanks to the long arm of coincidence, a British general on the allied side has had elephants transported from India with the hope that they might be a help with moving equipment. This General has lost face because this plan has proved to be a costly mistake ... but, when the German spy network plants the suggestion that elephants could be used in a drive, the British General snaps at the chance of redeeming himself.
However, during the subsequent drive, G-8 and his men, flying surveillance over the drive, realize that it has been a set-up -- the Germans have set traps to capture the elephants. However, before he can do anything about it, he is shot down. As he goes down, he signals his men to return to the field without him.
So G-8 finds himself a prisoner of war, caught behind enemy lines. Without his usual advantage of preparation and disguise, he must figure out how to escape the prisoner of war camp, find out what the Germans need the elephants for, discover the "Death Monsters" of the title and discover the source of their one, closely guarded, vulnerability, and get the information back to the allies before the Germans can use the 'death monsters" to win the war.
Of course, he succeeds, in the end ... but the author keeps one in suspense, wondering how he will manage to get out of each new fix he gets into.
Evaluation:
Having, in the last review, smug set out the set formula of a G-8 story, I was pleasantly surprised that this one, which was published only a month or two after the novel I reviewed previously, doesn't really fit that structure at all. For one thing, the story doesn't just follow the doings of G-8 and his Battle Aces -- indeed, G-8 doesn't appear until about three or four chapters into the story. The first two or three chapters all take place on the German side, revealing just enough about Herr Dr. Kreuger's plan to leave you wondering why he needs the elephants, and showing how the German spies succeed in planting the idea for the ill-conceived drive, using armoured elephants. Then, the story follows G-8 and his friends as they realize that the Germans are setting a trap to capture the elephants. After G-8 is captured, there are two or three chapters following his friends, Bull and Nippy, in their efforts to stop the drive. Finally, there is a bravura sequence following G-8's adventure on the other side of the line. And, since he hadn't set out to perform a spy mission, he has to do it without disguise, without a cover story, basically having to make it up as he goes along. This fragmentary structure has a couple benefits: it allows the reader to know things about what is going on, which the characters have no way of knowing, creating all the more suspense. And it cumulatively creates a whole greater than the sum of the parts, since we see overlapping parts of the narrative from different viewpoints.
Caveat
I'm always dubious about the use of coincidence as a plot expedient. However, the author has the one one major coincidence occur at the start of the story: the British having elephants on their side of the line just at the point when the Germans need such creatures. Most everything else flows naturally after this.
My view is that every story has the right to one free coincidence: that coincidence, then, is essentially the premise. However, after that, if an author starts layering one coincidence on top of the other, I lose interest -- the author has failed to keep up his side of the compact with the reader, by too frequently challenging the willing suspension of disbelief.
Robert J. Hogan has used coincidence here ... but he has handled it the right way -- as the set up of the story, instead of all a fallback.
High Points
The fragmented structure worked well, keeping me in suspense. Also, there were some passages of really quite effective writing: In one episode, G-8 has been put in a special POW camp ... in which, one by one, the prisoners are being taken away for some kind of experiment, from which they never return. The author captures comradeship and mood of these doomed souls quite well ... while serving the narrative function of keeping you wondering if a scheme that G-8 has set up will be operative before he is the next one to be picked for these mysterious experiments. There is another striking passage which describes the mingled anxiety and delight when he is captured by one of the "Death Monsters", and taken, through the air, on a cross-country trip, for reasons and purpose unknown.
Overeall, I recommend this, if you are looking for some pleasant diversion: The author evidences his usual knack at story-telling. The fragmented story structure is an unusually sophisticated technique for this kind of narrative, but the author uses it effectively. And there are some passages, and some images, which I find still going through my mind, a week afterwards.
You can buy this book by following this link.
Enjoy!
One of the running antogonists in the series, Herr Doctor Kreuger, returns with yet another devious plan to defeat the allies. He has discovered a new kind of creature in the Amazonian rainforest. This creature is like a small, airborne jellyfish with long stingers. Moreover, he has figured out how to transfer human consciousness into these creatures. But, to get them to the size where they can be a viable threat, he needs access to elephants.
Fortunately, thanks to the long arm of coincidence, a British general on the allied side has had elephants transported from India with the hope that they might be a help with moving equipment. This General has lost face because this plan has proved to be a costly mistake ... but, when the German spy network plants the suggestion that elephants could be used in a drive, the British General snaps at the chance of redeeming himself.
However, during the subsequent drive, G-8 and his men, flying surveillance over the drive, realize that it has been a set-up -- the Germans have set traps to capture the elephants. However, before he can do anything about it, he is shot down. As he goes down, he signals his men to return to the field without him.
So G-8 finds himself a prisoner of war, caught behind enemy lines. Without his usual advantage of preparation and disguise, he must figure out how to escape the prisoner of war camp, find out what the Germans need the elephants for, discover the "Death Monsters" of the title and discover the source of their one, closely guarded, vulnerability, and get the information back to the allies before the Germans can use the 'death monsters" to win the war.
Of course, he succeeds, in the end ... but the author keeps one in suspense, wondering how he will manage to get out of each new fix he gets into.
Evaluation:
Having, in the last review, smug set out the set formula of a G-8 story, I was pleasantly surprised that this one, which was published only a month or two after the novel I reviewed previously, doesn't really fit that structure at all. For one thing, the story doesn't just follow the doings of G-8 and his Battle Aces -- indeed, G-8 doesn't appear until about three or four chapters into the story. The first two or three chapters all take place on the German side, revealing just enough about Herr Dr. Kreuger's plan to leave you wondering why he needs the elephants, and showing how the German spies succeed in planting the idea for the ill-conceived drive, using armoured elephants. Then, the story follows G-8 and his friends as they realize that the Germans are setting a trap to capture the elephants. After G-8 is captured, there are two or three chapters following his friends, Bull and Nippy, in their efforts to stop the drive. Finally, there is a bravura sequence following G-8's adventure on the other side of the line. And, since he hadn't set out to perform a spy mission, he has to do it without disguise, without a cover story, basically having to make it up as he goes along. This fragmentary structure has a couple benefits: it allows the reader to know things about what is going on, which the characters have no way of knowing, creating all the more suspense. And it cumulatively creates a whole greater than the sum of the parts, since we see overlapping parts of the narrative from different viewpoints.
Caveat
I'm always dubious about the use of coincidence as a plot expedient. However, the author has the one one major coincidence occur at the start of the story: the British having elephants on their side of the line just at the point when the Germans need such creatures. Most everything else flows naturally after this.
My view is that every story has the right to one free coincidence: that coincidence, then, is essentially the premise. However, after that, if an author starts layering one coincidence on top of the other, I lose interest -- the author has failed to keep up his side of the compact with the reader, by too frequently challenging the willing suspension of disbelief.
Robert J. Hogan has used coincidence here ... but he has handled it the right way -- as the set up of the story, instead of all a fallback.
High Points
The fragmented structure worked well, keeping me in suspense. Also, there were some passages of really quite effective writing: In one episode, G-8 has been put in a special POW camp ... in which, one by one, the prisoners are being taken away for some kind of experiment, from which they never return. The author captures comradeship and mood of these doomed souls quite well ... while serving the narrative function of keeping you wondering if a scheme that G-8 has set up will be operative before he is the next one to be picked for these mysterious experiments. There is another striking passage which describes the mingled anxiety and delight when he is captured by one of the "Death Monsters", and taken, through the air, on a cross-country trip, for reasons and purpose unknown.
Overeall, I recommend this, if you are looking for some pleasant diversion: The author evidences his usual knack at story-telling. The fragmented story structure is an unusually sophisticated technique for this kind of narrative, but the author uses it effectively. And there are some passages, and some images, which I find still going through my mind, a week afterwards.
You can buy this book by following this link.
Enjoy!
April 6 2006, 05:07:06 UTC 6 years ago