| [BACK]
My POV
Brian A. Wilson
BOOK REVIEW
"Acid Test," a novel by Ross LaManna, writer of "Rush Hour."
Ballantine Books
Available in August
Reading Ross LaManna's first novel, "Acid Test," is like watching Barry Sanders play football: Slowed a bit early on, he breaks for a decent gain now and then, and just about the time you think he's done for the day, he hits a gear nobody else has and makes your eyeballs spin in their sockets.
"Acid Test" takes place against the backdrop of a showdown between the U.S. and a fanatical dictator who has reunited several small Central Asian countries in hopes of making them a superpower. The story of an Air Force investigation officer tracking a series of weird homicides eventually dovetails with this international terrorist plot.
To my thinking, therein lies the problem.
LaManna has created an intriguing, likeable hero in Matt Wildman. This highly capable yet modest hero falls into, for the most part, fresh and engaging action sequences throughout the story. However, the real bad guy, rebel Batu Khan, spends most of the story half way around the world. When Khan is challenging someone, it's the President, over whom Khan has a mysterious hold anyway. The result is a very long build-up until the confrontation occurs between hero Wildman and villain Khan.
To LaManna's credit, when this showdown does finally occur in about the last fifth of the book, you really see that this guy was born to write action. The writer of "Rush Hour" dishes out realistic, fresh engagements in intriguing settings, presented with highly visual writing and an impressive pacing. LaManna is a marathon runner who sprints the last two miles.
For the most part, he finishes strong, although my personal taste wished for a more satisfying dispatching of the Khan, and a more coherent explanation of the President's long-mentioned, never clearly delineated plan to deal with him.
But that's showbiz.
A high-tech thriller-dogfight story like this inevitably begs comparison to writings by Tom Clancy. For the most part, LaManna holds his own in the techno-warfare genre. Certainly, the book's acknowledgements indicate he did plenty of research on the hardware and men who build and operate it. However, he does have a couple of stumbles over small points, e.g., describing a gun as .762mm caliber, rather than 7.62mm.
Hairsplitting? Perhaps. Simple typo missed by a non-tech editor? Could be.
But that's part of the charm, the thrill, of reading a Tom Clancy military story: You just know you're in the hands of a master who isn't going to err on the smallest details, and therefore you trust him and go with him as he describes the big pieces as well. With these small chinks in LaManna's armor, it takes one out of the story and causes the ol' reptile brain to question the veracity and reality of each new device introduced. In short, small tech errors make it difficult to suspend disbelief and go with the story.
LaManna has some interesting style choices. For example, many passages lack a "he said" or "she said" ending. This makes the conversation flow more naturally for the most part, but occasionally makes it confusing to identify the speaker during an interchange.
The pacing of the action set pieces and the highly visual writing style make this novel feel very script-like. Unlike in a script, of course, LaManna enjoys the luxury of simply saying what is motivating his characters and what is on their minds. (This raises the questions of why, on more than one occasion, one character has to say to another, "As you know...." If he knows, why tell him? Aaagh! Pet peeve. Let's move on.)
It works as a book.
Nonetheless, I would be shocked if this weren't turned into a screenplay and shipped to your local megamultiplex within a couple of years. I could see John Frankenheimer directing, just to choreograph the closing chase with stealth jets in lieu of his familiar automobiles.
Overall, I'd say "Acid Test" is a bit of a slow burn. One certainly gets to know the characters along the way. And there are the requisite action pieces to keep it interesting. The ending is the best part, and in books as well as movies, that leaves one with a good feeling.
RECOMMENDATION: Worth a look for those who love the genre, and for screenwriters and writers considering a shift into other storytelling formats.
Keep writing.
BW
LA
bigtex@loop.com
|
