Another cheap potboiler du Brul has apparently written to a formula. There are so many action scenes in this one, it makes the reader weary. How a geologist can survive that many attempts on his life, with bullets, blows and every other type of assault du Brul could imagine, is way beyond reality. The premise itself is so implausible it is almost laughable. And a SEAL team that would let him join them in an operation???du Brul, who has written for Cussler, uses the same old formula again: constant action and violence, lots of weapons, exotic machinery, and many types of vehicles and locations. Back and forth between the locations. But I had to force myself to try to finish the book, and even then I only skimmed the last pages. Ug...Although the book is very well proofed for typos, apparently du Brul did not feel a need for a technical consultant to review it. There are so many technical errors, exaggerations, fantasies and stretches that it is obvious that the author thinks his readers are technically ignorant action junkies who will be satisfied by reading one action scene after the next, regardless of imaginary physics or reality.Examples are the explosive ANFO being called AMFO, a tunnel boring machine employing a cutting head with a matrix of buckminsterfullerine because it is so hard (!), and the rotating grinding head spinning at 15,000 rpm! Du Brul, your lack of attention to detail and accuracy is an affront to the intelligence of your readers, and I cannot take any more of these.
Philip Mercer, DuBrul's hero, returns to fight KGB assassin Ivan Kerilkov in this densely written but action-packed thriller. People double- and triple-cross each other in the convoluted plot. Mercer works with the US government, who want to open the Arctic Wildlife Refuge for offshore drilling, much to the consternation of eco-terrorist group PEAL.The book suffers from overkill (in some cases, literally). There are too many characters to realistically keep track of. The science is sound, to the author's credit. However, on page 420 he uses the absolute worst simile I've ever read: a person is "screaming like a rape victim in a deserted parking lot." How unbelievably tasteless of you, Mr. DuBrul. Hopefully, your writing gets better from here on out.
What do You think about Charon's Landing (2006)?
No matter how much money you have it can not buy you complete happiness. This is a story about how an geologist and an old adversary, a former KGB agent, whom he thought was out of his life for ever came back to haunt him in this latest adventure. The scene starts out with Mercer on a fishing trip with friends, who were showing him their new invention,the mini-mole, where it would dig its way through a mountain by programming the GPS.After the demonstration they went on a fishing trip where they happened upon a boat that had been sabotaged. The adventure starts at that point. Then he meets a lovely environmentalist and things get really exciting. Even the ending is a surprise.
—Doloris Dutton
