What do You think about Death Match (2006)?
Predictable. Agonizing slow plot. When done, I felt like I wasted my time. Unsatisfying. I figured out who did the murders very early in the book, way before learning the motive. This is a techno-thriller. The author uses 1980s computer technology, garbed in 1990s language, and it's clear he has read about some AI stuff, but has a shallow understanding of AI and neural networks. He throws the buzz words around in a semi reasonable fashion, but the gaps are humorous. Lots of standard techno adventure formula of crawling through duct work to different floors to escape detection (amazing how fictional duct work is always big enough to just accommodate the hero).
—Chuck Noren
Okay, maybe I am a bit too excited about this novel; maybe it should have received a 'Very Good' rating from me, instead of my highest. But it was one fun ride. Eden Inc. is a matchmaking company that makes every other one in the business look downright primitive. Their candidates are thoroughly analyzed physically, genetically, as well as psychologically, and then their data is input in a super supercomputer which is powerful enough to shame even the computing prowess of NASA. The supercomputer then finds the soulmate for each candidate and then it is happily everafter. But there is trouble in paradise as couples matched by Eden Inc. start to commit double suicides.An engaging novel of psychological suspense and terrific brain candy of a techno-thriller, Child has penned this novel mostly in stylish corporate-speak which is also very effective at maintaining the brisk narrative drive without getting in the way. The detailed descriptions of the psychological analyses of Eden's candidates provide very entertaining side bars, as do the insights into the company's fearsomely long technological arms which it uses to dip into the huge digital data reservoirs mining out every detail of their candidates' lives in order to draw up as accurate a personality profile of them as possible. Delicious techno-babble aside, a lot of good old-fashioned detective work helps in unravelling the mystery behind the deaths of the matched couples. While the revealing of the real culprit would not come as a surprise to most readers, nevertheless, this is a great psycho-techno thriller that is sure to please fans of several genres. Sleek, sophisticated, timely entertainment from the hugely-talented Mr. Child.
—Farhan
I generally pass on novels with multiple authors. However, the Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child partnership is a mystery to me. Together, their trashy airport thrillers are actually not bad at all for the genre. Yet on their own, these guys deserve a special section in the Dan Brown wing of the Museum of God-Awful American Writing. I assumed after Douglas Preston's word-poop "The Codex" (listened to this driving up to Yosemite) that Lincoln Child was the decent author in the Preston/Child partnership. "Death Match", about a super-computer that optimizes online dating, disproved this theory in a big way. The book started out OK but devolved, Stephen King-like, into a trite, completely predictable mess toward the end. Much of "Death Match" was suspiciously similar to the earlier, also weak Preston/Child collaboration "Mount Dragon". At least Child is safe from plagiarism charges on this one, though his crimes against people stuck on a Southwest Airlines flight with only one book (ie. me) remain unanswered.
—John G
