I read a page of this book on someone else’s Kindle on a flight a few weeks ago and was intrigued enough by the premise that I bought and read it fairly quickly. Ultimately, that intriguing premise is all the book has to offer, unless you read a book for unfunny dialogue, a grating protagonist, and a cartoonish villain. (Notice I didn’t say a plot, of which there is little.)The novel, published in 2006, is set in 2002, just after 9/11. The premise – and I’m not giving away much here – involves a secret government protocol called Wild Fire established in the 1980s to deal with the nascent threat of Islamic terrorism. If a weapon of mass destruction is used on American soil by Islamic terrorists, an automated response rains down nuclear weapons on the major cities and other key sites of the Muslim world, killing hundreds of millions. The governments of those states are aware of the protocol and have kept their terror groups in check as a result. Enter Bain Madox, American oil billionaire and Bond villain, played in my mind by Sam Elliott. Madox, angered by 9/11, wants to activate Wild Fire by detonating nuclear weapons on American soil. Certain elements in the federal government have assured him that the government tacitly approves and wouldn’t stop the automated response if it came to that.I’m not giving much away here – Madox tells this entire story to Harry Muller, a federal agent he captures on his property in the first 30 pages. (Exposition makes for awesome reading.) Harry’s disappearance triggers an investigation by the protagonist John Corey (apparently this is his fourth appearance in DeMille’s books) and his wife Kate Mansfield. Mansfield is just perfect enough to be boring – a FBI agent and a lawyer, she’s sexy, smart, and level-headed. Corey, a former NYPD cop now working for the Anti-Terrorism Task Force, is none of those things except boring. A classic “I don’t play by the rules” tough guy, Corey is a caricature who tells awful jokes every time he opens his mouth and resists authority for no good reason. I don’t need characters to be likable for a book to be good, but Corey is actively grating.Corey and Mansfield investigate Muller’s disappearance and face off with Madox more than you’d think would happen in a criminal investigation. I really get the feeling that DeMille loved these characters* and thought it was thrilling to have them talk face-to-face a la the aforementioned Bond and his evil counterparts. Unfortunately, he ends up forcing one-dimensional stereotypes into mostly boring conversations. The characters also make some silly choices, and there is ultimately almost no tension in the book’s 519 pages (200 without Corey’s awful jokes). The plot is virtually non-existent – a hard feat given that nuclear war is imminent.*In the preface, DeMille says he believes Madox is the “best villain” DeMille ever created, and “certainly … the smartest and most interesting bad guy to come out of some scary place” in DeMille’s psyche. If true, don’t read anything by DeMille.A lazy and ultimately boring effort. Not recommended.
NELSON DEMILLE – ODVETNÝ ÚDER (RECENZE)www.z-kultury-i-nekultury.blogspot.com Autorka: Jindřiška MendozovátNikdy jsem nebyla velkou přítelkyní špionážních románů, konspiračních teorií ani hrdinů, kteří se vždycky všemu podívají pěkně zblízka na zoubek a špióna odhalí i ve své babičce. Když se mi dostala do rukou kniha od Nelsona DeMillea prvně, byla jsem trošku nerozhodná... něco se mi na něm líbilo, jiné věci ani trošku... Klady ale převyšovaly nad zápory, a tak jsem si následně požádala i o RC Nočního pádu. Tehdy jsem si konspirační teorie, tedy alespoň ty v podání Nelsona DeMillea a jeho – alespoň tedy v tuto chvíli – už dvou hlavních hrdinů, Johna Coreye a jeho manželky Kate Mayfieldové, úspěšně zamilovala.U DeMillea je vždycky těžké zmiňovat se o ději tak, aby píšící neprozradil víc, než by čtenáři rádi věděli. Takže jen velmi stručně. John Corey tentokrát vyšetřuje vraždu svého přítele Harryho Mullera. Odjíždí ji vyšetřovat do tajného pánského klubu (ano, podobné kluby byly kdysi už noční můrou Sherlocka Holmese ☺ ) Custer Hill Club. Schovaný v národním parku Adirondack a mezi jeho členy patří nejmocnější muži USA. A zrovna, když rada klubu jedná o 11. září a případné odvetě za ně, objeví se mrtvý agent, který nepřežil sledovací akci, kterou byl pověřen. Náhoda? Nehoda? Jestli tomu někdo věří, tak určitě ne John Corey ani jeho manželka...Tolik k ději nebo spíš k jeho úplnému počátku. Přestože je kniha hodně obsáhlá, celá se nese v duchu stylu, na kterého jsme u Nelsona DeMillea zvyklí – rychlém, svižném, s častými vtipnými hláškami, které pronáší především John Corey (i když oproti Ostrovu Antrax v jejich četnosti poněkud polevil a je to jen a jen k dobru věci). Celou záležitost tentokrát sledujeme ještě z dalšího úhlu pohledu. Z úhlu pohledu Harryho Mullera. Což je dobře, protože kniha se tak nestává monologem Johna Coreye, který by v pěti set stránkovém rozsahu mohl být místy únavný.Jak je DeMilleovým dobrým zvykem i v Odvetném úderu míchá skutečnost a fikci, vytváří pro své čtenáře nový svět, který nutí klást si nové a zajímavé otázky ve vztahu k našemu zcela reálnému světu. Prostě i když víme, že tohle se nestalo, pořád nějaký hlásek vzadu v hlavě neúnavně opakuje... „ale co kdyby...“. Aby si každý mohl odpovědět po svém, nezbývá nic jiného než si Odvetný úder přečíst... určitě to nebude nuda...Vydalo nakladatelství Kniha Zlín
What do You think about Wild Fire (2006)?
If Sherlock Holmes has Dr. Watson on his side, well Nelson DeMille teamed John Corey with his wife FBI agent Kate Mayfield on his novel, Wildfire .The story starts with this missing member of Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force gone missing in the woods while on surveillance on this prestige club which is composed of powerful men in Wall Street and Washington. The couple was then doubtful on whatever is going on.Kate: Do you think he had an accident?John: No.Kate: Suicide?John: Not Harry.Kate: Do you think he’s just goofing off some place?John: No.Kate: So…John: Yes *We didn’t speak for the rest of the ride*It is really a wonderful book since most of the things you will be reading are true, including to what happened on the Twin Towers and some statements made by some significant and infamous political and secular figures in America and in Middle East. It is also based on the circulated conspiracy after the 9/11.Nelson DeMille will surely fascinate the future readers (and had fascinated his readers who were able to finish Wildfire) because it included influential men, although fictitious.In lieu with the characters, you would surely love the tandem of John and Kate, and love them more because of their never ending arguments and witty connotations made by John Corey.John Corey: We’re off to Plum Island. You know, the biological warfare research lab. There’s, like, eight liters of anthrax missing, and we have to try to figure out where it went. That could be nasty if a crop duster sprays it over the vineyards—or *coughs* Excuse me. So have a nice day.You would also love the villains because of their wickedness and wit.
—Johanna Gail Tongco
What a great premise for a book!But it turns out to be one long, extended, overwrought, overwritten annoyance.The whole idea of Wild Fire is that since 9/11, the USA has put the word out to the Muslim extremists that if any WMD is ever used on a U.S. city, that will set off a barrage of nuclear warheads sent at 100 or so cities in the Middle East ... kind of an extension of the balance of power (Mutually Assured Destruction) of the Cold War.What makes this book fascinating (and gets it the second of two stars) is the way some right-wing wacko in upstate New York plans to set off a couple of nuclear bombs in the U.S. and finger Al Qaeda or the like ... of course, sparking Wild Fire.But DeMille (way past his prime of Gold Coast) is apparently too full of himself these days to respect the reader enough to write meaningful dialogue. He leans so heavily on this idea for a plot that he forgets to make interesting characters or eye-opening twists (John Corey is a shell of his famous self). Instead, he essentially tells the end in the first 50 pages, and then spends 450 pages showing how we get there, via many weak detours and dead ends -- with no real questions asked or answered along the way. Just an increasingly annoying and frustrating ride.Here's the good news: I'm glad I read it to remind myself that sometimes you've got to read a few toads to find a princess.
—Don
Very engaging and scary books with a character that had me smiling at his wise cracks and sarcasism. I think I would have liked to seen his wife fleshed out a little more as she seemed to have an edge to her that would be interesting to see more fully explored. Perhaps he does this in future books, as this is the first I have read by this author. The storyline is not startling because it is something most of us have thought about imagined or even read about before...since 9/11 our world has changed in so many ways that the worst scenarios no longer seem to be out of the possible, at least for most of us. So while this didn't explore a totally new and startling concept it did tell the story in a way that was engaging and kept me turning pages wondering how it was going to play out and how our intrepide, rule breaking, smart mouthed, funny hero was going to get himself, and his wife, and indeed the world out of the trouble he deaded headlong into.
—Susan Clark-cook
