The Venona Cable by Brent Ghelfi

Published by Henry Holt and Co. on August 18, 2009

The Venona Cable departs from the storyline established in the first two Volk novels. Instead of battling with his past in the context of a present conflict, Volk is battling with his father's past, seeking to learn the truth about the man he never knew. When Volk's father defected to the United States, was he a traitor or a double agent working for Moscow?

Volk is dispatched to the US to learn why an American was murdered in Volk's Moscow warehouse while attempting to deliver to Volk a copy of a World War II era cable (one of the Venona cables which, if you Google the subject, will lead you to an intriguing real world story of espionage). While in the US, Volk must unravel the secret of the cable, its connection to current day spy networks (both Russian and American), and its relationship to his father. The story is therefore more in the vein of a conventional spy thriller than its predecessors. The violence in this novel is toned down a bit (although there's still a fair amount of mayhem as Volk repeatedly fights for his life), Volk's partner Valya and his boss the General play backstage roles, and American spy Brock Matthews, who turns up only collaterally in the first two novels, plays a central role in this one.

As do the first two, this novel works nicely as a thriller, maintaining a steady pace that increases to a frenzy as the novel nears its end. The Venona Cable would be an enjoyable read without having read the first two Volk novels, but you would have deeper insight into Volk's character if you read the first two before reading this one.

RECOMMENDED

Adventures of the Artificial Woman by Thomas Berger

Published by Simon & Schuster on April 27, 2004

This thin novel skates into a guarded recommendation because of its amusement value.  Ellery Pierce makes robotic contraptions that a movie like Jurassic Park might use.  Having had little luck with women, he uses his talent (and workshop) to craft one of his own design.  Perhaps he made her too well, because she has little use for him while pursuing a fleeting career in Hollywood (rising to the pinnacle before crashing to the soaps) and then running for the presidency, on a write-in ballot no less.

The concept of an artificial partner, designed to give the creator what he (or she) wants without all the hassle of an actual human being, has a certain comic appeal,.  The robot rejects the creator's dominion, behaves with vexing independence ... a cute but unoriginal concept.  Unfortunately, Thomas Berger does nothing new or meaningful with the idea; worse, he makes the artificial woman into a political bimbo, a robotic Chauncey Gardiner.  At its best moments, the novel delivers some chuckles; it aggressively fails to do anything else.  A novel like this could illustrate the superficiality of basing judgment on appearance or offer insight into relationships between real men and women.  Berger instead opted for a simple, unimaginative story that is intermittently funny.  Take it for what it is if you choose to take it at all.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

KOP by Warren Hammond

Published by Tor on April 29, 2008

KOP is set on the planet Lagarto. Hammond's depiction of Largato as a seedy, economically deprived world is particularly well done; Lagarto seems to come alive, as if it were a character in the novel.   KOP's protagonist, Juno Mozambe, is a law enforcement officer employed by the Koba Office of the Police.  His historical role in KOP has been that of enforcer, making sure businesses are paying for protection and other law enforcement officers are staying in line.  His partner in this endeavor, Paul Chang, is chief of police, but it isn't clear that he'll survive a gang war that's underway between the local gang that he protects and a rival gang from another Lagarto city.  Juno seems to be losing the respect of the police force he once dominated, and at the same time has the chance to gain the respect of an incorruptable young officer, Maggie Orzo, with whom he is partnered.

The complex crime story is pure fun, and Juno's conflicted feelings about his own corruption as a law enforcement officer make him an interesting character. The pace is brisk and the story is action-packed.  The violent ending probably shouldn't have surprised me but it did. 

Readers of crime fiction, particularly those with an appreciation of noir, would probably feel at home reading this sf thriller. I enjoy both genres and thought Hammond did a skillful job of blending them.

RECOMMENDED

Nana by Émile Zola

First published in 1880

You don't have to be a scholar of French literature (I'm not) to appreciate Nana. Set in the late 1860's and early 1870's, Zola's novel (the ninth in his Rougon-Macquart series) follows a talentless but beautiful stage actress whose physical charms (which she generously shares with upscale men) make her the talk of Paris. Nana is soon living well beyond the means of the various men who support her; their desire for her inevitably leads to their downfall, while the smiling Nana simply moves on to the next admirer.

Zola paints beautifully detailed portraits: the theater, the city, Parisian aristocracy and the crowds that clog the streets all come alive in vibrant color. The characters peopling the novel represent all the traits, good and (mostly) bad, that a sharp-eyed writer could hope to put on display: cruelty, lechery, indifference, pompousness, greed and corruption, occasionally offset by kindness and generosity. Zola was apparently saying something about the superficiality and decadence of society (Nana is ultimately doomed, as is the French empire), but from the modern reader's standpoint, the novel works as sort of an entertaining soap opera, a spoof of the upper class, an old school view of the sexual power women wield over men. Above all, it's often very funny. The novel is easy to read and well worth the time.

RECOMMENDED

The Guards by Ken Bruen

First published in 2001

I bought The Guards while stranded at an airport, knowing nothing about Ken Bruen. I'm glad I did. Bruen's writing style is concise, forceful, sometimes lyrical, and unusual in the sense that he peppers his prose with lists and with quotations from other authors (some of which have led me to discover those authors). Bruen's protagonist, Jack Taylor, is a down-and-out former Guard (i.e., an Irish ex-cop) who is doing his best to cope with pain ... and nobody should have to endure the kind of pain that plagues Taylor in this novel and others in the series. Bruen paints Taylor in dark colors but manages at the same time to make him noble, to make him aspire to decency if not perfection.

Taylor dabbles in private investigations from his seat at the bar run by his friend Sean. A woman who believes her daughter was murdered hires him to prove that she didn't commit suicide. The plot, however, is secondary to the drama of Taylor's life: his attempts to stop drinking, to make peace with his dead father and abusive mother, to forge a relationship with the woman who hired him, and to pursue his dream. The investigation comes to a satisfying end; Taylor's struggle with his life continues in subsequent novels, fortunately for readers like me who want to see more of him.

RECOMMENDED