August 1, 1902
By the time the echo from the first knock on his door rebounded off the back of his cabin, Captain Charles Urquhart was fully awake.
Thus begins another prologue from Mr. Cussler. The last book I reviewed from him also had a prologue that began in a distant land in a distant place - far, far away from the plot.
But let's take a closer look at this sentence, shall we? The echo of a knock rebounds off the back of his cabin is certainly an image. What kind of acoustics are in this room? Breaking it down into a series of events might help. The knock sound travels and echos, we assume, while traveling to the other side of the cabin and then rebounds, boing, knock, knock...knock........knock, and comes back to the door of original said knock. How long this takes is anyone's guess, but I suspect it isn't long as the second sentence in this book can attest to:
A lifetime at sea had given him the reflexes of a cat.
Is that where cats get their reflexes? Being at sea? Perhaps the reflexes of a mackerel or octopus would have been more fitting. Still the character needs a second knock at the door to register that something is amiss. So there is a problem enlightening the opening pages which is nice, just that it takes an awkward sentence in a roundabout way to introduce it. I guess this is an attempt at contemporary innovation.
Anyway the rest of the prologue is about some weird killing phenomenon.
Chapter 1:
North Siberia
Present day
It was the landscape of another world.
What follows is description of a place. I never enjoy reading random travel guides. Boring.
First thing said:
"Come."
I see no need to review more books by this author as he seems to do the same thing over and over again. However, I might just copy my old reviews of his books into a new review of his next release to create a new post with no effort at all.
Verdict: Fail
Sincerely,
Theodore Moracht
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