In my opinion, these guys have a lock on the thriller genre. And for good reason. In a genre that counts among its authors, Dan Brown, Jack DuBrul, James Patterson, Clive Cussler, Greg Bear, Iris Johansen, James Rollins, Raymond Khoury, David Lynn Goleman, William Gibson, and a bunch more, these guys really only have competition from Michael Cricton, who’s probably the undisputed God of this genre. Let’s talk about the fact that this is a convoluted and ambiguous subset of fiction. I think that most of the books one could term “thriller” also have their fingers in a separate genre. According to Amazon, my interests are apparently in “action & adventure fiction”, “science-fiction adventure”, “mystery & thriller”, “suspense thrillers” (really, Amazon?) and “techno thrillers”. Makes sense, yeah? Good, moving on.
I suppose you could say I’m a Preston and Child Completist. To-date, I’ve read (including solo efforts):
-Relic
-Reliquary
-The Cabinet of Curiosities
-Still Life with Crows
-Brimstone
-Dance of Death
-The Wheel of Darkness
-The Book of the Dead
-Cemetery Dance
-Fever Dream
-Thunderhead
-Tyrannosaur Canyon
-Blasphemy
-Riptide
-Mount Dragon
-The Ice Limit
-Impact
-The Monster of Florence (non-fiction)
-The Codex
-Death Match
-Utopia
-Deep Storm
-Terminal Freeze
-I’m currently in the midst of reading Cold Vengeance.
About the only thing I haven’t read yet is Douglas Preston’s non-fiction and the “Gideon” books.
So what is it about these guys? These are thriller novels, not literary fiction. With the exception of the Pendergast series, the characters aren’t deep. But the writing is tight and quick, propelling you to an insane conclusion, one that you can’t reason out from page one. There isn’t any lag-time in these novels. You don’t even have a chance to get bored. Much as you don’t have a chance to stop reading the book. Sure, if you’re hardcore against these novels, I suppose you won’t enjoy them. They do require suspension of belief. But it’s not really a hard-sell. But I’m not convincing people who hate these types of novels to give them a shot. I’m explaining why these guys are at the top of their game and why their novels are absolutely top-notch. I started with Relic. That would be my suggestion to anyone looking to break into the series. The Pendergast set is what made them famous and for good reason. I read the series in order though, in the midst of waiting for the new releases (I’d estimate I started these books in the winter of 2006), I read their other stuff. The Preston solo efforts are a bit stronger than the Child projects, but they are all nonetheless quite good. Out of all of these, I probably liked The Codex the least.
These guys are masters of plot. They can spin subplots and subtext like woven wool. To read one of these novels is to embark on a ride you didn’t know existed. With the passing of Michael Crichton (whose later works were certainly less brilliant and whose career included some unfortunate missteps) this pair is the worthy successor to such a dynasty. They rarely write anything that isn’t excellent (though I haven’t heard good things about the Gideon series, though apparently Hollywood is trying to turn it into a movie, so go figure) and whenever I get my hands on another of their novels, I always start it next. Case in point: I got Cold Vengeance for Christmas and I started it on the 26th, right after finishing The Fellowship of the Ring.
Book Blogger Thoughts:
Cold Venegance at A Walrus Darkly
Relic at Ryder Islington
Riptide at Cher Cabula’s Mindbox
Thunderhead at Jandy’s Reading Room
Impact at The Book Smugglers
