Customer Reviews

Killing Time

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(28)
2 star:		(36)
1 star:		(138)

 

 

"The world wants to be deceived": this is the premise of Caleb Carr's new novel, set in the near future, 2024. By this time, the United States not only has had its first female president, but she has been assasinated. Much of the world has suffered through a global economic collapse and a plague, and the seas are filled with sewage and no life. A band of educated idealists takes it upon themselves (arrogantly, I might add) to better the world through their deceptions, which are made easy by the "modern" internet and the high level of technology. Of course, control is a slippery thing to contain.

After I survived the first short chapter that sounded annoyingly like the Myst/Riven series of computer games, I found myself reading furiously. Then, strangely, Carr lost my interest. His characters began pontificating and debating and justifying their actions so much that I could no longer stand it. Characterizations? Barely there. Vivid scenes? Sorry. This book is not filled with bad writing, as another reviewer states, but rather bad fiction. Carr seems to have forgotten how to show, not tell, and the result is heavy-handed and hardly believable fantasy fiction.

If you read numerous books during the year, this is an okay addition to your list, but don't bother if you read only occasionally. You'll find far more rewarding books out there.

Well, I'll start by saying that I do think that Caleb Carr is a very talented writer, HOWEVER, this book is an amateur effort, at best. Every chapter ends with heavy handed foreshadowing, and a cliff hanger which seems to be thrown in to keep you from putting the book down in disgust. The characters are very one-dimensional, especially the main character, and the book almost feels like a Luddite rant. Up until the end, technology is described as a purely destructive force, but then it is used to solve all the worlds ills in a Deus ex machina-like resolution, which to me felt like Star Trek's universal translator. To sum things up, while I do think that Caleb Carr writes very good historical thrillers, science fiction fables are not his forte. I would suggest picking up any James Morrow book instead of reading this.

Being a big fan of THE ALIENIST and ANGEL OF DARKNESS (which I actually liked better), I quickly devoured this latest novel by Caleb Carr. If you're familiar with Mr. Carr's work you'll know he usually writes period thrillers which introduce real-life people and events into a fictional tale. While I knew (from advance reviews) that this book wasn't historical (actually, it's set in the near future), I found the writing style and unique tone to be very smiliar to Mr. Carr's other novels. The book gets off to an exciting start with the main character of Dr. Gideon Wolff running from pursuing enemies in Africa - from page one I was sucked in and wanted to learn more. The story itself and it's central subject matter are fascinating - I don't want to give away any of the plot secrets, but overall the book is about how "truth" is easily manufactured by the public's willingness to believe whatever information the media and internet feed us. Even though this book is a new genre for Mr. Carr, I think you will find it an engrossing and timely read.

... and that is why I am so disappointed in "Killing Time". While the novel's premise - "information is not knowledge" - is indeed timely and intriguing, that's about as interesting as it gets. A good writer SHOWS his readers what's going on - he doesn't TELL them what's going on. In this novel, Mr. Carr tells us virtually everything through Gideon, the narrator, not allowing us to see for ourselves the events and motivations of the characters.

And what characters! They are merely a group of (barely) 2-dimensional individuals about whom it is impossible to cheer or care. They're skeletons, bare manifestations of Carr's ability to characterize, which I know he can do from reading "The Alienist" and "Angel of Darkness". (One note: I was especially disappointed in the Barbarella-like sex kitten character, Larissa. C'mon, Mr. Carr - are women in sci-fi novels doomed to perpetual portrayal as laser-blaster-toting sex bombs who can seduce a man and pilot the Millinium Falcon at lightspeed at the same time?)

Let's hope Mr. Carr's next novel returns to him to his strength - PAST history - and that from here on out, he lets the future take care of itself.

One of the characters in this novels says "information is not knowledge." This is probably the best line in the book. You can really look at Killing Time in two ways; as a thoughtful essay on the dangers of the information age, or as a mostly unsatisfying action/sci-fi novel. Caleb Carr would have done better expounding on his ideas about history, culture and the internet in a nonfiction book rather than try to stuff them all into this short, poorly plotted novel. Set about fifty years in the future, Killing Time is mainly about an extremely timely and important issue --the ease with which large numbers of people can be deceived by information age technology. In the future as foreseen by Carr, plagues, wars and environmental crisis have ravaged the world even as technology continues to flourish. A group of the world's most brilliant scientists establish their own community-without-borders and play a series of high tech pranks on the world (the basic plot is vaguely reminscent of a much better novel, Atlas Shrugged). When a psychiatrist named Gideon Wolfe makes some disconcerting discoveries about a vast cover-up regarding a presidential assasination, he is drawn into the group's plans. Naturally, one of them is a beautiful but deadly woman named Larissa who Wolfe falls in love with. The story follows the group's misadventures as they embark upon a morally ambiguous campaign against the universally corrupt governments of the world. The main problem with the book, alas, is the writing. I haven't read any of Carr's other novels, but from his reputation I expected more than this; it reads like a low budget movie script. The reader is not adequately introduced to the world of the future; the frenetic action starts too quickly and continues for most of the book. This does not help in what is primarily meant to be a philosophical inquiry into some fundamental questions about society. Another thing that gets in the way is Carr's gratuitous sermonizing on a variety of topics (this reminds me a little of Dean Koonz, though he is better at plotting his novels). There are constant snide remarks about the tastelessness of modern life and the shortcomings of various cultures, nations and religions and so forth. Even if you agree with him, this does not add anything to the novel. As for the message, it is, oddly enough, simultaneously heavy-handed and ambiguous. Carr is seemingly a harsh critic of technology, the internet and the so-called information age. Yet, when it comes down to it, he also believes that science and technology may hold the solution to our problems. The ending certainly suggests this. Ambiguity is not necessarily a bad thing; in fact, it can be a sign that someone has thought out a position thoroughly. Such a nuanced position, however, does not go well with a simplistic, action-dominated plot. Overall, I'd like to see a better book written on the same subject.

This book is somewhat interesting in that it gives a historian a chance to turn his perspective forward and envision the future. And some of Carr's prophecies are thought-provoking (though not necessarily original) and cause for a "hmmmmmm...", particularly knowing they were constructed pre-9/11.

However, the characters are one-dimensional and hastily developed, the "technology-may-be-harmful" message is delivered so forcefully that it becomes obnoxious despite its air of truth, and ultimately the plot transitions are so poor that the story can't stand as much more than an infantile adventure.

I agree with the comments of the other reviewers-- this book is a major disappointment considering the author's previous two novels. Where Carr seemed masterful in his other books describing, in exquisite detail, the historical surroundings in which his characters found themselves, we are treated to none of that in this book. While the premise is interesting, it is certainly nothing original to science fiction fans-- this same premise has been written better and with more style many times before. The worst disappointment has to be the character development (a strong point in Carr's earlier novels). These characters are paper-thin and cliche. Halfway through the novel, I came to the startling revelation that the characters were less like the sort I would expect in a Caleb Carr novel-- and more like what I would find in a saturday morning episode of the Superfriends (I half expected the female romantic interest to whip out a lasso of truth). Galavanting around the world in various unbelievable episodes, these characters were merely plot devices for Mr. Carr's diatribe against our growing ignorance and dependence on "information" from a multitude of sources.

Not having read Caleb Carr's previous novels I have no idea of his calibre as a writer. The dust jacket cover blurb suggests he is a master novelist, however after reading this novel I would have to disagree (the pretentious photo doesn't help either!). The novel which is ostensibly a science fiction/thriller introduces the (not terribly original) concept that society has increasingly been enveloped in a bath of unregulated information encouraged by sinister corporate- governmental elements and which seems to run out of control. With this onslaught of babble, the world is slipping into a chaotic abyss. Carr presents a dystopian vision which unfortunately at times is rather unconvincing basically involving extrapolations (simplistically and in some cases inaccurately I might add) of current events e.g. plagues , economic collapes etc. Coming to a twisted form of rescue are a small parade of curiously ill-drawn characters straight out of 1950's Sci-Fi pulp. These individuals are trying to wake up the world to the web of misinformation that they live in. The book proceeds at a breakneck pace with occasional interludes in which the author inserts the obligatory romance and various unnecessary explanations. The ending for the book for me was amusingly bad - glib, contrived and anticlimatic (and hopefully sequel proof). On the good side the book is a written as a thriller and it is kind of difficult to put down assuming you ignore several factual gaffs of the author (an ozone depleting energy ray directed by satellites with the result of rapidly increasing heat...ah right..), the 2D characters and the unlikely events.

Ever since I read The Alienist, I have touted the brilliance of Mr. Carr. Angel of Darkness was a lesser effort, but I continued to praise the author's writing to anyone who would listen. I have been waiting anxiously for his next novel. I don't read his books, I savor each word, marveling at his abilities. As I began doing with this book. I was so thoroughly bored, however, that I gave up half way through. So, I have to ask, did someone mistakening put his name on the cover? The characters are cartoonish, the action boring, and the ending, well, I'll never know. I think I will reread The Alienist instead.

I read this book over a weekend and, as I was approaching the end, I couldn't stop wondering if it took Caleb Carr any more time to write it than it took me to read it. This is a lazy, lazy piece of writing. I'm glad I read "The Alienist" already, because if this was my first Caleb Carr book, it would also be my last. The other reviews here are pretty much on target - thin plot, zero character development, a one-dimensional view of the information age. The first-person storytelling style became a distraction to me, especially with so many of the chapters ending like this:

"I stepped inside, sure of what I was going to say and hopeful that Malcolm would approve of the plan; wholly unsuspecting, in short, that he was about to tell me what he considered the greatest of his many secrets, a tale so bizarre and unbelievable that it would force me to the conclusion that he had, in fact, lost his mind."

With a cheesy setup like that, the payoff had better be good. And it's not. And this type of thing happens so many times that the book becomes an exercise in page turning. "The Alienist" was so good that many readers will, like me, ignore these bad reviews and give "Killing Time" a try. If you feel compelled to become involved with this book, my advice to you is to listen to that little voice in your head. The first time you hear it ask, "What's the point of all this?", remember this: Caleb Carr says everything he is going to say within the first 25 pages of this book. Don't feel as if you are going to miss out on anything if you stop reading. You aren't.

I wonder how books like this get published. It's like watching a bad movie and wondering what was going through the minds of the people involved - they had to know nothing was working. Even if Caleb Carr didn't realize how awful this was turning out, somebody close to him - an editor, another author, his mother - should have convinced him to stop. A work like this is bad for his career. I just hope that the Caleb Carr who wrote "The Alienist" is the one who sits down at the typewriter next, because I'm only giving him one more chance.