Customer Reviews

Magazine Beach

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was a big fan of "The Living One", Gannett's unique and extremely good horror novel, so I have been looking for this book for a long time. "Magazine Beach" is a lot of fun. More structured and readable than "The Living One", it still contains a great batch of strange characters, bizarre situations, and erotic undertones that so identified his previous work. This book is a blast, check it out.

This is one of my all time favorites. It is even better the second time around. While some of it is a bit complicated, the author was masterful at helping you to recall characters and actions earlier in the book. At no time during the few times I have read it did any part get boring or old. Love it and it is a definite read.

Magazine Beach
Some books encourage the growth of new neurons. You need them to hold together the plot and compute its theme inside your head. In Magazine Beach, Ian Fleming's suspenseful hi-jinks meet Nevil Shute's technologically-produced disaster and proceed to get busy. It is unfortunate that in 1996, the public imagination had been siezed by various medical and legal thrillers, failing planes, and a former Vice-President's executive orders, that an unlikely eco-terrorist group's impact upon Antartica's ice shelf had not registered. Pity.
My father taught me to appreciate antagonists. Without them, nothing plot-worthy happens. Slotsky with his relentless pursuit of intel, noseless face, 'dorph addiction, and foot fetish more than fits the bill. The man proved as hard to pin down as a subatomic particle. First he was there, then he wasn't. Slotsky had the final laugh in the end.
I also enjoyed the infamous ménage à trois of Antarctic expert Earnest Trefethen, his chemically persuasive wife, Helen Scarf, and billionairess Martha Cliffcloud.
Here are some highlights from the darkly comic narrative:
* A crash course in ice-shelf geomorphology.
* The wonder drug Amphendorph.
* An ambulance tank.
* A home laser defense-system being used as a glorified insect zapper.
* A sexually-frustrated male twin impersonates his own sister and later gives in to his attraction to the man he assumes to be his rival for her affections.
* A plucky old lady by the name of Arugula dies in her sleep after sharing in the adventure of her life.
* The supercool combo of a gay "it" boy, his hetero galpal, and her thigh-high boots earn a cult following.
* Former upstanding members of the "establishment" revert to their radical bent.
* In a cosmic irony, the hero, a self-confessed catastrophist, finds that his photo triggers the final set of nuclear-explosions the survivors intended to prevent. At least, with the exception of Arugula, the rest of the hip, young cast got laid before the end.
* The Earth is the only character left standing...er...orbiting.

Some of my favorite quotes:
"I'm a kind of a fraud. Taking credit for geophysical cycles that predate human history by millions of years."
"Who'd believe a bunny sets off doomsday?"
"Nightmare, Toby thought. He realized he was shirtless. Then he realized he wasn't wearing any underwear."
"The Boston Sunday20Globe: Nukes in Antartica seek "Beast" "Two Faces": Overpopulation, High Technology? Cambridge Dinner party provides clues."

Disclosure: She received a free autographed review copy from the author.

Being from Boston, I was drawn to the local surroundings and setting for this book. Although some of the technical aspects were lost on me, the development and interaction of the characters is really what kept me involved. Gannett provides a plausible mix of real world issues and milleniumesque foreshawdowing. This is one book you won't be able to or want to put down.

The book has several great concepts, but delivers the goods in a piecemeal fashion. As a fan of apocalyptic writing, I found the novel average, at best. The characters are interesting, and the plot offers a few twists, but the loose writing and dialogue hurt the overall effort.

Even though the book's plot is a little wacky, I loved the book when I read it upon publication. I am reading it again now (2006), because the plot has since become so relevant: an American society living with fear of terror and of sudden climate change. This book can't really be called science fiction so much as science prediction!