Customer Reviews

Maze: A Novel

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The problem with this type of novel (which I obtained as did the other reviewer, long after its release, and mine is in hardback -- naturally <g>) is that sometimes the author feels a need to demonstrate his skills (which are unquestionably manifest in this novel) by laying on the plot devices with a shovel. Much as Tom Clancey does, Larry Collins loves to show off his knowledge of the inner workings of things by giving microscopic details of their geography and electronic wizardry. In the process, at some point he seems to wander beyond the K.I.S.S. formula to some stastis where the suspension of disbelief is stretched beyond the breaking point. It is a pity, too, because, candidly, despite the silliness of the last 70 pages or so, I did not put the book down, but carefully read it to the last word of the epilog.

However, because of its overblown plot, I would probably hesitate to buy another by this author. So -- entertaining if you haven't anything better to read, not a real stinker, but not high up on my reccommends list.

One of the pleasures of reading this type of commercial novels a long time after they have been published, is that you do not feel like a useful idiot who follows recommendations, made in the Sunday newspapers. If you read it, is usually just because it fell on your hands during a raining afternoon, in which you do not want to watch T.V but you do not want to think about any complex issue either.

Here the KGB have discovered a system, whereby the mind of the president of the U.S.A can be pushed towards emotional reactions that will obliterate its rational capabilities. On the other side, the U.S.A. governmental agencies do not have a clue of what is going on. So as usually happens in these books the job to figure out what is going on follows upon the shoulders of a disappointed CIA employee recently divorced, with a big belly, highly critical of its employer but with a great drive towards individualism and imaginative thinking.