Customer Reviews

Simple Simon: A Thriller

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Simple Simon, the book that the movie Mercury Rising is based on is an awsome thriller. Great characters and fast moving action keep this book moving with far more action than Bruce Willis could ever keep up with. A great action packed read.

An interesting plot with an autistic teenager breaking a supposedly unbreakable code. The usual good and bad guys but an inexorable story which should appeal to thriller readers.

I decided to read this book because I loved the movie, Mercury Rising, with Bruce Willis as the story's hero. I enjoyed the book even more!

I'm a sucker for this stuff. Unlikely, but passionate hero. Defenseless victim in need of a defender. And a relentless pursuit by bad guy after bad guy after bad guy. Or in this case, a wickedly bad woman. Plus, I'm a puzzle nut, and Simple Simon weaves its multiple storylines into a plot-maze as intricately tangled as the secret code at its center.

Author Ryne Douglas Pearson had me hooked on the first page with a murder that made my skin crawl, then kept me there with convincing characters, a page-turning story, and his masterful ability to use the right string of words at just the right time. Every time.

If you're a fan of the thriller genre, Simple Simon rises above the norm.

The inside cover blurb describes it as "Rain Man" meets "Wargames". Having recently seen Altman's "The Player", I thought this was a joke pitch. I was wrong, it was serious. Clearly written with a screenplay in mind. The graphic violence was unnecessary to make the point about the "bad guy" and will never make it to the screen. Unbelievable conversion of another "bad guy" from one who works through influence to cold-blooded murder. The "good guy" was too saintly. Interesting twist: a shadowy, secret goverment organization engaged in good works

If you don't know this already, Simple Simon was made into the Bruce Willis movie, Mercury Rising. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the movie doesn't hold a candle to the book - as is the case most of the time a novel is changed for the big screen. If you've seen the movie, don't let that deter you from reading the book. There are enough major differences (more than I can count right now) to keep the reading of this novel fresh and suspenseful...

If you don't know the story, there are plenty of reviews that will reveal it for you, but I'm just going to point out what I liked without giving anything else away.

The main character, Art Jefferson, is a guy you can't help liking. His tenderness towards the autistic Simon is more than touching, and the relationship with his wife (yes, in the book he is married) helps make him more of a real person than the gung-ho, punch-my-boss-in-the-face, tough guy character played by Willis. I didn't know that there were three previous Art Jefferson books and, once I figured it out, I got the impression that the character would be even more engrossing once his previous experiences and relationships with other characters were taken into consideration. Those books, Cloud Burst, October's Ghost, and Capital Punishment are now on my read list to be sure.

The side of the story that deals with "Simple Simon", the autistic boy that has unknowingly cracked an ultra-secret NSA code named KIWI (Mercury in the movie, though before I watched the movie again, I thought the title just meant "Things Are Heating Up!") is very emotional. Without given anything away, there were parts in the book where my heart just broke for Simon, and all autistic children for that matter. Pearson does a great job at making that portion of the story very human.

There's also the matter of a certain character that didn't make the film, a bad guy...er...girl, that added something quite twisted and dark to the story, making it even more emotional and gripping.

The whole NSA side of the story was great, making it the techno-thriller it is and topping it off with a twist of government conspiracy so believable that it may leave you uncomfortable next time you watch C-Span or read about certain clandestine operations and DoD budgets...

How Art ends up protecting Simon is much more believable and less Die Hard 2 than the movie. Everything fits together beautifully, from the FBI to the dark corners of the NSA, from Simon to the sadistic third-party killer after him, from Autism to super codes, and everything in between. This was a great read. Dark, emotional, suspenseful, scary, and... worth reading to be sure.

I really enjoyed reading this novel and have recommended it to others. The plot is very interesting and things move right along and keep you turning pages. As both a novel reader and a writer, I kind of like cop stories anyway, but this one has a couple interesting twists in it that put it in a class far above many of the best seller paperbacks I've read. Five stars go to Ryne Pearson for this book, it's a great read.

I just finished reading Ryne D. Pearson's SIMPLE SIMON. I have to say it was a book I found very difficult to put down.

The action begins early in this story as we meet an autistic teen named Simon. Although Simon's social interactions are severely stunted, his doctors have discovered that he has amazing puzzle-solving abilities. As a sort of experiment, one of Simon's physicians gives him a MENSA-type magazine for the super-intelligent, just to see if the puzzle section interests Simon.

As Simon sits in his room flipping through the magazine, a page filled with seemingly random number sequences catches his interest. But it's not just a puzzle. It's the NSA's newest cryptography algorithm -- an "unbreakable" code that goes by the name of KIWI. To Simon's great misfortune, he breaks the KIWI code, then unwittingly informs its creators of his success. Now unethical bureaucrats want him out of the picture.

This all happens in just the first few chapters of SIMPLE SIMON. I won't spoil the story for you by telling the rest. Suffice it to say that the action doesn't let up.

Some readers have noted that this book contains "gratuitous violence." I'm not a big fan of blood and gore myself. And I could have done without a few of the more graphic scenes. But overall, this is a great book with a well-researched and intriguing story -- a human story, a spy story and a story filled with action and suspense.

If you haven't read SIMPLE SIMON, I highly recommend it. (Probably an age 15+ selection, though.) Then watch the movie SIMPLE SIMON inspired - Mercury Rising. That's my next stop.

"Simple Simon" is a fast-moving thriller that is difficult to put down. Superbly written and well thought out, the book was a pleasure to read cover to cover. It is a techno-thriller to be sure, but the most beautifully written part is the portrayal of the character of Simon. An autistic teenager, Simon's life has been highly regulated and structured by his parents and doctors to provide a mechanism for him to cope, to interact with people, and to function within the bounds of his own little world. When that world is suddenly thrown into chaos, Pearson does a wonderful job of showing us how Simon struggles in his own way to keep his life on track and consistently simple despite the absolute whirlwind of destruction spinning around him and everyone with whom he comes in contact. Ironically, he becomes the one point of consistent sanity in a world gone mad. I particularly liked the interaction with his new friend, Art, a man who clearly feels inadequate, but who ultimately rises to the task. I highly recommend "Simple Simon," and thoroughly enjoyed it.

What do a sadist, an FBI agent, an autistic boy, a dead man, and several secretive government agents have in common? Kiwi. Huh? You'll have to read the book to find out, but when you do you are in for the ride of your life! When Simon Lynch cracks a secret code, the effects are far-reaching. Those who realize what happened are after him and will stop at nothing to get to him. They are willing to destroy anything and everyone in their paths. Even the beautiful but deadly Keiko Kimura has her panties in a bunch yearning to get her hands on the enticing "young man." Special Agent Art Jefferson is Simon's only hope, but now he is the next target. This can't-put-it-down novel will keep you up well past your bedtime until the last page

Got this one on a recommendation and it did not disappoint. Great story, moves along at a good clip, has interesting and well-thought out side stories and a super ending. I'm looking forward to others by this author.