Customer Reviews

Tanner on Ice

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Richard Nixon was president of the United States when Evan Tanner, the man who never sleeps, was placed into a comatose state in a Union City, New Jersey freezer due to an intricate double cross. If the basement of his "permanent home" was not being remodeled, he would have been there a lot longer. No one knows, even the medical experts at NYU, what happened to him except that he should be in his sixties, but Evan looks like he is only in his thirties.

He is soon contacted by Rufus Crombie of the Feds, who wants Evan to fly to Burma where he is supposed to eliminate San Suu Kyi, the popular opposition leader, in order to send the current government into chaos. However, Evan was never an assassin and does not plan to start the practice in his second life. He also has met a cool woman in Rangoon, who he genuinely likes and heeds her advice. Than there is the problems with the local police constantly harassing him and the anonymous note threatening his life if he fails to leave town.

Like he did with Rhodenbarr, Lawrence Block successfully returns an old fan favorite. The likable lead protagonist struggles with the missing eighties and the trends of the nineties, an iteresting combination which adds much to the story line. TANNER ON ICE will be well-received by a generation of new fans even though the novel is not quite on a par with his Rhodenbarr and Scudder books. Still the Tanner books are terrific tales worth reading and that opportunity will soon become readily available as the novels are all going to be reprinted.

Harriet Klausner

This revival of Block's most "high concept" series is a bit higher in concept than previous entries. Not only is Tanner a man who can't sleep, but now he's been out like a light for 25 years and has missed a quarter century of social upheaval.

In one of his books on writing, Block talks a bit about the then-dormant Tanner series and why it had become dormant. One reason he cited was that many of the protagonist's lunatic-fringe interests weren't fringe any more, or at least had struggled a bit closer to center stage. He's right, I think. Many of the simmering ethnic conflicts, conspiracies and such that were grist for Tanner's mill in the old days are headline material now. (Not all, though. The funniest moment in this book comes when Tanner matter-of-factly explains to his part-Russian lady friend that she might, just might, be a beneficiary in a movement to restore the Russian monarchy.)

The problem, is, the Tanner books were never as tightly plotted as some of Block's other books -- they were romps, and their very romptitude carried them along. Now that events have diminished the central conceit, this book's weaknesses are highlighted -- much of the action takes place off-stage, several key events are chalked up to "I guess we'll never know," and too many scenes are summarized, rather than shown.

That said, I enjoyed the book. It's full of witty asides and characterization bits. and I think I would enjoy future outings, if Block can come up with some way to make the series motor work again, like he did with the Chip Harrison books. Tanner is a fun character and he could probably get a lot of mileage out of the current X-Files/conspiracy freak atmosphere, for example.

The older Tanner books were a blast to read. Had me laughing out loud. Tanner's
the man." This book has no zest, no fun, no laughs. But, it does have the blahs. Very much a disappointment.

The first set of Tanner books were mindless fun -- breezy, no substance, very much in tune with the times (they were written and set in the 60s and 70s). A kind of James Bond, boy who never grows up feel to them.

Towards the end, they started to drag -- Tanner was considering marriage, had an adopted daughter and sons somewhere in Yugoslavia. His playboy lifestyle was getting very dated, and he wasn't aging gracefully at all. It's hard to transition a character from all-fun-and-games to something more serious. With Tanner, it never jelled.

With Me Tanner, You Jane, Tanner got bizarre and creepy. His affair with a 14-year-old-girl was just creepy. Not to mention illegal and, again, very creepy. Yecch creepy.

With Tanner on Ice, the author seems to step back from the abyss of the previous book -- but he doesn't go back to the hijinks of the first books, either. The trip to Burma is pointless -- as was the escape from Burma that followed. The plot makes no sense and various details are never explained -- like who was the dead guy in his bed. At least the love interest is a consenting adult.

First Sentence: I flew from New York to Los Angeles, then nonstop to Seoul.

Due to a Korean War head wound, spy Even Tanner's sleep center was turned off so he never sleeps. Except now, he's been slipped a Mickey and cryogenically frozen for 25 years waking up in present day New York looking exactly as he did when Nixon was President. Recovered, his "control," send him off to Burma to destabilize the government. Instead he finds drugs have been planted on him, a man murdered in his hotel room, jailed but allowed to escape and find a way to get out of the country with a lovely woman by his side.

Block's humor, love of travel and keen observation of the world are very apparent here. For me, the most interesting part was Tanner catching up with all the changes in the world over the 25 years he'd been frozen. This isn't as fleshed out a story as others of his books but Lawrence Block is one of the few writers who can take a completely implausible plot and make it a completely entertaining read.

Evan Tanner, the spy who lost his sleep center in the Korean War, has returned. It's been 25 years since the last book about Tanner. No one wants to read about an old spy - so Block uses cryogenics to bring him back at the same age as in his last book. He's been kidnapped and frozen. He's still in the prime of life, but virtually everyone he knows is now old - or dead. Except Minna, his ward, who is now old enough to be the love of his life - but he can't bring himself to think of her that way. Tanner still has his rent-controlled New York City apartment, thanks to her ingenuity - and the city thinks he's lived there the whole time.

So Evan has to play catch up and figure out what to do with his new feelings. And what better way to do that than a new assignment from his super-secret intelligence agency - an assignment to Burma (as he remembers it) or Myanmar as the military junta insists that it be called. So Evan covertly enters the country, comes under the scrutiny of the local police who find a corpse in his room, meets a beautiful woman in distress, is hounded by the secret police, and makes his way across Burma on foot, disguised as a begging Buddhist priest, to meet up with the resistance.

Block's attention to local detail will provide insight into the country and culture as it exists today as you marvel at Tanner's facility with languages and his easy adaptability in the face of adversity.

Armchair Interviews says: This is an easy and a light read.

The major disappointment of this book is not the implausibility of 25 years of Tanner frozen, but having lost 25 years of Tanner stories. Fun, lighthearted Tanner romp. This isn't a Bernie or a Scudder story -- and readers expecting those sorts of stories will be disappointed -- but it was a fine Tanner adventure.

This is the first of Block's books featuring Evan Tanner that I have read, probably because I hadn't discovered Block twenty-five years ago. Tanner is a very unusual protagonist although some of Block's other characters make strange heroes. Tanner has been frozen for twenty-five years when this story begins. He comes round in a hospital bed looking and feeling the same as he did when he was frozen by a foreign agent. So at sixty-three he has to catch up on a lot of history including the impeachment of Richard Nixon and the presidential terms of Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush senior, and Clinton. Evan spends some time catching up on the missed years, fortunately his adopted daughter Minna has kept his apartment and the only difference in it are due to new technology such as Video and DVD players, and a personal computer. It is some months later that Tanner receives a call from his former boss and an assignment is offered to, and accepted by, him. And a new adventure begins.

i was surprised to say the least, when i was reading and read the part where Block leds you to see how Tanner's been out-of-touch with the world. Block has a very unique way of writing that has often been imitated, but never equaled let alone surpassed.
I have to say I'm a huge fan of Block and like almost all of his work (havent read it all yet lol). While I was very impressed with The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep - one of Block's best i think, i feel that this sequel of sorts is lacking a little as far as atmosphere goes, but then again its not the same story, its very different.
Even Tanner is a fairly deep character (not quite as much as Block's other protagonists such as Keller or Rodenbarr). Also there's that sense of humor that Block can always pull off with a dry wit - makes me chuckle to myself everytime.
While the general plotline is sorta ridiculous, Block pulls it off - and it takes a great writer to make a bad storyline sound good.

OK, take Austin Powers (1997) plus Beyond Rangoon (1995) and you get Tanner on Ice (1998). You got your man o' mystery thawed out after a quarter century, you got your escape from Burma (or ManMadeMylar, or whatever it is now (it'll always be Burma to me)). Throw in a little bit of Man from Uncle, with Mr. Waverly gone a little soft in the head maybe, plus a few other loose ends, and you've got a book.

You get the feeling the main purpose of Tanner on Ice is to set you up for still more Tanners. A lot of the stock Block concerns here, such as booze and breaking and entering, plus a bit of Burma. (No books, but at least a few bullets.)

Despite the extremely thin material here, Block keeps you reading, mainly through the proven pulp technique of a major plot twist every three pages. Not the best Block, but if can't good whiskey, the ayet piu may do.....