Customer Reviews

Unacceptable Risk

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This is the second novel by David Dun that I have read after The Black Silent. The basic problem is the same: a conflict between science used as a benefit for mankind or as a dangerous threat to humanity as a whole when in the hands of ruthless gangsters - or in this case (under the influence of 9/11) terrorists. Of all scenarios this is the worst imaginable. There is always the discussion in the media whether authors like David Dun give those terrorists ideas what they could do next. But I believe it works the other way round. Those monsters are never short of ideas. So authors depict certain possibilities, but it would be short-sighted to think that distorted criminal minds have not yet played with similar ideas. What the authors do is open their readers' eyes to what they might have to expect and prepare for the worst.
The entertaining side-effect of these horrors is the thrill that they experience while reading those stories. And - as in The Black Silent - the reader can expect excellent story-telling, and a plot with a lot of unexpected twists and turns that make you read the book in one go. The tremendous speed of the action is breath-taking. Who cares that some characters - above all Sam and his terrorist opponent - are slightly exaggerated and are on the way to becoming supermen? It only helps to make the novel's message clear to the reader and makes us aware of the possible dangers that fate may have in store for us.

A remarkable and very recommendable novel, not only for the friends of the genre.

A group of middle eastern business men decides to fund a terrorist, Devan Gaudet, in a plan called Cordyceps. The plot is the namesake of a fungus which invades its pray and eats its vitals first and then its brain. To complete the metaphor Gaudet wants to take down the US stock market by a mass killing (its vitals) and the internet (its brain) by an advanced worm unleashed on the internet just prior to the holocaust. Sam races to stop Cordyceps assisted by the mysterious Benoit Moreau a smart French woman gone bad who is locked away in a French jail forever. She is educated, sophisticated, street smart and wants to reclaim her life. Against overwhelming odds she conceives a plan, in her words using devil bait to catch devils, and fools everybody in her bid for release. Supporting character Michael Bowden a jungle ethnobiologist in the Amazon adds to the plot and gives Dun an excuse to tell us about medicines and the jungle. It's a complex sophisticated thriller that you won't want to put down and is worth the read.

Unique Chemistry. This book has a fairly unique mix of action, love, and some science. Sam, the hero is hunting a terrorist by the name of Devan Gaudet who wants to tank the US financial markets for politics and profit. Gaudet is an instrument of rich zealots who want to mix business and religious fanaticism. Gaudet has some high tech capability that translates into an interesting instrument of terror.

The latest hottest science can, as usual, be used to kill people as well as benefit them. But he only has part of the science of a now defunct company and wants the rest for profit. Benoit Moreau, locked in French jail almost forever sees the French government grasping for the science that they now own but don't actually possess and she sees Gaudet seeking the same prize. Finally, she sees Sam hunting Gaudet. Putting it all together she conceives a way that Benoit can get out of jail free. And it is Benoit's quest for freedom and her clever manipulations that will enthrall the reader. Sam, being the clever fellow that he is, figures out what Benoit might be doing and decides to work with her scheme to get Gaudet--his main interest in the unfolding events. As Gaudet rushes to destroy the US financial markets Benoit rushes to win her freedom and Sam rushes to catch Gaudet. In a fascinating plot they all three collide and you will marvel as Dun weaves the plot elements into an exciting conclusion. This was unique and a great read.

This one is a big intrigue. This is a well told action adventure story with detours into romance, and relationships, and parts of the relationship material are couched in Indian lore. It's a bit peculiar at times but over all pretty entertaining. Dun does maintain the pace, his actions scenes move and they are creative. They sound original even though you've read them all before if you're a big action reader. There are three settings. California which he does extremely well, the Amazon which is fairly well done but there is so much competition in Novels when it comes to the jungle (the Amazon characters are great) and Paris France. As Dun deals with the setting Paris isn't much but Benoit Moreau starts in Paris and she is one cool character. Describing the plot is torture. The folks who wrote the cover didn't even try. Dun gives us a good excuse to tell us about life in the Amazon and discovering medicines in strange places. In Gaudet he creates an evil enough character that you figure it's rational for the other characters to be frightened out of their minds. Dun has a chance to tell us about Native Americans and about genetics, a weird combination if I've every heard one, but when he does it in the course of a long novel it works fine and entertains. Action readers will love this one. I should say that the pace is generally engrossing but not always intense. It really was hard to find places to stop reading.

This one is a bit complex and explanation defies me for the most part. Devan Gaudet wants to bring the US to its knees and make bucks going short on the stock market. To do this he has a plan called Cordyceps after a fairly phenomenal fungus. Sam is an international contract terrorist hunter. Various governments retain his services for reasons that are only partially clear. Sam's company keeps a huge computer data base that the government can't lawfully maintain. Sam hunts Gaudet while Gaudet hunts a magic molecule (he wants to steal it for profit) and plans Cordyceps. I liked the Amazon angle and Bowden the scientist down there hunting exotic new molecules and I liked Benoit Moreau in the French Jail plotting to get herself a pardon. Fitting together a large cast of characters in a most interesting culmination is something Dun seems good at. Sam is capable, a bit troubled and really into his Tilokisms and Dun tries to make him searching after the deeper things of life while he tracks Gaudet. That aspect of the book is not bad but it's not great either. After all such stuff slows the plot. Sam's moves are cool, his instincts pretty phenomenal but all in all he's convincing. However, Bowden the Amazon scientist and Benoit Moreau really hold this thing together and give it the zing to really keep you reading. The last scene with Sam is really good and there the Indian stuff shines without being overbearing. For some reason a similar opening to the story doesn't work as well. Over all it was a great bit of pulp fiction. I can't wait for the next.

There really were no major surprises but it was a terrific read. This is a tightly plotted fairly complex thriller with a good strong story line and a lot of interesting facets. The characters were overall good. Benoit Moreau was outstanding. Without her I think the book would have been flat but with her everything flies because the plot and the rest of the characters are a fine supporting cast. Devan Gaudet the bad guy definitely qualifies as interesting and is believable in light of the gruesome realities on the evening news. There really are multiple personalities on the planet who would love to come up with a clever means of tumbling the stock exchange. I hope none of them are reading this book. The fundamental idea of Cordyceps, to attack the internet and simultaneously kill a lot of people in a disaster similar to nine eleven would certainly tumble the financial markets as Dun suggests. Our society is very dependant on computers and the stock market is very fragile on a short term basis. It would only take a short term precipitous drop to make billions in the world markets. If the New York exchange goes everything else goes with it. The trick is in knowing exactly when it will happen and Dun's bad guy has solved that problem. To me all the science was a bit immaterial although Bowden the Amazon expert was a pretty good character and the information about medicines from the jungle was interesting. It's a great read but perhaps a little close to home on the terrorist front. The story of Benoit is really grabby and will hold you in the chair. I agree with the writer who said the beginning was moronic. Ignore it. I guess a story has to start some place.

Dun is back with another raucous edge of the seat thriller. Someone said it's not literature but it's one hell of a story. There is a phenomena in this book. It is on the one hand a pretty ordinary run of the mill action story except...for Benoit Moreau. She is a morally complex, engaging, if slightly over the top character that is really the heroin in the book. Her plan is fascinating and has the reader at least slightly fooled as you wonder why she's bedding the men she's bedding and how it is that she is going to escape the hard hearts in the French secret service, and the utterly depraved Devan Gaudet. Everyone thinks they have her but it turns out that the guy who actually has this sophisticated, hell on wheels, hard nosed sharp cookie is...well I would love to tell you but you'll have to read the book. Sam and crew make a good canvas on which to develop the entertaining story of Benoit Moreau. The book might have been called something like: Benoit Rises. Ok so I'm not good at titles. This is a book worth reading. Ignore the beginning. It's moronic but the book gets really good really fast.

We've got jungles, underground New York, Paris, and the forests of northern California. Dun does some of the locales better than others but its all pretty good and the stuff in the forest is vintage Dun. It's great if you're an action reader. The Indian lore is maybe a bit over done but it doesn't really slow the relentless pace and the plot is fundamentally brilliant because of the way he brings Benoit Moreau, stuck in a French prison, and Sam together--not romantically, but in the sense that they both need something that the other has and in some sense they are sort of kindred spirits. Benoit needs her freedom and a new start and Sam buys into it, not withstanding that Benoit is morally ambiguous. She's trying to be good but is really having a time getting over the hump. In her words she is becoming a butterfly. She is fishing for demons because she has no angel bait. Certainly she catches the demons and certainly she was worse than a caterpillar to do it.

All of the characters are reasonably well developed and there is a large cast. Dun manages it all well, with meticulous pacing, and plot points that mesh several story lines very well. You will have to concentrate a bit when you read this one but once you get the gist of what is going you'll hang on for dear life and stick with it.

This is Dun's second Sam book and I liked it even better than the first. The cast of characters includes Sam, Grady the ex-stripper, coming right along, Michael Bowden the jungle explorer and modern medicine man, Benoit Moreau stuck in a French jail and determined to get out, and Anna Sam's love interest who spends most of the book rather tragically occupied and out of sight. Last but not least it features Devan Gaudet as a terrorist for profit, presumably, as Dun would have it, the worst kind of terrorist. Sam sets out to get to Michael Bowden knowing that Gaudet has some nefarious purpose with respect to this relatively noble man. Bowden is a good character fairly well drawn and interesting and there is a good love angle between him and Grady. It turns out that Bowden has some idea what a stripper is and isn't much put off by it. Conveniently for the story he lives in the depths of the Amazon.
They are all trying to discover the plant or animal or insect that produced a magical organic molecule that will re-program the immune system. Essentially it would allow you to transplant organs or do genetic engineering with no interference from the immune system. Dun doesn't tell us how such a thing could work but he uses enough mumbo jumbo medicine that we're mollified. After all we created dinasours from DNA so why not a new drug to reprogram the immune system. This chaperone molecule binds to whatever proteins you want the body to accept (like your neighbors heart) and your body decides this new heart really belongs to you. Nifty if you can do it.
Benoit understands the secret and suggests to the French government that she can obtain it for them if they will but let her out of prison and upon her success grant her a pardon. Really she has a much more clever idea and that really makes the story. With a whole cast of characters chasing the secret around the globe and working to prevent the next Gaudet disaster there is never a dull moment. It's a very fast paced action thriller with all the gimmicks.

Sam, one of Dun's best characters, is back. But that's not the only reason to read this book. Dun has invented an amazing secondary character, Benoit Moreau, who steals the book. Not since Falstaff and Huck Finn has there been such a scene-stealer. Fans of the genre will want to see how Dun does this in an action thriller. Moreau is an amoral (or is she?) Frenchwoman, who is imprisoned in a maximum security prison with no way out (or is there?) and schemes (or does she?) to ruin the US economy with bad-guy boyfriend Devan Gaudet. Suffice to say that Moreau has her own agenda and trying to figure her out as she weaves through the action in the book is lots of fun. A great female character and terrific summer read.