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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A bit flawed, but still a gem, May 31, 2006
This review is from: Warrener's Beastie: A Novel of the Deep (Paperback)
WARRENER'S BEASTIE is a big, big book that feels a bit too big, particularly in the beginning, as events start very early in the characters' lives, and we get to know each in microscopic detail (and the original was even longer, prior to substantial editing by the author). While it all seems a bit tedious at first, as the tale progresses, Trotter's strategy begins to reveal itself, and the reasons for focusing on early, formative events in the characters' lives become clear. The novel details the lifelong journey of Allen Warrener, who moves from precocious child to cynical, middle-aged college professor through a series of experiences that are themselves the definition of irony. Early on, Warrener experiences certain mystical events that shape the direction of his life, while on a parallel track, seemingly unrelated mystical currents sweep up a young woman named Karen Hambly; inevitably, these paths converge -- along with those of several other individuals -- and their collective goal becomes the quest to find the cryptozoological holy grail: a fabled thing known only as the Vardinoy Monster, which haunts the North Atlantic near the Faeroe Islands. The "Vardinoy Expedition" at first seems a grand, enthralling adventure. But as always, nothing is quite what it seems, and events take more than a few unexpected turns.
Trotter builds tension slowly before unleashing salvos of dramatic set pieces, each piece upping the ante on its way to the climax. The tight, intricately-developed framework of the early chapters, which have the distinct flavor of "literary fiction," gives way to the gritty, thrilling action of the classic pulps, and the incongruous blend is almost jarring. However, despite a few rough edges that sometimes threaten to derail the train, Trotter holds the beast together, if sometimes just barely. The weakest link tends to be the dialogue, which occasionally lapses into sheer cuteness, and a few anachronisms and/or vagaries of time that may be a result of the book having been developed over a number of years (the most jarring perhaps being a quote to the effect that "no one noticed that the sixties had slipped by until some nerd murdered John Lennon"; since Lennon was killed in 1980, the elimination of the 70s altogether seems rather abrupt).
While its flaws sometimes loom a little larger than niggling things, in the overall, WARRENER'S BEASTIE is a more-than-engaging ride, full of poignant, emotional depth and grandeur -- a spectacle worthy of Hollywood at its best (hint hint).
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally!, August 22, 2006
This review is from: Warrener's Beastie: A Novel of the Deep (Paperback)
As an old running mate of Mr. Bill, I carried an original manuscript of this thing around with me through a marriage, three serious relationships, four interstate moves, a close brush with death, and an abortive foray into selling cars, an experience which will, someday, spawn a book of mine with the word "beast" in the title. It was one of my most cherished possessions and the fact that Bill had enough rejection slips from publishers who'd sent it packing to wallpaper a Starbuck's was a grinding, perennial heartache.
I recently dropped in on him - unannounced - at an unseemly hour of the evening and was greeted, as always, with grace and good humor and given a copy of "Warrener's", inscribed with a note about how I probably never expected to see it published. The thing is, I did expect it and am stunned and thrilled that I lived to see it. Friends, this is the Porsche of monster yarns; a Porsche driven by Marcel Proust, with Jayne Mansfield riding shotgun, and that Poe kid in the back seat. If the measure of a good writer is the ability to evoke place and atmosphere and to transport the reader out of his hum-drum and into an adventure, Trotter is and always has been not just excellent but probably great. When he allowed as how he'd "changed it a bit", I almost swallowed my tongue. "No! No!" I thought, "Ain't Broke! No Fix!" But the changes, I have to admit, are all for the good. The narrative is better paced, the characters have had a slight tweak in their dialog that contemporizes just enough without pandering to trendiness, and the story - which scarcely needed help - has been allowed to flap in the rowdy breezes at times and is sleekly reined in at others. And the atmosphere! My God! You can sink into this book like a warm bath or a frigid bog; smell the reindeer spoor and giant pines in the Scandanavian woods; taste the Faroese food and treacherous vodkas; and feel the sweat off Dewey Tucker as though he were reading over your shoulder. If you're of the right persuasion, too, you'll fall in love with Elsuba Poulsen and carry that little fishook in your gut for the rest of your life.
It's so wonderful to see Bill Trotter getting published all over creation and read reviews from people who love his work as much as I have for going on 30 years. I take only a hair less pleasure in his success than I do in my own. He's a writer of genuine substance, enormous skill, the freakin' patience to constantly rework his books until they shine with a lambent glow, and a whopper of a gift for tellin' a crackin' good yarn. If you possess a heart, a brain, a soul, and a sense of humor, this book will do it for you like little else you'll read this year.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An ambitious character-driven tour de force, July 20, 2006
This review is from: Warrener's Beastie: A Novel of the Deep (Paperback)
"A deep, slithering excitement uncoiled in the pit of his stomach. He was in the presence of a Mystery; he was on the verge of confirming a Legend."
No one can deny, William Trotter has a unique sense of adventure. His Civil War epics revealed his talent for plot and character. But they didn't prepare me for the grand sweep of romanticism and peril that his new novel laid on me. Warrener's Beastie is an ambitious character-driven tour de force principally set in the Faeroes Islands. In our world spy satellites, GPS, and Google Earth, the Faeroes are a left over Lost World steeped in sinister beauty.
Warrener's Beastie abounds with romantic adventure, volcanoes, crust-hugging entities, and treachery--a celebration of suspense. He succeeds in cultivating a mood that brings to mind a good Stephen King novel. He captures details that most writers wouldn't notice, such as stun grenades that "flash bright enough to outline the veins in his eyelids". Throughout the 686-page novel I was impressed by the breadth of his ability to strike the right notes utilizing an astonishing array of expressions and descriptions. Few writers can match Trotter's precise and unique phrasing.
Warrener was raised by a grandfather who imbued him with a passion for cryptozoology, literature, and military adventure. His university studies permit him opportunity to trek to Lapland for his thesis. It's there he gets his first glimpse of creatures of mythic lore. From there fate leads him to the Faeroes Islands, an archipelago in the wintry north Atlantic Ocean between the United Kingdom and Iceland. He meets Eiden Poulsen, a veteran U-boat hunter. He falls under the spell of Poulsen's daughter Elbusa. To any man, Elbusa is a beautiful young woman with a strong spirit; to Warrener, she is a Norse goddess. Their passionate affair leaves him emotionally crippled and spiritually unsatisfied for years to come.
He returns home to finish his studies about the time the war in Vietnam heats up. Eager to earn his martial stripes, he enlists in the Special Forces. Destiny denies Warrener; he ultimately ends up as a special correspondent in Pleiku just in time to greet the Tet offensive.
Leaving the military Warrener degenerates into a bitter young professor who savages the hip artists of his generation. He crosses paths with Karen Hambly, a younger student who possesses strange flickers of clairvoyance. With her help Warrener finally finds a goal worthy of his ambitions: revealing the legendary Vardinoy Beast of the Faeroes. He mounts a monster hunting expedition with Poulsen and Elbusa, a hack-and-stab film director, his porn star wife, a Jewish journalist, and a lusty Hell's angel who is convinced he's a reincarnated Viking berserker. Treachery and deceit unfrock Warrener's quest but he fails to buckle. Every aspect of an adventurer's fantasy is included: weapons, equipment, books, and booze. The only thing left is to find the monster. And survive.
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