Customer Reviews

White Devils

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

 

 

Terrific proposition but flabbily executed. Genetically engineered proto apes and maybe more in Africa, the kind and the terrible. Good, solid characters but too much lard. Needed to be cut by a third; in otherwords, sorely needed a good editor. Although, you know, I'm not that fussy and kinda liked it. The writer's view of Africa 30 years or so down the pike is both plausible and convincing. Looking forward to McAuley's next.

This was my first Paul McAuley novel, but certainly won't be my last. I just flat-out loved this book! I made the mistake of starting it over Thanksgiving, and ticked my family off because I kept abandoning them every chance I got to go read more of this great story. I was initially intrigued by the science, but really got hooked on the characters and was anxious to see how the tale played out for each of them. McAuley does an excellent job of letting the reader inside their heads, and made me *care* about how their intertwining issues were resolved. The action and suspense are taut from the very beginning and never let up - I did not find any part of the more than 500-page tale to be boring or unnecessary, and would have gladly read more had the author written it. I'll have to satisfy myself with his other works. Since this book has received such mixed reviews, I say pick it up from the library and give it a shot without financial investment. I think you'll be glad you did.

After some of the poor reviews here I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book.

Bad bits; as pointed out in other reviews the ending is somewhat predictable and cliched. The 'in the present tense' style feels awkward for the first few pages but then becomes unnoticeable, and even adds to the story by including the reader in the drama as it unfolds.

Good bits; Pretty much non-stop action, some interesting technological and biological advancements.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a fast paced action/science fiction thriller.

Nicholas Hyde works and lives in a world where offshore cloning and hybrid technology are restricted to very few countries in the world. Working as humanitarian volunteer in the Congo Nicholas stumbles across a terrifying secret, a horror beyond imagination.

Well if the book was as interesting as the basic premise it might have read a little better, but I have to say I struggled with this one. Cliché personal sacrifice, all too convenient coincidental characters and a back-story which I had trouble swallowing.

I couldn't connect with our good mate Nicholas, couldn't of cared whether he lived or died. I found I started to guess what would be on the next page and often found no surprise when the guess was right.

If you're a mad, mad fan of future-genetic-technology-gone-wrong kind of stories then you might, just might get some legs out of it. For me I'm sorry to put the boot in with such a harsh review, but this is one book I won't read twice.

I started reading this book as part of an on-line book club. I enjoyed the first 5 pages so much that I bought the book. The first part of the book was terrifying! Unstoppable monsters killing people in the Congo. The last part of the book dwindled into predictability.

The novel takes place in a near future Congo in which most of its rainforest has been turned to sludge by genetic engineering projects gone awry. The entire territory has been ceded to a global corporation called Obligate. Obligate hopes to profitably develop the Congo through a pro-green, anti-biotechnology platform stressing social responsibility - sort of like the Whole Foods supermarket, but on the level of a nation-state and with somewhat more totalitarian tendencies. It is within this context that we find the book's hero Nick Hyde, an ex-soldier who begins the novel as a volunteer for a non-governmental organization dedicating to exposing and documenting ethnic cleansing, but soon finds himself on a quest to uncover the secrets behind genetically engineered ape-like creatures who have been set loose in the jungle.

In style, the book is similar to Richard Morgan's Broken Angels. Both books are strong on adventure elements. The main characters in both books are reformed ex-soldiers driven to uncover the true motives of malicious future corporations and the governments beholden to them. Though certainly cynical of green capitalism as represented by Obligate, McAuley seems most concerned with exploring many of the more alarmist possibilities raised by genetic engineering. While he certainly does a good job exploring these themes, perhaps I am a bit jaded, as there are many revelations in the book (often directly referred to by McAuley as "secrets") pointing to what are by today's standards unethical applications of genetic engineering, but for which I wasn't surprised or moved. These themes, moreover, are well covered by other books in the tradition of Brave New World, for example C.J. Cherryh's classic Cyteen. White Devils is still a good read, however, for its adventure elements and its excellent portrayal of near-future Africa.

This is my first book by Mr. McAuley, and I enjoyed this book very much. This book deals with the main character, Nick Hyde, at the beginning of the book has a violent encounter with the White Devils.

There are many characters with subplots Mr. McAuley woven into the book, and the future regarding biotechnology.

Mr. McAuley writes about the science of the future without getting into what I call "lecture mode", as I see in many science fiction books.

If you like action, science, and a believable plot in the not so distant future, then get this book!

From the first page this novel is utterly incomprehensible and unreadable... struggling through it was a chore, and the reader should not be required to do in her head that which the writer and editor should have done.

Even when the author is too ignorant and illiterate as to know better than to write in the present tense, the editor should have been smart enough to know better.

I suggest readers look for something else.

I was hoping this would be an entertaining read... but this was one book I just couldn't finish. I was greatly disappointed in the writing style... for example:

"Nick pushes the Glock into the waistband of his trousers, kneels by the body and probes the mess of one of the ragged chest wounds, feels something hard slide around and digs it out and shows it to Harmony."

I find the present tense style to be very annoying... and was so distracted with the use of the tense that I could not begin to enjoy the book. I quit about one-third of the way through... and only got THAT far because I was forcing myself, since I didn't want to admit that I had wasted $7.99 on the book. If you don't mind the use of present tense, go ahead and try "White Devils"... since the story isn't so bad. But I just couldn't stand it.