Ultimate Suggestions (Paperback)

by Darrell Bain (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Mystery/Thriller/Suspense: A renegade chemist has discovered a drug which can be given quickly and surreptitiously, and which will convert almost anyone to a state of mind where the merest suggestion becomes an imperative need to obey. Unless the drug can be found and quickly suppressed, society may be changed irrevocably--for the worse!

Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Hard Shell Word Factory (July 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0759905916
• ISBN-13: 978-0759905917
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,559,178 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Masterful, January 1, 2008

By	Michael LaRocca "http://www.chinarice.org" (Chiang Mai, Thailand) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

No more whines of "I never win anything." I won this, autographed, so ha!

Science fiction can look so easy, can't it? Think of a great idea and build a story around it, right? Well, it's a bit more difficult than that. Wanna know how many I've written? I lost count. Wanna know how many I didn't throw in the trash? Zero. Be grateful, friends and neighbors. I was doing a public service, for you, when I tossed that rubbish.

The masters create three-dimensional characters and let the story unfold from them. Character drives plot, not the other way around, regardless of the situation those characters are in. Pacing and description matter, and skillful use of language is always preferred. By giving us real people, the story evolves far beyond some guys in a pub or on an Internet forum saying, "What would happen if...?" That initial question or questions are just a convenient little rack to hang the rest of the story on, and there had better be plenty to hang on that little rack or nobody's gonna read it, not even the author's family. Darrell knows all this well, which is why he has so many awards and so many fans. The fans are more important.

This isn't science fiction, by the way. It's mystery/thriller. The only thing about it that doesn't exist in the world today -- I hope it doesn't -- is the chemical that makes anyone who breathes it obey any suggestion. What would such a thing do? Read the book and you'll find out, and you'll still be thinking about it when you're done.

I have the most wonderful and beautiful wife, the ultimate Miss Picasso, and enough money. Maybe I'd use this drug on the folks at Immigration, but that's all I can think of. Ethical considerations aside, I can't think of anything else I want.

The book does deserve better editing. But I immediately knew Dirk Wolf did the cover -- he was one of the best -- and my review did refer to Darrell as one of "the masters," didn't it? Yeah, it did. So that's all good stuff. Thanks, Darrell! I wanna win something else! (Hmm. A use for the chemical after all. In case I'm too cheap to BUY his books...)