Now this is a short story rather than a full novel so the review will be shorter as there is less for me to write about but here goes.
It is a short story in the spy/espionage genre of thrillers.
Thrilling, this story certainly is not.
Plot:
Nathan Tyler is about to take a trip to a maths conference
but everyone is telling him to reconsider as Moscow may not be the safest place
to go….
Tyler knows he has a job to do and the chance to meet his
maths idol is too hard to resist going…
But is his trip really all it seems?
Not a lot.
For me the plot line was as thin a tissue paper and there
was very little, if anything in the line of sub plots. Frankly there was no hook
to the story and I only continued reading it as it was a short story and I knew
I could finish it quickly. The only slightly improved bit is the time slip
section even if this only lasted a couple of paragraphs.
The characterisation is lacking, and it is hard to feel
anything except for total indifference for any of the characters involved simply
as you know nothing about them. In terms of spy/espionage stories Frankly it is
a cheap bargain basement fire damaged and soaked in water for 50 years James
Bond knock off – and that is being nice about it.
Everything in the plot is frankly a little too convenient and
there is no real twist or turn and frankly some bit that crop up could be seen by
a mile away by a blind mole 6 foot underground at midnight in the middle of nowhere.
Could this story have been better developed into a full
novel? I very much doubt it. There is simply nothing here to get your teeth
into. I was left rolling my eyes at parts and thinking ‘yeah like it is really
THAT easy’. As for the invention by Child of the ‘Kindansky numbers’ which are
central to the plot that may drive any real maths professor round the twist.
Frankly I have enough trouble with real numbers – I don’t need made up ones as
well.
Well was this worth reading? Well to keep me occupied on a
recent train journey I suppose it served its purpose but as an enjoyable read,
no, it really isn’t.
Comments
Post a Comment