Post by kylerexpop on Sept 4, 2007 4:25:37 GMT -5
*please bear with me, and i'll explain how this is surprisingly related to the unresolved ending to 'twin peaks'*
if you had told me, oh, about a year and a half ago that i would become a fan of the writing duo douglas preston and lincoln child; most notable for their book 'relic' which was then turned into an efficient yet forgettable film adaptation, i would have thought you misguided. or at worst insane.
true: i enjoyed 'riptide' quite a bit as the kind of novel you take on an airplane and leave behind on your seat. but i had tried to read 'relic' and something else (i think 'the ice limit') and couldn't get too involved.
but then a cheap book sale brought 'the ice limit' back into my life as an abused paperback dying to be read and left at the beach. why not?
here's the thing, though: this time around, it was fantastic! not as a great work of literature, to be sure, but as well-researched and dynamic entertainment, it was absolutely fabulous! what i appreciated the most was its mix of abject fictional concerns (including, without venturing into plot spoilers, the most massive meteorite ever discovered and its alarming properties) and realistic (albeit enhanced for shock purposes) depictions of ultimate engineering feats and sea-faring vessels pushed to the absolute limit (no pun intended). basically, with a little more patience and taste in my life, i could see their work as a lovely mix of imaginative story ideas and awesome stuff they read about in all sorts of engineering and scientific journals. loads of fun!
which in turn made me seek out all their other works, which tend to have a handful of recurring characters. one in particular, first appearing in 'relic' and garnering enough of his creators' love to be returned to again and again, is special agent of the fbi aloysius pendergast. according to the official website, he has appeared in 7 of the authors' collaborations (and i believe their newest book, 'the wheel of darkness,' is his eighth appearance). unfortunately, to get a strong appreciation of how cool a character pendergast it really is necessary to read many, and preferably all, of the books he appears in.
here's the important thing: even though i'm not sure if the authors have ever really addressed it, it is nearly impossible to read a pendergast novel and NOT realize a strong influence on the character was fbi special agent dale cooper from the television show 'twin peaks.' not to the point where pendergast is a carbon copy. more simply that it's obvious that cooper is a pop culture touchstone that rears its head whenever you bring a quirky fbi agent into any kind of mix, and that preston and child seem to have embraced a great deal of the positive aspects of agent cooper in creating their own quirky yet wonderfully successful fbi agent.
all of which makes for fun reading, to be sure. but what i discovered upon staying up really, really late to finish 'the wheel of darkness' is that preston and child have put their skills and imaginations to use in re-depicting the final (televised) fate of agent cooper in 'twin peaks' via agent pendergast, and shown exactly how such a situation could come about, what effects it could have, and what resolution is possible.
i'm speaking vaguely because i don't want to ruin the plot developments of either the television show (soon to be released in its entirety on legal american dvds!) or the novel (go forth and read it now!). and also because i've been up for nearly 30 hours and am both hungry and fairly unstable at 2:30 a.m.
suffice to say, however, i am completely surprised, shocked, and full of great cheer that talented writers brought to my attention so much cool science, mysticism, adventure AND given some indirect closure to a fictional yet no-less-perplexing-than-real-life cliffhanger that's haunted this particular 'twin peaks' fan for years and years. wow!
i recommend any of their books, including 'the wheel of darkness,' to anyone who enjoys books that are streamlined and yet bring in a multitude of facts and observations (yet remain within 400 pages or so; pay heed, tom clancy!). but i especially recommend 'the wheel of darkness' to anyone who remembers feeling an anxious sense of "what happens next?!?!" when we catch our last glimpse of agent dale cooper, and would like some idea of where such a story could go from there. i don't mean to imply that they totally recycle 'twin peaks' or even make it blatant that that is what they are doing, but the correlations are fairly obvious.
still: the novel, like their other work, stands on its own without cumbersome pop culture connections. it's just people like us who tend to notice them anyway!
if you had told me, oh, about a year and a half ago that i would become a fan of the writing duo douglas preston and lincoln child; most notable for their book 'relic' which was then turned into an efficient yet forgettable film adaptation, i would have thought you misguided. or at worst insane.
true: i enjoyed 'riptide' quite a bit as the kind of novel you take on an airplane and leave behind on your seat. but i had tried to read 'relic' and something else (i think 'the ice limit') and couldn't get too involved.
but then a cheap book sale brought 'the ice limit' back into my life as an abused paperback dying to be read and left at the beach. why not?
here's the thing, though: this time around, it was fantastic! not as a great work of literature, to be sure, but as well-researched and dynamic entertainment, it was absolutely fabulous! what i appreciated the most was its mix of abject fictional concerns (including, without venturing into plot spoilers, the most massive meteorite ever discovered and its alarming properties) and realistic (albeit enhanced for shock purposes) depictions of ultimate engineering feats and sea-faring vessels pushed to the absolute limit (no pun intended). basically, with a little more patience and taste in my life, i could see their work as a lovely mix of imaginative story ideas and awesome stuff they read about in all sorts of engineering and scientific journals. loads of fun!
which in turn made me seek out all their other works, which tend to have a handful of recurring characters. one in particular, first appearing in 'relic' and garnering enough of his creators' love to be returned to again and again, is special agent of the fbi aloysius pendergast. according to the official website, he has appeared in 7 of the authors' collaborations (and i believe their newest book, 'the wheel of darkness,' is his eighth appearance). unfortunately, to get a strong appreciation of how cool a character pendergast it really is necessary to read many, and preferably all, of the books he appears in.
here's the important thing: even though i'm not sure if the authors have ever really addressed it, it is nearly impossible to read a pendergast novel and NOT realize a strong influence on the character was fbi special agent dale cooper from the television show 'twin peaks.' not to the point where pendergast is a carbon copy. more simply that it's obvious that cooper is a pop culture touchstone that rears its head whenever you bring a quirky fbi agent into any kind of mix, and that preston and child seem to have embraced a great deal of the positive aspects of agent cooper in creating their own quirky yet wonderfully successful fbi agent.
all of which makes for fun reading, to be sure. but what i discovered upon staying up really, really late to finish 'the wheel of darkness' is that preston and child have put their skills and imaginations to use in re-depicting the final (televised) fate of agent cooper in 'twin peaks' via agent pendergast, and shown exactly how such a situation could come about, what effects it could have, and what resolution is possible.
i'm speaking vaguely because i don't want to ruin the plot developments of either the television show (soon to be released in its entirety on legal american dvds!) or the novel (go forth and read it now!). and also because i've been up for nearly 30 hours and am both hungry and fairly unstable at 2:30 a.m.
suffice to say, however, i am completely surprised, shocked, and full of great cheer that talented writers brought to my attention so much cool science, mysticism, adventure AND given some indirect closure to a fictional yet no-less-perplexing-than-real-life cliffhanger that's haunted this particular 'twin peaks' fan for years and years. wow!
i recommend any of their books, including 'the wheel of darkness,' to anyone who enjoys books that are streamlined and yet bring in a multitude of facts and observations (yet remain within 400 pages or so; pay heed, tom clancy!). but i especially recommend 'the wheel of darkness' to anyone who remembers feeling an anxious sense of "what happens next?!?!" when we catch our last glimpse of agent dale cooper, and would like some idea of where such a story could go from there. i don't mean to imply that they totally recycle 'twin peaks' or even make it blatant that that is what they are doing, but the correlations are fairly obvious.
still: the novel, like their other work, stands on its own without cumbersome pop culture connections. it's just people like us who tend to notice them anyway!