Both of Hard Case's Lange titles, Grave Descend and Zero Cool, are light-weight, arguably even silly, thrillers. It's pretty easy to nit-pick their plots and presentation.
But.
I read each of them so fast that the pages started to smoke. I doubt I spent more than three or four hours on either of them and found both gripping enough that I didn't pay much attention to their faults until I finished the last page. Great vacation reading.
If they were huge epics or prolonged series I could see the style growing tiresome, but there's something to be said for that kind of pure readability.
John
--- On Thu, 11/6/08, Nathan Cain <IndieCrime@gmail.com> wrote:
From: Nathan Cain <IndieCrime@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Michael Chrichton Passes
To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thursday, November 6, 2008, 6:36 AM
Two of the Lange books have been reprinted by Hard Case and should be
easy to find if you're really curious. I've read one, Grave Descend,
and it wasn't great..It read like something written in the course of
an afternoon. It was all from one third person limited point-of-view,
with the exception of one chapter late in the book where it switches
to another character. That annoyed the hell out of me.
On Wed, Nov 5, 2008 at 10:50 PM, jacquesdebierue
<jacquesdebierue@ yahoo.com> wrote:
> --- In rara-avis-l@ yahoogroups. com, <funkmasterj@ ...> wrote:
>>
>> A terrible shame - a great writer is lost.
>>
>> I plan to read his book Zero Cool next in his honor. I looked for
> Odds On a while ago, but only saw it available online for $200+.
>>
>
> I've never read Chrichton, but now that he has died, it is likely his
> books will be reissued on paperback very quickly. Not that long ago I
> learned about his Lange persona, but haven't found any of those books
> yet (didn't look really hard given the huge to be read pile, which is
> boxes and boxes deep or whatever boxiness is measured in).
>
> Even though I don't know his work, I regret his passing. He obviously
> had many fans and a lot of success.
>
> Best,
>
> mrt
>
>
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