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Darwin's Blade
A series of high-speed fatal car wrecks -- accidents that seem. as if they may have been staged -- is leading Darwin Minor down a dangerous road. A reluctantexpert on violent ways to die, he sifts clues from wreckage the way a brilliant coroner extracts damning information from a victim's corpse. But the deeper hedigs, the more enemies he seems to make, and the wider the conspiracy seems to grow. Before long, he'll find himself relying on deadly resources of his own inorder to save his life -- and those of untold others.
464 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
About the author
Dan Simmons
230 books12.4k followersDan Simmons grew up in various cities and small towns in the Midwest, including Brimfield, Illinois, which was the source of his fictional "Elm Haven" in 1991's SUMMER OF NIGHT and 2002's A WINTER HAUNTING. Dan received a B.A. in English from Wabash College in 1970, winning a national Phi Beta Kappa Award during his senior year for excellence in fiction, journalism and art.
Dan received his Masters in Education from Washington University in St. Louis in 1971. He then worked in elementary education for 18 years—2 years in Missouri, 2 years in Buffalo, New York—one year as a specially trained BOCES "resource teacher" and another as a sixth-grade teacher—and 14 years in Colorado.
ABOUT DAN
Biographic Sketch
His last four years in teaching were spent creating, coordinating, and teaching in APEX, an extensive gifted/talented program serving 19 elementary schools and some 15,000 potential students. During his years of teaching, he won awards from the Colorado Education Association and was a finalist for the Colorado Teacher of the Year. He also worked as a national language-arts consultant, sharing his own "Writing Well" curriculum which he had created for his own classroom. Eleven and twelve-year-old students in Simmons' regular 6th-grade class averaged junior-year in high school writing ability according to annual standardized and holistic writing assessments. Whenever someone says "writing can't be taught," Dan begs to differ and has the track record to prove it. Since becoming a full-time writer, Dan likes to visit college writing classes, has taught in New Hampshire's Odyssey writing program for adults, and is considering hosting his own Windwalker Writers' Workshop.
Dan's first published story appeared on Feb. 15, 1982, the day his daughter, Jane Kathryn, was born. He's always attributed that coincidence to "helping in keeping things in perspective when it comes to the relative importance of writing and life."
Dan has been a full-time writer since 1987 and lives along the Front Range of Colorado—in the same town where he taught for 14 years—with his wife, Karen, his daughter, Jane, (when she's home from Hamilton College) and their Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Fergie. He does much of his writing at Windwalker—their mountain property and cabin at 8,400 feet of altitude at the base of the Continental Divide, just south of Rocky Mountain National Park. An 8-ft.-tall sculpture of the Shrike—a thorned and frightening character from the four Hyperion/Endymion novels—was sculpted by an ex-student and friend, Clee Richeson, and the sculpture now stands guard near the isolated cabin.
Dan received his Masters in Education from Washington University in St. Louis in 1971. He then worked in elementary education for 18 years—2 years in Missouri, 2 years in Buffalo, New York—one year as a specially trained BOCES "resource teacher" and another as a sixth-grade teacher—and 14 years in Colorado.
ABOUT DAN
Biographic Sketch
His last four years in teaching were spent creating, coordinating, and teaching in APEX, an extensive gifted/talented program serving 19 elementary schools and some 15,000 potential students. During his years of teaching, he won awards from the Colorado Education Association and was a finalist for the Colorado Teacher of the Year. He also worked as a national language-arts consultant, sharing his own "Writing Well" curriculum which he had created for his own classroom. Eleven and twelve-year-old students in Simmons' regular 6th-grade class averaged junior-year in high school writing ability according to annual standardized and holistic writing assessments. Whenever someone says "writing can't be taught," Dan begs to differ and has the track record to prove it. Since becoming a full-time writer, Dan likes to visit college writing classes, has taught in New Hampshire's Odyssey writing program for adults, and is considering hosting his own Windwalker Writers' Workshop.
Dan's first published story appeared on Feb. 15, 1982, the day his daughter, Jane Kathryn, was born. He's always attributed that coincidence to "helping in keeping things in perspective when it comes to the relative importance of writing and life."
Dan has been a full-time writer since 1987 and lives along the Front Range of Colorado—in the same town where he taught for 14 years—with his wife, Karen, his daughter, Jane, (when she's home from Hamilton College) and their Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Fergie. He does much of his writing at Windwalker—their mountain property and cabin at 8,400 feet of altitude at the base of the Continental Divide, just south of Rocky Mountain National Park. An 8-ft.-tall sculpture of the Shrike—a thorned and frightening character from the four Hyperion/Endymion novels—was sculpted by an ex-student and friend, Clee Richeson, and the sculpture now stands guard near the isolated cabin.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 168 reviews
August 13, 2011
Accident reconstructor Darwin Minor gets into an accident himself. It turns out people are gunning for him. But why? With the help of beautiful FBI agent, Sydney Olson, he's going to find out...
Dan Simmons is one of the more versatile writers active today. He can write in any genre, from science fiction with Hyperion, to horror with Carrion Comfort, to crime with Hardcase, to this, a thriller.
The Good:
Darwin Minor reconstructs car accidents, trying to prevent insurance fraud. It's a pretty good occupation for the main character in a thriller to have. He's smart without being annoyingly so and his Vietnam past as a sniper gives him added depth.
Cracking a far-reaching insurance fraud ring is a plot I've never read before and Simmons gets some good mileage out of it. The bizarre accidents Dar reconstructs are almost worth the price of admission on their own, from the guy who managed to shoot himself in the testicle to the guy who ended up at the bottom of the cliff with a tree branch up his ass and a pickup truck on top of him.
The action in Darwin's Blade is fast and furious when it happens. The car chase near the beginning was one of my favorites of all time, in books anyway. The shootout at the end was also quite spectacular.
The Bad:
Here we go. I realize that all thrillers have the obligatory hookup between male and female characters but this one felt really forced. Like Simmons thought "I have a thriller so I'd better introduce an attractive female for my main character to fall in love with." Like I said, it felt forced.
The other gripe that I have is that Darwin's Blade, to me at least, seems really wordy for what it is. It's about 100 pages longer than it should be. I don't need six pages about how Darwin's sailplane works, nor do I need three or four pages that are mostly equations. The philosophical bits, while interesting, didn't add all that much to the story except for giving Darwin something to talk about.
Elmore Leonard has his eleven rules of writing. For my money, a crime book or thriller should follow most of them.
1. Never open a book with weather.
2. Avoid prologues.
3. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said” . . .
5. Keep your exclamation points under control.
6. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9. Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
11. If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
I'd say Darwin's Blade breaks about half of them.
I'm sounding too negative. Overall, I liked Darwin's Blade enough to give it a three but not enough to not convert it to store credit at my earliest convenience. It's good and Simmons fans will want to read it but if you're only going to read one Dan Simmons book, it shouldn't be this one.
Dan Simmons is one of the more versatile writers active today. He can write in any genre, from science fiction with Hyperion, to horror with Carrion Comfort, to crime with Hardcase, to this, a thriller.
The Good:
Darwin Minor reconstructs car accidents, trying to prevent insurance fraud. It's a pretty good occupation for the main character in a thriller to have. He's smart without being annoyingly so and his Vietnam past as a sniper gives him added depth.
Cracking a far-reaching insurance fraud ring is a plot I've never read before and Simmons gets some good mileage out of it. The bizarre accidents Dar reconstructs are almost worth the price of admission on their own, from the guy who managed to shoot himself in the testicle to the guy who ended up at the bottom of the cliff with a tree branch up his ass and a pickup truck on top of him.
The action in Darwin's Blade is fast and furious when it happens. The car chase near the beginning was one of my favorites of all time, in books anyway. The shootout at the end was also quite spectacular.
The Bad:
Here we go. I realize that all thrillers have the obligatory hookup between male and female characters but this one felt really forced. Like Simmons thought "I have a thriller so I'd better introduce an attractive female for my main character to fall in love with." Like I said, it felt forced.
The other gripe that I have is that Darwin's Blade, to me at least, seems really wordy for what it is. It's about 100 pages longer than it should be. I don't need six pages about how Darwin's sailplane works, nor do I need three or four pages that are mostly equations. The philosophical bits, while interesting, didn't add all that much to the story except for giving Darwin something to talk about.
Elmore Leonard has his eleven rules of writing. For my money, a crime book or thriller should follow most of them.
1. Never open a book with weather.
2. Avoid prologues.
3. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said” . . .
5. Keep your exclamation points under control.
6. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9. Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
11. If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
I'd say Darwin's Blade breaks about half of them.
I'm sounding too negative. Overall, I liked Darwin's Blade enough to give it a three but not enough to not convert it to store credit at my earliest convenience. It's good and Simmons fans will want to read it but if you're only going to read one Dan Simmons book, it shouldn't be this one.
February 11, 2012
It's like he lost a bet. I picture Dan Simmons sitting around with his literary friends and they goad him into writing an action thriller based on tired email forwards that we all saw too many times back in the early nineties. They force him to incorporate an incredibly cliched love story. It has to incorporate a misunderstood protagonist nursing the wounds of a recent tragedy, a car chase ending with a supercar driving off a cliff, and Russian spies; so it must have been a high stakes loss. In the end, it sells decently due to this other, more cerebral work, and his fans are left feeling a little tricked. At least for once, in my case, I wasn't left with the impression that I wasn't really smart enough or had enough exhaustive knowledge of Shakespeare or Dickens to truly appreciate his work.
Most of the time, it seems like he's writing for word nerds, hardcore conservatives, or history or literary buffs. This time, it seems like he was shooting for the lowest common denominator.
Most of the time, it seems like he's writing for word nerds, hardcore conservatives, or history or literary buffs. This time, it seems like he was shooting for the lowest common denominator.
April 15, 2019
Organized Insurance Fraud? who knew. I am always surprised by the ingenuity of the criminal element. the plot was not that good to be honest. standard action packed crime investigation love story. would make a interesting movie but I expect more from a book. the plot never impressed or engrossed me fully. but Simmons utilized his detailed heavy style to breakdown accidents to great effect. relating interesting sometimes comical scenarios. two were even tested on the TV show Mythbusters. there are some heart racing action in this book but with other Simmons books those chapters seem slowed down by his incessant fact dropping. do I really need to know the rotor speed of a Bell Ranger helicopter to know it is faster that a glide plane. I know many Simmons fans rave about the way he writes action scenes, but I have never latched on. because of Simmons fact saturated style the action parts are hit or miss for me. glider parts miss, Russian cabin fight Hit. car chase miss, Vietnam part hit!!! also a complaint is after spending so much time explaining how the fraud origination worked he wrapped it up so abruptly with a simple they were all caught and charges pressed. I understand the climax was involving the Russians not the lawyers but still a little anticlimactic in that area. Simmons teaches me something every time I read one of his books. like sniper tactics and that enough to keep reading his books. but the fact that the anecdotes outshone the plot in Darwin's blade is the main reason it gets three stars.
January 9, 2014
"Stupidity kills. Absolute stupidity kills absolutely." [Dan] Simmons, who has moved effortlessly from horror (Children of the Night) to science fiction (Hyperion; Endymion) to thrillers (The Crook Factory) obviously had a lot of fun writing this gripping suspense thriller about automobile insurance fraud rackets in Southern California. Former NTSB investigator Dr. Darwin Minor (Ph.D., physics) is the best at what he does. As the country's leading "accident reconstruction specialist," Darwin has saved the insurance industry millions, as well as solving the most confounding cases of vehicular stupidity. But suddenly, he finds himself the target of assassins, resulting in a wild car chase that is only the first of many spellbinding set pieces. Is Darwin being targeted for business reasons, or is the attack somehow tied to the ongoing federal investigation of the Alliance, a Russian mafia-type group that specializes in staging accidents to perpetrate insurance fraud? A delightfully bizarre inside joke concerns the "Darwin Awards," which celebrate those who improve the human gene pool by removing themselves from it, like the young man who attempts to break the land speed record by attaching a couple of rockets to his '82 El Camino and ends up splattered on a cliff face hundreds of feet above the highway. In the course of the novel, Darwin investigates several accident scenes that duplicate either Darwin Award-winning demises or urban legends. A breezy writing style, rollicking humor and ingenious descriptions of weird accidents make this action-packed thriller a real winner. (Amazon.com review)
I have come to the conclusion that Dan Simmons doesn't know how to write a bad book. Some authors...fade...over time. Simmons is consistently good, regardless of the genre he's writing.
This novel is firmly planted in the thriller category, and is obviously set up for sequels. Sometimes that's a bad thing, but the characters Simmons establishes here are likeable, quirky and interesting. Just enough of their back story is revealed to give their personalities depth and substance without being beaten over the head with exposition. I'll be more than happy to read any subsequent novels featuring Dr. Darwin Minor and his adventures in accident reconstruction.
Oh. And the story is good too! Mucho mayhem and excitement, some laugh-out-loud funny dialogue, a little romance, a lot of intrigue...nearly perfect.
Read it.
I have come to the conclusion that Dan Simmons doesn't know how to write a bad book. Some authors...fade...over time. Simmons is consistently good, regardless of the genre he's writing.
This novel is firmly planted in the thriller category, and is obviously set up for sequels. Sometimes that's a bad thing, but the characters Simmons establishes here are likeable, quirky and interesting. Just enough of their back story is revealed to give their personalities depth and substance without being beaten over the head with exposition. I'll be more than happy to read any subsequent novels featuring Dr. Darwin Minor and his adventures in accident reconstruction.
Oh. And the story is good too! Mucho mayhem and excitement, some laugh-out-loud funny dialogue, a little romance, a lot of intrigue...nearly perfect.
Read it.
October 17, 2020
This is a suspenseful noir-ish thriller about an accident investigator, insurance fraud, and (of course) a beautiful FBI agent with whom he becomes involved. It has some really fast-paced action scenes and some delightfully clever dialog, along with pleasant romance and a little engaging humor. Nothing to really rock your world, but a fun and captivating diversion.
May 8, 2015
It's been a long time since I read this but what I remember best was that Darwin rattled off several "work-related anecdotes" throughout the book that were all recognizable to me as urban legends. I've rarely been more annoyed with an author.
May 17, 2012
Just finished and enjoyed it. I'm glad that I've read so much GREAT Simmons work before it so that reading this I could really tell that the author was winking at the reader the entire time and you were certain it was not to be taken seriously; otherwise, it would have been hard to resist constantly thinking "Is this guy f%*&ing serious? I mean COME ON", but then, it's SO tongue in cheek that even without it I'm not sure I would have kept from laughing. One thing that stood out to me from early in the book though, despite silly plot devices, is some of the very clever techniques Simmons embeds in his own writing to get you to quickly connect with Dar Minor. For me, I thought sneaking the reader into Dar's brain just a little with the device about him hating when people made verbs out of nouns ('Mirandizing' was one) was a very clever, quick and easy way to get you into the character. It's probably my one major takeaway.
Blatantly over-the-top, a send-up to an over-saturated 'suspense' genre tied loosely into some fun with the Darwin Awards, it was certainly an enjoyable read as long as you knew not to take it literally. It's so blatantly absurd that if you took it otherwise you'd go crazy banging your head about how ridiculous so much of it truly is. My best advice is to just sit back, enjoy, and if you feel the urge to laugh at this book - go for it - I'm pretty sure that's intended.
I'm tempted to give him more stars after reading other reviews and realizing that Simmons parody is so good that almost no one realized how tongue-in-cheek it is. haha
Blatantly over-the-top, a send-up to an over-saturated 'suspense' genre tied loosely into some fun with the Darwin Awards, it was certainly an enjoyable read as long as you knew not to take it literally. It's so blatantly absurd that if you took it otherwise you'd go crazy banging your head about how ridiculous so much of it truly is. My best advice is to just sit back, enjoy, and if you feel the urge to laugh at this book - go for it - I'm pretty sure that's intended.
I'm tempted to give him more stars after reading other reviews and realizing that Simmons parody is so good that almost no one realized how tongue-in-cheek it is. haha
March 21, 2022
Numerous minitue stories incluing several 'Darwin Award EExamples" integrated into the overall myystery.
August 29, 2010
Ehh... this third loose off-shoot of Summer of Night was less impressive than I would have hoped. While Simmons is certainly a versatile writer, this shoot-'em-up semi-comedic thriller seemed a bit forced. Many of the same accidents were included not only in the compilation of the Darwin Awards, but brought to life on screen as well in that Darwin Awards movie. If less clichéd selections had been chosen, this would have been a much more interesting twist. The attempts at humour were about half successful, but the beginning's quirk of Dar's grammar-Nazism was more annoying than endearing and I was relive that once the plot barreled onward, that trait fell by the wayside.
The military aspect and really the plot overall was a bit... boring. Plus, the author certainly is a bad commercial for that over-and-under shotgun. This is the second (well, chronologically speaking the first time) that it has conveniently failed to fire and the new-lease-on-life hero has saved the special, dented shell...
But it was nice to see Lawrence all grown up and he was one of the more charming characters. The romance, though felt flat and forced and while there were brief moments (like the rare occasions that the humour actually did make me smile) that this reminded me of Linwood Barclay's books, this just wasn't Simmons finest work, though it does speak well of his versatility.
Summer of Night
The military aspect and really the plot overall was a bit... boring. Plus, the author certainly is a bad commercial for that over-and-under shotgun. This is the second (well, chronologically speaking the first time) that it has conveniently failed to fire and the new-lease-on-life hero has saved the special, dented shell...
But it was nice to see Lawrence all grown up and he was one of the more charming characters. The romance, though felt flat and forced and while there were brief moments (like the rare occasions that the humour actually did make me smile) that this reminded me of Linwood Barclay's books, this just wasn't Simmons finest work, though it does speak well of his versatility.
Summer of Night
April 21, 2015
Everyone knows I love Dan Simmons.
And days after I told a friend that everything Dan writes is brilliant, I started this novel.
I have to retract my statement to my friend. Sometimes, what Dan Simmons publishes is just okay.
There's a lot of cool sequences in this book: the utterly incredible highway car chase in the first fifty pages, the helicopter chase toward the ending, the clever way the Russian's escape from their FBI-surrounded home, the climactic knife battle on a log over a ravine. Sharp, witty dialogue.
BUT there's also a lot of filler. Flashbacks to things that don't clearly relate to the story. An unnecessary sex scene. Humorous descriptions of different accidents that only seem inserted because of how humorous they are. Long unnecessary descriptions of guns and weaponry. AND -- and this really galls me -- on page 92, there's a humorous sequence stolen just about verbatim from one of the first two episodes of Saturday Night Live in 1975. I wish I were making that last one up.
I still love Dan Simmons but this one is pretty minor.
And days after I told a friend that everything Dan writes is brilliant, I started this novel.
I have to retract my statement to my friend. Sometimes, what Dan Simmons publishes is just okay.
There's a lot of cool sequences in this book: the utterly incredible highway car chase in the first fifty pages, the helicopter chase toward the ending, the clever way the Russian's escape from their FBI-surrounded home, the climactic knife battle on a log over a ravine. Sharp, witty dialogue.
BUT there's also a lot of filler. Flashbacks to things that don't clearly relate to the story. An unnecessary sex scene. Humorous descriptions of different accidents that only seem inserted because of how humorous they are. Long unnecessary descriptions of guns and weaponry. AND -- and this really galls me -- on page 92, there's a humorous sequence stolen just about verbatim from one of the first two episodes of Saturday Night Live in 1975. I wish I were making that last one up.
I still love Dan Simmons but this one is pretty minor.
September 17, 2019
I have read most of Dan Simmons books and I have never been that disappointed by one if his books. This book is a collection of anecdotes taken from insurance companies about accidents put altogether into a book. The idea seems interesting. However this book has absolutely no storyline whatsoever. The hero goes from explaining anecdotes to describing the work of a sniper during 10 pages and how to fly a glider. And all this without any plotline.
Ok, we got it: the hero is chased by 2 russian killers who find the most unlikely way to try to kill him. But you never get the reason why he is chased. This sounds like a cheap B rated movie where the plot has been forgotten to promote nice special effects.
Very disappointing.
Ok, we got it: the hero is chased by 2 russian killers who find the most unlikely way to try to kill him. But you never get the reason why he is chased. This sounds like a cheap B rated movie where the plot has been forgotten to promote nice special effects.
Very disappointing.
December 25, 2019
3.5 stars.
This is one of my least favorite books by Simmons, but it was enjoyable because he is a great storyteller. He knows his topics inside out. I gave it a slighly higher ranking simply because of his mastery of several topics written into a very convincing detective story.
I liked how he wrote this story even though it includes a lot of gun history - a topic I don't know or care anything about.
Simmons never does what you expect. A+ writer.
I am hoping to finish the rest of his books in 2020.
This is one of my least favorite books by Simmons, but it was enjoyable because he is a great storyteller. He knows his topics inside out. I gave it a slighly higher ranking simply because of his mastery of several topics written into a very convincing detective story.
I liked how he wrote this story even though it includes a lot of gun history - a topic I don't know or care anything about.
Simmons never does what you expect. A+ writer.
I am hoping to finish the rest of his books in 2020.
January 23, 2021
A good plot, but I never felt anything for the characters.
April 9, 2020
A fantastic thriller/mystery set right before cell phones were common and well before smart phones. A fun romp that I really enjoyed.
August 9, 2011
A surprising departure for Dan Simmons from the niche he dominates as a leading Sci-fi and horror fiction writer. He tests his hands at writing a supsense thriller and injects fresh ideas into a tired old genre. However, I am afraid it won't go down well with the usual fans of thriler genre, as the mix of high science might be a bit overwhelming for some, whereas the people who are more likely to appreciate the intricacies of the book are likely to bypass it. Great pity, as it is very interesting it its own way, and spurns the action oriented and macho hero in favour of an intelligent and introspective one who generally abhors violence. Needs patience to get into it, and that patience will be rewarded later. Recommended for people who like to transcend genres in reading.
June 1, 2018
I was really conflicted about this one. Some parts were definitely 5-star (the parts that sound like Dan Simmons) and some part were 1-star (the parts that sound like James Patterson at his cheesiest). I really liked all of the insurance fraud anecdotes that were thrown in and the insurance investigative mysteries that were central to the plot. Not my favorite Simmons, but not bad.
May 6, 2010
Dan Simmons is a god.
November 17, 2013
This is the third time I've read this book and each time I enjoy it more. I hope there is another novel featuring Dar in the future
October 22, 2019
4.5*, a gripping, smart, witty, and fast paced litersy action thriller. Highly recommended
November 3, 2023
This is my least favorite Simmons novel. The main character, Darwin Minor was a menage of things that I didn't quite like, and the storyline was not the thriller I was expecting, it moves a bit slow, as he reconstructs accidents and the climax is what exactly? There's a few 'high points' but nothing really sticks out as the climax for me besides the first car chase, in or around chapter 2, or maybe his flashback days in Vietnam? Simmons sure does his homework on car crashes and rifles and whatnot, but it doesn't make up for the storyline or what makes Darwin tick. The ending was much too perfect in the way cliche endings go. Sniper V Sniper and the man who hasn't shot a gun in twenty years, with a rifle just as old (and from his military days) beats the veteran killer with a brand new, top-of-the-line accurate rifle as they walk toward each other taking shots from 800 yards away and closing, the scene wasn't even gripping and Yaponchik's death was overlooked and ill described. And the last chapter with the elephant, ridiculous. I was relieved to have finished this book, which is sad, as I've loved Simmons' other works wholeheartedly.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 3, 2021
I really liked this book, but I liked it *because* it was a spectacle of improbable Mary Sue nonsense.
This book is like watching every Nicholas Cage movie and reading every Dan Brown novel simultaneously. It only makes sense if you're willing to turn your brain completely off and engage with the spectacle on its own terms.
If you are like me and know literally nothing about cars or guns or airplanes or mobility scooters, you'll start to feel compelled, about 2 chapters in, to start looking up terms on Google, certain that all of these technical details must be building to something. They're not. You can replace most of the details with "big" or "impressive sounding" and you will follow the 'plot' as well as is possible.
Read it. Have a glass of your favorite alcohol while you read it. It will be great.
This book is like watching every Nicholas Cage movie and reading every Dan Brown novel simultaneously. It only makes sense if you're willing to turn your brain completely off and engage with the spectacle on its own terms.
If you are like me and know literally nothing about cars or guns or airplanes or mobility scooters, you'll start to feel compelled, about 2 chapters in, to start looking up terms on Google, certain that all of these technical details must be building to something. They're not. You can replace most of the details with "big" or "impressive sounding" and you will follow the 'plot' as well as is possible.
Read it. Have a glass of your favorite alcohol while you read it. It will be great.
February 13, 2024
This is probably the most description heavy and least horrific of Simmons' works. It's a (somewhat?) rare thriller novel from Simmons, in tone it may be similar to the Joe Kurtz novels (which I haven't read) although it's strangely comedic in places. Still dark, but the darkness is mingled with comedy. The atmosphere's similar to the series Numb3rs, though more comedic.
The plot is somewhat simple. Not the most complex book to wrap your head around. There's quite a few scenes that digress from the plot but I didn't find them as aggravating as in something like Snow Man (by Carolyn Chute).
This one also has some links to Simmons' other works. Lawrence from this novel is the same from Summer of Night, while I think a zookeeper character shown in the epilogue is the father of a character from Fires of Eden (this is a vague guess because I haven't read FoE).
The plot is somewhat simple. Not the most complex book to wrap your head around. There's quite a few scenes that digress from the plot but I didn't find them as aggravating as in something like Snow Man (by Carolyn Chute).
This one also has some links to Simmons' other works. Lawrence from this novel is the same from Summer of Night, while I think a zookeeper character shown in the epilogue is the father of a character from Fires of Eden (this is a vague guess because I haven't read FoE).
May 2, 2020
Dan Simmons's continuing followup on the kids* from the book Summer of Night is a fun and fast read for people who like cars, law enforcement, and military sniper skills. As usual, Mr. Simmons is well informed and has put in his research. He combines facts and fiction in a seamless tyle that is great fun to read.
Caveat: If you know your Urban Legend's Dar's cases are going to be boring for you. The case segments are quite short but each one is based on a well known urban tale. Still you can skip through those segments and still have a good read.
Other books in this loose series include
All the kids - Summer of Night
Dale/Duane- A Winter's Haunting
Lawrence - Darwin's Blade (Secondary character)
Cordie - Fires of Eden
Mike/Jim - Children of the Night
Caveat: If you know your Urban Legend's Dar's cases are going to be boring for you. The case segments are quite short but each one is based on a well known urban tale. Still you can skip through those segments and still have a good read.
Other books in this loose series include
All the kids - Summer of Night
Dale/Duane- A Winter's Haunting
Lawrence - Darwin's Blade (Secondary character)
Cordie - Fires of Eden
Mike/Jim - Children of the Night
March 25, 2021
I struggled a bit w/ this one: started off really great and then it slowed down for me. I struggled w/ the story and how big it got. It included a lot of different people and that is always tough for me to keep track of everyone fully. It also became...less interesting. All of those equations and such, not exciting to me. I love how it showed that this is the way that Dar thinks, but not the most exciting. This is also my 4th book by Simmons and while he is great, this one was very different than the others. There is horror listed in the genres but there is NO element of the supernatural in this one. Not sure where that came from. Recommended for fans of Summer of Night as the adult Lawrence is lots of fun.
June 3, 2020
This book has some redeeming qualities; it's kinda the prototype of the Simmons style to come where he basically does tons of info dumps about a particular subject while having a story to tie it all together (The Terror, Black Hills, The Abominable, The Fifth Heart, etc.) and the action is pretty exciting. However, the info dumps are just all over the place and don't really tie together well (planes, cars, guns, just physics in general are all expounded upon at great length multiple times), the prose is the most listless and uninspired of any of his books, and the main character (the Darwin of the title) is the least interesting of any Simmons character. He's basically just a superman.
August 6, 2024
This was not my favorite Dan Simmons, but he did a decent job at writing a suspenseful action thriller. I liked the main character, Dar(win), he had some mystery surrounding him; and there was a bit of humor among the main characters. It was also fascinating to see accident recreation as a career for the main characters. I wonder if there is as much scamming of insurance claims as there was described in this book, and is there enough to have a huge task force of multiple law agencies after a group that organizes them?
September 9, 2020
Interesting premise relating to time travel and the potential for a new tourist industry. Bouncing between 2 locations in the present and 1 location in the past and the interactions of the the past and the present was well handled and virtually seamless. Crichton once again has done a good job of researching science and drawing together the science of now, the possibilities of tomorrow and a well thought out story all together.
November 17, 2021
Прочитала 7\8 книги и вот что я хочу сказать по этому поводу. Я помню Гиперион, я помню Террор. Что это? такое ощущение, что это начинающий писатель, который собрал сборник клише про детективов, про разных людей-русские, мафия КГБ, вьетнамцы и что-то слепил. периодически там какая-то толерантность мелькает навроде : как стрелять по врагу.... он или она...враг есть враг, совершенно неважно какой- при этом гендер. Не стала дочитывать, не шмогла. увы и ах.
July 18, 2023
This is a great book! I read many reviews, and it saddens me to know that a well written, fast-paced, thrill ride of a book can be put down in society the same as a person simply for being created with a high intellect. Yes, the character of Dar is smart... Yes, it shows in the portrail of his thinking. No, you don't have to understand to his depth to appreciate the book. leave your inferiority complex behind & this book is a hell of a ride!
July 11, 2024
Un thriller bastante bueno con una historia más o menos original de un fraude millonario de seguros. Pero hay partes muy largas que no aportan tanto a la trama, como el flash back de Vietnam o las interminables descripciones técnicas de las armas. También, el predecible romance con la coprotagonista, con olorcito a película de los 90s.
Dan Simmons es así; escribe algo genial, algo bastante bueno o una completa basura. Es difícil decir de antemano con qué nos vamos a encontrar.
Dan Simmons es así; escribe algo genial, algo bastante bueno o una completa basura. Es difícil decir de antemano con qué nos vamos a encontrar.
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