Pacific Vortex! by Clive Cussler

Clive Cussler is rich and famous and this is what he writes? That's what I thought about half-way through Pacific Vortex!. The fact that he uses the exclamation point in several of his titles is a good indication of his style--exciting things are happening so it must be exciting to the reader. Apparently it is for millions of readers, but it sure wasn't for me. Pacific Vortex! is about thin characters doing and saying ridiculous things. It has a lot of action, but I never really cared what happened to the people. It reminded me of an action-packed adventure movie that people yawn at because the action has very little significance.

I read this book to get ideas about how to build suspense in my writing, but it ended up showing me what not to do. This is apparently the first book in the series but was not released first because Cussler knew it was sub-standard. Maybe I'll give another one of his books a chance, but it's hard to imagine that the others are dramatically better.

Sparrowhawk One: Jack Frake by Edward Kline

When I read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, I loved reading about Ragnar Danneskjold--a pirate who "robbed" from the poor and gave to the rich (he was actually returning stolen goods looted by the government in the name of the poor). I thought it would make great reading to have a book just about the exploits of Danneskjold, and perhaps Edward Kline did too (he's a fan of Ayn Rand as well). Sparrowhawk One details the life of noble smugglers in mid-nineteenth century England who live as criminals on principle by selling goods without paying the excise taxes.

While I like the premise of this book, the execution was lacking. Cline tells too much and shows too little. Instead of showing in a dramatized scene the bravery and skill of these smugglers, Cline relates in exposition years worth of exploits, resulting in unfortunate boredom in the reader. Cline also has noble characters, but instead of continuously dramatizing their virtues, he too often simply states their virtues and trusts the reader to take the author's word for it.

I know I'm being harsh, but it's only because this book could have been so much more. However, I'll shut up now until I can see how well I do at creating suspense and drama in my own work.

The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes

This is billed as a new history of the great depression, and, as a history book, it does present the facts of the time in great detail. The problem is that the material wasn't organized well, and I often found myself wondering why the author just told me something. Ari Armstrong had the same beef and wrote a great article in The Objective Standard which used the facts from Shlaes book to highlight the main themes to be learned from the Great Depression.

I was motivated to read this book because President Obama was and is pursuing the same types of activities that FDR tried in his New Deal. After reading this book, it was made clear that FDR's policies hurt the economic recovery rather than helped it, and I'm convinced that Obama's activities will have the same effect.