Deep Storm review -- Lincoln Child

This was another hand-me-down airport novel donated from the lovely mother. Here's the deal with Deep Storm: while reading it, I felt super conflicted. It was written really well, the story was interesting enough, and the plot moved at a whiplash-breakneck-pace, yet I couldn't have wanted to put it down more. Seriously. My extreme need to drop this book where I stood (or, more accurately, sat) was immeasurably high, for an inexplicable reason. But I did. 

In Deep Storm, there was a lot of submarine and technological terminology, and I held onto or understood about 0.001% of it. Things like "hull" and "electromagnetic link" and "degausser" . . . yeesh. Maybe I'm just retarded or I didn't pay enough attention in 8th grade history class. 

I've never been one that fancied airport novels. In fact, my whole life I've tried to stay away from them. Seeing James Patterson in big, bold letters on a book cover makes me cringe (and not just for the rights issues). I cringe away from them because they're all so . . . predictable. Which is one thing this book was not. I was totally not expecting the ending this book had. 

 

It just jumped out at me, and honestly, it kind of made the entire book pointless. When the characters don't get anywhere in a book, it pisses me offmajorly. That is my biggest pet peeve in literature: books that go nowhere, which is why sitcoms bug me so much. They always start in the same place and end in the same place. 

Lincoln Child doesn't seem like a guy I'm going to buy on a whim at an airport the next time my flight is delayed. In fact, after this reading experience, I think I'm just going to drop all related authors. These books do nothing for me. Nothing! 

Clive Cussler said this book was "harrowing and brilliantly conceived." No wonder I hated Medusa so much if you think this book is any of those things you said about it. 

Another thing about this book that bugged me is that none of the characters really did anything for me. None of them were any different from the next. They were all scientist/marine biologist carbon copies, and when the end came, I didn't care whether they all lived or died. I actually couldn't have cared less. 

I actually kind of liked the book for a few chapters, but after those initial few I began to think, "By god, when is this thing going to end?" And that's a correct assumption to make. The thing is 370 pages with the smallest print imaginable. I think Child could've taken some things out and made it about 300, at the most. In the middle, I got really bored, and I skipped over the rest until I got to the end. Lincoln Child drew a few yawns out of me before I finally "finished" the book. 

Deep Storm is nothing special in the world of literary gems, besides the jaw-dropping ending and the fairly good writing. It's definitely nothing you need to spend $14.95 (or, as my mom paid for it half off, $7.48) on.

Two Owls