Anarchy

Rating:
Summary: great book
Review: i finished this book in one sitting, its captivating

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, posthumous novel by Baker
Review: I REALLY like JRB's work. Never subtle, often over the top - but certainly exciting. This book was reworked from a manuscript discovered after his death. Like Brassart mentions in the afterward, one can see the lack of orientation/tightness to the story and that is AFTER it has been edited and reworked. This one has a plot that travels all over the world, hits the media and celebrity between the eyes and never, ever stops. A little too cartoonish and over the top. The bodycount is absolutely amazing. Sadly, there is no real depth here to any of the characters and it's outlandishness, finally, does it in. All that said, it's worth checking out if you are a fan of his work.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, posthumous novel by Baker
Review: I REALLY like JRB's work. Never subtle, often over the top - but certainly exciting. This book was reworked from a manuscript discovered after his death. Like Brassart mentions in the afterward, one can see the lack of orientation/tightness to the story and that is AFTER it has been edited and reworked. This one has a plot that travels all over the world, hits the media and celebrity between the eyes and never, ever stops. A little too cartoonish and over the top. The bodycount is absolutely amazing. Sadly, there is no real depth here to any of the characters and it's outlandishness, finally, does it in. All that said, it's worth checking out if you are a fan of his work.

Rating:
Summary: absurdist fiction at its best
Review: If Anarchy wasn't written by James Robert Baker and if it wasn't so compulsively readable it would be absolutely absurd. The plot is all over the board. James Robert Baker is the protangist of the story and after thwarting a hostage situation of the Sea Crew cast (a thinly veiled reference to Baywatch whose buxom star Patti Grant bears a remarkable likeness to Pamela what's-her-name), James is recruited by a police officer to retreive a videotape that may actually depict OJ murdering Nicole. Suddenly James finds himself in possession of the questionable tape, pursued by a bloodthirsty Russian named Vlad, in search of Eva Braun's elusive diet pills, infiltrating a right wing religious fundamentalist nudist colony and attempting to save Patti Grant from her obsessed plastic surgeon who has placed bombs in her implants. That's not the half of it. There are shootouts, an ever-increasing body count (some without heads) and an afterlife experience involving Catherine Deneuve and a plot to kill God.

Posthumously condensed, edited and published from a hugely unfocused manuscript after Baker's unfortunate and untimely suicide, Anarchy doesn't read the same as other Baker novels. Although it is well edited, it still has an unfinished feel to it. Baker's trademark wry sense of humor that skewers celebrity culture and right wing fundamentalism is still evident yet there's a greater emphasis on action driven plot instead of descriptive narrative and a huge lack of the blatant in-your-face (homo)sexuality for which Baker is well known. One can't help but wonder what Baker really had in mind with Anarchy.

This is a must read for any Baker fan or for someone willing to suspend all belief for a couple of hours to go on an action packed, over-the-top wild goose chase of a ride.

Rating:
Summary: absurdist fiction at its best
Review: If Anarchy wasn't written by James Robert Baker and if it wasn't so compulsively readable it would be absolutely absurd. The plot is all over the board. James Robert Baker is the protangist of the story and after thwarting a hostage situation of the Sea Crew cast (a thinly veiled reference to Baywatch whose buxom star Patti Grant bears a remarkable likeness to Pamela what's-her-name), James is recruited by a police officer to retreive a videotape that may actually depict OJ murdering Nicole. Suddenly James finds himself in possession of the questionable tape, pursued by a bloodthirsty Russian named Vlad, in search of Eva Braun's elusive diet pills, infiltrating a right wing religious fundamentalist nudist colony and attempting to save Patti Grant from her obsessed plastic surgeon who has placed bombs in her implants. That's not the half of it. There are shootouts, an ever-increasing body count (some without heads) and an afterlife experience involving Catherine Deneuve and a plot to kill God.

Posthumously condensed, edited and published from a hugely unfocused manuscript after Baker's unfortunate and untimely suicide, Anarchy doesn't read the same as other Baker novels. Although it is well edited, it still has an unfinished feel to it. Baker's trademark wry sense of humor that skewers celebrity culture and right wing fundamentalism is still evident yet there's a greater emphasis on action driven plot instead of descriptive narrative and a huge lack of the blatant in-your-face (homo)sexuality for which Baker is well known. One can't help but wonder what Baker really had in mind with Anarchy.

This is a must read for any Baker fan or for someone willing to suspend all belief for a couple of hours to go on an action packed, over-the-top wild goose chase of a ride.