Rating: 
Summary: Until tears came out my eyes.
Review: Buy this book for Chapter 28 alone. If you don't laugh out loud at Chapter 28, with tears rolling down your cheeks and your three-year old pounding on your home office door asking "what's wrong with you, Daddy?" well then, you and I would never get along.
Rating:
Summary: Until tears came out my eyes.
Review: Buy this book for Chapter 28 alone. If you don't laugh out loud at Chapter 28, with tears rolling down your cheeks and your three-year old pounding on your home office door asking "what's wrong with you, Daddy?" well then, you and I would never get along.
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated. Much too simple.
Review: Don't waste your time. The science is poor. The plot is OK, but there are much better books out there!
Rating: 
Summary: Hard to stomach
Review: Dooling makes a decent attempt at a philosophical take on the way that modern science perceives the self and the soul in the guise of a legal thriller. It seems that his extensive research into brain scanning technologies left him little time to clean up the rest of the book.There are a number of irritating inaccuracies throughout the book, and it is hard to fathom why it is necessary to give a character the "600 mhz Pentium VI" instead of a computer that actually exists. Descriptions of search engines and web surfing technology have similar flaws. Worse than these details, the plot seems to be pulled from a manual on deus ex machina. The lawyers and judges are pulled from prototypes, and those looking for the subtle word play that makes legal fiction so fun will be sadly disappointed. The underlying crime is so far-fetched, and the odds so against the protagonist, that every extreme must be reached for the book to achieve a happy ending. After about three implausible plot turns - and I have nothing against an exciting plot twist, when somewhat feasible through human nature, or even good luck - it was hard to take the book seriously at all.
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant black comedy
Review: Dooling showed his command of black comedy with his first novel, Critical Care. In his second book, White Man's Grave (a National Book Award finalist), Dooling turned his pen to a comparison between West African witch doctory and one of the the West's own institutions of magic and religion--bankruptcy law. In Brain Storm, Dooling gives wonderful evidence that he has further sharpened both his comic skills and his already razor keen cultural commentary. He also adds a tight plot and more than a dollop of vivid sex that may tempt the undiscerning to accuse him of writing a market-driven book (which will also no doubt convert well to film--another curse to those same killjoys). If that is so, then may all "market" books evince such romping comic gifts and insightful social commentary. Don't hold your breath, though. Dooling's prose is rare and fine, despite being cross-dressed in market attire. In Brain Storm, Dooling puts the law, law firms, prosecutors and the judicial system squarely in his sights and then plugs them right where they deserve. Particularly appealing are his peeks into the workings of large law firms (of which he is a veteran) and the politics of prosecution. He also has some delightfully over-the-top characters, such as Judge Stang--a modern-day Roy Bean who would rather hang lawyers than criminals--and Myrna Schweich--a foul-mouthed, pint-sized criminal lawyer who can change from Urban Decay-accessorized grunge to pleated pinstripes in the back of a car on the way to the courthouse. Dooling's filter for sorting out our society's take on the law is neurology, specifically the neurology of criminal conduct. His guide through this area is a centerfold-eligible Ph.D. who becomes an expert neurology witness in the criminal case at the heart of the book. As you might guess from the decolletage on the book's cover, Dr. Brains is also Dr. Sex. But just as the cover is a poke at Harlequin Romance cover art, Dooling's sexy doctor is something of a poke at the law novel genre, which is rich with gratuitous sex. Sex in this case is just part of the fun, not the book's reason for being. I highly recommend Brain Storm. You can read it as a law novel, but one with a brain...and a sense of humor.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious, thoughtful, first rate
Review: Here is a book with everything. A fast-moving legal thriller. A biting satire on the legal system that had me laughing so loudly my wife wondered what was going on. And a thoughtful look at two serious issues: what are hate crimes anyway, and are hate and violent behavior just a little problem with some grey cells out of place. Don't know why this book isn't on the best seller list; it is fresh, original and readable.
Rating:
Summary: Look to his other stuff
Review: I have read all of Dooling's books, and this is certainly his weakest. It feels rushed into print only to become a movie. The ideas are great, but the execution is weak and the characters limp. They were written for the simplicilty of the screen, where types rather than people live. Strutting and rutting, they prance and wisecrack, but feel like caricatures and stereotypes (and poor ones at that). And the endless technology writing is pointless. There is an excellent novel waiting to be written on the thought police and the real intolerance in our society but this is not it.
Rating:
Summary: a black humorist's approach to law, technology and values
Review: I listened to the unabridged audiobook version of Brainstorm and was absolutely intoxicated by the contoversial Judge Stang. Although Joe is the protagonist, Stang was so outrageous and hilarious, I feel complelled to listen to the portions he dominates repeatedly. It is quintessential vengence on a legal system that has long ago subverted moral justice, by an errant judge -- with impunity. His scenarios for torturing attorneys and their overstuffed egos are unbridled. George Guidall's performance on audio sends this character's persona over the top.
Rating:
Summary: Let's lawyers off too easily
Review: I was really looking forward to "Brain Storm" but was disappointed. I agree with previous comments about the style and dialogue, which I found lacked texture and variety. But the worst flaw was that the book was simply not satirical enough. As a confirmed lawyer-hater, I was expecting jokes that were both funnier and more incisive. This is not to condemn the novel, which is a solid, workmanlike product. It simply isn't excellent. Incidentally, Dooling has written a nonfiction book attacking hate-crimes laws and this book casts the issue into fictional form.
Rating:
Summary: overrated
Review: I've picked up this book at the library because I had read so many good reviews on it. WHat a disappointment. This book is mediocre by almost any standard. First, it is a long book for a simple story like this. Not too much happened in terms of events and plot twists, so one gets the feeling that the author is padding. The author's attempts at suspense and mystery are total flops. Sometimes a thriller can be saved despite a weak story by strong characters. This is not the case. We don't really become acquainted with any of the characters and don't care about what happens to them. THere is not one sympathetic character in the entire book. Every character is a stereotype, and too many of them talk in the smart-ass, condescending manner of the protagonist. Since this book is so lacking as entertainment and as art, the only other reason to read it at all is for its ideas. Unfortunately this happens to be my least favorite part of the book. I also have trouble with the author's prentation of his views. THere is not one character who supports the hate crime laws in this book who are not either incompetent or manipulative. The author went through the motion of presenting some argument from the opposing side, but he tries everything to make them sound pathetic. The uninformed reader is likely to walk away with the understanding that hate crime statutes are totally incongrous with our legal system and are mere attempts by power-hungry politicians to gain public support. Save your time and read another book. If you want to know about hate crime laws do a search on the internet. It will be much more informative.
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