Rating: 
Summary: Did We All Read the Same Book?
Review: I must say, I'm stunned at the volume of negative reviews of this book posted here. I, too, am a huge Dan Simmons fan, and I think this is the best book he's ever written.First off, Darwin Minor is a great character. Practically emotionally shut down by horrific events in his past (which I won't reveal for those of you who plan to read the book), he has found a measure of comfort in the writings of Marcus Aurelius, the second century Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher. One could do worse. For me, it's refreshing to see a modern hero whose life is built on SOME foundation (even if, as a Christian, I think its a wrong one), rather than the typical post-modern alienated protagonist who has no access to any tradition. Second, this is a very funny book. I found myself laughing out loud in a number of spots. Like Jonathan Franzen said in a recent interview, I don't trust a writer who isn't funny. Simmons' depiction of antagonist Dallas Trace, a thinly disguised representation of noted legal blowhard Gerry Spence, besides being hilarious, makes me want to be sure I never get on Simmons' bad side. Third, Sydney Olson, the female lead, is also a terrific character. Tough, intellegent, beautiful--and, here's the real kicker--believable. A modern woman, but not hide-bound by feminist claptrap. Yes, perhaps larger-than-life, but isn't that what we want in our heroes and heroines? Fourth sprinkled throughout are a number of wonderful minor characters, especially W.W.D. DuBois, the brilliant and sardonic black lawyer. Also great are the Larry (it's "Lawrence") 'n' Trudy comedy team, who pose as accident investigators but in reality, we come to see, are perfect foils for the protagonist. Fifth, there's a deep sadness that leaks through the edges of this novel. I don't know if it's intentional or not--maybe it's simply a product of Mr. Simmons' own somewhat austere and problematic philosophical orientation--but it gives the story a gritty texture that only enhances its appeal. OK, the story's not entirely without problems. I could make no sense of the equations relating to one of the accident investigations. And there was too much detail for most readers regarding firearms, ballistics, the effects of wind on bullet speeds and trajecteries, etc. But I don't recall anyone getting too hacked off at Michael Crichton when he pulled out that fractal crap in Jurassic Park, and nobody seems to complain about the anal-retentive qualities of Mr. Foucault or Mr. Pynchon or Mr. Eco. I have a theory about what the diehard Simmons' groupies don't like about this book. It's a little cartoonish. Their Literary Genius is having a little bit of fun. Also, many of the naysayers seem to have little familiarity with this genre; their critical remarks often take book and author to task for not writing another Carrion Comfort or Hyperion. I for one would love to see a whole series of Darwin Minor books. He's one of the sharpest blades out there.
Rating:
Summary: A SURPRISINGLY FUN READ!
Review: DARWIN'S BLADE by Dan Simmons is the story of Darwin Minor, who works with Lawrence and Trudy Stewart as an independent accident reconstruction specialist, assisting the Californian Highway Patrol and other Californian Law Enforcement agencies in reconstructing traffic accidents to find out how an accident happened. Dar, however, is no ordinary person. He has a photographic memory, graduated with Ph.D. in physics at the age of nineteen, then joined the United States Marine Corps and became one of their best snipers, seeing action during the last year of the Vietnam War. He is also a student of Ancient History and Philosophy, having a special interest in the warriors of Sparta and how they conquered their fear, enabling them to win battles even when they were faced with insurmountable odds. Dar used to work for the National Transportation Safety Board, investigating airplane and auto accidents, and even the tragedy of the Challenger spacecraft explosion. It was the death of his wife and son in an airplane crash that changed his life forever. After a failed suicide attempt, Dar quit the NTSB and moved to California to live a quieter life. Now, an investigation he worked on involving murder and insurance fraud has brought him to the attention of the criminal organization behind the scam, plus the attention of the California Task Force on Organized Crime and Racketeering who would like to use him as bait. The criminal organization hires a Russian "hit" team to take out Dar Minor, but they underestimate his ability to survive and fight back. Dar has faced death countless times and he isn't afraid of the men who want him dead. If they want a war, they've come to the right man. He hasn't forgotten how to kill, and he's more than ready to take them all on. DARWIN'S BLADE surprised me as few novels have. I didn't know a whole lot about it before publication, but because Dan Simmons is such an excellent writer, I decided to take a chance. The book is not only filled with action and suspense, but also with a great deal of information relating to traffic accident reconstruction. It was a subject that I knew nothing about and found to be extremely interesting as presented here in Mr. Simmons' novel. There was also the subject matter of Marine snipers and how they operate. I found that utterly fascinating, especially with regards to the character of Darwin Minor and his battle at Dalat. DARWIN'S BLADE won't only entertain you, but will educate you as well. I like it when an author can convey information and make it fun to read. Mr. Simmons also has a unique ability to interject humor into his writing without taking away from the story, and I found myself laughing out loud a number of times. The only complaints I have about the book are some things that the editor should have caught. Kevin Costner's last name is spelled with a "K" in the book, and Chapel Hill is located in North Carolina, rather than South Carolina. Other than that, this was an excellent read for me, one that I can highly recommend.
Rating: 
Summary: Ok boys and girls, can you say, "Contractual obligation?"
Review: This book is very disappointing, especially considering Mr. Simmons' talent. The main character is unbelievable: rich, intelligent, expert with a gun, mysterious background, etc.. As I was reading this, I felt like the author was showing off his talent in a book that he was probably obligated to write. With the inclusion of a lot of "urban legends" Mr. Simmons comes across as smug, as if he's somehow laughing at his audience, not with them. If you find yourself forced to read a book by this author, make this one your last choice.
Rating: 
Summary: Follow up to The Crook Factory is fun
Review: I guess some people don't get it if you write something that is out of the genre you started in. Dan Simmons started as a horror writer, and most of the negative reviews here seem to think he should have stayed a horror novelist, because that's what they like. Instead, he graduated or moved on or whatever. The Crook Factory was a wonderful WW2 spy novel; Darwin's Blade is an interesting adventure/mystery involving an accident investigator who's something of a grown-up child prodigy. Dr. Darwin Minor has a PhD. in physics, and is a former Marine sniper who plays chess with multiple players at the same time and reads tons of books. When some Russian mafia hit men try to kill him (resulting in a very suspenseful car chase and shootout) Darwin and his friends begin to try and unravel which of the accident investigations he's been working on provoked their attack. Soon, things mushroom into a larger battle against insurance fraud. The accidents in the book, or many of them, are cribbed from the Darwin awards and similar places. I find this sort of thing fun, because I don't remember the anecdotes that well, and I enjoy rereading them. If you're likely to remember stuff, then you might not like this part of the book. Oh, the reviewer who doubted that the opening sequence could happen, with the kid with the JATO units on his El Camino? It really did happen, several years ago, out in the desert. Sure, the plot's a bit much, and so are the characters, quoting Roman and Greek philosophers with one another, then discussing firearms. And the Barrett .50 is legal in the states, no reason for Darwin to go borrow one from the Marines. Some of the high explosive ammo, though, isn't. Anyway, I enjoyed this novel thoroughly, and as long as he stays with suspense novels I'll keep reading him.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't bother
Review: ------- The first 100 pages of this book are nothing more than: 1) A commercial for Acura.
2) A retelling of internet urban-legend humor.
3) Ranting by the author about other people's grammar usage. Point number 1 is mildly annoying. Do I really need to read an overblown tribute to the NSX and its "luxurious rubber mats?" Point number 2 is particularly annoying. It is as though the author sifted through the "best" of the funny urban legends floating around the internet (including the since-debunked "Darwin Awards" and the "Funny things people write on insurance claims") to fill up his book. In one particularly egregious case, his protagonist has an hour before a meeting and goes to sit in on a court case. The events he witnesses are essentially the retelling of a joke. What does this diversion have to do with the book's plot or characters? Nothing at all. It's as though the author only had enough material for a short story and had to pad it with tired humor to reach novel size. I fully expected to find a chapter that started with "Dar walked into a bar and sat down next to a rabbi, the Pope and the Dalai Lama. The rabbi turned to the Pope and said..." The third point is again mildly annoying. Novels shouldn't be used as a platform for petty grandstanding on the part of the author. I finally gave up when I realized that I had read a third of the book and almost nothing had happened. Don't waste your time.
Rating:
Summary: An evolutionary dead end ..
Review: Although Mr. Simmons presents an interesting plot idea in this crime/thriller, missing are his stylistic fingerprints and fully developed characters.
As an avid reader of his work, whatever the genre, I was very disapointed by Darwin's Blade. The story is very linear, lacking the complex, converging plot threads that make his other novels so gripping. In truth, I struggled through many of the revelatory passages where the hero's past was explained and which, quite coincidentally, suited him exactly to combat the current situation. By the end of the book the abilities of the hero, rather awkwardly named "Darwin Minor", make the characters who inhabit the worlds of Clive Cussler and Tom Clancy look very unambitious.
Rating:
Summary: Awful, just awful
Review: Recycled Darwin Award stories (coincidentally, the first name of the protaganist) serve to borify this truly derivative and formulaic book. Cliched characterizations -- smart, ex-military investigator hero, tough, good looking FBI agent with a tender side, slimy lawyer bad guy, etc. So do ya think Darwin and the FBI agent are gonna end up together? Do ya think the lawyer guy is the villain after he's introduced partway through the book? Hmmm... tough to tell. Everything about this book screams "I'm Dan Simmons, and I want a movie option!", right down to the description of the climactic air battle between a glider and a helicopter. No suspense, really. And what kind of hotshot insurance investigator pontificates about stupid drivers while zipping off to crash scenes at 200 km/h in his Acura NSX? Uh-huh. Mind you, if this does get made into a movie, I could see David Hasselhoff in the lead with a reconstituted KIT as his valiant chariot, and an overstretched Angie Dickinson as his FBI love interest... I'd like to send Dan Simmons an invoice for the time I spent reading this clunker.
Rating:
Summary: What's going on here??
Review: This is a fantastic book.
Please do not give a book a bad review just because you do not care for the genre (yes, it's that obvious).
Mr. Simmons has the ability to write outside his normal style and has done it well.
The Kurtz novels are very good (I like the genre) as are The Crook Factory and this one.
Trust me, those that like the crime genre, you will enjoy this novel. It's smart and funny and interesting. The fact that some of the accidents portrayed here were pieced together from real cases makes it even more interesting.
Please ignore the sour pusses that can't find it in themselves to read outside their world. It's a great read.
Rating:
Summary: downward spiral?
Review: Dan Simmons is quickly slipping from the Pantheon of Great Writers. Hyperion and its sequels were simply incredible, and should have guranteed Simmons a lifelong following on my part. But Darwin's Blade, and the various Hard Case / Hard Freeze dreck, has greatly wounded him in my eyes. They are terrible, terrible books. Awful. Formulaic, pretentious, silly, and "cold", they seem to written by either a different author, or an author who has tired of trying, and tired of acting like he cares.
Rating:
Summary: The Devil is in the Details
Review: Simmons has written (and quite well) in many genres, but this entry into the suspense/thriller category unfortunately doesn't qualify as either suspenseful or thrilling. The plot has some good elements: a ring of crooks including some Russian 'mafia' who pull off accident scams for the insurance money who have gone big time and in the process made the 'little players' who actually stage the accidents completely dispensable, a highly competent accident investigator in the person of Darwin Minor, a bullets-blazing car chase, a sail-plane to helicopter dog-fight, an incredible Vietnam fire-fight, and a sniper-to-sniper showdown. These elements scream Hollywood blockbuster movie, but what we have here is a book. A book that is bogged down by way too much technical detail on hot cars, weaponry of all types (of which some of the details are incorrect), accident reconstruction techniques, sniper skills, and tales of many accidents that are not relevant to the main story. When Simmons is describing the actual action, the story reads well, but elsewhere it's as if all the research he did for this book was transcribed verbatim from his index cards. Darwin Minor could be a very interesting character. But my belief in him was strained mightily by his incredible collection of talents: a doctorate in physics, college grad at 19, top-of-the-line Marine sniper, chess master, race car driver, premier accident investigator. The incidents Simmons uses to illustrate that last talent irritated me because in just about every case, Darwin comes up with the solution almost instantaneously, from extremely tiny clues, with none of Darwin's internal thought processes described, and with little of the actual required leg-work shown. The rest of the characters other than Darwin's love interest Syd are almost total ciphers, most especially the Russian 'bad guys', who start and remain nothing more than names, with no insight into their motivations and character, which brings into question the entire premise behind the final showdown. This book would probably have been an exciting read at two hundred pages. At four-hundred plus, it's almost excruciating. --- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
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