Rating: 
Summary: Dynamite thriller with lots of clever subtext...
Review: DARWIN'S BLADE is a dynamite thriller with lots of clever subtext that can EASILY be MISSED by careless readers. Simmons uses some standard plot devices to commment upon standard, potboiler thrillers (books and movies) while throwing in enough twists and turns to keep the surprise factor high. What's more, the subplot dealing with grief is moving, and the set pieces that take on automobile accidents (ALL OF WHICH WERE TAKEN FROM REAL CASE FILES)will have readers laughing out loud. This one is a keeper.
Rating: 
Summary: A huge disappointment from Simmons
Review: Darwin Minor is the Sherlock Holmes of freak accident reconstruction, able to pinpoint the tiny clues that reveal whether the mangled body in front of him is a victim of pure carelessness or something more sinister. His name is a nod (acknowledged twice in the dialogue) to the Darwin Awards, an Internet based accounting of individuals who have managed to remove themselves from the gene pool in spectacular fashion. Darwin's Blade is the rule of thumb this Marine veteran of Vietnam works by in investigating accidental death: stupidity kills. As Minor develops an expertise in automobile insurance fraud, however, he incurs the wrath of the Russian Mafia, which dominates a real-life scam in Southern California in which criminals force truck drivers into causing accidents, with the victims (who are in on the fraud) collecting big bucks from insurers. After surviving an attempt on his life, Minor is drawn into a San Diego law-enforcement task force that attempts to collect evidence on the fraud and bust the perpetrators, who seem to be in league with a folksy, nationally prominent attorney and a volunteer group at hospitals. The novel has a page-turner quality to it and contains several terrific sequences, including a dogfight in which one of the aircraft is a glider and a gripping flashback to a Vietnam fire-fight. As a flat-out thriller, Darwin's Blade is one of Dan Simmons' most conventional and most disappointing novels. Written in a cinematic structure, it makes Darwin a double-cliche character: the hero who initially refuses to become involved in crime-fighting only to be turned around by his adversaries' repugnant disregard for life, AND the widower who knows he shouldn't fall for his good-looking female partner Sydney Olson while on the job, but does so anyway. It has bullets that hit but don't disable and the talking criminal (made popular by Roger Ebert) who loses the chance to kill his adversary by yammering too much. There's an equally trite sequence in which all of the suspects in a fatal leak of confidential information are gathered together in one room for Sydney to identify the guilty party. Simmons takes a derivative route in other ways, from Sue Grafton chapter headings to a characterization of a crooked lawyer drawn almost entirely from the real (and presumably honest) Gerry Spence. An exchange of comical accounts on auto insurance claims would be a lot funnier if it wasn't the same list that's been floating around in magazine and newspaper articles for at least a decade (why not imagine some new ones?). Minor's adoption of principles from the Stoics was handled much better in Tom Wolfe's A MAN IN FULL. And the investigation that kicks off the book a jet-propelled car found in the side of a cliff is a famous Arizona urban legend, pulled right off the real Darwin Awards' home page. Then there are flat-out mistakes. Simmons is under the impression that deputy district attorney is the second-highest position in a district attorney's office. It's not: it's a generic title held by dozens of attorneys who prosecute cases in the state court system. He portrays insurance companies as pushovers for false claims, a joke to anyone who's had to fight just for scraps on a LEGITIMATE claim lately. And Simmons has the FBI make an unbelievably public arrest of one key figure, a step the bureau would never be dumb enough to attempt in the post Ruby Ridge era, done here purely for shock value and, one suspects, the movie trailer. Darwin's Blade will give mystery fans pretty much what they expect, but loyal Simmons readers will how the mind behind such superior works as the Hyperion saga came to travel such a well-traveled path.
Rating:
Summary: "...gripping suspense thriller..a real winner"
Review: (From PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, Oct 23rd: Starred review): "Stupidity kills. Absolute stupidity kills absolutely." Simmons, who has moved effortlessly from horror(CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT)) to science fiction (HYPERION;ENDYMION) to thrillers (THE CROOK FACTORY) obviously had a lot of fun writing this gripping suspense thriller about automobile insurance fraud rackets in Southern California. Former NTSB investigator Dr. Darwin Minor (Ph.D., physics)is the best at what he does. As the country's leading "accident reconstructionist specialist," Darwin has saved the insurance industry millions, as well as solving the most confounding cases of vehicular stupidity. But suddenly, he finds himself the target of assassins, resulting in a wild car chase that is only the first of many spellbinding set pieces. Is Darwin being targeted for business reasons, or is the attack somehow tied to the ongoing federal investigation of the Alliance, a Russian mafia-type group that specializes in staging accidents to perpetrate insurance fraud? A delightfully bizarre inside joke concerns the "Darwin Awards," which celebrate those who improve the human gene pool by removing themselves from it, like the young man who attempts to break the land speed record by attaching a couple of rockets to his '82 El Camino and ends up splattered on a cliff face hundreds of feet above the highway. In the course of the novel, Darwin investigates several accident scenes that duplicate either Darwin Award-winning demises or urban legends. A breezy writing style, rollicking humor and ingenious descriptions of weird accidents make this action-packed thriller a real winner." (Starred review from Publishers Weekly, Oct. 23, 2000).
Rating:
Summary: A literary thriller like no other...
Review: Like everything else Simmons has written, this one defies categorization. If Donald Westlake, Jim Thompson, Robert Parker and John Irving had collaborated on a novel, the end result would DARWIN'S BLADE. The protagonist, Darwin "Dar" Minor, a former NTSB investigator with a Phd in Physics, is now employed by a private California firm as an accident reconstructionist. After a seemingly routine investigation results in his almost being killed by gun-toting Russian Mafia types in a harrowing chase along California's highways, Darwin is talked into helping out with a much larger, statewide investigation into insurance fraud. Headed up by Chief Investigator Sydney Olson of the California State Attorney's Office, the task force includes members from several different law enforcement groups, including the San Diego Police Department, LAPD, California Highway Patrol and local FBI. The reason for the big guns becomes clear when Dar learns that the insurance racket may involve high profile attorneys from both coasts. The big question is how are they able to find people to risk (and sometimes lose) their lives while working the scams. When Dar and Sydney start uncovering clues, they find themselves the target of some Russian hitmen. But Dar calls upon some hidden talents of his own - talents linked to a little known, deadly period of his past - to protect himself and Syd. Sprinkled throughout the thriller-like chapters are episodes involving Darwin's day-to-day activities as an accident reconstructionist. Though some might think Simmons is trying to one-up himself by describing accidents which bounce back and forth between burlesque and grotesque, they are all based on real-life incidents (my favorite involves a Jet Assistance Take-off Pack and a slow-witted kid). The mixing of lunacy and sorrow is a tradition dating back to Shakespeare; yet, with the exception of writers like John Irving, it is rarely done well in modern fiction. Dan Simmons is more than equal to the task, doling out the right amount of levity when pathos threatens to consume the reader. Darwin's struggles with grief (he's read Epictetus so often he can quote him) become as important to the novel's outcome as his fighting skills. Simmons' metacommentary on literary and silver screen thrillers walks a fine line between satire and seriousness (and may very well be mistaken for the latter by slovenly readers). But the end result of this heady mixture is a literary thriller like no other.
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: 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: Worst book I've read in my life
Review: This was so boring, I cannot begin to separate all the most boring parts. All the stuff about guns, fighting and airplane flying was over my pitiful female head. I rarely knew what was happening so why did I finish it??? Because I thought Dan S. was a good author and I kepy waiting for something to happen. Most of this was unbelievable.
| 
