The Trade Mission: A Novel of Psychological Terror

Rating:
Summary: Sophmore effort is excellent!
Review: In Pyper's second book, all of the flaws of "Lost Girls" fail to exist. The plot is simpler, but just as suspenseful. There are no loose ends this time around. No mini-plots that were never finished. His social commentary and character development are just amazing. And the fact that it's written all in present tense adds a mystique to the entire book.

Excellent, excellent book. I cannot wait for more from Pyper.

- Delaney

Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: Just when I thought that Lost Girls was a fluke for Pyper, a first time novelist, along comes his second effort, The Trade Mission, which has all the power of Lost Girls and is pure story from beginning to end.

It's a difficult book to put down. The plot unfolds at roughly the speed of light. The Trade Mission examines what happens when civilized (although emotionally damaged) people are thrown into an unfamiliar survival situation.

Great book!!

Rating:
Summary: Nothing Special
Review: The author tells the story while attempting to inject insightful, unique perspectives on people and life. Nearly all of these attempts failed and were uninteresting, arbitrary and unenjoyable. I wish I had skipped this book.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing Special
Review: The author tells the story while attempting to inject insightful, unique perspectives on people and life. Nearly all of these attempts failed and were uninteresting, arbitrary and unenjoyable. I wish I had skipped this book.

Rating:
Summary: I know these people
Review: You may wish they didn't exist, but the main characters (heroes? anti-heroes?) of The Trade Mission are representative of their age and time and place -- more than that, damn if I didn't recognize myself in the way they thought, what was important to them, the way they saw their harsh "reality" at a remove, as though a movie or "interactive" game. Yes, the novel is exciting and brooding and suspenseful and gruesome at times, but it's also a fantastically spot-on characterization of a generation...MY generation. Who would have guessed that a book that nails twentysomething, 21st century North American psyche takes place in Brazil?