Los Voraces, 2019: A Chess Novel

Rating:
Summary: An incomplete effort of interest to serious chess fans
Review: Andy Soltis is a chess grandmaster who turned his efforts to writing a novel with a chess theme. Though not himself a super class grandmaster, he is quite familiar with the various nuances and idiosyncracies of the great players of the recent era (Kasparov, Karpov, Timmman, etc.) There are many games and game fragments in the book and these are really the best feature of the novel. The characterization is weak and uneven and the plot isn't well developed. It is really a collection of interesting anecdotes, innuedoes, rumors, and observations of the top GMs of the 1980s and GM play of that time recast as a novel about a super class chess tournament held in New Mexico. These are quite interesting if you happen to be a real serious chess fan and are familiar with the great players and with such tournaments as the Bundesligia, Wijk an Zee, Linares, and the rumors and stories. If you don't and I suspect most readers are not, then you'll have a hard time. It seems that the novel was suppose to be a roman a clef with chess as its theme, but the "novel" side isn't well developed. Other books with chess themes do a much better job - so in brief: chess content and gossip/stories of chess = 4 stars, novel characterization, plotting = 2 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Lots of fun for everyone!
Review: Andy Soltis is best known for his chess books, but he's written a mystery about the chess world that is truly enjoyable for everyone, chess players and the general reading public. It's a real page turner. I read parts of it on ChessCafe and couldn't wait to read the entire book (I missed the early chapters). It would make a great gift for any chess player in your life!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Weak Effort
Review: Tony Miles would have had a field day with this book. I have not purchased the book, but I have read "Los Voraces" at ChessCafe (well, I got to the fourth or fifth month, and then couldn't take any more). Soltis is not a good fiction writer. There are too many cliche's, too many adverbs, and he has a lazy style. I give Soltis credit for being creative, but he should stick to what he does best, and that is to write columns for chess magazines and to write good instruction books. I get the feeling that this book was published based soley on GM Soltis' title as GM, not on his skill as a writer.

Any instructional book Soltis has written is worth reading, including all of his endgame books, his book on defense in chess, and his book on pawn structure chess. But please, Andy, leave the fiction for others.