Labyrinth

Rating:
Summary: powerful tale that winks at the movie industry
Review: In 2004 at the University of Tennessee, internationally renowned physicist Dr. MacPherson notices the findings that an assistant Gregor obtains with a moon rock specimen. An elated MacPherson claims the results that show rock 66095 contains strong superconductivity traits as his own. He boasts how he will receive the Novel prize for the work. A stunned Gregor kills the professor. Gregor is convicted of the crime, but not before he hides the rock inside Labyrinth Cave, Kentucky.

Three years later NASA hires Tom Burke and his daughter Cricket to escort them into Labyrinth Cave to find the missing rock. His wife Whitney suffers nightmares and though internationally famous refuses to enter the cave where last year her assistant died while she barely escaped.

However, Gregor escapes with some fellow prisoners and heads to Labyrinth Cave to collect the rock that will make him rich and famous. He and his associates capture the Burkes and the NASA team inside the cave. Only Whitney can lead a rescue party, but she has not entered any cavern since the nightmare occurred, but the stakes are the two people she loves most.

At times LABYRINTH seems more like a Hollywood thriller than a novel, but Mark T. Sullivan cleverly augments the plot with a personal crisis and an incredible underworld panorama. The story line is loaded with action on a global scale and on an individual level as the world is in trouble if Gregor regains the rock while Whitney battles herself. Mr. Sullivan provides a powerful tale that winks at the movie industry, which works fine for this novel.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: On To The Movies
Review: In spite of several cliches that have been used in many books before, Mark Sullivan makes them work for him and us in the cleverly constructed "Labyrinth." A maze of complex plot twists and stirring action scenes, the novel chronicles what happens when a precious moon rock is hidden by a deranged physicist who killed his mentor to prevent him from claiming its discovery. Suffice to say, what goes on in the caves is a wild ride, indeed. It's a very cinematic novel, one that would probably be easier to digest if it were a movie. Much of the cave description becomes redundant, and sometimes the actions of some of the heroes borders on stupidity. But the characters have their strengths, especially those of Damian Finnerty, the dedicated marshal; Chester, the brilliant but tubby 19 year old who really solves many of the mysteries; and Cricket, the resourceful 14 year old who becomes a real woman during the crisis. (Physically as well as metaphorically---which is one of the original plot devices Sullivan uses). It's almost a Matt Reilly book in that the action is pretty consistent, although far from the cataclysmic action that adorns Reilly's books.
A good read, though, with plenty to keep you occupied.
RECOMMENDED.

Rating:
Summary: THE MOONSTONE CHRONICLES
Review: In spite of several cliches that have been used in many books before, Mark Sullivan makes them work for him and us in the cleverly constructed "Labyrinth." A maze of complex plot twists and stirring action scenes, the novel chronicles what happens when a precious moon rock is hidden by a deranged physicist who killed his mentor to prevent him from claiming its discovery. Suffice to say, what goes on in the caves is a wild ride, indeed. It's a very cinematic novel, one that would probably be easier to digest if it were a movie. Much of the cave description becomes redundant, and sometimes the actions of some of the heroes borders on stupidity. But the characters have their strengths, especially those of Damian Finnerty, the dedicated marshal; Chester, the brilliant but tubby 19 year old who really solves many of the mysteries; and Cricket, the resourceful 14 year old who becomes a real woman during the crisis. (Physically as well as metaphorically---which is one of the original plot devices Sullivan uses). It's almost a Matt Reilly book in that the action is pretty consistent, although far from the cataclysmic action that adorns Reilly's books.
A good read, though, with plenty to keep you occupied.
RECOMMENDED.

Rating:
Summary: Action Packed
Review: Labyrinth gives new meaning to term "non stop action". Any interest I may have had in caving vanished before I was too far into this one. Some of Mr. Sullivan's characters in his previous novels are more interesting and developed than those in Labyrinth, but none of his earlier works take you on such a wild ride.

Rating:
Summary: On To The Movies
Review: Mark Sullivan's book has the traditional characteristics that appeal to today's fast-paced movie fanatics: action and cliff-hanger suspense. This book reads like it's written from the screenplay of the movie instead of vice-versa.

Mr. Sullivan is at his best when working the reader over with simultaneous plot lines ending each chapter with a life-threatening, cliff-hanger situation. He is at his worst with explaining the book's "silly science" bedrock premise that a moon rock is somewhow fantastically powerful and can provide virtually unlimited energy through room-temperature superconductivity. Naturally, the uber-valuable rock has been stolen and hidden inside the vast Labrynth Cave in Kentucky, and somebody's go to go after it. Unfortunately, all of the major characters (except for one) behave exactly as you'd expect them to from the heavy foreshadowing, and all face their worst-nightmare challenges in the cave.

If you're reading this book for pure entertainment and aren't distracted by the disoriented forays into superconductivity theory, this book's for you. Otherwise, wait until the movie comes out. You'll save yourself enough money for popcorn.

Rating:
Summary: 3 1/2 stars
Review: See storyline above.

Labyrinth is one of those stories that you seem to be able to read in a day, only because it's made for a speed reader. There are many parts you can just glance over. There are only so many things you can describe about a cave chase scene. Predictable falls, trips, slides, and cave ins. The saving grace, obviously, was the mad scientist and his search for the moon rock.
The premise of using this mostly unexplored cave for the practice of moon miners seemed somewhat silly. Would not regular mines suffice? They're dark.

Rating:
Summary: Cave Fear
Review: The best books immerse their readers in a part of the world they've never experienced before, selecting a special time or place to deliver a powerful story that can resonate with the everyday lives of those they take along.

LABYRINTH -- a smashing success by this measure -- takes us on a tour of an almost unimaginably immense cave beneath Kentucky, 200 miles or more from end to end, for a four-day chase that offers a heartfelt message on the strengths we can draw from those we love.

Tom Burke and his teenage daughter "Cricket" are the key figures in the Artemis project, experienced "cavers" taking a trip deep into Labyrinth to draw insights on the difficulties that would be involved in mining on the moon. The two are taken hostage, however, by an obsessed physicist, three escaped prisoners (including a depraved strangler) and a guard who have an entirely different motivation for heading into the cave.

Amid relentless danger, the travelers traverse ridges, shafts, fissures and mounds of rubble in a task one character compares to mountain climbing underground. There are gusting winds and waterfalls in a world where night and day cease to exist and death literally could await right around the corner.

Whitney Burke, Tom's wife and Cricket's mother, leads a rescue team of U.S. marshals and an Indian tracker. Haunted by the death of a colleague in a cave drowning, Whitney must overcome her dread of the underground just as -- wouldn't you know it? --nature poses the threat of another flood. A science crew on the surface provides additional support amid problems of its own.

It all plays out like a collage of "Cape Fear," "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Central to the story is a moon rock with almost magical powers to conduct energy -- a potential solution to the world's energy problems. I must say that judged by the standards one would apply to science fiction, the rock is a bit implausible. But it serves as what Hitchcock used to call the "McGuffin," a device designed basically to propel the larger plot. LABYRINTH is a thriller, not SF, and a good one.

And if you despair of the occasional tortured metaphor ("the young mother's body collapsed like a marionette severed from its strings" -- "his fingers lashing the air as if he were keying an invisible piano") -- now a hallmark of the Sullivan novel -- do what I've done: refer to them as Sullivanisms and start to look forward to them!

For in the end, LABYRINTH is a story about family and three people who never give up on the idea of family, a strength as enduring as a hundred miles of rock.

Rating:
Summary: Summer read, but not Pulitzer material
Review: This is the fictional equivalent of an action-adventure flick set to be released on Memorial Day weekend, with plenty of explosions, thrills, and chills and little plot to get in the way of the action.

You know a book isn't Pulitzer material if at the halfway point you begin fantasizing about which actor would play which character in the book.

It's a pretty fast-paced book with the general plot involving planetary geology and cave exploration. The author explains cave exploring well enough via his characters, but I'm sure hardcore cavers would nitpick. The main character is apparently a moon rock "66095" which is a powerful superconductor and is possibly capable of creating "a thousand Hiroshimas under our feet," according to one scientist character in the book.

Possession of said moon rock is between the US government, a dying scientist who actually studied the rock and who killed his professor over it; a group of hardened criminals, including an arsonist and a strangler; a family of cave explorers. My favorite character is the 14-year-old daughter, Cricket. She deserves her own action movie franchise if this book is ever filmed.

The book reads more like a screenplay, which was the same complaint I had with Peter Benchley's "Beast". There are even sound bites from the characters like, "When I go into caves, people die." The character who states this, Whitney, reminded me of Sylvester Stallone in the beginning of the movie "Cliffhanger."

I really want to like the book, but I can honestly say I've read better techno-thrillers.

Rating:
Summary: Labyrinth
Review: Very much enjoyed this book. Complex with good development of characters. Whitney's fear of returning to the caves was very poignant. Even the story line of a space rock was plausible.

Rating:
Summary: What a ride!
Review: WOW, that was fun! If you enjoy sheer adventure and a thrill a minute, this book is for you. Great work Mr. Sullivan! Hopefully we can look for Harrison Ford to lead us through the caves in the movie!