Destroying Angel

Rating:
Summary: Love it!!!!
Review: Destroying Angel is a fun stroll through the deadly neon-lit concrete jungle of a sinister dark future of the 21st century. Scary and depressing while at the same time hopeful and thought-provoking. Realistic charaters and believable setting make this novel a must-read for fans of cyberpunk! WARNING: contains graphic violence, profanity, sadistic behavior, and nearly every psychopath, oddball, and misfit you will find in a real city! reader's discretion is advised.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Thriller
Review: The first novel of the Carlucci trilogy is less about Frank Carlucci than it is about retired officer Louis Tanner, but it shares the same locale, wild thrills, unexpected turns and taut writing. Russo creates a believable near-future, fully fleshed-out with characters who continue on through the rest of the trilogy. Carlucci is introduced and appears, but he plays only a "second banana" role. The story in this book sets up the remaining two novels, and if you read one you'll want to read all three of this excellent set. I only wish I'd been able to read them in proper order.

Let's hope this novel is back in print shortly and becomes easier to find. It deserves it!!!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Thriller
Review: The first novel of the Carlucci trilogy is less about Frank Carlucci than it is about retired officer Louis Tanner, but it shares the same locale, wild thrills, unexpected turns and taut writing. Russo creates a believable near-future, fully fleshed-out with characters who continue on through the rest of the trilogy. Carlucci is introduced and appears, but he plays only a "second banana" role. The story in this book sets up the remaining two novels, and if you read one you'll want to read all three of this excellent set. I only wish I'd been able to read them in proper order.

Let's hope this novel is back in print shortly and becomes easier to find. It deserves it!!!

Rating:
Summary: wow..
Review: This is such a wonderful series of books. I picked them up at a used bookstore and I can't believe they are out of print. Working in a bookstore myself I read all the time, and these are some of the best novels I've read in a long time.

Rating:
Summary: ho hum
Review: To be honest, I haven't finished this novel yet, but I'm far enough (more than halfway) to be surprised at all the gushing reviews. There's absolutely nothing special about this book, which bears some of the sadly typical flaws of much of the genre, including wooden characters and a plot that's going nowhere. A lot of the "action" revolves around the main character going out to eat, with poorly made coffee as an ongoing theme. If I had a dollar (quarters don't amount to much anymore) for each time one of the main characters utters the following lines--"I don't like it at all. But what the hell else are we going to do?"--I'd have enough to buy something more engaging. Also, while I realize this book was published in 1992, there's nothing to really warrant calling it a "cybershock thriller." It's not even thrilling. The only reason I'm sticking it out is because it's set in my hometown and at 230 pages it's short enough that the time I'm wasting is limited. I apologize to all the Russo fans, but I just couldn't deal with the unchallenged glowing reports. Maybe some of his other stuff is better. I can think of four books off the top of my head that I'd recommend instead: if you're into disaffected youth and futuristic urban decay try Samuel R. Delany's Dhalgren. If you're looking for an "exotic" futuristic thriller, try Greg Alec Effinger's Gravity's End or David Mack's Kabuki. And if you want to read a more original suspense thriller set in San Francisco's Tenderloin, try The Magician's Tale by David Hunt.