CV Rick's Reviews

How to Piss off the Mob

Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions was quite a read. Ben Mezrich is quite an author.

For decades the genius students at M.I.T. have been cracking codes and creating systems to analyze every facet of our lives and naturally they've been using their talents to solve some of the most involved mathematical challenges in human history: games of chance. Of all the casino games, Blackjack has history. Every card played affects the outcome of each subsequent hand. That effect is a probability and is measurable, predictable, and actionable. This was the basis of the Card Counting teams.

Mickey Rosa, an eccentric former professor and mastermind behind the M.I.T. teams, took card-counting to an unprecedented level. What he did was to predict when decks would be hot and when they wouldn't by using spotters who'd signal in the big betters only when the table was ready to pay off. In this way, the average income for the team would be staggering, but there was no way for the casinos to identify the counter and no way to finger the team.

Kevin Lewis is the engineering wiz kid whose uncanny mathematical mind and generic Asian-American looks gets him invited to try out for the team. After a grueling training session and three levels of testing, he's accepted onto the team and from there he goes on a roller coaster ride of student by week and Las Vegas high-rolling jet-setter by weekend.  The money was large, the women were beautiful, and celebrities plenty.

This is the story of everything that's beautiful about gambling and everything that's ugly about greed.  It's about the bright lights and glitz of modern Vegas and how the ugly face of old Vegas lurks in the shadows, still running the show.

You've got to read it to believe it.

- CV Rick

Iron Man

The Ultimate Iron Man ought to have been a coup by Marvel.  They began by signing on a superstar writer, Orson Scott Card, great artist, Andy Kubert, and placing it in the Marvel Ultimates line.  Everything started so well.

Maybe it's that Card didn't do his homework, or maybe he felt he was good enough to reverse Iron Man's creation story.  In this tale he's a mutant with genetic abilities and an enhanced IQ.  Why?  There wasn't any need. 

Tony Stark has always been the everyman hero.  Someone smart enough to invent the enhancements necessary to take on villains of any power, and brave enough to enter the elite pinnacle of superheroes.

Frankly, Card's story is weak.  He forces the character building in order to mold the reactions he must get, and he switches from scene to scene so quickly that no continuity is possible.  For example, pages are devoted to the machinations required to steal Stark's company from his wealthy father, but only a couple panels are necessary to frame him for murder and send him to prison.  Bleh! 

On the other hand, the artwork is stunning, almost beautiful enough to make one forget the trite storyline and weak personalities.

- CV Rick

A Star Wars Fix

Do you hate George Lucas for ruining his own creation like I do?  I mean, Star Wars, the defining mythology of at least two generations, the story of heroes and redemption has become the joke of our times.  How could it not?  Did you see that idiot, Anakin, scratching his way up the hill, beaten and burned, destined to become the shell for James Earl Jones's ominous basso voice?  Did it make you groan?  Did it make you want to set fire to the Skywalker Ranch?  Am I alone?

Now, I'm not a Star Wars Geek.  I don't play the roleplaying game.  Never have.  I don't have the library of tie-in novels and I do poorly at the trivia compared to a lot of people.  But I snuck into the theater when I was 11 years old to watch Luke Skywalker discover The Force.  I know great stories and despite the slightly cheesy effects and the ham-handed acting, Star Wars was a great story.

Why am I going on and on about what was?  Because Timothy Zahn does Star Wars better than George Lucas does Star Wars.  If Lucas had just filmed these three books - Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command - he'd have a masterpiece to crown his early achievements. 

In Dark Force Rising, Leia conducts a mission to influence an alien race heretofore loyal to one of the Emperor's warlords, Luke finds himself battling an insane Jedi Master, Joruus C'Baoth, and Han Solo races the forces of the warlord, General Thrawn, to get to a lost fleet of Dreadnaught cruisers.  The tension is high throughout this second book in the series and the characters conduct themselves admirably, keeping to the heroic expectations and rebellious attitudes we expect. 

Reading this series, and especially this book, will remind you why we loved Star Wars and why we now hate George Lucas.

- CV Rick

Writing the Breakout Novel

Donald Maass gives a course in how to turn a good story into a breakout novel.  He doesn't give advice on how to craft beautiful prose in the mode of Marquez or Naipaul.  He's not teaching how to write the next To Kill a Mockingbird.  He doesn't even attempt to supplant the craft as taught by the Iowa Writer's Workshop.  What he writes about is turning a good story into a commercial success.

Like his advice, it's straightforward and a bit formulaic, but why would you pick this book up with the title, How to Write the Breakout Novel, if you didn't want advice on commercial success?  That'd be silly if you ask me.

Maass knows the market as one of the top agents in publishing and as a successful novelist.  He's given advice to his clients and it's propelled them to the top of the Bestseller List.  Sure he uses personal examples and touts his client list, but it's an impressive client list, believe me.  I don't like all the books he uses as examples, but that's personal choice and my choice hasn't impacted sales numbers at all.

I found his advice on Theme to be really good.  To be honest, I hadn't considered starting with a theme and working to craft around something which resonates with the reader simply and clearly.  I know all great stories integrate theme, but I didn't really understand that it could be a conscious thing on the part of the writer.  Maybe that's my own naivety, but that's why I'm reading self-help books.  It's completely changed the way I'm writing my next story.

The Checklist style construction makes recollection of what each chapter covered simple.

Want to know what it covers?  Here are the contents:

Why Write the Breakout Novel
Premise
Stakes
Time and Place
Characters
Plot
Contemporary Plot Techniques
Multiple Viewpoints, Subplots, Pace, Voice, and Endings
Advanced Plot Structures
Theme
Breaking Out

Read each and every one.  I found value throughout the book.

- CV Rick

Not a Detail Left Out

I read Wendover: Winds of Change in preparation for a 4-day trip. Bateman did extensive research for the book and it shows - there wasn't a detail left out. In fact it was bizarre how much was included in the book.

For example, I found it interesting the role the first transcontinental telegraph played in attracting attention to this otherwise desolate area. Bateman gave equal weight to the minutes of the organizing meeting for the Mormon Women's Relief Society.

I thought it was amazing how the first and only atomic bombs used against population centers were developed and loaded onto their respective airplanes in Wendover. I thought it was boring learning every duty assignment for every air squadron trained at the field for the entire duration of World War II.

Highlighting the most memorable or impactful land speed records set on the Bonneville Salt Flats would have been valuable. A complete chronology of every vehicle and driver to ever set or attempt to set those records, giving exactly equal weight to all just reads like a filing with the county commissioner.

There isn't anything left out, including a recent list of residents taken right from the phone book.  (without phone numbers).

If you read this, study it, and then walk around Wendover, you could blend in like a local already in on the latest gossip and politics.

Too much. I won't give it lower than 3 stars because it is a specialty book and there are perhaps some people who really want that kind of detail in a book.

- CV Rick

Dragonbore Chair

I have to be honest with my critique even though I know it’s going to get a poor response from Tad Williams fans.

It starts off slow as others have said, but slow starts aren’t a problem if they develop the character or move the plot forward. Nothing in the beginning of the book is necessary, in fact nothing contributes to the plot until Simon stumbles upon Josua in the dungeon. That’s not a spoiler, by the way, because that ought to have been the first page of the book. The tension builds a little and there is an escape and then . . .

We travel and travel and travel and travel and travel and the tension is abandoned in favor of scenery and survival lessons in a fantasy world. So, the entire middle of the book is also wasted space. Until Simon gets to Naglimund, nothing of plot-impacting importance happens. Therefore, Williams could’ve chopped out most of it, had chapter 2 being a journey and jumped into the plot at chapter three with the council.

The point is that the book was boring. The plot barely hung together and every twist was more predictable than a pitch from a blind pitcher to a lame catcher. Sorry for being harsh.

I read it because it was supposed to be good. It wasn’t. Enjoy.

- CV Rick