Impact

Impact by Douglas Preston

Well it has been a while but I’m finally back with another book review. This time out I’m going to review Impact, by Douglas Preston. Preston is half of my favorite writing duo Preston and Child, but honestly is a heck of a writer himself.

The story starts off in Maine with a couple of young ladies, Abbey and Jackie, who witness a meteor streak overhead and hit the Earth. At least that his what they think it is. When Abbey realizes that the meteor didn’t land in the Ocean like everyone thought they go looking for it. Unfortunately bad things happen (which I won’t spoil here). Around the same time the government approaches an “independent contractor” named Wyman Ford to investigate the origins of some very dangerous irradiated gemstones. This takes him halfway across the world to Thailand in search of the mine that is producing them. There is also a third storyline with Mark Corso, a scientist working on the Mars landing project. After his mentor is killed in an apparent robbery attempt he receives a hard drive with some odd data on it. Data that shouldn’t have been taken out of their facility. What do all these story lines have to do with each other? Well without ruining the story lets just say that the meteor that hit the Earth wasn’t really a meteor and that the data Corso has explains much of what is going on. By the end of the book all the stories tie together nicely.

Douglas Preston really does deliver another good book here. The story is a fun read that keeps the reader guessing as to what is happening until we get near the end. The plot flows nicely and the characters are well written. The book does a great job of sucking you into the story and characters. Not far into the book Preston lets you know that he is willing to put the characters into dangerous situations that not all of them will survive. There is also a science fiction twist to the book that I never saw coming and really enjoyed. Again I’m going to keep it vague here because I really don’t want to ruin the fun.

Now not everything is perfect here. Lately it seems to me that it has been trendy to make Islamic characters the villains in far too many books and movies. I’m not going to get too PC because for many years authors did the same things with our cold war enemies in Russia and Eastern Europe. But when we finally do get the big reveal here it feels more like an afterthought and is sort of cheap. I sort of expect more from an author like Preston, but I get the feeling this was a short cut. The other thing that kind of bothered me is that there is this ending tacked on at the end of the book that sort of ruins it for me. I mean they have this very ominous ending going that perhaps Preston could have built a sequel or another story on. But for some reason in the last couple of pages he feels obligated to give us a happy ending that ties up the loose ends. That bugged me a lot.

In spite of these two complaints I would still recommend Impact. It again is a really fun read with interesting characters and a nifty twist. I found myself sucked into the book and finished it off in two sittings.

reviewed by John Shatzer