books [Af

New bestselling thrillers bomb badly

bestseller thrillers all, reael them, then review the lot in

T HE CONCEPT was simple, really. Take three books,

one conspiracy-laden, sex-and-guts-laced orgy of

post-Bond paranoia and greed.

Well, it seemed tike a goad idea
at the time.

The first title, plucked from the
shadows, showed the greatest
promise: Dean ing’s The Ransom
of Black Stealth Gae (Tor/H.8.
Fenn; 472 pp.; $6.95 in paper-
back).

Ing has, after all, developed a
near-cult following with his
previous work, mostly future fic-
tion, fueled by a solid technical
background that includes such
things as flying jet interceptors and
a stint as senior research engineer
at Lockheed (where ‘black’ or
secret weapons projects are de-

- veloped for Uricle Sam).

The Ransom of Black Stealth
One plays the classical what-if
game: what if the U.S. had
perfected true ‘stealth’ in an
aeroplane, an aircraft so
sophisticated that it was invisible
to electronic and visual detection?

7

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What if the Russians wanted it and
were willing to pay handsomely?
What if the a!phabet spooks of na-
tional security knew the Russians
knew about it? What if the CIA,
NSA (ard, for all we know, the
NBA and NFL) decide to trick the
black hats into thinking that an
earlier, Jess stealthy model is the
real Black Stealth One and Jet
them steal #t instead?

With me so far? Good.

Now, what if the pilot chosen to
‘sell’ the substitute plane doesn’t
trust the suits from Washington
and Langiey to protect him when
the exchange is made with the
KGB and the GRU? What if he
asks a former U.S. spy, missing
and presumed dead, to guard his
back? What if this protector steals
the real Black Stealth One himself?

While this sounds like a first-
class plot, in truth The Ransom of
Black Stealth One is strictly an

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book review

economy-class fead. Despite the
high-octane teasers on the back
cover that, among cther things,
warn us to “Read the book now;
some day it might be classified...,’
the technological component isn’t
that startling. And talk about
cliches.

,

The CIA types are sti}? devious

and unprincipled, the GE is still
run by menacing bullies — there’s
nothing new here with Ing’s one-
dimensiona! charactersizations.

bcan only conclude that The

Ransom of Black Stealth One's
flight plan is more fiction that fact,
gliding where it should have
soared.

. -Robert Ludlum's The Bourne

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Ultimatuin is so solidly entrench-
ed on the bestseller lists that it
would take nothing less thaa ex-
plosives to dislodge it; wags might
recommend employing tactical
nukes and damn the conse-
quences.

Does anyone remember Jason
Bourne a.k.a. David Webb, ex-
Nam master of the dirty-tricks
details, expert assassin and super
spook? Well, he’s back and so is
his nemesis, the ubiquitous Carlos
the Jackal.

The latter wants revenge against
his arch-rival, Webb, the mild-
mannered college professor who
used to don the garb of
democracy’s freedom fighters, en-
suring life, liberty and the pursuit
of happy franchise opportunities
for all.

It’s no longer High Noon for
these aging enemies but the Jackal
isn’t going to squander a periectly
good grudge just because he may
need the occasional afternoon

nap.
Ludlum has often been criticized
for the violence in his books; that

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31 - Wednesday, April 11, 1990 - North Shore News

TRIKE 3

aspect of his work has never
bothered me (reading Sgt. Rock
comics at an early age toughens
you for life). What does bcther me
about The Bourne Ultimatum
(Random House; 611 pp; $26.50)
is that it seems less the hardcore
thriller than a script for a soap
opera.

Two down, one to go.

This may come as surprise but
book reviewers, too, like a good
Oriental, half Caucasion hero. in
The Mike, Linnear is stalked by
the homicidal, revenge-bent lover
of the brother he was forced to
kill. We know her karma must
have been in serious need of a
tune-up because sne was
swallowed by an earthquake,
along with Lustbader’s credibility.

Then he pressed his iuck still
further and penned White Ninja.

Apart from the cliches (a hotel
room is ‘‘black as the grave,’’ a
room is “hardly larger than a cof-
fin’’} there is this great line:
“Senjin thought of his mother as

See Cliches
Page 35