Level 9

Frank Balenger #2

by David Morrell, Christine Gaspard (Translator)

Frank Balenger kommt nicht dazu, sich von den traumatischen Ereignissen im Paragon Hotel zu erholen: Seine Freundin Amanda wird von einem psychopathischen Videospiel-Designer entführt und in ein unzugängliches Hochtal in Wyoming verschleppt. Dort wird sie zusammen mit vier weiteren Opfern zu einem tödlichen Spiel gezwungen. Wer sich weigert, wird in die Luft gesprengt. Über neun Levels sollen sich die »Teilnehmer« bis zu einem mysteriösen »Grabmal der weltlichen Begierden« vorarbeiten und dessen Geheimnis enträtseln. Doch immer mehr »Spieler« bleiben auf der Strecke. Nur Frank kann Rettung bringen. Als Einziger hat er den teuflischen Plan durchschaut …

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Adventure, Mystery Thriller, Action

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

David Morrell is a Canadian novelist from Kitchener, Ontario, who has been living in the United States for a number of years. He is best known for his debut 1972 novel First Blood, which would later become a successful film franchise starring Sylvester Stallone. More recently, he has been writing the Captain America comic books limited-series The Chosen.

Reviews

[TK421 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. No, I'm not just saying that! I really really really did. But I couldn't. It was boring to me. But it was full of action, you're saying. Yes. Yes it was. But the action parts were BOOOOOORRRRRRIIIIIIINNNNNNNGGGG! Here's the deal, there is a psychopath who wants to enact some revenge against one of his old foes (cliché), so he sets up an elaborate scheme to get his nemesis and his girlfriend to go to a meeting of historical architecture (I'll buy it); once there, he knocks them out with a spiked juice concoction (again, cliché). When the man revives, the girl has been kidnapped and he is left with a note asking if he would like to play a game (where have we heard that one before?). But this game isn't one of survival for the man; it is one that is closely related to video games--think if reality TV and XBOX had a love child. Okay, I’ll admit, this premise sounds pretty cool. Plus, I’ve really liked most of David Morrell’s other books that I’ve read. But by the time I got around to page fifty or so, the story had stalled in too many info dumps and flashbacks. And the ending. Don’t get me started. It was one of the worst endings I have ever read.

Two stars for some of the innovative scenes, and the beginning: Hiring actors and actresses to play the roles of historical architecture buffs, and then convincing them to go along with a practical joke from an “old friend” was priceless…the Gamemaster did have a sense of humor.

WASTE OF TIME (but you may like it)

[Evans Light · Rating 2 out of 5]

I made it to page 100 of 368 of Scavenger before making the executive decision to shut this one down. I think the decision to bill this book as a sequel to Creepers was a poor one. Completely different type of story, and way too pulpy and unbelievable to continue. Skimmed through to the end and it didn't seem to improve in the slightest. David Morrell's characteristic wonderful writing is absent in this book, and seems as though he took a bare-bones plot and tried to patch it up with hundreds of boring and barely rewritten factoids pulled from the internet.

Comparisons in other reviews have been made to the movie Saw, but I think if you want an example of the best execution of this particular plot, watch the movie CUBE.

[Ethan’s Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent sequel to Creepers.

[itchy · Rating 4 out of 5]

brief synopsis:
after surviving the paragon hotel incident (creepers, david morrell), frank and amanda are once again thrust in a survival scenario.
but this time it's artificial.

setting:
brooklyn, new york
manhattan, new york
asbury park, new jersey
teterboro, new jersey
lander, wyoming

named personalities:
amanda evert - an abduction survivor
frank balenger - a hero
diane - who amanda reminds frank of
roland perry aka adrian murdock - oglethorpe university's professor of history
karen bailey - a matronly woman
thornwell jacobs - oglethorpe's president in 1936
eddie - presumably an asbury park police officer
jesus christ - a jewish religious leader
jeff cochran - asbury park's police chief
ortega - a hispanic detective
joan dandridge - a knickerbocker realty agent
victor evans - a manhattan property owner back in the '80's
philip evans - victor's son, supposedly
george washington - an american founding father
gerald ford - an american president
raymond 'ray' morgan - a pilot for a regional air service in missouri
bethany lane - an anorexic luxury boat vendor based in newport beach
derrick montgomery - a black world-finest mountain climber
vivian 'viv' montgomery - derrick's anglo wife; another world-finest mountain climber
clinton - a president who in 2000 signed a legislation that allowed global positioning satellite receivers available to the public to have greater accuracy
hitchcock - director of the film north by northwest
cary grant - an actor who starred in north by northwest
eva marie saint - cary's co-star in north by northwest
emily brontë - author of the wuthering heights
arthur conan doyle - author of the hound of the baskervilles
heathcliff - central character of the wuthering heights
cathy - a character who appeared to heathcliff as a ghost
basil rathbone - an actor who starred in a film adaptation of the hound of the baskervilles
james perrott - a dartmoor guide
arthur - a british king whose body was taken to avalon
donovan - an oglethorpe university professor
graham - a new york university professor for the history department who loves video games
donald reich - avalon's minister
owen pentecost - the genius who created the sepulcher of worldly desires
abraham lincoln - a bearded american statesman
kierkegaard - presumably søren kierkegaard
dorothy l sayers - a british mystery writer
lord peter wimsey - a fictional amateur detective created by dorothy
brad pitt - a movie actor
jonathan creed - the game master
cliffyb - video game designer of unreal tournament
shigeru miyamoto - creator of super mario bros
john romero - developer of first-person shooter games
john carmack - another developer of first-person shooter games
will wright - developer of god games
peter bethune - an avalon shopkeeper who was struck and killed by lightning in 20june1899
truman capote - possibly short, thin and geeky when he was young
heraclitus - a pre-socratic greek philosopher
parmenides - another pre-socratic greek philosopher
socrates - a classical greek philosopher
plato - an athenian philosopher
aristotle - a greek philosopher who disagreed with plato about everything being an illusion
julius caesar - a roman dictator who was assassinated
ferdinand - an archduke who was also assassinated
eric gray - a pleasant-looking man
peter finch - an actor who played a network news anchor in the movie network
howard beale - peter's character in network
paul newman - an actor who starred in the movie the hustler
jackie gleason - paul's co-star in the hustler
margaret logan - an avalon resident who died in 21june1899
edward baker - an avalon resident who died in 30june1899
jennifer morse - an avalon resident who died in 4july1899
arnold ryan - an avalon resident who died in 12july1899
jim jones - a cult leader who made his people drink poisoned kool-aid
hitler - a great mass murderer
stalin - ditto
pol pot - ditto
copernicus - a polish astronomer who proposed heliocentrism
dorothy - a central character in wizard of oz
ahab - a central character in moby dick
lucifer - a central character in paradise lost who was banished from god
adam - a personification of disobedience

construction:
p30: "these recordings included music by several their famous opera stars...."

redundancy:
p128: he walked to an atm machine, inserted his card, and got the maximum amount of cash he was allowed: five hundred dollars.

a bit too much but fun nonetheless.
there's a lot of cultural references here.
ok, here's what i know of frank and amanda so far (after two books):
1. they're gold magnets
2. most people die when they come in contact with the two

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Several people have been kidnapped and sent on a high tech scavenger hunt for a lost time capsule in the desert of the American West.
I was really intrigued by the scavenger hunt/time capsule premise, but this book just didn't deliver. This was particularly disappointing since I really enjoyed the author's Creepers - which features some of the same characters. This story was bogged down by descriptions of the history of time capsules (which could have been interesting, had the info been presented differently). In addition, some of the details presented about geo-caching and video games seemed stale and outdated, as well as somewhat condescending.

[amsel · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Der schmerzlichste Zustand ist, sich an die Zukunft zu erinnern, vor allem an eine Zukunft, die man niemals besitzen kann.”

[Димитър Цолов · Rating 4 out of 5]

Екшън-трилър, чиято фабула се върти около т.нар. времеви капсули. Героите Франк Бейлинджър и Аманда вече са се подвизавали в романа Нарушители. Чел съм го, но нямам абсолютно никакви спомени, както подозирам ще се случи и с този.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scavenger – David Morrell

Scavenger is a quick-paced action-adventure built around time capsules and what amounts to a wilderness scavenger hunt. Readers familiar with Morrell’s Creepers will recognize the two main characters right away — and that familiarity is both the hook and, in a way, part of the problem.

Yes, the book moves fast. Morrell can still hit the gas like a pro. But the story itself often feels like a remix of thrillers we’ve all seen before, and not in a way that feels fresh or unavoidable — more like a set of familiar beats wearing a new jacket. To Morrell’s credit, he openly references Hitchcock’s idea of terror in open spaces, basically admitting the foundation isn’t new. This is his variation on the theme.

My main issue is plausibility. The book asks for a level of buy-in that I just couldn’t give. Events don’t just escalate — they vault, and they do it with a kind of smooth, convenient efficiency that kept pulling me out of the story. When everything unfolds so quickly, so cleanly, and so perfectly timed, tension stops feeling like tension and starts feeling like choreography.

A few scenes are wildly imaginative — but for me, they crossed the line into laughable. Not because Morrell is trying to be funny, but because the momentum and the reality gap get so wide that laughter becomes the only honest reaction.

I rated it 3 stars, but if I’m being blunt, it felt closer to 2½.

[Patrice Hoffman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was nonstop action. I really enjoyed reading this book. A lot of the reviews I read compared this book to the Saw Movies franchise. I don't agree with those comparisons. The Jigsaw killer or whatever his name is in those movies was playing a game involving people who needed to pay for their bad actions. This "Game Master" created a game-like world for people to rely on their survival skills to win.
I really liked the concept of this book because I'm a fan of the gaming world. I'm not a gamer or anything but I do contribute a healthy amount of time playing my PS3 or Xbox 360. It's interesting that this "game master" is creating a game using real people. This book had such a great premise and could have gone anywhere. There's a lot of stuff going on which I loved. There weren't any dull moments. Other reviews have mentioned there were too many action scenes but I found it to be an acceptable amount. Without the action this book would have been one boring story about buried time capsules.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

A direct sequel to “Creepers” (which I read last year and really enjoyed), this had Frank Balenger trying to save Amanda (the woman he rescued in the first book and is now in love with) caught up in a a high-tech scavenger hunt for a decades-old time capsule, run by a god-like Game Master with an obsession for unearthing the past.
The first book was very good, constantly turning up the tension and suspense and delivering a rollicking story and I was hoping for similar with this. Sadly, it wasn’t to be. The characterisation is all very brisk brushstrokes (and if you don’t remember “Creepers” you could be in trouble) while the locations are better handled, especially the ghost town site of the scavenger hunt. But it does fall down in terms of suspense, mainly because it’s a book of thirds - in the first, it’s not clear what’s going on, in the second it’s clear but slow and then, in the third, it’s well done but the ending is such a damp squib, I actually found it really annoying. From a character who seriously tests your patience (the afore-mentioned Game Master), to others only there are cannon fodder, to a game that simply makes no sense and that mishandled climax, this is difficult to love. Morrell’s a very good writer (even if, at times, he shows his research too much) and that saves this, but if I were you, I’d read “Creepers” then leave it at that.

[Maria Woltersdorf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ich fand es eine gelungene Fortsetzung von ,,Creeper", auch wenn es hier um eine neue Geschichte geht. Es war spannend, durchaus auch interessant, wodurch einem das ausführliche Nachwort auch zeigt, wie viel Recherche und auch Wahrheit in dem Thriller steckt. Allerdings war es auch ein wenig übertrieben und unrealistisch.

[Sheila Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great combination of action, thrills, and history. If you ever wondered what would happen if someone took video games to the extreme, this is a novel you need to read.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably being a bit generous with the rating. I liked the idea behind it, but felt like some things were either neat and tidy or somewhat nonsensical. And yes, doesn't quite compare to Creepers which was much better, but I can see why the character is reused for this book and had no problem with seeing similarities between the stories.

[Elijah Roy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this book I couldn't believe this was the same man who wrote The Brotherhood of the Rose and The Fraternity of the Stone. Maybe I was younger then. As I read this book my intended rating swung from 3 to 2 and back to 3 again...barely. Again I wish for a half star or 10 star system. This would get a 2.5 and at times that would have been generous.

Let me hasten to say, it's not that the book is bad. It's just that it constantly left me apathetic. When away from it I wasn't looking forward to getting back to it. i wasn't thinking about the story, where it was going, what was going to happen to then characters...I didn't think of it at all. I reminded myself to get back to it, just to get through it and move on. I pretty much just didn't care. I had it in audio so it could be on when I was doing other things, but it didn't draw me in, it didn't involve me.

I know it meant to, I know it should have. Balenger and Amanda have already gone through so much (in Creepers), and now they fall into the hands of (another) a mad man. It was supposed to pull me in, I was supposed to care about them, but it just left me...blah or meah or whatever.

The plot of this sounds good and the idea is good but for some reason it didn't work for me. This and the last Morrell book I read The Shimmer have both been, less than stellar. (This one wasn't as big a disappointment to me as The Shimmer). I begin to wonder if it's that his writing has changed or if I have. If I go back and read Brotherhood of the Rose will i be disappointed? Maybe I shouldn't try.

I can't wholeheartedly recommend this book, maybe you'll like it, I suppose you should see for yourself.

Frank Balenger and Amanda Evert (having survived the events in Creeper) have become lovers (a little "creepy" in itself as she looks much like Frank's dead wife and at first Frank confused Amanda with said dead wife). The plot get's going around the Idea of "lost time capsules". Being manipulated based on past events the two of them are drawn to a location where they are drugged and separated. Amanda is taken to a remote location and placed with a group of others whom the "Game Master" (a troubled [read mad or insane] young man) has "determined to be survivors. Frank is left in the city where (after a somewhat pointless police involvement) he finds he's supposed to function as "the Game Master's" avatar.

Frank refuses to play by the rules (the "survivors" can't as they are sort of walking bombs and because of copious cameras around the "gaming area" if they don't play by the rules they get blown up). We get a search, we get lots of death, blood and destruction. We get a bit of creepy weirdness. We get some inexplicable law enforcement shortsightedness. Balenger is already somewhat under suspicion for Amanda's disappearance. He's with the lead detective when the officer is killed, by a falling wheelbarrow. He runs away. But the police never follow up. Somehow no alert goes out and he apparently walks away clean. Of course who knows what happened when Frank and Amanda manage to get back to "civilization" (leaving all the other survivor members of the game, the Game Master, and his sister dead).

As I said I'm supposed to get involved in all this and really care about Frank and Amanda, but I never got involved with them. I suppose I like the book better than I would have had Morrell killed them...so I gave it 3 stars. It's not bad, it's not unreadable, it's just not a book that drew me in.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sequel (of sorts) to Morrell's novel Creepers, Scavenger brings back two of the survivors, Frank Balenger and Amanda Evert. Still traumatized by the events in the first book, the two characters now live together and are the recipients of an unexpected boon that gives them enough money to live comfortably. Though as the book goes on they seem to turn a little boon into an unending shoppping spree. But I digress.
Shortly after receiving their windfall, Frank and Amanda receive an invitation to a strange discussion by a group of time capsule hunters. While at the affair they meet odd characters and notice strange happenings during the lecture. Next thing they know, they both wake up in different places, the apparent victims of a hoax and a drugging.

Frank awakens and gets himself to the police, getting a detective to go on a sort of Da Vinci Code hunt around Manhattan for whomever was responsible for the charade. Amanda, on the other hand, finds herself locked in a strange manor (again) along with four strangers. They find themselves being instructed through technological means that they are now contestants in a sort of a race.

Given special outfits, headsets and GPS devices (the setting is around 2007 so much of this equipment is still futuristic technology for these peeps) the people are introduced to each other by their host, the Game Master

- no, not that guy, someone actually worse - as "heroes" and "survivors" as each of them has gone through a life-harrowing experience but managed to survive. They are now being tasked with finding some sort of time capsule and given only 40 hours to do it. Failure to comply or succeed will be met with dire consequences. It soon becomes obvious, this is no "fun run" but more like a Jigsaw plan.

As both stories play out, the circumstance become more difficult and confusing, and soon the body count begins to pile up.
Despite some ridiculous scenarios and a huge helping of willing suspension of disbelief, the story was for the most part interesting and entertaining enough through about the first 60-65% of the novel. But I can only guess that Morrell began to lose his way in his own labyrinth, because the last third of the book just got more crazy, and not in a good way, and the story went in just bizarre and stupid directions. By the end the whole plot line that had been repeatedly described and spelled out just fell apart instead relying on grandiose displays, delusions of grandeur, and the story was filled with actual explosions as the plot exploded upon itself.

The novel began like a less refined Preston & Child story but concluded like some cheap Syfy network movie.

[Ajeje Brazov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Romanzo thriller d'avventura/azione, "forse" più adatto nella forma di film o, meglio ancora, di videogioco, ma comunque la scrittura è molto scorrevole e senza tanti fronzoli e quindi la lettura risulta a tratti coinvolgente ed intrigante. Non un capolavoro, ma una buona lettura per intervallare altre letture più impegnative.

Quaranta ore per avere salva la vita o meglio per "vincere" il gioco (Scavenger), passando da un livello ad un altro. Per i patiti di videogiochi, qui soprattutto i "first-person shooter" o sparatutto in prima persona, una lettura che farà salire su un bel po' di "amarcord".
Io non amo molto il genere, però chi non ha mai giocato a Doom? O Wolfenstein? O Unreal Tournament?

"Le pile di faldoni e fascicoli che ho accumulato sono, credo, capsule del tempo che rappresentano gli interessi di una persona che io non sono più; lo stesso vale per i miei romanzi, i quali preservano quello che provavo e pensavo in passato. Anche i libri dei miei scrittori preferiti sono capsule del tempo, che mi riportano nella Londra nebbiosa di Dickens, o nella vecchia New York di Edith Wharton, o nella Parigi degli anni Venti di Hemingway. Sono opere che mi trasportano non solo nel passato vissuto dai loro autori, ma anche nel mio passato, restituendomi quel che ho sperimentato leggendoli per la prima volta."

"Avessimo abbastanza mondo e tempo...
Ma alle mie spalle odo continuamente
l'alato carro del tempo che si avvicina veloce:
e laggiù, da ogni parte, avanti a noi
si stendono deserti di vasta eternità."
(Andrew Marvell 'Alla sua amante ritrosa')

[William M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Continuing with characters from the book Creepers, David Morrell delves into the subjects of time capsules and video game technology in a thriller that has some neat ideas but doesn’t always work. As I read the book, it seemed as if author Morrell was a little behind the times, elaborating on video game and computer breakthroughs that are common knowledge to anyone with even the slightest interest in the video game market. Morrell writes as if he were the first to discover these concepts and trying to share with the reader what most people already know.

The villain here is fairly standard and although many of the twists and turns were enjoyable, too many elements seemed convoluted and coincidental, forcing the reader to buy into some extremely implausible scenarios. If you can accept the plot points Morrell tosses at you without examining them too closely, the story is a fun read. It has mystery, suspense, deaths, and considerable tension due to a deadly time limit for the main characters. All in all, this book was not as effective as Creepers, but still gets a mild recommendation. New readers will want to seek out his older work first.

[Ginny · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fast read with a good amount of suspense. Story starts by drawing you into the history and lore of time capsules, but ultimately draws you into a deeper realm of gaming intrigue. Five people with varying survival skills are "kidnapped" and forced to play a game of cat and mouse to find this ultimate time capsule. Someone called the Game Master has gone to great lengths to invent the ultimate video game. With 40 hours to complete their mission and reach their goal, it is a question of will they survive the booby traps and wild snakes and dogs, and not do anything to bring the wrath of Game Master, the mysterious know-all and see-all person with video cameras and electronic equipment everywhere, down upon them. I found the book to move along, but was a bit disappointed in the sad little person the game master turned out to be. Also disappointed as to why two of the main characters used the same method of demise...poetic justice maybe? An okay book, but had hoped for better.

[Martin Belcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a while since I've read "Creepers" this is a loose sequel to that book. Scavenger was not what I expected, the book is completely different in tone and subject matter to Creepers, essentially you have two of the central characters from Creepers finding themselves drugged and competing in a strange "game" to find a hidden cache. The "game" is controlled by a madman willing to sacrifice lives in order to evaluate how his game players fair and to find the hidden time capsule. I found this book a little boring in places, some parts particularly in the game in the hidden valley were interesting and kept the story moving along but it felt disjointed and there just wasn't enough tension and thrills for me.

[Joel Sockwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book. I first read "First Blood" by David Morrell many years ago and was impressed, but for some reason, never read another Morrell book since. I picked up "Scavenger" at a local Dollar Tree store for a buck, read it and immediately wondered why I had ignored Morrell all these years. Now I'm on a search for all books written by Morrell and will create a check list as I go through them. Excellent writer and highly recommended.

[Ms. Nikki · Rating 1 out of 5]

Agh. I've figured out another ploy that authors use. It is the art of convenience. David has this down in spades. They are stuck in a building, but guess what, someone knows the history of the building and guides them out. Another is former military and thinks quick on his feet when they are in a bind and so on and so forth. But what really ticks me off is that the story itself has potential, but is inexpertly executed. David Morrell's books are not for me~

[Ari · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. I became a fan of Frank Balenger's character after Creepers, but that book's excitement was missing in this one.

I had to force myself to finish it this novel, and the best part of the book was the one chapter in which the Sepulcher of Worldly Desires was found and we're told how all those people died.

What a shame.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read David Morrell for years, and I really enjoyed this book - in fact I found it hard to put it down. Then I got to the end of the book and was so let down. Not sure if he didn't think through the ending or was in a hurry, but it was so disappointing.

[Maven · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I would have liked this better if it were a non fiction book about the history of time capsules. The author's note and Resources chapters were the most interesting part of the book. The potential was there it just did not have the threads to pull it together.

[Julie Kellner · Rating 4 out of 5]

No matter how many times I read this book love it more each time

[SoulSurvivor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't like the literary vehicle , based on a multi-level video game challenge ?

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a sequel to Morrell's Creepers which I have a copy of but haven't read yet. I'll need to get to it soon. In this one, Frank Balenger and his wife Amanda are drawn to a lecture on time capsules at an old building in New York where supposedly The Manhattan History Club resides. But it turns out that the lecture and History Club are a ruse to kidnap Amanda and others and place them in peril as part of a real life "video" game. The object of the game is to find a 100-year old time capsule called the Sepulcher of World Desires at an old deserted mining town in Wyoming. The five players are made to wear different colored jump suits, use a GPS device, and always wear a headset that the "Game Master" can use to communicate with them. If they don't obey the rules, the Master can remotely destroy each player. Balenger is not one of the game players originally but he must figure out what is going on so he can try to get Amanda back. Lots of action ensues as the players try to solve the puzzle using clues left by the Game Master while trying to avoid the perils involved including one of the other players.

I thought this was a pretty good thriller and I especially liked the background on time capsules as well as geocaching. I didn't realize how many time capsules there have been and how many are lost. Geocaching is also talked about in the novel and is something I have heard about but really knew little...sounds interesting! This book was written in 2007 and in a little over ten years, the book already seems somewhat dated with the players using hand-held GPS devices and the most advanced cell phone being a Blackberry! Otherwise, I would still give this a mild recommendation.

[Elmer Foster · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sorry to say that didn't age well, said the main character into his BLACKBERRY PHONE!

Morrell is considered a masterful writer, and I don't argue that point as his writing abilities are commendable. However, his choice of topic and story crafting for this particular book are horrendous and amount to cliffnotes of the world of gamer technology up to 2007 and the Discovery channel episode on time capsules. Neither alone merit a book, nor does their compilation.

Once Morrell coupled the idea of a villainous backstory to that of occupants in the movie "Room", threw in a protagonist from his previous story Creepers (for continuity or relevance, perhaps) and sprinkled in a cancer-ridden, Doom 3 playing Linda Hunt (NCIS "Hetty") for exposition, there was no reason to add a plot or motivation. And sent the book to print.

Everything from concept, character descriptions, to location setting has been depicted better elsewhere, sorry to say. Poor Frank is today's Rambo trope. The games chosen as drivers for the action, weren't even the best ones available when the story was written 15 years ago. And Time Capsules? really? This book is a time capsule (at best) for 2007, better left unfound.

Luckily it was well written, grammatically and fairly fast paced for what first-person shooter style action that did occur within the story. But there was no real danger, consequence, or purpose for this adventure? to be written down. It felt as 2D as the tech cited in the story.

Skip this one.

Thanks for reading (so you won't have to.)

[John Bruni · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought I'd just settle into this book. Maybe read a couple of chapters and then go out and run a bunch of errands. Important errands.

I was hooked on the first sentence, and the book would not release me. I could not stop reading this until I was done. Halfway through I tried to stop, but I was in Morrell's clutches, and you just can't step away from him, especially not here. White hot action and suspense fused with a touch of horror took precedence over everything else in my life. I got hungry, and still I didn't stop.

It's good to see Frank Balenger again. I thoroughly enjoyed CREEPERS, and I desperately hope this won't be the last time I read about him. There is a lot going on here, and you're better off going in without knowing anything. Believe me, the story begins before you even realize it, and it doesn't let go.

If you don't know about geocaching or letterboxing, you will want to know everything about it after reading this one. Time capsules figure in, too, and a surprising number of them go forgotten. I took part in one when I was maybe eight years old. I wonder if that one is going to make it. It's more likely to be destroyed by water, though.

I want to tell you guys everything, but to do so would be an utter sin (especially in the eyes of a certain Rev. Owen Pentecost). Do yourselves a favor and just read it, all right?