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Slide
SLIDE
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 23, 2019
“We’re commandeering the planet to fight our wars for us”
You have to hand it to author Michael Day. When he penned his geophysical pot-boiler, Slide, he certainly wasn’t thinking small or hiding the light of his ideas under any bushel. Taking his cue from the James Rollins school of thriller writing, everything but the kitchen sink found its place in the story – nuclear submarines and submersibles; deep sea mining of gold and uranium; room temperature superconductors; hydrogen powered cars; weather control and the weaponization of human-controlled typhoons; man-made mega-tsunamis; Islamic hatred of the USA; illegal, undercover production of nuclear bombs; racist concentration camps; a military coup d'état; a tin pot, megalomaniacal Indonesian dictator surrounded by a host of traitors each plotting their own schemes for wealth and power; an American president focused on – you guessed it – retention of power and plausible deniability; and undercover CIA agents vested with superpowers and the proverbial nine lives.
Notwithstanding the fact that all of this puts the plot completely over the top and into the realm of bizarre hyperbole, the darn thing was readable and ultimately quite interesting. In particular, given the events currently overtaking the USA and dominating its newspaper headlines, the behavior of the American president and the members of his cabinet, their machinations, their lack of concern for the American people and their drive for anything but preservation of their power and plausible deniability, seemed disturbingly real and profoundly unsettling.
At 670 pages, the length is a little overwhelming and the overdone plot stretches both the imagination and one’s reading endurance. That’s why I limited the rating to only 3 stars. If Day and his editors had seen fit to even moderately tone down some of the more outré pieces of the plot and trim out about 100 pages, I would probably have added another star. But, Day’s finished his writing, he didn't check with me before he sent the final draft to the printer and Slide is what it is. I still enjoyed it.
Paul Weiss
You have to hand it to author Michael Day. When he penned his geophysical pot-boiler, Slide, he certainly wasn’t thinking small or hiding the light of his ideas under any bushel. Taking his cue from the James Rollins school of thriller writing, everything but the kitchen sink found its place in the story – nuclear submarines and submersibles; deep sea mining of gold and uranium; room temperature superconductors; hydrogen powered cars; weather control and the weaponization of human-controlled typhoons; man-made mega-tsunamis; Islamic hatred of the USA; illegal, undercover production of nuclear bombs; racist concentration camps; a military coup d'état; a tin pot, megalomaniacal Indonesian dictator surrounded by a host of traitors each plotting their own schemes for wealth and power; an American president focused on – you guessed it – retention of power and plausible deniability; and undercover CIA agents vested with superpowers and the proverbial nine lives.
Notwithstanding the fact that all of this puts the plot completely over the top and into the realm of bizarre hyperbole, the darn thing was readable and ultimately quite interesting. In particular, given the events currently overtaking the USA and dominating its newspaper headlines, the behavior of the American president and the members of his cabinet, their machinations, their lack of concern for the American people and their drive for anything but preservation of their power and plausible deniability, seemed disturbingly real and profoundly unsettling.
At 670 pages, the length is a little overwhelming and the overdone plot stretches both the imagination and one’s reading endurance. That’s why I limited the rating to only 3 stars. If Day and his editors had seen fit to even moderately tone down some of the more outré pieces of the plot and trim out about 100 pages, I would probably have added another star. But, Day’s finished his writing, he didn't check with me before he sent the final draft to the printer and Slide is what it is. I still enjoyed it.
Paul Weiss
August 22, 2011
Although my opinion is somewhat biased (Mr Day happened to be a teacher at my school), I found this to be a good read. The writing was engaging and struck good balance between explaining the technical and scientific aspects of the plot and moving said plot along at a decent pace. The characters were standard, but nevertheless well-formed and reasonably well-developed over the course of the story.
June 5, 2009
Picked this one up for a quarter. Good summer read. The bad guys were bad, the good guys were good.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews