Paranoid – DaneCobain.com

Lucy Cruickshanks – The Trader of Saigon | Review

Title: The Trader of Saigon

Author: Lucy Cruickshanks

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 336

Rating: 4*/5

Lucy Cruickshanks – The Trader of Saigon

I picked this book up because I’m running an indie readalong with my friend Todd the Librarian on BookTube, but I realised after I started reading this that it doesn’t really qualify. It’s published by Heron Books, an imprint of Quercus, and it’s quite clearly been professionally edited and put through rigorous quality checks before it’s made it out on to the market. It’s professionally done, and rightly so.

This is technically historical fiction, because it’s set in Vietnam at some point during the mid-to-late twentieth century. It’s after the war, but before the country’s had time to heal. As for the plot, it’s surprisingly hard to talk about that without giving away spoilers. What I will say is that it involves people trafficking amidst the paranoid backdrop of communist Vietnam, and a dude called Phuc makes some very bad decisions after finding a gambling den.

Cruickshanks’ writing style is accessible and easy to read which means that it’s the kind of book that can just wash over you. She’s also fantastic at creating a sense of place, and it really kicks in right from the opening pages. You can almost taste the food and smell the markets. Cruickshanks has spent some time in Vietnam, of course, but simply spending time somewhere doesn’t necessarily mean you can write about it. Lucy can, and that’s a talent.

Lucy Cruickshanks

Sure, there were bits here and there that dragged a little, but that happens with most books. But the good outweighs the bad, and I enjoyed this quite a lot overall. I might not remember the finer details in six months’ time, but it certainly kept me turning the pages right up to the end. When it comes to a book, what more can you ask for?

Will I read the next one? Maybe. There are so many books and so little time. But I’d like to.

Saigon

Click here to buy The Trader of Saigon.

Dan Brown – Digital Fortress | Review

Title: Digital Fortress

Author: Dan Brown

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 510

Rating: 7/10

Dan Brown – Digital Fortress

I’m no great fan of Dan Brown, because he’s not as crazy as most of the writers that I like to read – he’s like the pop music version of Stephen King, and I don’t even read too much Stephen King. It’s too contemporary for me, but I give it a go every now and then.

And Brown isn’t a terrible writer – he’s more than capable, and that’s almost part of the problem. It’s convincing enough, it just feels uninspired – it’s the alcohol-free beer of the book world, and I’m not sure whether that’s a compliment or not. And to make matters worse, Digital Fortress is hardly his greatest novel.

That said, the subject matter should appeal to me – it’s been described as a “technothriller“, and it’s almost a subtle parody of the real-life history of cryptography, a subject that I find fascinating and baffling at the same time. Brown’s novel follows cryptographer Susan Fletcher as she attempts to crack a complex new code that threatens national security.

Dan Brown

In many ways, it’s typical of all of Brown’s other work – you’ll notice, after reading a couple of novels, that they all follow a formula. That’s probably because he was formerly a lecturer in creative writing, and they always say that you need to know the rules before you break them – unfortunately, Brown never breaks them.

Still, Digital Fortress is far from the worst book that I’ve ever read, and it’s definitely worth reading if you’ve read Dan Brown’s work before and enjoyed it. However, don’t read this before reading Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol – they’re better-known for a reason. They’re better.

It’s interesting to note, though, that some of the topics that the book covers are even more relevant in this modern world than they were back in 1998, when the book was first published. In this sense, Brown did well to jump on the explosive growth of technology to secure inspiration for his government’s surveillance of electronic information about the private lives of its citizens – if you do read Digital Fortress, just remember how the NSA, the British metropolitan police force and other key enforcement organisations are monitoring your activity on social networking sites.

Dan Brown Quote

And it’s a testament to Dan Brown’s writing skills that you do finish the book feeling genuinely paranoid, because it’s believable and you wouldn’t be surprised if something similar genuinely did happen from time to time – it’s not as though the U.S. government is afraid to keep things under wraps. Sometimes I think that they know even more than we think they know, and they laugh at us because of it. Makes me glad to be British, really – our politicians are too inefficient to keep up a charade for long.

Overall, I’d hesitate to recommend this, but you’re more than welcome to proceed at your own caution – it’s a fairly long read, so think it over carefully before making a final decision.