She Treads Softly: The Shell Game

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

The Shell Game

The Shell Game by Steve Alten was originally published in 2007. I didn't finish it because the novel was clearly pushing Alten's personal beliefs rather than a political thriller. Actually, considering the current economic crisis, Alten's book seems rather pointless. If you believe in an oil conspiracy and that top officials knew about 9/11 and purposely allowed it to happen, then you will like this book. Be warned that there are
factual errors and timeline problems, for example Jimmy Carter was not the president in 1973 who in response to the Arab oil embargo advocated a program of national conservation. Not recommended/ did not finish

From Publishers Weekly

Even die-hard conspiracy theorists will be dubious about the sinister government-led plots that form the shaky foundation of this political thriller. Alten, best-known for his gory novels featuring giant prehistoric sharks (Meg; The Trench), goes well beyond the already far-fetched idea that the Bush administration let the devastating 9/11 attacks happen to further the neoconservative agenda of reshaping the Middle East. In 2012, with centrist conservative David McKuin in the White House, the federal government plots to detonate a nuclear bomb in a U.S. city and blame Iran as a cover to take out that country's radical leadership. Standing in the plotters' way is Ace Futrell, an energy expert whose murdered wife was possibly targeted by U.S. intelligence. An awkward mix of actual and fictional political figures (Hillary Clinton is still in the Senate in 2012, having lost the 2008 election to McKuin) doesn't make this paranoid and superficial book more plausible. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.

Quote:
"But The Shell Game is neither standard fiction nor nonfiction. It was written as a cautionary tale, backed by disturbing facts and inconvenient thruths that are used to project an all-too-real scenario down the path we
have been lulled into taking." pg xiii

1 comment:

Variance Publishing said...: Hey Lori!

Another Alten book - though not quite along his normal lines. I'm hoping that you putting this book down before it was done doesn't stop you (or anyone else) from getting back to his MEG series when Hell's Aquarium comes out on May 19!

Keep up the reviews! Have a great week,

--Stan; March 31, 2009 at 2:33 PM

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.