She Treads Softly: The Maw

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

The Maw

The Maw by Taylor Zajonc
Skyhorse Publishing: 6/5/18
eBook review copy; 320 pages
ISBN-13: 9781510732407

The Maw by Taylor Zajonc is a highly recommended action/adventure story set in a supercave in Tanzania.

Milo Luttrell is a historian who is mysteriously invited to Tanzania under the pretense of a project that may help him keep his job. When he arrives he discovers he has been invited by Dale Brunsfield, a billionaire explorer, to join an expedition that will be exploring a new supercave. Milo has been invited because of his research into the life of famed explorer Lord Riley DeWar. Dale believes that DeWar's last, lost expedition may have been to this cave and he needs Milo along for his expertise. Milo, who has no spelunking experience, is joining the team of seven that just happens to include his ex-girlfriend and a reality TV show star.

This is a thrilling adventure story that is full of intrigue and suspense. There are enough complications and emergencies in the narrative to leave you expecting a unanticipated catastrophe around even corner. The descriptive passages make you even more cognizant of the unknown discovers awaiting along with the danger as the situation deteriorates for the expedition. Zajonc keeps the pace quick, moving the plot along, as the challenges mount. The Maw will hold your attention throughout.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Skyhorse Publishing.

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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.