THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 29, 1995 TAG: 9501271103
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
THE INTRUDERS
STEPHEN COONTS
Pocket Books. 344 pp. $23.
THERE ARE ABOUT a dozen authors today who produce top novels about the military. Perhaps half use Navy ships or planes as their base, but only Joe Weber and Stephen Coonts focus on Navy or Marine aviators.
Coonts, an ex-Navy pilot, has created a durable naval aviator in Jake Grafton, introduced as a young lieutenant in Flight of the Intruder in 1986 and featured in four succeeding action novels.
Now, Coonts takes us back in time with The Intruders, a sequel to his first novel. Jake is still a lieutenant, flying off a carrier, but it is peacetime - the Vietnam War is over. Coonts depicts the monotony, and the danger, in keeping the peace.
Coonts puts us right in the cockpit as the plane is catapulted off the carrier; we are with Jake as he lines up for a difficult night landing aboard it. He gives an insider's look at the perils of coping with equipment failures when split-second, life-or-death decisions must be made. And we share Jake's thoughts as he wrestles with a decision whether to continue in the Navy.
There is plenty of action here, and the plot heats up near the end. Coonts furthers our understanding of why young people go to sea, fly planes off pitching decks and attempt to land on what seems like a watery postage stamp. And he brings the problems of peacetime service successfully to light. - BILL ROACH
EVERVILLE
CLIVE BARKER
HarperCollins. 697 pp. $25.
WELCOME TO Everville, a town founded on blood and sex; a town where the spirits of folks long dead walk among the living; a town that may soon become host to the end of the world. For this town of Everville rests in the shadow of a mountain, and high up on that mountain is a gateway to another world. And it is from this world that a half-human who prefers the name Death-Boy will lead a cloud of demonic evil to attack this world just to see it destroyed.
With Everville Clive Barker once again proves he is one of the most imaginative writers working today. Unfortunately, he's not one of the best.
Like the first book (The Great and Secret Show) in this trilogy, Everville is overly long, its characters flat and its pacing. . . Well, simply put, reading Everville is like running through a swamp: The going is slow, confounding and extremely tiresome. And though some may find the journey pleasant, most would just as soon be elsewhere. All in all, Everville is yet another Barker epic best left for the die-hards.
- GREGORY N. KROLCZYK
SELF-DEFENSE
JONATHAN KELLERMAN
Bantam. 390 pp. $22.95.
JONATHAN KELLERMAN'S novels about child psychologist/sleuth Alex Delaware are nothing if not topical. In previous tales, Delaware has dealt with multiple personalities and children traumatized by a schoolyard shooting. In the compelling Self-Defense, repressed memories surface and threaten a young woman's psyche and her life.
Ever since she served as a juror at the trial of a serial killer, Lucy Lowell has been haunted by a recurring nightmare. As Delaware learns more about the dream and Lucy's father - a Hemingwayesque writer who barely acknowledges her existence - he begins to think the scene that so frightens Lucy might actually have occurred.
Self-Defense is less frenetic and violent than last year's Bad Love and thus more rewarding for readers who value good detective work and character-revealing events. That's not to say it lacks action or suspense; Kellerman's a master of zip-along pacing.
- NANCY PATE
Orlando Sentinel by CNB