Deadfall by Robert Liparulo started off with a great bang. In a remote place in Canada, Roland Emery had been out checking some traps he had set when he had noticed a bright yellow truck pull up as if looking for him.
Exert:
He had waved, but the strangers had not waved back. Instead, the man seated in the bed had pointed at a tree between them.
The tree had exploded.
There had been the sound of thunder, a blinding flash, a wave of hot air, and the tree had disappeared. It hadn't been blown out of the ground or knocked off its trunk. It hadn't fallen into the woods or across the path. It had just . . . disintegrated. Needles and splinters and dirt had shot straight up, then rained down. The branches closest to the destroyed tree had ignited, burning like a thousand tiny torches.
A nearby town is terrorized by the occupants in the yellow truck. Fiddler Falls is a self sufficient small town who in the winter time is cut off from all other towns. They have 4 satellite phones in the town for emergencies, but other than that they are alone. The people in the truck shut the town down and hold all the people in the school gym while they film the effects of their weapon which seems to strike with such force and accuracy people simple cease to exist.
They are filming the actual effect and responses of people after these strikes from the sky for their new video game. 4 men are out for a hunting weekend nearby the town and accidentally run into the hoodlums and must make a choice whether to save this small town or run for their lives.
**spoiler**
The people that took over the town are a pair of brothers and 3 others. The brothers are from a rich family whose father never spent time with them and saw them as an inconvenience. One guy is a street thug, one mans the camera and another is a girl who is in love with the leader. The weapon is one the government was working on and it uses a beam from a satellite. It can only be used for 18 minutes every hour and a half.
I stuck with this book because the beginning seemed so promising. When they find the 4 hunters, the gang chases one of them into the woods. He is a hunter and can use his surroundings to blend, believable enough, but the gang seems to know where he's going and continually seem to find him. When he is hidden from them the younger brother spots him and leads the others away.
There are a lot of points in this book where I thought..."yea right, are you kidding. What are the odds???" It was long and drawn out and the ending was a bit of a let down. I was disappointed and now I'm a little leery of even reading anymore of his books.
I would give this a 1 out of 5.
2 comments:
Wow, I couldn't disagree with you more about Deadfall. I loved it! I'm a camper and bow hunter and Liparulo got all that survival stuff dead-on. I've also worked with the kind of satellite weaponry he describes and I have to say, he nailed things that he shouldn't have known. The one area I didn't have knowledge of was the video game aspects, but my teenage son said it all rang true to him.
But more than the technology and survival verisimilitude, I totally appreciated the way the characters were developed: I cared about them, and I LOVED the relationship that developed between Hutch and the little boy Dillon. I almost cried at the end. I've given this book as gifts and without fail I hear back that the recipient loved it (even though they're people who'd have no problem telling me if they didn't like it). I consider Deadfall one of my all-time favorite books (in the top ten).
That you you didn't "get it" just goes to show that everyone is different in what they like and what resonates with them. Too bad you didn't have the same experience with it that I did. I can't imagine not enjoying this book.
I'm glad you enjoyed it, I just felt that a lot of what happened was too "convenient".
I agree with you on the Hutch/Dillon relationship...I did enjoy Hutch as a character. And when they hid in plain sight, that was cool.
Maybe I'll try another one of his books.
Thanks for the comment.
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