Fever Dream

I don't think I'll ever get tired of reading about Special Agent Aloysius X.L. Pendergast's adventures, and I pray Preston and Child never get tired of inventing them. Fever Dream was every bit the summer escapism read I had hoped for. Although, I suppose, being transported to the sun-baked African bush, and the humid, cicada infested swamps of Louisiana was not, strictly speaking, an escape from this year's long hot Mid-Western summer. But somehow, I forgot about the humidity and dewpoints, entranced, as always, by Pendergast's cool. A new Pendergast novel is one of the few books I buy in hardcover. I hate to wait. I'm about at the point where I want to go back to the beginning of the series and re-read them all. To attain a show more Trekkie-like knowledge of Pendergast. I keep waiting for a movie? But I'm not too hopeful that Hollywood will ever find a Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce to incarnate Pendergast and D'Agosta. I can't think of any celebrity actor who could capture his uniqueness. It would need to be an unknown way out of left field, someone original like Jim Parsons, who plays Dr. Sheldon Cooper on Big Bang Theory - but a touch more macho. But who knows? One can dream. In any event, this episode in the on-going saga, concerning the murder of Pendergast's wife Helen, was completely up to the usual standards for the series: a compelling mystery, great local color, interesting historic tidbits, and a continuity with the past novels. Plus it left some interesting threads in the story to be addressed in the next novel, which will likely open at a hunting range in Scotland. My bags are packed. show less

Después de que el libro anterior de esta serie me quedara debiendo, Douglas Preston y Lincoln Child se han reivindicado conmigo con esta nueva entrega.

Éste, además de ser el décimo libro de la serie de Pendergast, es el primero de la trilogía de Helena, decir que como comienzo de trilogía es fabuloso, es quedarme corta, tiene mucha tela.

Para empezar cada libro que leo de esta serie, cada que me sorprende cuando me entero de cosas de la vida personal de Pendergast, no termina de sorprenderme, es un personaje tan enigmatico, tan complejo, que mucho de lo que me hace regresar a esta serie es precisamente este personaje, me han creado la necesidad de llegar al fondo de este personaje, claro que es un pozo sin fondo, imposible saber show more todo lo que uno quisiera sobre él.

Como siempre nuestro Aloysius se mete en una investigación fuera de la ley, como siempre saltándose las reglas, como siempre, está en medio de una situación donde corre en peligro su vida y la que lo acompañan en su investigación, sin embargo y a diferencia de la mayoría de las entregas anteriores, en esta ocasión no hay nada que caiga en lo fantasioso, es una investigación casi como de espías, un asesinato ocurrido muchos años atrás y cada cosa que se va revelando con relación a ese tema nos lleva a una aventura como las que ya nos tienen acostumbrados estos autores.

Me encanta, no estoy muy segura de que esta trilogía le llegue a la de Diógenes, pero sí que va a ser una de las buenas, llena de acción, asesinatos y una persecución de esas de adrenalina, sobre todo las sorpresas están a la orden del día.

¿He dicho que esta novela no es tan fantasiosa? Bueno, es verdad, pero nuestros autores no pueden dejar fuera el tema ¿verdad? Así que, sí, hay que esperar sorpresas de esas que tanto gustan en esta serie.

En esta ocasión no han dejado fuera a Constance, un personaje que se está convirtiendo junto con Pendergast, peculiar y también difícil de comprender.

Estos autores tienen en definitiva la fórmula perfecta del entretenimiento, cada libro me la paso genial leyéndolos, cada entrega me sorprende y se han convertido en poco tiempo en consentidos de mi estantería, me faltan muchos libros para ponerme al día con la serie, pero a diferencia de otras series que he comenzado y no he terminado, esta me ha atrapado desde el primer libro, a ver si este año logro ponerme al día y logro llegar al 18.

Sin duda una serie bastante recomendable para quien no se haya animado a leerla, sí que son muchos libros, pero vale la pena cada uno de ellos. show less

The Short of It:

A solid addition to the Special Agent Pendergast series. It contains all of the witty anecdotes that I’ve come to expect from Pendergast, but it’s also a bit of a page-turner.

The Rest of It:

I have a long-standing love affair with Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Years ago…I picked-up Relic, which was book #1 in the series and since then, I’ve been enjoying the series every couple of years. There have been a few misses, so I consider these books guilty pleasures and nothing more. However, every once in a while I am reminded how good they are. This is one such case.

Fever Dream is about Special Agent Pendergast and his discovery that his wife’s death, years ago, may not have been the accident he imagined it to show more be. You see, he knew she was mauled by a lion while game hunting in Africa, but what he didn’t know is that his wife’s rifle, her only means of protection, was filled with blanks. With this new piece of information, he sets out to find the true killer.

What makes these books special are the characters. Pendergast is a rather refined individual. Not your typical FBI agent. There are lots of asides and witticisms that are quite enjoyable. On the other hand, D’Agosta, his liaison in the police department is not as refined and a bit more stereotypical so the contrast between the two is quite entertaining.

Overall, Fever Dream was a quick read and provided a much-needed distraction but wasn’t all “fluff” and pat endings. If you shy away from crime fiction because of the million little details or mystery because of the formulaic quality of it, then I think you will like this one.

It should be noted as well, that it really doesn’t matter which order you read these books in. They are all pretty much stand-alone pieces. show less

Six-word review: Pendergast page-turner without monster chase.

Extended review:

The tenth Special Agent Pendergast novel begins a second trilogy, "the Helen trilogy," with Pendergast's staggering discovery that his wife's death in Africa twelve years previously had been no accident. Now he trains his full range of powers on tracking and punishing those responsible for her murder. His ability to penetrate deep mysteries is as remarkable as his resourcefulness and raw nerve in tackling an adversary directly. In the process of his investigation, considerable collateral damage occurs.

Despite the Louisiana setting, two of his very appealing collaborators return: NYPD officers Lieutenant Vince D'Agosta and Captain Laura Hayward, the latter show more unwillingly. I must note with interest, however, that there is only one brief dive into a sub-basement archive, and there are no signs of a supernatural presence, an unnatural monstrosity lurking in some subterranean hall of horrors, a hallucinating madman, or a deadly pursuit through underground tunnels. To me that's very much like a breath of fresh air, even if it is the stifling, mosquito-laden air of trackless swamps and bayous.

Unlike most of the others in the Pendergast series, this novel does not stand alone. Even the Diogenes trilogy, it seemed to me, could be read with sufficient comprehension by someone who hadn't followed Pendergast from the beginning. But here there are loose ends both fore and aft. For instance, Constance Greene's strange behavior and bizarre backstory would seem to come out of nowhere and be related to nothing if we hadn't followed along from the third in the series, Cabinet of Curiosities, onward. And it's plain at the ending that the story is far from complete; despite major revelations and several deaths, there is much unfinished business.

The Preston-Child collaborations have the virtue of being complex without being too intellectually demanding. We may at times need a strong stomach, and if we want to follow the development we have to pay attention, but in time it will all be laid out for us without any need to interpret language or penetrate symbolism. For me in certain moods, they're an ideal escape. show less

People coming into this book expecting a neat little story unconnected with anything else will be poorly served. This latest installment of the Pendergast novel does 3 things – it reveals and resolves incidents in Pendergast’s past, it sets up a new villain for him to battle and sets up a situation with Constance that will need resolution on its own. Why people are surprised or irritated by this, especially longtime readers, is strange. The entire series is set up this way. It’s what gives it flow and impetus and I really liked how it was managed in this one and I think it was done better than the ‘break’ books in the past (Crows, Wheel and Dance).

Another thing I liked was how they portrayed Pendergast with his wife. He show more seemed warmer and more at ease; less watchful and circumscribed. I found it a treat that I could spot it and that it seemed deliberate. Of course the events of that time shaped who P is and why he uses the unconventional methods he often does. Not only his twisted and criminally inclined family made him what he is, but the seemingly random and brutal method of his wife’s death. I sort of liked that older Pendergast, even though it did seem a bit stilted and contrived (one reviewer characterizes it as Nick and Nora and drollness and that pretty much sums it up). I found Helen to be interesting, but slippery. I don't have any strong feelings about her one way or the other. Strange that P was so totally fooled by her, but not unheard of.

I, too, found P’s treatment of D’Agosta mostly perfunctory and doglike and wished he was less of a tool and more of an investigator in this one. Overall I think the treatment of D’Agostas character is uneven. In some books he’s given his own brain and function (he even wrote a book) and in others he is just a servant of P’s will. Hayward seemed a bit too forced in this one for my taste. One minute behaving like a rigid, bureaucratic automaton, the next paralyzed by girly emotions. Bah. If it were my first outing with her I wouldn’t like her at all.

Constance on the other hand came across as her old self and I’m anxious to read about how she fares in the asylum and how much of her story the good Doctor comes to believe. Whether I will like the authors’ new series is unknown, but I’m sad that there will be even more time between Pendergast novels. I’ve come to anticipate and relish them. show less

In this book we are once again reunited with Special Agent Pendergast and his entourage. Pendergast is finally putting away the things that remind him of his wife’s tragic accidental death many years ago. (Personal side note: Wow was I ever surprised as I did not even know Pendergast had a wife? Did I miss that somewhere along the way in this series? It was nice, made him a little more human. Hmmmmm … maybe he is not a member of the undead after all as I was starting to suspect.) While going through these items he finds evidence that her demise may not have been as accidental as presumed and, may in fact have been homicide. The reason behind the killings, Helen Pendergast’s obsession with wildlife painter James Audubon. The book show more is a page turning romp through swamps and bayous ending in a bit of a cliff hanger. There was a little side story about Pendergast’s ward Constance Green which didn’t seem to be a part of this book at all, so I can only presume it was a lead in to the next in the series. A great read for Pendergast fans. show less

I've been reading the Pendergast series since it came out and became quite a fan of the characters and the fictional world. Until this one.

It is as if the authors started with a great idea, wrote a great plot synopsis, and then left for the beach. The first few chapters (some only a page or a few pages each) create a compelling twist on the ongoing saga around FBI agent Pendergast, who learns that his lovely wife wasn't as lovely has he always thought and that her death was a carefully staged event. As usual the authors added some nice historical detail revolving around the famous natural history illustrator: Audobon, and they do handle that part of the material very carefully and appropriately. After we find out almost exactly in the show more middle of the book how the plot is stuck together, we are left with a few car chases, out of character posturing by all of the cast and a carelessly written side-plot revolving around the mysterious relative of our Special Agent: Constance Green.

Usually when I read a Pendergast novel I can't quite put my finger on where they get their corroborative detail, as in how do they know what trees grow in Africa, or what kinds of flowers you can find in the deep jungle. That's what keeps my interest going a lot of the time when the plot thins and the characters fall apart. With this novel the suspension of disbelief falls apart because every detail is carefully chosen but randomly placed in the text. When I read about the choir of loud cicadas in Africa they still had me, but when I read about the same choir of loud cicadas in New Orleans they lost me. Even though these insects appear in both places apparently, it just felt contrived and lazy.

It was almost as if the authors had their minds set on a new detective series and quickly rattled out a new novel in their successful series. I therefor wasn't surprised to see a message at the end of the book by Preston and Child that we can expect a brand new detective series soon with a new cast and a new fictional world. Too bad, they could have made something of the one they already had. show less