Explorers of the New Century Review

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In the new century, theories abound, the inventiveness of the age giving way to unparalleled problem solving and great social movements, citizens infused with a can-do spirit, the future sparkling on the horizon. Against an expanse of untamed continent, two teams of explorers, one perhaps Scandinavian and the other perhaps British) set off for the AFP, Agreed Farthest Point, one team west, over land and the other charting a course through a dry riverbed, their mules critical to the success of the endeavors. The loss of one of their mules is a blow to Johns' party, who are forced to their overland trek since Tostig's, has co-opted the riverbed route. Small fissures erupt as the westerly journey begins, but Johns and his deputy keep the men in check through discipline.
On the first day of the march, the western group is confronted by miles and miles of scree, their progress slowed by the uncertain surface, the mules unable to maintain secure footing. Tostig, who has left markers in the dry river bed for Johns to follow, notices the second group has splintered off in another direction, suggesting they want to make a contest of it; Tostig informs his men they have a rival for the goal. While John's expedition is larger and manned with volunteers, Tostig's is smaller, all seasoned professionals.
So begins the two-pronged march, ostensibly with the same objective, each party driven as well by a spirit of competition, both in service to the newly popular Theory of Transportation, their mules integral to the ventures. As might be expected, the terrain offers each group serious obstacles, but they are rigidly controlled by military-like hierarchies of leader and trusted troops. Human nature ever unpredictable, a few question the logic of authority, setting in motion an undercurrent of discontent and doubt. For the most part they soldier on, each step closer to the AFP bringing new challenges of adaptation and altered strategies for the same objective. Nothing in this adventure is as promised from the outset, no discernible physical markers or identifiable terrain.
In the stark prose of man against nature, Mills frames this tale with the nobility of intent, yet lays the groundwork for a mind-bending twist that stops the reader cold. Whatever assumptions and preferences for either team, Johns' or Tostig's, the seduction of adventure pales in the light of ideology. Life and death are at stake at every turn in this remarkable novel, but who's life and who's death and who shall decide? As biting as the arctic winds that buffet the travelers, Explorers of the New Century will leave you chilled and disturbed. Luan Gaines/ 2006.


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Stubborn As A Mule Review

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(More customer reviews)A fun, easy read for a first novel from Richard Fallon and a prime example of how political satire should be done. The story of the
free-market doctrinaire college president who runs for senate will have you laughing and shaking your head at the deep absurdities of American politics, and wondering whether Rhodes scholars can truly be as dopey and as powerful as they seem. The college setting provides for a hilarious comedy of the academy to complement the political farce, and the novel's climax is about as funny and unexpected as you're likely to find.
If you are a political junky or enjoy Christopher Buckely-style political comic novels (e.g. Thank You for Not Smoking), this book is really a can't miss.

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Peter MacTeague, president of Brewster College, is a right-wing Economist who once advocated allowing the sale of babies "just like beer and soap."While pressing to make worship of free markets the college creed, as he was handpicked to do, he also launches a campaign for the Senate. Polls show him ahead in his effort to unseat one of the dying breed of Republican moderates by running to his right in the Maine primary on a platform that calls for abolishing the income tax.MacTeague's undoing begins late one night when some drunken students impulsively "kidnap" White, Brewster College's renowned mascot mule, and deposit him on the front porch of the president's house. MacTeague is not home, and his efforts to cover up his whereabouts at the time of the braying mule's delivery start him skidding down the slope to political ruin. Connected plot lines spoof worship of unregulated markets, "politically correct" academic culture, sensation-mongering journalism, and networking among the privileged as this comic romp unfolds.About the author:Richard Fallon has been a professor at Harvard Law School since 1982. He has written numerous books and articles on law, primarily focusing on constitutional law. Stubborn as a Mule is his first novel.

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The Gun Seller Review

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(More customer reviews)I was trying to be pithy when I said to Jill that the difference between English and American comedians is that the English ones write their own material, for books by comedians are becoming quite common on both sides of the Atlantic. Their is a difference, however, and it is in the "type" of books that the two nationalities differ in: American comedians write up their monologues in a collected set of essays (Jerry Seinfield's Seinlanguage, Bill Cosby's books, Rita Rudner's I'm Naked Under My Clothes, Paul Reisner's book), whereas English comedians write novels (Python's Terry Jones and his books for children, Stephen Fry, and the case in point). I attribute the difference to education. Your typical American comedian skipped university to work through the comedy club circuit, hoping for that gig on the Tonight Show to make a break, get their own HBO special, then maybe movies or TV. British comedians typically begin in the comedy glee club of their universities (I believe it's the Cambridge "Footlights", or is that Oxford? As an American, I can't keep them straight, which is to Americans like saying I can't tell the difference between a Yankee and a Southerner), spend years as bit actors in off-West End productions, until finally they get picked up for a movie or a starring spot in their own West End revue. The British, thus, tend to be grounded in the literature of humor, rather than just the anecdotal type so favored by the Americans. Of course, I'm making this up out of whole cloth without bothering to do a spec of research, so I wouldn't base a thesis on it.
Hugh Laurie should be recognizable to you from his role as Bertie Wooster in "Wooster and Jeeves" (shown in American on Masterpiece Theater), as well as his supporting roles in the British comedy series "Blackadder" (a personal favorite), the Kenneth Branagh movie "Peter's Friends," the Ang Lee/Emma Thompsom collaboration of Austen's "Sense and Sensibility," and the recent dreadful live-action remake of Disney's "101 Dalmatians." The Gun Seller is his first novel, and after the Disney movie, I think he should chuck the acting business and go into writing full time, because he shows extreme promise as an author. Imagine Wodehouse deciding that he wanted to write a James Bond novel, and you've got some idea of what The Gun Seller is like.
The plot, which is actually more important here than it is in most modern comic novels, concerns Thomas Lang, ex-officer of the Scots Guard, who finds himself approached in Holland and asked to murder a man for an obscene amount of money. His sense of honor not only has him turn down the offer, but when he returns to England, he sets off to warn the man that someone is offering money for his death. In the best tradition, complications ensue, including the British Secret Service, the young daughter of a wealthy American businessman, an art gallery, the military-industrial complex, a terrorist organization called "The Sword of Justice," and a "kick-ass" helicopter.
Laurie is extremely witty, and chuckling at the language in this book should be expected. Take, for example, the typical description of the attractive woman--every spy and detective book seems to have one, right?--and how Laurie makes it unique:
"She came towards me and stopped. She was shorter than she'd looked on the other side of the room. I smiled again, and she took a cigarette from the packet, but didn't light it. She just played with it slowly, and then pointed a pair of green eyes at me.
I say a pair. I mean her pair. She didn't get a pair of someone else's eyes out from a drawer and point them at me. She pointed her own pair of huge, pale, grey, pale, huge eyes at me. The sort of eyes that can make a grown man talk gibberish to himself. Get a grip, for Christ's sake."
I like the way he is able to be self-referential without breaking the flow of the paragraph.
This book also has one of the best last lines I've read in a long time, making an ironic point that is quite amusing and yet also draws up the story in a conclusion. I liked this book a lot, and hope to read more by Laurie in the future.

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