I live in an area that survived some nasty flooding this past spring. About a month later, a funnel cloud formed and rooftops got ripped at. The year before that, tornadoes touched down and we lost power for about a week. Suffice to say that climate change is on my mind lately, which compelled me to read some cli-fi books from my local library. Ben Bova’s Death Wave came up. A good name with a lot of history. I couldn’t go wrong with it. I went wrong with it. Death Wave ended up teaching me what a boring novel looks like with shallow characterization and non-twisted plot.
Just to organize the book real quick for you. Think three terms when reading Death Wave: comm tech, death wave and elections. This sums up the novel. Here’s how: Jordan Kell travels to Earth (from New Earth) with his wife Aditi whose embedded with instantaneous comm tech ability that the World Council Chair, Anita Halleck wants. But Kell wants Halleck to fund an expensive recovery effort to save alien civilizations from an oncoming death wave, a gamma ray burst, set for Earth, but 2,000 years from now, which is why Halleck doesn’t care to help. However, she knows that Kell will try to go to the media if he doesn’t get her help for the death wave, so she tries to keep him in protective custody until after the January elections. He keeps escaping while his wife goes ahead and allows scientists to study her comm tech ability while her hubby Jordan looks for a media outlet to tell his story. That’s what you’re getting when you read Death Wave.
In the process of these shenanigans, a cast of characters ensue like Rudy Castiglone, hired by Halleck to take care of Jordan, Dr. Frankenheimer, who tests on Aditi’s comm tech ability, and Nick Morentko, who gets convinced to kill the star traveler from New Earth. None of these people have any depth. Castiglone practically agrees to off Jordan so that he can evade tax evasion. Nothing more, nothing less. Even Anita Halleck’s reasoning for stealing the comm tech ability is relatively boring. She wants the instantaneous communication to get all of the off-Earth colonies in line so that she can rule with an iron fist. Wow.
Death Wave shows you how to write shallow characters that don’t have any inner conflicts. Jordan Kell thinks Earth should help other civilizations in trouble despite not knowing a thing about them. He has no doubts about this. He doesn’t agonize over past hurts that make him the least bit cynical. Nothing. There aren’t any interpersonal conflicts except against simple wants everyone has. Halleck doesn’t want to save aliens she doesn’t know, so she doesn’t want to spend the money to save them. Instead, she wants to rule over Earth and its colonies. That’s the end of that too. Jordan merely gets in her way and she wants to stop him. No hard feelings, Jordan. No ambiguity exists anywhere. Nothing. Everyone has simple reasons for doing what they want to do and there isn’t enough time to delve into anything about it. Rudy Castiglone, Halleck’s hired hand, is willing to kill Jordan Kell to write off tax evasion. That’s it. That’s the motivation. That and the fact he’s a sleaze bag whose willing to wine and dine Vera Griffin who falls in love with him long enough to help get Jordan. When she finds out she’s been stood up, the rest of us groan. Did we just read this in 2015?
Simply put, no complexities exists to stimulate the mind. Truly, it’s a cat-and-mouse game from a talented writer whose able to pull out a piece of fluffy with fluid prose that’s both convenient and informative at the same time. I thank Ben Bova for that. Truly, I do. Death Wave reads so well, that it didn’t take up too much time for such a boring novel.
I don’t know what else to say. This book read a lot like a typical geek superhero movie. A complete waste of time. The kind of book you read at the hospital because you’re so scared shitless about what’s going to happen next so you don’t want anything you need to concentrate on. But you’ll still remember it forever. Almost like bad literature that becomes attractive in its adorable stupidity. Kind of like a b-movie you make-out in because you’d never want to sit through that crap unless the country’s going through a Great Depression. Something like that. Death Wave.
What makes an interesting story is self-doubt. If your characters aren’t sure of themselves, then there isn’t a real story. As a human beings, we know nothing for certain and that’s what brings us together or tears us apart.
Michael.