Dec 29 2009
GUEST REVIEW: Fault Line by Barry Eisler
Dear Mr. Eisler:
Fault Line was the first book of yours that I’d read. I’ve since read more, by the way. In the past, I have worked at Intellectual Property law firms as well as in the legal department of a Bio-Tech firm, so I am intimate with the portion of Fault Line that deals with patent prosecution and the highly educated and degreed men and women who do this kind of work. I am also currently employed in the technology sector and while I do not work directly in the security end of IT, my job daily involves many of the issues involved with the security software that is at the heart of the plot of Fault Line. Lastly, I live in the Bay Area and have been to most of the Northern California areas where Fault Line takes place. I found Fault Line to be quite accurate in those respects and I say this with the painful experience of having read books in which authors did not do any research worthy of the noun into the technology they decided to write about. So thank you, Mr. Eisler, for getting it right.
Alex Treven is an intellectual property attorney who’s brought on a client of his own to the firm where he hopes to make partner. The client’s product, a computer security software application, has the potential for immense profits. His hopes unravel when his client is murdered. When the murders continue, it’s clear someone is eliminating everyone assoiciated with the software. Alex and Sarah Hossieni, a beautiful junior associate of Iranian heritage assigned to work with him on the patent application, are the obvious next targets. Correctly afraid he’s in over his head, Alex is left with no choice but to ask his estranged military-operative brother for help.
I confess I was a bit put off by the opening of Fault Lines. A great deal of backstory gets laid down in the first twenty to thirty pages (an estimate, since I was reading on my iPhone) and I started feeling anxious for things to get started.
Two main backstory lines are important to Fault Line; the security software program for which people are being killed on page one and throughout the book, and the family history between the two male protagonists, brothers Alex and Ben Treven.
Initially I was puzzled by Alex who I mistook for the protagonist and found to be oddly beta for the hero of a political thriller. Alex is quickly in physical peril, and for a bit I wasn’t at all sure how this guy was going to survive his story. Patent attorneys do not typically learn the skills required to survive attempted assassinations.
To an experienced reader of Romance (which I am) Alex’s brother Ben is immediately identifiable as Hero Material. In fact, Ben was so precisely the kind of man who is the protagonist of a military Romance that I briefly floundered a bit as I tried to figure out what kind of book I was reading. A traditional political military thriller or a Romance? Or was Fault Line going to be a book that attempted a fusion? Oh, how I have been dying for someone to do this!
Ben Treven is a shooter for US government-sponsored Black Ops, and we meet him as he is carrying out the assassination of two Iranian nuclear scientists. He’s emotionally isolated and (to a romance reader) desperately in need of the love of a good woman. But wait! Isn’t Alex in love with Sarah, the only possible Heroine of any romance that might take place? Why, yes, he is! Very interesting, Mr. Eisler. Gotta keep turning pages to find out how that works out.
Fortunately, I got myself properly oriented to the story -’ that is, open minded about where Alex and Ben were headed as dual protagonists and absorbed in the many fascinating dynamics laid out on the pages. Alex and Sarah have the smarts and knowledge required to solve the mystery surrounding the security software while Ben has what it takes to keep them alive and investiate just who is behind the killings while the software mystery is being solved. The various story lines bend back around, intertwine and intersect in intriguing and chilling ways up to and including the ending.
Ben eventually takes over as the protagonist of the story, but Alex remains a strong second protagonist who is vital to the resolution. Ben thinks he’s safe in his tightly controlled world only to gradually suspect betrayal of the worst and potentially fatal sort. Alex and Ben have a truckload of childhood issues to either resolve or figure out how to keep from igniting before the past ends up getting them killed in the present. Alex wants Sarah. Ben wants Sarah and wishes he didn’t. Sarah knows her own mind but really, what woman can resist the likes of Ben after he proves there’s a softer side under that damaged exterior? It’s this portion of the book that is most strongly a Romance. With a capital R.
Most female readers of military thrillers (we are legion, just ask Lee Child) are familiar with the traditional fate of the woman unfortunate enough to fall for the hero. At best, she’s doomed to be dumped while the hero moves on with hardly a regret. Often, however, she’s doomed to die. Fault Line breaks with this tradition. Sarah has scenes in her point of view, which means readers get a direct line to her doubts about Ben and her eventual resolution of most of them. These scenes make Sarah a more fully realized female character than is usual for a thriller.
The romance element of this story is wonderfully done and done without sacrificing the unraveling mystery and resolution as the disparate plot lines come together. Unlike Alex and Ben, however, Sarah is not in a situation that requires her personal or emotional transformation in order to survive. Ultimately, the story is not about the relationship between her and Ben. For this reason, Fault Line is not a romance. That isn’t a criticism, by the way. It’s merely an observation.
I suspect that for readers of military thrillers the deeper focus on Sarah and the relationship between Sarah and Ben must seem novel. Ben is challenged and transformed (in part) by his relationship with Sarah. And yet, she’s not there just so Ben gets to have sex. In fact, I’d even say that in at least one key scene, Ben is there so Sarah gets to have sex. The focus given to the sex scenes and their unusal flip from the male-centric to the female-centric is refreshing. For readers familiar with romance, of course, this is nothing new.
Fault Line is a gripping political/military thriller that moves quickly and features one of the more fully dimensional female characters I’ve seen in the genre. I thoroughly enjoyed Fault Line for all the reasons I enjoy military thrillers and for many of the reasons I enjoy romance.
A-
~Carolyn Jewel
This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.
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Dec 29, 2009 @ 07:25:34
As I read your review, I was thinking of George Stobard, the intrepid Patent Attorney from Idaho (!) who stars in a series of computer games about the Knights Templar (the Broken Sword series; they’re very beautifully done as well as fun — I notice there’s a Wii version and think: Hmm, I have a birthday coming up). But it’s true, George never does much that would suggest his legal training is relevant.
At the same time, while IP attorneys can be the nebbishes of the legal profession (and thus often the nicest; I’ll take a nebbish over a shark any day of the week), there’s no reason why they couldn’t go all MacGyver in certain situations. They just rarely find themselves in those situations.
Thanks for the review — I’ll have to read this one, and then pass it along to the IP attorney in my life!
Dec 29, 2009 @ 07:34:05
Whoa – new layout. The hubster asked if I had anything to read (duh) because he’d finished his pile. We have overlapping tastes, but certainly don’t read alike. I gave him a choice of 2, Fault Line being one of them, thinking a thriller would be more manly than my romance collection, and he’s read most of our mystery collection.
For the reasons expressed in the review, he stopped reading because he didn’t like the hopping around at the beginning, but after he finished the other book, he’s back reading it. I’m eager to see how he likes it overall, since I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Dec 29, 2009 @ 09:24:03
Wow, look at these fancy new digs! Looks beautiful, Jane. :-)
And I loved Fault Line. Thanks for this review!
Dec 29, 2009 @ 09:31:59
I moved your comment here.
Dec 29, 2009 @ 10:49:21
Carolyn, thanks for the kind words and sound insights. Of course I agree with the positives, but I think you’ve also nailed a few of the book’s shortcomings, too. Agreed there was too much backstory in that opening sequence. I thought the first sentence (“The last thing Richard Hilzoy thought before the bullet entered his brain was, Things are really looking up”) was enough of a cliffhanger, and that Hilzoy’s own voice in narration was sufficiently interesting, to carry the day. But in retrospect, I could have done better there. Backstory has to accomplish a number of objectives simultaneously or else it’s just… backstory — necessary to the story but tedious to get through. Well, a good lesson for me, and hopefully one I won’t need repeated.
Also agreed that the multiple protagonist beginning created an unwelcome initial challenge for the reader. A story has to seduce a reader away from her or his real world, and anything that keeps a reader looking at the story as a story will inhibit that process. Ultimately, as you found, the multiple protagonist framework works, but I could have done better in establishing up front that Ben was the alpha protagonist, so to speak.
I think you’ll enjoy Ben’s next outing — Inside Out (June 29) — and I know a guy who could get you an ARC, if you like. :)
The Dear Author format, where the reviewer addresses the writer directly, is brilliant on a number of levels — not least of which it’s a great way to get writers to more carefully consider their craft. Thanks, Jane, for creating such a great site, thanks everyone for the comments, and thanks again Carolyn for taking the time to write such a thoughtful review. Hope to see you all at RT in Columbus.
Cheers,
Barry
Dec 29, 2009 @ 11:45:01
I haven’t read Fault Line but, based on the review, Ben winds up with Sarah. If it’s not too late to put something on my Christmas wish list, could I ask for a book for Alex? I love beta heroes who go all MacGyver and outsmart the bad guys using duct tape and chewing gum rather than Glocks and brute force.
P.S. Like the new format, but does it mean we can no longer add bold, italics, block quotes, etc to our comments?
Dec 29, 2009 @ 13:10:25
Barry, if you know someone who could get me an ARC of Inside Out, by all means put me in touch with him.
Susan/DC, I think Alex would make a great hero.
Jan 01, 2010 @ 11:25:43
Thanks for this revew, Carolyn. To me Barry Eisler is synonym of great read, ever. His Rain series is great, and he is one of the few thriller authors (and excuse me Barry for downsizing you within a given category, which is simple but not correct) who can give the reader both romance (a little bit at least) and action. As I alternate romance novels and thrillers, Eisler is to me a wonderful solution.
ANd sorry Carolyn. I’m an avid reader of Lee Child’s novels, and they aren’t military thrillers, but the Enemy, that is set in the past, in 1990, when Jack Reacher was still a military cop.
Vivienne
GUEST REVIEW: Fault Line by Barry Eisler | Dear Author: Romance Novel Reviews, Industry News, and Commentary
Jan 19, 2010 @ 15:00:38
[...] is not the first guest review of your book to appear here. Carolyn Jewel wrote one back in December that appeared before I had a chance to even start reading the copy Jane so kindly [...]