Eric C. Leuthardt

I didn't come to this novel with many expectations. The cover description didn't exactly entice me, but I figured I could give it a shot to surprise me. And surprise me it did. This is by far my least favorite read of 2014 thus far, though the Hugo Award packet may offer a few surprises in the near future. From the first chapter, I knew I would hate this book, and by page 100, I gave up because it showed no signs of improving. If there's one good thing to say about having picked up RedDevil 4, it's that I learned never to read anything written by Douglas Preston or Steve Berry, both of whom provided cover blurbs; if Preston found anything here that "blew [his] mind," he clearly doesn't know a cliche when it smacks him repeatedly in the eyes. And if Berry thought I'd "[savor] a peck into the psyche [and] one into the future as well," I'd just assume he doesn't know what words mean.

In short, this is going to be a mean review. Prepare yourself.

Almost all of RedDevil 4's problems are a result of its structure. Billed as a thriller, Leuthardt's novel follows the typical structure of a James Patterson-esque novel. This might not be a problem if the novel remained focused on a title character, as Patterson mostly does in the first of his Alex Cross novels, Along Came a Spider; RedDevil 4, however, shifts between multiple characters: Hagan, Krantz, Trent (a seemingly random virtual reality user), Reverend Elymas (who uses special drugs to enhance his "performance"), the Chameleon (a drug dealer), and some other mostly irrelevant figures. There are so many POVs in the first 100 pages that the novel's main plot points -- mysterious murders and Hagan's invention -- make little to no progress. This is a 300-page novel, and yet barely anything of note actually occurs in the first third. Even when things do happen, they are painfully cliche and hopelessly detached from anything resembling actual people. These are the second and third biggest problems with this novel.

A poorly structured novel is fully capable of transcending its limitations if it can provide adequate characters to distract the reader from the other issues. RedDevil 4, unfortunately, doesn't have adequate characters. Hagan, the apparent protagonist of the novel, is about as wooden and cookie-cutter as you can get. Scientist working overtime to create some newfangled thing? Check. Is he pressured by corporate interests? Check. Does he have marital problems because he works too much? Check. Does he try to justify those problems by saying "but I is gonna make sumfin good, dood"? Check. One can certainly write a scientific cliche well, but Leuthardt provides so little actual emotion and depth to Hagan's character that you could have deleted him from the first 100 pages and not have noticed at all. There's nothing new about Hagan's archetype. We've seen this dozens of times before. It's like being on autopilot. When I see scientists in this situation, I desperately hope they won't be like Hagan. In this case, I found myself utterly disinterested in what was happening with Hagan; I didn't care about his marital issues because they felt as common place and desensitized as breathing.

The other characters are equally as undeveloped. Trent doesn't appear to have any real connection to any of the other narratives, nor are his internal emotions, motivations, or desires demarcated in any way other than the most basic sense. Like Hagan, Trent (and most any other character here) could be deleted without causing any real damage to the existing narratives. Additionally, none of the characters seem to be connected in any significant way, except for the Chameleon and Elymas, who have a "business" relationship (drugs). It's as if Leuthardt started out by writing three bog standard genre novels, and then he shoved them all together and called it RedDevil 4. I'm sure the dots are connected later on in the novel, but I couldn't get over the lifelessness of the characters to convince myself the rest was worth reading. Even if I could get over the characters, though, the rest of the novel reads just as cliche. AI inventions are not new to science fiction, nor are scientists with marital problems, virtual reality users who become obsessed with the virtual and unearth weirdness, etc. The closest thing to "new" in this novel are the religious elements, but these are mostly stuck in the background. A novel about the public's debates over the moral and ethical questions raised by artificial intelligence (with a side of terrorism) might actually make for an interesting read. But, again, that's not RedDevil 4.

In short, I pretty much hated this book. I'm not one to quit on a read, but I found Leuthardt's RedDevil 4 a pointless literary venture into familiar territory. Wooden characters, overly simplified prose, shoddy structure, and eye-rolling cliches are not for me. I'd rather read James Joyce's Ulysses again...… (plus d'informations)

REDDEVIL 4 was an engaging science fiction thriller. It is 2053 and cell phones are obsolete. Everyone has a neuroprosthetic implant that connects people and allows them to access all manner of data. But that doesn't stop crime. Edwin Krantz and his partner Tara Dezner are called in on a case where multi-billionaire Dr. Marcus Devron has apparently killed his maid of 40 years in a particularly gruesome manner. Since Dr. Devron is also in medical distress, he is taken to the hospital.

Dr. Hagan Maerici is a neurosurgeon who is doing research for Dr. Devron. He is trying to make a self-aware artificial intelligence. His research is so compelling that he is withdrawing from everyone including his wife. When Dr. Devron arrives, Dr. Maerici and his team examine him and finds some anomalies. Before he can figure out what has happened, two more cases are found. A florist has killed his partner of many years and a drug lord has killed his lawyer. All of them have in common that they were very wealthy and were all patients of Dr. Maerici. They also have in common that one part of their brain has disassociated with the rest of their brain.

Maerici, Krantz and Dezner need to work quickly to find out what has gone wrong with these three and to stop the problem from becoming an epidemic.

Despite the dense science in this one, the characters were well-rounded and sympathetic. Dr. Maerici is especially well-drawn as we see him torn between his failing marriage and his near success with creating an independent artificial intelligence. We see him getting pressure from his boss to produce results and we see him guiding his group of residents and medical students.

Krantz and Dezner were also well-developed. Krantz is a widower and a sort of technophobe who hasn't updated his neuroprosthetic but who has well-developed people sense that helps him in his investigations. Dezner is a former Navy SEAL who is totally up-to-date on both the technology of the time and the theory behind it. She is also alone because her dedication to her duty has cost her her marriage. She finds in Maerici a person a lot like her.

I mentioned the dense science. There was an awful lot about the workings of the human brain that made perfect sense as I was reading it but I couldn't repeat now to save my life. The science was integrated quite seamlessly that it didn't slow down the pace of the story.

I recommend this thriller to fans of mysteries and science fiction.… (plus d'informations)