Richard Cox - Rift (2004)
Rift, a techno-thriller by new author Richard Cox tries very hard to be a smart, page-turning adventure in the Michael Crichton vein. Cox's work shows just how good Crichton is, though, and how hard it is to write this kind of book well.
The plot features a bored accountant going through a midlife crisis who decides to volunteer to be the first person to test his company's new transportation machine. That's right, it's "Beam me up, Scotty," except the trip in this case is mundane: only from Houston to Phoenix.
A better written book could probably persuade the reader that such a thing was possible, even if unlikely, but Rift never accomplishes that. The technology involved is largely unexplained and its basics never believable.
Although Cox has created some interesting characters, including the unlikely protagonist, the story never really gels in such a way to make the whole of it compelling or suspenseful. Here's hoping the story will work better in its already planned adaptation for the big screen.
Posted by David J. Montgomery in Book Reviews | Permalink
