Medusa's Child

By John Nance

Well good news and bad news. The good news is that there has been a lot of John Nance lately. The bad news? Yeah it's not because of his books but because of airplane crashes.

Medusa's Child was another fast paced action filled book. It really was a gripping story. (And also made into a TV miniseries! Yeah I still haven't watched Pandora's Clock yet.) This book also had pilot touches that made the story shine. Things that only a pilot would have put in. There was a bit near the end where the main character Scott McKay talks about how he heard the warning horn go off which was unusual when the First Officer Doc Hazzard was flying as he usually anticipated the alarm and canceled it before it could go off. Something that myself and other pilots I fly with do on a routine basis. Not to alarm any one, no pun intended. Sometimes alarms or buzzers go off in flight to let you know a system, say the autopilot, has been disconnected. But if you are doing it on purpose it is just annoying. So you cancel it before the alarm goes off.

Oh yeah what is the story about? Well just read the synopsis for Pandora's clock. No really. Substitute 727 for 747. Cargo for people. Nuclear bomb for virus. You get the idea. John Nance took a great idea and swapped out the particulars and viola, a new story. I was probably 3/4 of the way through the book before I started to appreciate the story for what it was and not be angry that this was just the last book only slightly different.

I will throw in this bit about the plot. An electromagnetic pulse is supposed to be generated when a nuclear blast goes off. But in this bomb the effect is perfected to form the Medusa Wave which will propagate the EMP over the North American continent sending the United States back to the age before electronics. Oh the horror. Well actually it would be horrible, but I think we would survive. It's just money and title to property and the like that would suffer. Okay maybe it would be horrible.

You could just pick one the these books, Medusa's Child or Pandora's Clock and get an enjoyable story. Or if you're a John Nance fan like me, read them both and enjoy them for what they are.

If you got back to the last post you can see something very exciting. J.C. Hutchins himself left a comment. How cool is that? I finished listening to 7th Son Obsidian. Let me say that as a general rule I'm not a fan of fanfic' J.C. has done something spectacular here. He sent out a request for anyone to write stories that take place during the nationwide blackout that occurs during the 7th Son story. The submissions range from short (say 10 minutes) to full blown stories that are spread over 2 podcasts. Then he set up a voicemail line where people could call in as if they were calling a nationwide help number or 911 and leave a message. Some of these calls turned out better than others.

I really enjoyed the short stories. They were written and read by their respective authors. The authors were writers and podcasters. It shows in the quality of the stories. Even if you haven't listened to the 7th Son novels these stories are varied enough that you can find something to your liking.

I hope to have another book read in February but I seem to be running out of time to read this month. Stay tuned.