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Friday, October 25, 2019

The Cure by Douglas E. Richards

The Cure Cover4-5-STARS-15percent-small
It started slow, that's a valid gripe - or slow for Douglas E. Richards. He usually starts with something like pulling the rip cord and the parachute lines tangle. The jumper fails to cut away the tangled parachute and in a panic deploys the back up which only tangles things up further. Petty intense.

This one does start with some traumatically cringe-worthy psychopathic brutality and only one surviving child, who is our protagonist. So my slow argument doesn't really hold up very well. But that's just shoving you in the door. Once you're in the book, you're waiting for grandma to make the tea… there's the fuss about Earl Grey or Cinnamon Apple… boring... metaphorically. Then Erin, our traumatic surviving child has grown up. She has overcome the massive trauma and is now studying psychopathy. It's about that time you think you've figured out where Mr. Richards is going with "The Cure".

You'll be wrong. He does some writer "magic tricks."

While you're looking at the "cure psychopathy" presumption, he changes where you're not looking. When you turn the page you're rubbing your chin thinking, well..., ok..., didn't think it would go that way.
tricky-giphy

So you hope the writer magician will do it again.  He uses the deceptive sleight of hand again and "The Cure" story you imagined was happening eludes your anticipation again, making this horror thriller into a medical mystery. Next turn the page you realize you didn't see the "Alien Highway - Entering the Sci Fi Twilight Zone" sign.

Titles often give readers a fair idea what's to come. This one starts with a child traumatized by a psychopath. Then we learn the child has grown into a Ph.D. intern studying prison inmate psychopaths.  The title "The Cure" suggests rather clearly what is going on and you have a good idea where the author is going.

If you've committed to believing that presumption, get ready to become a Douglas E. Richards fan. He will pull a rabbit out of the hat, but he hasn't even opened the curtain to the show yet.

If I've whetted your appetite, standby.  I'll supply links. The rest is just chatting and some book tech info. My review job is complete.

I liked this book. I've splurged on Mr. Richards books recently. His books remind me a bit of Robert A. Heinlein.  RAH would go to some length to explain the idea of Schroedinger's cat as he explored the early ideas about quantum mechanics in a Sci-Fi murder-mystery. Alternately Mr. Richards also reminds me a bit of Isaac Asimov. Isaac explored the ethical dilemma of advances in science, usually with the scientist losing control of the science to powerful politicians who may not be so concerned about some possible, even likely, tragic moral results that may pop up.

Mr. Richards sprinkles similar things into the stories he tells. Some of us old science fiction fans are starving for this type of "what if" story where the author not only explores the extrapolation of some recent science, but also stops to think how it may go terribly wrong instead of becoming a magic happy pill to solve all the ills of humanity.

When younger it seemed to me that it was forever before the next edition of Analog or Asimov's came out. So to fill the eternities between I would devour Science News Weekly to keep my wild imagination fed. That way I might "get it" when Octavia Butler's "Lilith's Brood" (Xenogenesis Series) came out or some newbie like David Brin published some sleeping blockbuster about "Uplift Wars" - a book that seemed to launch Zecharia Sitchin into his avocation with Ancient Sumerian curiosities.

Congratulations to the folks who rated this book miserably. I sometimes look at the reviews before writing mine. Usually, I feel like everyone else but sometimes I apparently read a vastly different book than some reviewers. I get it with the sincere reviews but many times there are clues the reviewer didn't suspend disbelief long enough to actually enjoy the book.
Read in 4 sessions over five days including Friday, October 11, 2019 (15%), Sunday, October 13, 2019 (24%), Wednesday, October 16, 2019 (36%), Thursday, October 17, 2019 (41%), and Friday, October 18, 2019 (100%).

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