Review of Storm Cycle by Iris and Roy Johansen.


I received a copy of this book from my youngest sister with a typical “its sooooo good” recommendation (she’s one of those annoying people that adds extra vowels when she’s passionate about something). I have read the odd Iris Johansen murder mystery - they are not bad if you are willing to cull all the emotional goo from the plotline. This is her first techno-thriller with her obvious lesser-half, Roy.

A summary of the plot from Johansen’s own website follows: “Rachel Kirby is a computer genius whose personal life is hell. While she continues to climb the corporate ranks, her beloved younger sister is plagued by a chronic illness that will eventually kill her, leaving Rachel all alone. Serendipity in the form of a mysterious email lands in Rachel's lap one day, but not without a price. Thousands of miles away, archaeologist John Tanek sits trapped inside a collapsed Egyptian tomb with a functioning laptop. He knows that Rachel is the only person who can help him, but time is quickly running out. It turns out the collapse was no accident. John has discovered something very valuable in that tomb, something that humankind has been searching for throughout history, something that Rachel could use as it may hold the key to her sister's cure. While Rachel orchestrates his rescue, she soon finds herself trapped in a dangerous web of deceit and murder. Can she put her trust in John Tanek? She'd do anything to save her sister. Will they both live long enough to unravel the ancient mystery they've found inside the tomb?” Now, if you think that this summary has been badly written, please remember that it is from HER website. She wrote it! Enough said I think.

Despite the above description’s ability to initiate the gag reflex, I forged on and read it anyway - purely based on sibling loyalty. For a techno-thriller, it was not a strong novel; however, I have read worse. From the thriller perspective, it had a few moments. From the techno perspective it was a shambles and I expect these authors have liberal arts degrees. The technological aspects were not particularly challenging and in some cases absolutely wrong. (My 4G network skips a beat when I drive through an overpass, but this turkey is sending emails from the bowels of an Egyptian tomb? – Je pense que non, mes amis!) The descriptions of the Dark Web and Quantum Level Computing technologies that the Kirby woman employs are reasonably factual, but they are poorly explained and in some cases just plain wrong (they confused simple things like bandwidth, baud rate, EHF, SHF, etc). The prime antagonist is exceedingly two-dimensional and his hired assassins are about as threatening as a Boy Scout troop armed with Popsicle sticks. The character definitions are a little “old school”. Example: The heroine Rachel is initially written as an extremely strong female archetype, except whenever she is in pheromone detection range of John whereupon she becomes absolutely useless – gag……. and this list goes on

In summary, I do not recommend this book. The experience of reading it was akin to being forced to read “The Host” with your right hand, whilst having your left hand repeatedly slammed in a car door.

As always I invite comment and debate.

Cheers