I don’t really like traveling. I like the idea of having been someplace, but the actual process of traveling is stressful to me. I’m always worried I forgot to pack something important and that will ruin my whole trip.
However, I like books that go to various places on the map — especially within our own vast and diverse country. Douglas Preston’s “Impact” (January 2010, hardcover) takes readers to the islands off the coast of Maine. It made me seek out an atlas to look at those islands and imagine the adventure taking place there. Preston portrays the choppy waters, the challenging landing spots, and the isolated populations (these islands tend to have one or zero structures on them). I don’t recall even Stephen King utilizing the coast of Maine so effectively; he seems to stay safely inland.
If for some reason I ever ended up exploring Maine, I would think not only of King’s work, but also of Preston’s, thanks to “Impact.”
Now, on to the story: A young amateur astronomer, Abbey, and her friend Jackie search the islands for a meteor impact, knowing that a meteor could be worth big bucks. What they find is much weirder, and this gets into the “weird science” that you’ll find in almost all of Preston’s books, both his solo work and his collaborations with Lincoln Child.
Preston is so firmly on my list of must-read authors that I don’t even read the synopses before plunging in. That way, absolutely everything about the book is fresh to me. So I don’t want to spoil too much for you, either.
But I will say that we start off on three different threads: Abbey in Maine. Wyman Ford, a former CIA agent (now freelancing) who you might remember from “Blasphemy” (Ford is kind of an “Indiana Jones” type; I wonder if the last name is an homage?), hired to investigate another meteor impact. And finally, a West Coast scientist, put-upon by his bosses, who makes a remarkable discovery while pouring over data about Mars.
Later, we meet an easy-to-hate villain as well. The first couple chapters are choppy, and the last few have that usual high-adventure vibe that never quite clicks with me, even when done effectively, as it is here. But the middle of the book — when the mystery is unspooling bit by bit — is a page-turner. And the way Preston wraps it up in the final chapter — after seemingly writing himself into an epic corner that would make any future Wyman Ford or Abbey adventures impossible — is impressive.
For those who are new to Preston, you have a wealth of great novels to choose from. “Impact’s” not a bad one to start with. You could also go to the jungles of Latin America in “The Codex” or the American southwest desert in “Tyrannosaur Canyon.” “Blasphemy,” also set in the southwest, is a compelling exploration of a scientific attempt to prove the existence of God.
And then he has two novels that fall outside the adventure realm, but they might be his two best: “The Monster of Florence,” a true-crime account of an Italian serial killer and the investigation that followed, and “Jennie,” his most emotionally affecting piece, about a chimpanzee raised as a human.
If you’ve never read a Preston novel and you have all these awaiting you, I’m envious. Happy reading.