This book contains some mature sexual descriptions that may not be suitable for all audiences.

Darwin’s Blade by Dan Simmons is an action thriller about Dr. Darwin Minor, an accident investigator with a dark past. His life has been more or less normal for the past decade- but as a series of increasingly improbable accidents crop up around California, he finds that he may be in too deep.

This book is typical, incredibly cliche suspense thriller- complete with the FBI, the Russian Mafia, guns, copious violent (albeit creative) death, and cars. Still, I did enjoy it. Even though it didn’t really live up to the ‘thriller’ part, I thought it was overall a pretty good read- and a nice break from the typical material I have. Still, quite a few pet peeves of mine made an appearance in this book. There were several points where I almost put the book down for good- because I really didn’t want to read a four-page description of physics equations or Vietnam or the mechanics of guns and cars or what felt suspiciously like Philosophy 101. The depth of detail about these frankly mundane and unimportant plot devices was mildly interesting, but for the most part, extraordinarily irritating.

As such, I would only recommend this book to slightly more intellectual readers. Some of the plot does require significant brainpower to understand- more than I, as a casual reader, would have liked. Also- be ready to face a macho, almost-forced version of romance. Still, if you’re looking for a comforting-in-its-outlandishness type of crime novel, you really can’t go amiss with Darwin’s Blade. Just be prepared to skip a few pages.

-Vaidehi B.

Darwin’s Blade by Dan Simmons is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library.