Fertile Ground [Mass Market Paperback]

For his, and his editor's, edification, here are some of those examples:

Much is made of the Principal Nasty, Malthus(puhleeze!)Scoles being a cashiered veteran of the "Airborne Rangers", to the extent that he has "Property of the US Air Force" tattooed on his arm. Unfortunately for his credibility, Airborne troops have nothing to do with the Air Force, but are part of the US Army. At this point, I should mention that I have never been a member of either the US Army, Air Force, or the "Airborne Rangers", however I've read enough competently-written thrillers to know the score. On this note, I feel compelled to point out that Rangers are Special Forces troops who are delivered to their job sites by whatever means necessary. "Airborne" means by parachute from an(Army) aircraft. Every time Mr. Mezrich drags this military thing into his exposition (often), it gets sillier. "Airborne Boot Camp", for example, is brought up later. New recruits go to "Boot Camp" to be turned into soldiers. Those who show aptitude or inclination go on to "Jump School". After that, they may go on to "Special Forces Training". After which, they are called "Rangers", or whatever.

If this were the only area in which the author demonstrated his unconcerned ignorance for basic credibility, it would possibly be ignorable. However, Mezrich goes on to show that he (and his editor)are equally clueless about, and unconcerned with many areas of reality. Yet another example: one of the protagonists, Jake Foster M.D., throws a paperweight into the screen of a really big TV monitor, resulting in a blast of fire and flying glass fragments. Those vast hordes of us who are aware that picture tubes are usually (un)filled with vacuum, and would implode (collapse inward)if punctured, might be able to make a stretch and envision that it could be possible to have some sort of picture tube pressurized with some kind of exotic gas, are quickly deprived of this lifeline to believability by the statement that the tube is pressurized to "14 pounds to the square inch!" Oooh! Of course, those of us who had science in grade school might remember that normal atmospheric pressure is 15 pounds per square inch.The resulting implosion would be even gentler than with vacuum inside the thing. After this, the author goes ahead and calls it a vacuum tube anyway.

Closer to the finale, we discover that Jake the M.D. minored in "Electronic Engineering!", which enables him to tear into an audio-video console, pull out a couple of bare wires, and attach them to a sophisticated miniature camera/sound recorder through handy screw-terminals on its side. To my knowledge, there hasn't been a sophisticated electronic device made with screw-terminal interface since 1945. Then, poor, glass-shredded, ant-bitten, screwdriver-stabbed "Airborne Ranger" Malthus falls on the exposed wiring of the same A/V console wearing his soaking-wet suit and is spectacularly fried by electricity. (Audio and Video signal levels are about 1 Volt, by the way, but why quibble at this point?).

As long as I'm kicking the pup, I might as well point out that the part of a handgun one holds it by is commonly called the "grip". Elderly lady authors who write "Cozy Mysteries" usually call it the "handle", as does Mr. Mezrich.

As a thriller, I give Fertile Ground two stars. As a comedy it deserves five or six, maybe seven.

PS: Ants don't have stingers in their tails, even Korean ones; they exude formic acid from their mandibles (jaws). I wonder which grade-school this guy attended?