|
|
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good adventure yarn, but a silly premise (some spoilers), 29 Sep 2002
I've read most of Bagley's books, my favourite being Wyatt's Hurricane. This one, Snow Tiger, feels thin. The ingredients are all there - prodigal son whom nobody believes, love interest with family history and hostile brother, impending disaster and troublesome local authorities etc. As usual, the geologic background research is convincing and fascinating - Bagley really relishes this stuff and it shows, and it's his strength. However, his characters are often weak and poorly sketched and his hero this time, Ian Ballard, is one of Bagley's least memorable. I wonder why his much more ballsy girlfriend bothered with him quite frankly. The idea of an avalanche disaster is great and based upon his previous works, Bagley should have scored here. However, I seriously doubt if he has visited the Southern Alps of NZ. If so, he must done it with his eyes shut to the almost constant avalanche warning signs and emergency activity present everywhere during the snow season. The idea of a snowbound village not far from Christchurch being allowed to sit out an avalanche risk alone, in a record snowfall, without being swarmed all over by emergency response groups, even in the seventies, is ludicrous. Hell, they would have had monitoring crews up there in a blink, and evacuated the town immediately if the remotest risk of an avalanche presented itself, and no town council decision or visiting American expert needed. This undermines the validity of the storyline, which is a pity, because it's quite a good one. The structure is interesting, if a trifle hackneyed - courtroom flashbacks are a bit dimey dozen these days. If you can ignore the dodgy premise, then you might find the book worth a read.
|