CRITICAL MASS (Whitley Strieber) - May 26/09

Ah, if only someone else had written this book. Critical Mass features a premise that should've added up to an enthralling reading experience - Las Vegas is blown up by a crazy Muslim who threatens to blow up more cities unless the President performs a sacred Islamic ritual in front of the whole world - but Strieber bogs the narrative down with a number of almost unreasonably pointless digressions. His lackluster writing style ensures that the book possesses a start-and-stop feel that grows increasingly annoying, and although the climax is admittedly quite well done (the Jack Bauer-esque hero must stop a miniature plane with a nuke strapped to it from taking off), Critical Mass is simply too uneven to consistently hold one's attention (ie reading the book began to feel like a chore). ** out of ****