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Bureau 13 | Rating | |
| A | |||
| Nick Pollotta | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| Bureau 13 | Judgement Night, Doomsday Exam, Full Moonster, Damned Nation | ||
The idea behind Bureau 13 is very simple: imagine the Men in Black, except they're in charge of keeping track of, and controlling, magic as well as technology. So we not only have aliens running around, but vampires and mean beasties. Aliens are mainly a sideline, though. The supernatural is the main focus of the books.
This is the first of the series, in which the main character, a particularly sarcastic private detective (which in my opinion is the best kind of private detective) is introduced to the hidden world of the supernatural, manages to live, and is thus inducted into the corps. That all takes place in the prologue. The rest is about the second rise of Atlantis, which is not a good thing as it is surrounded by some killer mist and heading straight for New York City. If it hits the coast, as it will in a day or two, it'll make 9/11 look like a slumber party.
One of my friends borrowed this book, once, When she gave it back, I asked what she thought of it. She just shrugged and said, "It's brain candy."
Frankly, I coudn't agree more.
Judgement Night is short, very short. It's well under two hundred pages. And it goes by blindingly fast. Even a slow reader will probably only take an afternoon to get through it. But like candy of the more mundane variety, the experience is short but oh-so-sweet. This book is just plain fun.
Most of the credit for that goes to the humor embedded in the story. As might be expected of people who regularly run nto ghosts, vampires, mad cults and monsters, Team Tunafish's members are a little off-kilter. But it's never overbearing, whole scenes devoted to a tangent in hopes of eliciting a laugh. The humor comes and goes in a flash, embedded beautifully in the goings-on. For instance, when the team finds itself in desperate straights early in the book, the priest is asked for a prayer that might help. His request to God, in full, reads, "Lord, don't let us die." Everyone amens in enthusiastic chorus. Not hilarious, but it sets a wonderful tone.
Another reason I liked it so much was because the pace is very quick. There is rarely more than a page at a time when they aren't dealing with some magical beast or trying to figure out a trap that is hampering their progress.
Pollotta does see to leave one facet of great writing along: character. Everyone has their own skills to contribute to the mission, and ocassionally some bit of their personal or team histories comes to light. But when it comes to their personalities, they are largely interchangeable.
I didn't mind too much, though. I was enjoying myself far too much to worry about it. And if you're at all into light fantasy, if you liked the movie Men in Black, then I think you will, too.
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