Nikolai Dante - The Strangelove Gambit.

[DavidXBrunt]

Long rambling review with some spoilers? Yeah, okay.

As much as I abhore descriptions that go along the lines of 'Blair Witch meets Jaws!; it would be pretty fair to describe this novel as the (no doubt) illigitemate offspring of the 'Confessions of a...' series and the mid 70's Bond films. Robin Askwith, License to Kill?

After a prologue that sets up the novel and takes us to an important moment in young Dantes career, the story careers through a series of episodic chapters before the main plot begins. The Tsar and Jena appear in s sequence that explains how Dante gets involved in the Strangelove Gambit. Both characters behave in character and I wonder, if Robbie Morrison was involved on a consultancy level, the revelation that Jen is keeping track of Nikolai will come into play in the comic.

Next up we get a character introducing section with the Russian Rogue, aided and abbetted by Spatch and Flintlock, perform a daring raid and then enjoy the spoils. The heist is entertaining enough but the revels afterwards are more enjoyable. When Hattie Jacques appears as a rubber clad fetish matron you know the tone of Dantes world has been properly captured. The chance meeting of an old acquaintence of Dante allows for some of the introspection and self pity that you'd expect of Dante at this point in his life.

Next comes a raid on a Gulag to rescue an old friend - very similar to a recent Dredd tale scripted by Rennie. I actually found the similarities were interesting for the contrast of how Dredd and Dante handled the situation.

And then, 100 pages into the novel we get what I thought would be the principal plot. Dante goes undercover in a finishing school for yound ladies and tries to track down and destroy a new superweapon. For an inpenetrable fortress Dante slips in surprisingly easily (though he has help that I guess no-one else would have) and the formidable weapon is easily dispatched. In fact after the lengthy set up the novel careers to a quick conlcusion, but that's a petty compaint as the novel is actually a huge amount of fun.

David Bishop has done a tremendous job capturing the feel of Dantes world and the characters from the series. Throughout the novel there are cameos and appearances from old characters minor and majoer and they all behave as you'd expect. So accuratley does he capture the style that even before one character has named I could guess what his role would be, though not how he met his fate. That's actually a good thing because of the role Grigori plays in the novel, to say more would ruin a good joke. Dante in particular always seems to be the character that we've come to know and love.

The rest of his team are all entertaining and contribute lots to the succeess of the novel. Spatch and Flintlock are a neat double act and the Crest gets lots of the best lines and I don't think has ever been this interesting. I look forwards to seeing more of the surviving Rhuditstein irregulars in the current story as they're amongst the best supporting chracters in 2k.

And there are some nice new characters too. Faberge is the sort of Bond villain you can imagine Peter Cushing doing justice to, Madame Wartski is even creepier than Rosa Klebb, and even minor figures like Mould gets a laugh or too. Special mention of Natalia. Though it was obvious what her role would be from her first introduction she's a lovely character.

There's a lot to recommend in this novel, probably my favourite from the range so far. Dante isn't the carefree character he once was and that's acknowledged here but there's still enough hi-jinks (and never have I used that word more appropriatley) for this novel to be worth reading. My only quibble is that there's no mention of Dantes career as a pirate which must surely be underway at the point this novel is set. I'd like to see more Dante novels from Bishop but hopefully they can be scattered throughout his timeline, like the Strony novels seem to be. I'd like to see Bishops take on the early Dante and his various half-siblings, and perhaps a War time novel too.

Oh, and the very Dante thing of characters being threatened with rape sort of crops up here too, though it's Dante and Flintlock who are at the receiving end. Whether this is a deliberate subversion on Bishops part or not I have no idea but it works. Heartily reccomended.

[Floyd-the-k]

thanks for a good, thoughtful review, dxb. Is the writing better than in his last Dredd book?