ANHOW Review of books: "The Devil's Playground" by J. Gregory Garrison, a local author -- Adilbrand Noblesword's Hall of Warriors

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Date Posted: 15:42:18 02/27/03 Thu
Author: Mt. Healthy Mountaineer
Subject:

ANHOW Review of books: "The Devil's Playground" by J. Gregory Garrison, a local author

Genre: Action/suspense/adventure
Published: 1997 by Cumberland House Publishing Company (Indianapolis)

It is ironic that I read this book when I did since it features two topics that we've been discussing here recently - anarchy and Iraq.

You may have heard of this author - usually he goes by Greg Garrison and he hosts a state-wide talk show on weekday mornings. I think you can hear him on WIBC in Columbus. He's also an attorney - he is the prosecutor that successfully tried the MIke Tyson rape case.

Greg has written a sweeping epic of a novel that is set in the years 1997-1998 and features the nation's first black president (Jackie Robinson Webb) and the Landry's an Iowa farm family. The United States is beset by a series of terrorist attacks on our power system and the nation's power grid collapses for several months. Anarchy ensues on the home front and on the international stage. The book follows several characters as they deal with the problems - some fairly simple, such as feeding family and friends without access to electricity and fuel for the tractors, some more complex, such as dealing with gangs and rednecks gone amuck and some world-shattering, such as Iraq trying its hand at nuclear brinksmanship.

This is Garrison's first novel - and at times it shows. It is really quite long at 663 pages. It could have been easily edited down by 100 pages. The middle of the book is really pretty good, but both ends of it were clunky.

I give this book a "C" (with a little extra credit added in allowing for the author's inexperience).

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