seth horvath - buzz book reviewer

Imagine this scenario: The year is 2023; the world is marred by ethnic conflict, environmental degradation, financial instability, and political anarchy. And the wireless Internet, which has become the public’s primary source of information, continues to blur the line between truth and fiction by passing off rumors, allegations and unsubstantiated opinions as facts.
Now, imagine another scenario: The author of this review has just given you a concise description of everything worth salvaging from Caleb Carr’s new novel Killing Time; you experience overwhelming feelings of gratitude; and you send a $10 check or money order to Seth Horvath, c/o The University of Illinois for saving you the expense of buying and reading the hardcover edition of Carr’s book.
Carr gained notoriety as the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness. As the author of Killing Time, he just might gain obscurity—and deservedly so. Why? Because Killing Time is nothing more than a lackluster piece of pulp sci-fi that happens to be disguised in a gaudy cover and licensed to a reputable publisher.
Carr’s novel is narrated by Dr. Gideon Wolfe, a historian / psychiatrist / criminal profiler / (are you sick of these credentials yet?) / university professor / best-selling author. He is recruited by a group of scientific and military experts who intend to demonstrate just how easily and extensively the false truths circulated by electronic media manipulate public opinion. Their plan: Create hoaxes that dupe the public into accepting falsehoods as truths, and then reveal to the public that it has been deceived. Its desired outcome: Stimulate protest of the mass media’s spread of misinformation.
Killing Time is centered upon Dr. Wolfe’s proclamation that, "It is the greatest truth of our age: Information is not knowledge." Unfortunately, the most damaging flaw of Carr’s novel is his insistence upon addressing this theme. He places too much emphasis upon making a philosophical point, and not enough on developing his novel’s characters or its plot. Certain passages of Killing Time read like extracts from a propaganda pamphlet. And although this is not to say that Carr’s criticisms of mass-information technology are groundless, he has done a disservice to readers by using his social commentary as the basis for a full-length novel. An essay or an article would have sufficed.

Now, on to a more substantive critique of Killing Time. For starters, the novel’s plot is as spontaneous as the crop readout charts in Edition 17 of The Farmer’s Almanac. Perhaps this is because Carr’s narrative formula is so simple. He strings together heavily contrived, overly dramatized situations and then forces his characters to stumble through them. The single element of surprise he incorporates into Killing Time (see page 265 of 272), is far-fetched and pitifully underdeveloped—so much so, in fact, it will leave readers waiting not for the release of Carr’s next novel, but for the publication of a suitable ending to Killing Time.
On an even less enthusiastic note, Carr’s characters are one-dimensional drones, whose actions and reactions are every bit as predictable as his novel’s plotline. Yes, their names are unique: Larissa and Malcolm Tressalian, Julien Fouché, Jonah and Eli Kuperman, Leon Tarbell, Justus Slayton, Gideon Wolfe. Vivid names, unfortunately, cannot make up for vapid personalities. By introducing such a large number of characters into his novel, Carr limits the extent to which he can focus upon their development. In effect, he substitutes quantity for quality, and Killing Time pays the price for this mistake.
Of particular annoyance is Dr. Gideon Wolfe. Throughout the novel, readers will find themselves unsuccessfully trying to identify with this pompous narrator, who never quite justifies how or why he is useful to his scheming companions. He is entirely unessential; yet, readers are expected to endure him as both the narrator and protagonist of Killing Time. This tedious and repetitive focus upon Dr. Wolfe forces Carr to marginalize other characters. The novel’s mastermind, Malcolm Tressalian, could, for instance, have played a much more interesting part in Killing Time. But Carr constantly chooses to have him spend every other chapter recuperating from bouts of weakness and fainting.
Perhaps the only redeeming quality of Killing Time is its backdrop. Carr created the not-so-distant future of his novel by describing the potentially bleak outcomes of a number of social, political and economic problems that trouble the modern world. In a sense, Carr’s 2023 is a collection of worst-case scenarios, and he demonstrates a fair degree of skill weaving them together.
Unfortunately, a captivating setting does not guarantee a captivating narrative. If it did, everyone would just read travel guides. Readers will gain little, if any, appreciation of the novel’s characters or plot, and will soon tire of its regurgitation of the message that mass-information technology is bound to destabilize human society.So, despite its harrowing portrayal of the future, Killing Time is form without substance, or, to turn Carr’s words against him, information without knowledge.