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By Eric Lustbader
Pocket Books (1995)
Reviewed by Bob Thompson 5/22/1995
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SECOND SKIN is the newest episode in the Nicolas Linnear series. It is the immediate sequal to FLOATING CITY which I reviewed for you about a year ago.
This book is typical Lustbader. It is full of double dealers, triple agents and plots to dominate the world. It is also heavily laced with martial arts and metaphysics. Taking place primarily in Japan, Florida and New York, we are updated on the usual collection of Linnear's friends and enemies. (The few who remain among the living.)
The core of the story is the ongoing war between Linnear and Mick Leonforte. It gets even more intense and convoluted as it goes along, and as usual it is hard to tell friend from foe. On the periphery, is the "mob" war in America between Ceasre Leonforte and Margaurite Goldini, Lew Croaker and Vesper.
The best part of the book is a more detailed history of many of the participants and their ancestors, which gives insight into the current motivations of the characters. A few interesting new characters are introduced, some retroactively, which gives rise to speculations of who was who before they became who they are now.
(huh?)
There is lots of blood and sex as usual, and both can get pretty "gross", but all in all it is a fairly interestring story, if you have been following the series. If you haven't - don't bother- you will be helplessly lost.
I am frankly getting a little tired of the saga of Nicolas Linnear. While Lustbader does keep up with developing technology, social and political trends and international economics, I think it is about time for the author to apply his great talents to another story line. I'm getting tired of all of these plots to dominate the world, both in the form of the novel as well as in the real world.
SECOND SKIN is "dedicated" to Virgil England, one of the top makers of custom "fantasy" knives working today, and even though I am also a "fantasy" knife maker, and therefore a competitor, I admire his work greatly. Mick Leonforte uses a push dagger ostensibly designed by Virgil. Lustbader also gives an acknowledgement to Jim Schmidt for the background on Damascus steel (used in many of the top custom knives) but in translation to the book, several inaccuracies arise. I know, this is nit-picking and 99.3% of you could not care less about it, but I have always reserved the right to pick at least one nit with every book that attempts to get into an area wherein I am knowledgeable.
The ending of SECOND SKIN is wide open for another sequel, and I look forward to it, but I sincerely hope that Lustbader will tie up all of the loose ends, explain all the metaphysical stuff and then be done with the Nicolas Linnear series. He is almost on the verge of becoming a "hack" with this story line, and his talent is deserving of something fresh.