Scan barcode
A review by checkplease
Heat 2 by Meg Gardiner, Michael Mann
4.0
4.25 Stars
What fun it was revisiting the movie “Heat,” which I hadn’t seen since its theatrical release almost 30 years ago, and then picking up with its characters in this sequel-as-novel. It lent a unique familiarity to the reading experience that I enjoyed. (Maybe I should consider reading fan fic for this reason…nah, never mind.) It wasn’t just the big 3 of Pacino, De Niro & Kilmer that were playing in my mind, but the whole cast was stacked with memorable humans: Jon Voight, Tom Sizemore, Ashley Judd, Natalie Portman, Wes Studi, Mykelti Williamson, Dennis Haysbert, Danny Trejo, Tom Noonan…Sadly, Tone Loc’s character doesn’t manage to return in the book.
It was crafty of Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner to build out the story in dual directions, making this both prequel and sequel. There are essentially three intertwined narratives; two of them are riveting (with nail-biting scenes of cops in pursuit of sadistic serial home invaders & a heist targeting a Mexican cartel) and the third, involving software and defense systems, is…not.
If I have any complaint about the former storylines, it’s that they rely on the same trope of female children in peril. While effective in pulling at my emotions and humanizing Pacino & De Niro’s characters, it was still too much same old, same old. By contrast, I have plenty of complaints about the latter, as its focus is out of step with the rest of the book and just not that engaging.
When the three narratives finally come together, it’s extremely satisfying. It must be said that the action sequences here are so well-described and cinematic that I could picture them just as Michael Mann might shoot them. For a good 2/3 of this book, I was enraptured.
What fun it was revisiting the movie “Heat,” which I hadn’t seen since its theatrical release almost 30 years ago, and then picking up with its characters in this sequel-as-novel. It lent a unique familiarity to the reading experience that I enjoyed. (Maybe I should consider reading fan fic for this reason…nah, never mind.) It wasn’t just the big 3 of Pacino, De Niro & Kilmer that were playing in my mind, but the whole cast was stacked with memorable humans: Jon Voight, Tom Sizemore, Ashley Judd, Natalie Portman, Wes Studi, Mykelti Williamson, Dennis Haysbert, Danny Trejo, Tom Noonan…Sadly, Tone Loc’s character doesn’t manage to return in the book.
It was crafty of Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner to build out the story in dual directions, making this both prequel and sequel. There are essentially three intertwined narratives; two of them are riveting (with nail-biting scenes of cops in pursuit of sadistic serial home invaders & a heist targeting a Mexican cartel) and the third, involving software and defense systems, is…not.
If I have any complaint about the former storylines, it’s that they rely on the same trope of female children in peril. While effective in pulling at my emotions and humanizing Pacino & De Niro’s characters, it was still too much same old, same old. By contrast, I have plenty of complaints about the latter, as its focus is out of step with the rest of the book and just not that engaging.
When the three narratives finally come together, it’s extremely satisfying. It must be said that the action sequences here are so well-described and cinematic that I could picture them just as Michael Mann might shoot them. For a good 2/3 of this book, I was enraptured.