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A review by will_sargent
The Panama Laugh by Thomas S. Roche
3.0
I was surprised at how many loose ends this book had, and by the disconnect between the internal dialogue of the protagonist and the image that everyone seems to have of him. Seriously, this guy is called Frosty Bogart -- you'd expect him to at least not be quite as loquacious as he is.
The book starts off with an amnesia trope (he doesn't remember anything about the last five years) but doesn't explain much once he gets his memory back. You're never really sure why he starts off in the jungle like he does, why he immediately goes for the place he does, and halfway through the book you're even confused which time period you're in, as Frosty is kidnapping one character in the same place five years ago at the same time he's escaping with her later -- and there are no timestamps or signifiers between the intervals.
Adding up to that... the book just doesn't make any goddamn sense. It's entertaining, but there's no way in hell a resource like Frosty would be left in the place he's in, and once there, there's no way they would have just left him. He's just too damn valuable, and you would have expected Congress, the Executive Branch and half the CEOs in the country to be lined up waiting to slip Frosty some tongue.
So... yeah. A bit like Monster Island, and a bit like Altered Carbon. Enjoyable, but too much stream of consciousness for me.
The book starts off with an amnesia trope (he doesn't remember anything about the last five years) but doesn't explain much once he gets his memory back. You're never really sure why he starts off in the jungle like he does, why he immediately goes for the place he does, and halfway through the book you're even confused which time period you're in, as Frosty is kidnapping one character in the same place five years ago at the same time he's escaping with her later -- and there are no timestamps or signifiers between the intervals.
Adding up to that... the book just doesn't make any goddamn sense. It's entertaining, but there's no way in hell a resource like Frosty would be left in the place he's in, and once there, there's no way they would have just left him. He's just too damn valuable, and you would have expected Congress, the Executive Branch and half the CEOs in the country to be lined up waiting to slip Frosty some tongue.
So... yeah. A bit like Monster Island, and a bit like Altered Carbon. Enjoyable, but too much stream of consciousness for me.