The Cold Cash Wars

I bought this book in a charity shop some years ago, and quickly decided that I didn't like the look of it, so it was years before I got around to reading it. Eventually, I took the book with me on holiday. I didn't actually intend reading it; I took the book as a backup, in case I didn't get the chance to buy a new book. As things turned out, I finished my previous book, it was Sunday, the shops were closed, and all I had to read was this . . .

I realise that this must seem a completely bizarre way of deciding on a book to read, but there you go.

Well, this book wasn't brilliant, but it was better than I expected it to be. A quick summary of the plot: The story is about multinational corporations staging war games as a method for resolving their disputes. Pretty quickly, the war games become more realistic than is admitted in public, and all sorts of hidden agendas come to the fore.

The big problem with this book? It just doesn't sound all that unlikely! The book was written in 1977, and, to be frank, it didn't feel like I was reading a science fiction book.

Anyone familiar with late 60's American science fiction (Time Tunnel, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Land of the Giants, and so on) will immediately recognise the feel of The Cold Cash Wars. Like those series, this book just doesn't date well. As you get further into the plot, you being to picture the hero tripping over his flares in an effort to get away from the bad guy.

This was the first of Robert Asprin's books that I've read, and I imagine that it isn't particularly representative of his other work. I may be tempted to read other things that he's written, but, I have to say, not on the strength of this book.

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