Nightwatch: Alconost

[kailhofer]

I'm somewhat surprised to be the first post on so many of these stories. If our vacation hadn't gone sour, it may have been a couple of weeks before I could read anything...<br><br>I'm happy to have read the next installment of Nightwatch. <br>It's a good yarn and I'd give it thumbs up. <br><br><br>The Nightwatch Institute seems a good deal more like an intelligence operation than a philanthropic enterprise, but Simon seems a little less a man of action in this one. He handles Federov ok, but just doesn't seem as confident in his abilities as in Dragon's Egg.<br><br>I truly loved the little detail bits that interjected the dialogue, such as adding the three cubes of sugar to the Earl Grey tea, or leaning forward just enough to catch his eyes in the lamplight. They broke up the dialog beautifully. Well done.<br><br>I was confused by the devices mounted on the satellites. Obviously they couldn't have sent out soundwaves through the vacuum of space, so they must have planned to broadcast the waveform & have it replicated by more standard speakers or communications devices at certain points on the globe. This kind of points against the machine they had to use to try to demoralize Simon and Tom. If they had to have a special machine, what good would the devices on the satellites be? Otherwise, they could have just called him on his cell phone and nailed him that way.<br><br>Then, since there was no mention of armies ready to conquer the territory that was apathetic, as hinted in Taralma, just what did these people plan to do with the Alconost effect? If there was a greater organization ready, then Simon left a lot of loose ends.<br><br>Also, from the way things seemed to be going, I thought the Alconost was going to be a real creature, going along the fantasy vein (and tying in with the "Dragon's Egg" title of the first story).<br><br>The planned punishment of he prisoners would be, by definition, "poetic justice". However, given Callow's nature, I think the bean counters would have opted for a less costly judgement.<br><br>Simon uses the electromagnet to wipe the computers. What if they used CDs or off-site backup? Seems risky to not check.<br><br>"We're going to need a bigger boat." Genius! I love that movie!<br><br>What's a Zenit launch?<br><br><br>Anyhow, I've never tried to write a spy, and certainly don't think I could have done as well as this. My congratulations go out to Mr. Delgado-Scott for his effort. If there's going to be six or eight installments a year, we shouldn't have long for the next piece of the Nightwatch puzzle!<br><br>Nate

[K._Vesi]

I was also looking for a monster... but it fits nicely with the poetic aspect of this story. And it's an interesting twist to find out that there is no fairytale monster out there, just science being used in an evil way. Talk about a "rich" story. And intelligent. <br><br>This story is well-plotted, and well written. I needed to keep reading to find out happens next. The image of the burning village with people doing nothing to save themselves is something I will always remember when thinking back to this story. <br><br><br>Kathleen

[Robert_Moriyama]

My totally unbiased opinion is that MINE WAS BETTER! DELGADO-SCOTT HAS RUINED EVERYTHING!<br><br>(Sigh) Aside from a few minor annoyances in the typo/spelling area (It's "all right", already! And Nightwatch may have cachet, but I don't think cache (unless it's a cache of cash, or very expensive cache memory) is very influential ...), this one worked pretty damn well. I'm not sure if the lead characters' speech and characterization was entirely consistent with what was established in Dragon's Egg, but it may well turn out that D.E. is the odd story out in this regard (with Simon, Stephanie, and Callow being more like the Delgado-Scott versions than the Moriyama versions in future stories).<br><br>There were Soviet-era (Soviet AND American, probably) experiments with the use of microwave and other directed energy to affect mental states. It may be that the satellite Alconost devices AND the version used in the assembly building used this principle rather than sound (or the sound heard in Taralma was just a side effect) ...<br><br>As for Simon's man-of-action attitude and confidence in this story versus D.E. -- with Tom along, Simon probably wouldn't feel quite so obligated to act as the muscle on this mission. I suspect that R.F. was a disciple of R.K. -- Rosa Klebb, the lethal SMERSH (or SPECTRE, depending on whether you believe to book or the movie) in From Russia With Love, so Simon's lengthy and mutually painful fight with her is not inconsistent with Simon's relatively easy takedown of McReady in D.E. (Also, Simon zapped McReady rather than actually tussling with him, in spite of his twice thinking about it.)<br><br>Tom's decision to use brain surgery/drugs to inhibit the Alconost participant's ability to ever try to reproduce the weapon seemed a little off to me; I would have thought that his outrage at this kind of thing would have precluded his own use of the technique. Of course, given Simon's clear intention to kill them all, he may have felt this was RELATIVELY humane. (The lobotomy- as- treatment/ punishment thing dates back to the old Doc Savage stories from the 40's -- when it WAS considered an advancement over execution or simple incarceration.)<br><br>Overall, Delgado-Scott's Nightwatch is considerably darker than mine ... but only time and future installments will tell whether the series as a whole wavers between the two extremes or heads in one direction or the other (Cussler or Ludlum? Connery Bond, Roger Moore (:P) Bond, or Brosnan Bond?).<br><br>A good read (dammit).<br><br>Robert M.

[Robert_Moriyama]

Just another quick techie thought: if the satellite (and maybe even the ground based) Alconost devices WERE using EM radiation (as I now notice that Dan (Vila) suggested before I did), it would make sense that the electronic surveillance cloaking device Simon and Tom were using to hide (or try to hide) might interfere with the effect. This would not be true of a sonic weapon.<br><br>Jeff has confirmed (not in the lettercol) that the Alconost device used sound in its earliest versions, but the version in the assembly building and the satellite-mounted version would be beamed energy weapons.<br><br>Robert M.

[Robert_Moriyama]

Just a note that the next Nightwatch is called "Rogue Harvest" and was written by Ralph Benedetto, Jr. The story debuts in the August issue.

--Jeff "Shamless Plugger" Williams

<br><br><br>Wow! A 'shamless' plugger. That would be a plugger without sham or artifice -- an honest advertiser! Alert the press!<br><br>Robert M.

[Robert_Moriyama]

Check out the story at<br><br>http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0, ... <br><br>re: directed energy weapons. Makes the Alconost device seem quite plausible (and downright insidious) ...<br><br>Robert M.