Mortal Chaos [Versión Kindle]

The holistic nature of all things. Chaos theory. All that good interconnectedness stuff. In tribute to the dominant paradigm of chaos theory itself (a butterfly flapping its wings in the rainforest, creating currents that start a knock-on chain of events...culminating in a devastating hurricane on the other side of the globe), Mortal Chaos begins with a butterfly. After emerging from its cocoon, the butterfly in question takes flight in Chaunchy Wood, Wiltshire, England. The insect's flapping startles a young rabbit, which dashes out of the woods and onto a racecourse. Spooked by the bunny, a racehorse throws its rider. Kuni Hideaki, a talented eighteen-year-old Japanese climber, begins a solo ascent of Everest's North Face. In rural Wiltshire, airline pilot Tina Curtis leaves for work later than usual and drives narrow country roads at breakneck speed in her Audi TT, hoping to reach Heathrow Airport on time. Elsewhere in Wiltshire, two young boys play truant from school, heading into nearby woods with a gun to have some fun. In Glasgow, a Japanese businessman boards a flight for Heathrow. Happy to be six, birthday girl Sophie opens her presents in Southwark, London. Sophie's father - an avid gambler - decides which horse to bet on in that day's Newbury races. A deer grazes happily in Sauncy Wood. On the shores of Lake Malawi, East Africa, a six-year-old boy named Bakili guards his family's corn crops from invading baboons; terrified and armed with only a stick, Bakili tries to scare away the savage beasts which, desperate for food, are rapidly losing their fear of humans. Video editor Kev Grupper assembles a news report in Washington DC. In the Champlain suburb of DC, Shelton Marriner prepares a bomb to blow his ex-wife and two children to Kingdom Come. Flight operations manager Ross Hawker juggles some flight times at Heathrow Airport. Maria Coster and her film crew suffer a puncture while driving towards the Malawian village of Chinchewe. Trainee astronaut Calder Lawton peers out over the city of London as his flight from Chicago descends to land. Airport thief Mick Vines surveys Terminal One of Heathrow, looking for a suitable victim. In Chinchewe Village, pilot Tina Curtis's husband Martin - a doctor at an Africa Frontline Care clinic - treats a child with an unusual injury.

The characters and incidents above represent just the beginning; each of these mini-plots twists and soars on its own, yet - like a literary alchemist - Matt Dickinson blends them all together in a masterful way...eventually. The chapters are super-short, so much so that each one could be a piece of flash fiction in its own right. The combination of brief chapters, perfect pacing and tight plot kept me gripped throughout. Over 200 pages in, I wondered if Dickinson could tie the myriad story strands together into a coherent conclusion. A few pages later, literary Tourette's kicked in and I found myself shouting (in the style of Scotty from Star Trek), "He'll never dae it cap'n! It cannae be done! There jist arenae enough pages left tae tie aw thae wee stories thegither!" But - somehow - Dickinson managed to connect the diverse story arcs into an ending that is not only satisfying and plausible, but also intricate and eloquent. The depth of interconnectedness in Mortal Chaos isn't on a par with that in, for example, Midnight's Children and it doesn't have the socio-cultural significance of Rushdie's masterpiece, but Dickinson's book isn't intended to be a multi-faceted social statement wrapped in a story of ages, plus it's aimed at a slightly younger market. Mortal Chaos is pure, visceral story...and a damn good one too. I rattled through the book in one sitting, unwilling to put it down. That's always a good sign. Dickinson has no literary pretensions; he sticks to active voice, clipped sentences and short chapters, but tells his tale with an inspired confidence. Very, very impressive.

I loved the concept of this story, but then I've always been fascinated by `the butterfly effect' or chaos theory and how a singular occurrence can crescendo throughout a series of events. It all begins with the butterfly (which I liked) to set off the chain of events when a rabbit is startled and runs out in front of a racehorse on its exercise, which leads to a vet being called out, which leads to his son being left with keys he should no way have been left with, which results in a deer being startled into bolting into the road, which leads to a car-driven by a pilot on her way to work-hitting the deer, which leads to hold ups at the airport, which leads to ... okay, I'm going to stop there before I ruin the entire book for you and everyone knows what's going to happen before they even begin.
Each and every character is woven into the story from the off with short snapshots of of their parts in the tale as everything unfolds. I loved the brevity of the scenes. Loved the alternating character chapters. If written any other way, it would have no way worked as well as it did-would have lost most of its pizazz and thus been less impactful. And as I read on, and absorbed each scene, I found myself trying to unfurl how they/the occurrence figured into the tale as a whole or how they'd be affected by what had already transpired, and I can only applaud the tightness and the ingenuousness of how tightly they were all woven together to create the bigger picture until we pretty much came full circle and back to where it all began. If I had to criticise it, I'd complain that it felt as though a few too many of the threads were left untied-or endings/outcomes for some characters left unsaid for the reader to make their own presumption. And I'd possibly gripe a little about the slowness of the opening-because if it hadn't been written as it was, keeping the reader on tenterhooks and trying to fathom where it was all going, then the happenings for each character when looked at as a singular thread could almost have been classified as a little boring. Thankfully, the excellent storytelling made it anything but. Oh, and expect to hit a spot at around 70% when you have a sudden urge to get to the end as soon as possible because you can't take not knowing how it's going to wrap-up.
Would I recommend it? Yup, yup, for sure.

The tension and energy is high AT ALL TIMES. If you have heart rate issues, this may not be the book for you. My pulse was elevated from beginning to end. How? Because form follows function impeccably here. The nature of the stories are exciting, but the manner in which they are told is what makes this book such an effective and satisfying event. The chapters are not much longer than a page each. This format allows the concurrent plot lines to stay focused and immediate, moving forward at a dizzying speed, deftly weaving together the tenuous manner in which all the characters connect. The chapters are sliced in such a way that you view what's happening to each character at the same point time. Even with an entourage cast of characters that large it was easy to follow their individual trajectories, perhaps because of the diverse locations and circumstances of each character and supporting character.

The speed at which you can devour this novel is surprising-- perhaps a reflection of the rate of action in the plot.

This is an energizing read and definitely a must-have for adolescent boys, particularly reluctant readers. The energy in this book will hook them immediately.

I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series.