{"id":833,"date":"2011-03-09T08:29:53","date_gmt":"2011-03-09T13:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/antipaucity.com\/?p=833"},"modified":"2011-03-09T08:29:53","modified_gmt":"2011-03-09T13:29:53","slug":"the-secret-fire-by-martin-langfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/merikebi.warrenmyers.com\/?p=833","title":{"rendered":"the secret fire by martin langfield"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had high hopes for {{Martin Langfield}}’s book, {{The Secret Fire}} when I purchased it several months ago. The cover headline reads, “the world is under threat… from a weapon launched in 1944”. Sounded good.<\/p>\n

The back cover, likewise, sounded pretty good, too:<\/p>\n

Sotheby’s, London, 1936<\/strong><\/p>\n

A paper by Sir Isaac Newton is sold at auction to a bookseller’s agent, and within minutes of leaving the auction house he is killed and the paper stolen. For the Nazis are desperate to get their hands on a Newton formula that will unleash the Secret Fire – a weapon beyond all imagining that can wipe their enemies off the face of the earth. And this document is the key … unless the French Resistance and SOE operatives also on its trail can stop them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Good so far, no? Who doesn’t like some WWII conspiracy craziness? (Though why this “Newton formula” is a secret and not widely known after 300 years is up for intellectual consideration.)<\/p>\n

New York, 2007. Katherine Reckliss learns her grandmother’s SOE radio has started picking up disturbing messages from occupied France, warning that a V1 containing the Secret Fire is being launched by the Nazis. Its target? Present day London.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here I should<\/em> have had my suspension of disbelief brought into question, but I bought the book anyway.<\/p>\n

So begins the desperate race to halt the Secret Fire – both in 1940s Nazi-occupied France and modern-day London. The clock is ticking as history starts to re-write the future in a new and terrifying script …<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Alright – so parallel universes can work. So can time travel. So can parallel universes talking to each other. (Anyone see the movie {{Frequency<\/em>}} or {{The One<\/em>}}?)<\/p>\n

However, psychics, random “Enemies”, spirits from alternate worlds, and other aspects of the book of which I was not aware when I bought it have done this one in for me. I got a couple pages in, hoping it would improve, and it has not. So I am doing something very rare for me and throwing it out. I can’t recommend this to anyone, personally.<\/p>\n