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Chess, time travel, fate of the universe
A gutsy new author puts a man through an intense struggle.
By James Thorner, Times Staff Writer
Published December 30, 2007
Bad things keep happening to Douglas Cole. Friends and family members meet twisted ends. A cackling freak straight out of a David Lynch nightmare monkeys with his mind. Left a drugged-out wretch ready to turn tricks on the streets of Austin, Texas, Cole is rescued by Jefferson Stone, a mysterious, middle-aged businessman who becomes the younger man's mentor and tour guide to multiple universes. Yes, multiple universes. No ordinary coming-of-age story, Discipline by Paco Ahlgren is equal parts Stephen King thriller, Eastern philosophical treatise and crash course on time travel, international finance and chess. As Cole is transformed from wastrel to wise man, he realizes he's in a metaphysical struggle with a villain who lurks on the edge of known reality. The fate of the universe could hinge on the outcome. Ahlgren is a fine writer who can spin sentences of balance and beauty while making the inexplicable explicable. Want to know how your body reacts while looping through multiple universes? He's your man. The book's most notable weakness is that it burns through much of its combustible, thought-provoking material in the first half, leaving the reader paddling in circles through much the second half until the full-throttle ending. Conflicts presented at the start are later given all-too-prosaic expositions. One example: Cole's gateway to alternate universes is a psychedelic drug. Somebody should have told Timothy Leary. Be warned, this is almost an all-boys affair. The two prominent female characters are consigned to neglect faster than you can say Holmes and Watson. But Cole's soulful, lost-boy narration seems to have attracted female fans. For much of its length Discipline is a riveting page-turner. You have to admire a first-time author, a financial analyst by trade no less, who can take the boredom out of chess and the hokeyness out of time travel. James Thorner can be reached at thorner@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3313. Discipline By Paco Ahlgren Greenleaf, 448 pages, $24.95
[Last modified December 26, 2007, 16:20:11]
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