Craig Nova has a fine, craftsman's approach to writing and his writing about fly fishing is excellent, too. This book stands on its own as literature.

While this is a story on the role fly-fishing plays in the life of a man, you don't need to be a trout fisherman to enjoy it. The language is simplistic and I was amazed by the images he was able to create with such a style. Do not confuse this with "simple" writing because it is definitely not. It has layers of subtlety. Because it is so brief, I can see myself reading it again and again.

Brook Trout and the Writing Life is a very finely-written book that is full of wisdom. I read it in one sitting--and I have never even held a flyrod in my hand. It's about fishing and writing, sure, but it's really about living. Nova has lived deeply and well, and it really shows here. This is a wonderful read.

This is a look at carnival life which is much different than the American Ten-In-One of the 1930-40's; but the outcome is the same. The Geek is the lowest form of carnival life. What happens when a drunk descends to the lowest of lows? Of interest to anyone interested in carnivals and the human condition

and I read it in the fourth grade. It still gives me chills.

I think this is the book I read, anyways.

It's about this boy who's mother dies, and his father has to make business trips, so the boy goes to live with his aunt, uncle, and cousins.

His cousin, Henry, is about the same age as he is, and Henry is evil.

If you can find a copy of this book, you really should try it, but it truly is frightening.

Craig Nova has a definite style, a gritty yet humorous storytelling gift that gives him the ability to flesh out amazingly believeable real -life characters, and to accurately portray the compromising situations they sometimes find themselves entangled in. "Incandescence" is a fine example of this author's classic early style, and although it isn't all plain sailing, it comes so close.

Nova takes us on a journey of desperate yet likeable proportions with Stargell, a still-young ex inventor living on a shoestring with his skittish greek wife. Driving a Taxi to make a living, Stargell's existence is quickly becoming meaningless, and he knows it. Things aren't what they used to be, and the only pleasure Stargell attains from his current situation is the incandescent feeling he gets when he is on the subway in a fast train, or driving over the speed limit in his cab, almost as if he needs a feeling of risk in his life to keep him alive. This is probably why he borrows money that he can't pay back from a loan shark to entertain his wife's father who flys in to visit, and has to resort to criminal activity to be able to afford to settle his bill.Along the journey there are several hilariously dangerous moments, yet there is a poignant side to Stargell, a genuine caring and a particular love for his dying father, on the other side of the country in Los Angeles.

Nova's great way of drawing the reader into the character's minds is a winning feature of this novel. Great and not-so -great minds clash throughout, from the delightful Enid, Stargell's unstable wife, along to Ari, her father who has come from Greece to look for a "product" that he can take back and introduce. Brief encounters with a nerdish driving instructor and a car rental agent are also twisted and doused with tragic humour, but Stargell's gorilla suit tryout at the carnival is the book's most complete scene by a long shot.

Above everything is Stargell's seemingly relaxed attitude to being on the run. He's impossible to dislike however, particularly during the scenes where he shows hid true compassion, like with his father, and also in dealing with the death of someone he hardly knew. From the dark and cold spots where he sometimes sleeps, to his masquerade as a limo driver for the mad product-crazy Ari, we are on Stargell's side.

Perhaps the book does start to peter out towards the end, where our main character is homeless and wandering, but Nova can easily be forgiven for what he has already accompolished during the story. By the end all questions are answered regardless.

"Incandescence" is a thoroughly enjoyable read and a great introduction to Craig Nova's work. Although difficult to find these days, it is worth seeking out for the characters and straightforward style alone.

Review of Wetware by Craig Nova

Though officially titled Wetware, this novel would more appropriately be titled Wet Dream. The writer's misogyny is so consistently intrusive that it becomes the novel protagonist. Nova's world-building is vague, unconvincing, and clichéd, often more concerned with what his characters consider a hip outfit than with the physical, political, psychological or sociological description of his unnamed city. The book is dominated by unrealistic, ill-thought-out characters; and by the objectification and humiliation of women, both real and manufactured.
Hal Briggs, the protagonist, works at Galapagos Wetware where his first project "had been to design workers who would do jobs that no one else wanted."
The first and only hint that creating human-like life in a laboratory is controversial also comes in the opening pages when Brigg's boss congratulates himself on beginning to make these creatures "when other people were still worrying about whether or not such things should be done at all."
Not satisfied with creating slaves to work as janitors and garbage men, Briggs creates a gorgeous sex slave (named Kay) and programs her to love him unconditionally. He adds the capacity to reproduce to the mix of characteristics and so the stage is set for predictable disaster.
The novel's fantastic setting is never fully described, the details of his unnamed city shimmer before us like a heat mirage, evaporating as we approach.
What is most disappointing about this book is its deception. In the beginning, it appears to mimic those rare and wonderful works that delve into the philosophical underpinnings of scientific advance, raising questions and providing society with a forum for contemplation, and exploration of possible outcomes. These books live long in our memories: Brave New World; 1984; and closer to home the work of P.K. Dick and Margaret Attwood's The Handmaiden's Tale. True, with the exception of Attwood, these works are often high on meaning, and low on literary language, but the depth of their understanding of the human condition transcends bad writing. Nova's command of language is masterful, but beautiful prose isn't sufficient to transcend his superficiality, amorality, and perversion.
Instead of a novel exploring the moral and philosophical implications of artificial intelligence we have a book that reveals in, indeed celebrates, the possibilities offered by laboratory created life forms.
Nova writes at length about the nature of truth and beauty, yet depriving Kay of free will, thus enslaving her, is a perversion of real grace, beauty and love. Indeed, Nova articulates a lingering American nostalgia for slavery. After all, what else is it when something that looks and feels like a human, but has no free will, is compelled to stroke the needs of its owner up to and including performing sexual acts? Briggs is soothed and nurtured by the love equivalent of breast implants. Genuine female consent, in Mr. Nova's world, is irrelevant to male pleasure, and the erotic is not contingent upon it.
There is little unique or original in Nova's setting, rather it is a hodge podge of hackneyed and clichéd settings from science fiction films like Bladerunner and Terminator. Nova can't even come up with a unique crisis for his society to face. Instead, just as the Bunker-Hunt family did in Texas during the 1980s "a group of investors in India had been trying to manipulate silver futures."
Wetware is thin on plot and suspense. What plot exists is resolved by about half way through. Relieved of the tedium of storytelling, Nova's principal interest--ogling at, and touching women--comes to the fore. Because so many of the women in this book are artificially created replica's, with all their feelings, thoughts, and responses programmed into them, Nova is effectively erotosizing slavery.
The moral and philosophical assumptions of Wetware are repugnant to anyone who values free will. I found the misogynist objectification of women distressing to read.

If you a hard-core scifi reader you can safely skip this one. As other reviewers have noted the science is kind of weak. However, if you read more mainstream 'literature' this is a good place to start exploring scifi before moving on to the Asimovs, Heinleins and Herberts.

Along with Richard Powers' novel Galataea 2.2, this is the best American literary exploration of the human implications of artificial intelligence. This is NOT a science fiction novel. It is a very good novel, with beautifully written passages, that uses emerging biotechnology capabilities to tell a more complex and subtle story than the Philip K. Dick novel on which Blade Runner was based.

THE UNIVERSAL DONOR was not what I expected. Put another way, THE UNIVERSAL DONOR was not what the book jacket led me to believe it was. I expected a medical thriller, complete with a slowly perishing heroine, and a mighty and resourceful hero fighting both time and fatigue as he races to find a cure. In other words, I expected a novel I don't usually enjoy. But John Irving admires the author (or so the book jacket would have you believe), and being an admirer of John Irving, I decided to forego my usual misgivings about the Robin Cook-type plot, and give it a read.

But DONOR is not what the jacket says it is. It has the skeleton of the story right, but it has the muscles all wrong. It is not a thriller, in the usual sense. It is a love story. And by this, I do NOT mean it is a 'romance' novel. It is a love story, with all the pain and suffering that goes along with it.

It centres around Terry McKechnie, an emergency room doctor, during the time of the Los Angeles riots. His lover, Virginia Lee, has been bitten by a rare snake, and he must do all he can to save her.

As I said, it sounds like a fairly routine 'doomed romance' scenario. But author Craig Nova uses the poisoning only as a pretext, going back in time to present their entire affair. And it IS an affair, as Virginia is married to an old schoolmate of Terry's. But, instead of the more expected "Oh, we're such bad people, but we can't help ourselves!", with much hand-wringing and gentle sobbing, Nova has presented one of the most realistic extra-marital affairs I've read.

Virginia and Terry are both deeply flawed people who realize their mistakes, but, like all of us, have a hard time dealing with them. Their initial meeting at a hotel is deeply moving, and Nova captures both the excitement and the horror of what they are contemplating.

Nova's skill at playing several emotions off each other is shown to best effect in a scene where Terry and Virginia sit down in a hospital cafeteria to discuss there feelings. A nearby stranger interupts the conversation from time to time, and it is only until a few pages later that the reader realizes the lovers are no longer simply talking, they are afraid for their lives. Nova's interplay of Terry and Virginia's conversation with the increasingly forbidding presence of the stranger is a wonder of suspense and emotion.

Nova has not written an altogether perfect novel. His introduction of a subplot involving Virginia's rare blood type, and a possible donor, stretches the bounds of coincidence and credibility. It is effectively written, but it detracts from the more effective and absorbing main storyline. It is this subplot that the publisher emphasizes on the cover, resulting in readers who may not appreciate the subtleties of Nova's work (see other reviews, below). THE UNIVERSAL DONOR is not that sort of story. It is a meditation on the consequences of love, and deserves a far larger audience than the jacket aims for.

The Universal Donor isn't just a love story. It's really about the fragility of life itself. Most people flounder through life looking for love in all the wrong places. When they finally find love, they may be unable or unwilling to respond. As Dr. Terry McKechnie responds to scientist Virginia Lee, he realizes that the balance of life hangs not on the big decisions but the little ones we make. Science,too, we find out is not as exact as modern man would like to believe. Just when we think we know everything, we discover that we may not even know the questions to ask! Craig Nova does a superb job in illustrating this principle in medicine, and science as well as friendship and crime.

I discovered INCANDESENCE in early 92' , after a non stop tear through the book, I realized that I was on to someone amazing. Craig Nova has been around for so long, he's like electricity, you don't know how great it is , until its gone. I waited for his new book to arrive, well after I got it , as I did all of his work, I read it in one sitting. Two people on the edge of their minds, and in a constant state of shock, collide over and over, trying to get this thing called life , right. So goes the main characters of UNIVERSAL DONOR. With interior dialogue and dilema's over how to "properly proceed" through life, Carig Nova brings the worst of everyone to the reader at large. If you have ever been bitten by a snake or got caught in traffic on the way to the emergency room, then this book is for you. John Updike was right when saying "Craig Nova is the greatest living writer of his generation" .