Greenwar

In the prologue to this earnest, talky and ultimately confusing thriller, 30-something eco-activist Gabe Cervantes is picked up by the cops for a crime he has actually committed: blowing up a polluting factory in New Mexico. But when two similar explosions occur, the authorities release him--into an alliance with a big-time terrorist who calls herself Boadica. Their next target will be Gulf Stream I, a floating research lab off Florida's coast. But most readers won't care about the fate of Gulf Stream or its would-be saboteurs. Except for the opening plant explosion and a hurricane aboard Gulf Stream, practically nothing happens in the first two-thirds of this joint-effort from the SF-writing husband-and-wife team of Gould (Jumper, etc.) and Mixon (Glass Houses). Diagrams (not seen by PW) may help, but the hurricane scenes are impossible to follow, and jargon is heavy throughout (""Reef set point at eight-point-two psig; actual is ranging plus or minus two psi with a mean of eight-point.one-nine""). Worse, the characters are ciphers and the writing is sloppy (""to pursue his activist activities""). One scene, describing a dive-certification test, is so long and numbingly detailed that readers will wish for a shark attack. (July)