European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 7, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Michener a latest not the most novel in his collection the novel by James Mich nor. Random House 464 pages $15.95. Any endurance prize for fiction will go to Mich nor whose 34th Book is the novel. Michener might better have turned his talents elsewhere because the novel just Isnit. The premise is interesting enough. Chronicle the creation of a novel from the writers opening throes through the editors Loving hands the View from the critics mount and the Reader. Each of the books four parts is a novelette. But the writer is a Geld two dimensional plodder. The editor a and she is no Maxwell Perkins a asks us to believe that Only she saw Lukas Yoder s Talent shining through his first four Money losing attempts at fiction before he hit the big time. Her publishing House would have reassigned her Long before the first Best seller. Lukas Yoder writes Pennsylvania dutch go arc novels. Yvonne Marine lie Nee Shirley Marc Stcin who hardly Steps out of Manhattan until Midway through the Book has the Sharp eyed sense to Shepherd them through to publication. The Cne tic professor Karl Streibert is on permanent fast Forward. Springing full blown from a myopic mennonite farm background to Phi Beta Kappa to distinguished american professorial Mecklenburg College to visiting Oxford professorship a All before his 40th birthday a the critic wanders through an utterly predictable homosexual love affair publication of his own dreadful novel and discovery of two gifted Young writers before the novel gets to the Reader Michener Cata logs the takeover of a Small but Noble publishing House by the big bad conglomerate and a Battle for literature As an Art form. The Reader might have been the most interesting part of the novel but Mich nor muddies the Waters with a superfluous murder a cultural War for truth and a Clumsy attempt to tic the books Loose ends into a tidy Pennsylvania dutch knot. Perhaps the novel readers should claim the endurance prize. Victoria Wakefield United press International Thunder of Erebus by Payne Harrison. Crown 4�?~j5 pages $15.95. In a Good season for techno thrillers Thunder of Erebus is the Best of the season. Larry Bond produced his Best yet with vortex. James Webb bested him with something to die for and now Harrison who did storming intrepid combines Bonds penchant for intricate military mane vering with Webb a ability to Tell a Story. There is a submarine scene that is better than the one that made Tom Clancy s first novel Hunt for red october so compelling. And there is no enemy in Harrison s scene. It is purely about navigation. There is an Aerial scene that soars to the same Heights and it has the same twist no enemy in the usual sense. The fliers act out a rivalry Ina James Mich Nero a the novel is no. 34. Which careers rather than lives Are at stake. Despite these two examples most of the Book and much of its greatest excitement occurs in Antarctica. The special problems of fighting in a Polar zone contribute to the uniqueness of Thunder of Erebus Only the Brief passages about journalists ring false and even there Harrison has mischievously displaced Dan rather. Clancy and Bond made the techno thriller into a Story form that tells the full Story of a military engagement and military engagements Are complicated. Managing ones materials is the toughest thing about writing a Book like this. Harrison manages his materials As Well As anyone working this Corner of fiction. Howard Dicus United press International All books reviewed Here Are. Or will soon be. Available at stars and stripes . Palmer took extreme measures on Way to writing by Jocelyn Mcclurg the Hartford courant it is a monday morning and or. Michael Palmer has just finished a grueling 14-hour shift in the emergency room of Falmouth Hospital on Cape cod in Massachusetts. He has put his 7-month-old baby Down and a peaceful hush has settled Over his House near the water in Falmouth. Time to crash a actually id like to write this morning. I have my computer humming a the doctor said Over the phone. For the past decade Palmer has answered to two demanding fallings Medicine and fiction. Extreme measures Bantam $10.95his fourth medical thriller and the first in hardcover has just been published. His first three novels a the sisterhood Side effects and Flashback a were new York times paperback Best Sellers. Like Robin Cook who was two years ahead of him at Wesleyan University Palmer explores the Darker std of Medicine in heart pumping style. In his latest novel a Hotshot Young doctor at White memorial Hospital in Boston stumbles onto a diabolical scheme that uses sedated patients As unwitting Guinea pigs for an experimental drug. Evil Means to justify a a a Good end is a theme that courses through palmers books. Comparisons to Cook Are inevitable a both trained at Massachusetts general Hospital and both set their books in Boston a and Palmer freely acknowledges that Cooke a Success convinced him to put his own spin on the medical thriller. Writing also helped Palmer 48, climb out of a deep dark Well he had fallen into As a Young doctor a alcohol and drug addiction. He began drinking in 1964, when he was newly married and about to begin medical school at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Over the years the pattern escalated. To keep up with a Busy private practice Palmer took stimulants in the morning and sedatives at night. Sometimes he would get drugs by writing prescriptions for non existent patients. He left his private practice and a settling for less Quot began working in what he Calls a Doc in the boxy clinics at shopping malls in 1979, he was confronted with fake prescriptions by an employer and fired. Palmer hit Bottom. "1 Sal on a bed in a Motel with enough pills poured out to kill a Small army a he recalled Quot and 1 decided that if i lost my profession which meant so much to me i would kill  but Palmer made it through the night and the next Day he finally a a stumbled to a meeting of a support group for substance abusing doctors that had contacted him several months earlier. For Palmer writing is a kind of therapy his version of the adage a physician heal  he begins with a a what if proposition in his novels Quot what if there were an aesthetic that looked like you were asleep but you really weren to Flashback what if it were possible for a very competent doctor using the most modern tools to misdiagnosed death in a patients extreme measures. In typical thriller fashion uncovering the answers to these hypothetical questions can keep you up All night. Kin 11 Spage 8 a sunday july 7. 1991