By Sinclair Adams
Just like you, I love to read. Books entertain, they educate, and they’re an easily accessible way to enjoy human expression. But I’ll be honest, it’s been a while since I found a book written in a way that I never wanted to put it down. Daniel Nieh’s second novel, Take No Names, is crafted with such an excellent balance of action and intrigue that I completely lost myself within it. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt so immersed in a book that I checked my progress and asked myself, “How can I be almost done?” So, what is it about this book that makes it work?
Take No Names is the story of Victor Li, a young man with a haunted past. He and his friend Mark (“accomplice” is a more accurate title) make money by raiding storage units that contain items confiscated from recent deportees from the United States. They come across a gemstone so priceless it’s illegal, and an encrypted paper trail leading back to Mexico. That’s the first step on the journey that takes Victor and Mark right into the middle of a conspiracy against a new Chinese-Mexican alliance. What starts as a scheme between two grim-humored buddies becomes a race to stop a war between all corners of the globe. Along the way, we meet a lively cast of characters, including a top chef of vegan Mexican cuisine, the emotional baggage of Victor’s past in the form of his sister Jules, and the cleverly named mercenary goons Pabst and Miller. I want to describe the story in as vague terms as I can, because when you do read it, there are multiple twists that would be cruel of me to spoil for you. I had more than one instance of reading this book in public, audibly gasping at a twist I wasn’t expecting, and receiving looks of confusion from passing strangers. It’s that good.
The first thing that struck me while reading Take No Names was the humor in each chapter. While this book does carry a lot of weight with it, it isn’t above writing characters who crack jokes and exchange snarky comments, just like your friends do in real life. Nieh writes his characters with quirky and entrancing details that give them life without bogging you too deep into detail.
As a first-person narrator, Victor is both intelligent and learned, demonstrated by his ability to crack codes that cross multiple languages. But he’s not too clever, as he is caught off guard multiple times by the many twists the plot takes him on. Sometimes, the other characters in the story command more attention with how dynamic and involved they are, making Victor feel like a “camera” to view the action. Still, he’s a camera that’s easy to step into while still being a distinct character.
While this book is full of thrilling punch-outs and nail-biting espionage, it’s not without a brain. There is earnest commentary on race and how it changes the way people see you. When entering Mexico during a fictionalized period of great Chinese influence, Victor deals with the frustrating reality that, despite both him and Mark being from the United States, it’s just the white guy Mark who looks the part. The protagonists’ racial identities are inseparable from the story. Victor’s ability to pass as Chinese becomes a point of strategy. This isn’t just awkward moments of racism for the sake of it – it’s informed by real biases and has real consequences on the plot. In other words, Victor isn’t “just a protagonist who happens to be mixed-raced,” he is a protagonist who is mixed-race.
As the story takes us across the border, Victor and his friends learn more about the behind-the-scenes collusion between the United States and China with Mexico. This is a work of fiction, so the events that take place are imagined, but they did not come from nowhere. Nieh’s characters make many jabs at American exceptionalism, creating a space for intelligent critique of global powers without declaring if one country is more right than the other.
Another aspect to this book that could have only been written by Nieh himself was the presence of not one but three languages. English, Spanish, and Chinese are all spoken in the story. This is natural, given the story’s characters and location, but as the author, Nieh made great efforts to weave it as naturally into the prose as possible. For example, Chinese characters appear as symbols when read, but when Chinese is in dialogue, it is written out in pinyin romanization. If you’re not fluent in Spanish or Chinese, you don’t need to look up translations, as Nieh cleverly writes context around the dialogue. With a little brainpower, you can work the meaning out for yourself. These are always fun moments of audience participation, which is difficult for a book to accomplish and very commendable. For longer strings of conversation in languages other than English, Nieh offers translations within Victor’s narration.
Take No Names shows how big-picture conflicts between countries can influence and even ruin the lives of individual people. The book begins with Victor going through the luggage of a woman deported from the United States, and she is given a name and a history. Victor’s friend Mark is a war vet who can’t seem to fit in with civilian life, and the results are debilitating. The “heroes” of the story are played like instruments by just about every character they meet with connections to the powers that be. The only drawback to this is that despite how the story illuminates the victimhood of individuals in the face of global politics, I didn’t feel as close to the characters as I wanted to be. Maybe it’s because the story spends too much time dwelling on how much deep trouble they’re in. Without getting to see characters enjoying some successes, it’s hard to view them as anything other than pawns marked for death. Perhaps that was Nieh’s goal. You can’t get too attached to these characters, because just like anyone else who gets roped into real crime and conspiracy, they’re doomed from the start.
If there’s one other thing I found lacking, it was the fact that this book is a sequel. There is no indication that Take No Names is written following the events of Nieh’s first novel, Beijing Payback. Despite not knowing what happened before, the narration deftly catches you up on the events of the previous book. Victor’s exposition on his life story is snappy enough to keep you engaged. I didn’t feel like I missed out on anything major by reading this book first. Almost every chapter is a rip-your-hair-out cliffhanger, and the very end of the book makes me suspect there’s plenty of story left for Victor. If that is the case, I will patiently wait to be taken for another adventure written by Nieh.
I recommend Take No Names for fans of border-crossing crime stories like No Country for Old Men, or even the television series Breaking Bad. In fact, I recommend this book to anyone who thinks that reading is boring. Nieh’s action is tight and wastes no words, and he knows just when to slow things down to catch you up on something you might have missed. Take No Names is very reader-friendly – except when it’s freaking you out with epic moments of peril and deceit.
Take No Names is available from Alexander Book Company, Barnes & Noble, Blue Cypress Books, Book Soup, Changing Hands Bookstore, and Mager & Quinn Booksellers.
Sinclair Adams is a writer interested in speculative and science fiction narratives. She earned a B.A. in English from the University of Las Vegas and is currently pursuing an M.F.A. in creative writing at Chapman University. She is an editor for Ouroboros Magazine, Chapman’s journal of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and other speculative fiction. Follow her on Instagram @sinclairwrites.