Monday 25 May 2009

Blackout by Chris Ryan

This book takes SAS diversion from the usual pattern of Chris Ryan's books. The lead character wakes up not knowing who he is, where he is, or why he's there.

Certain things hint that he might be a soldier but he really does not know.

The blurb on the back reports a possible terrorist threat is turning the power off in captial cities around the world. That's the plot, but the book does not leap into that because the lead characters main plot is finding out who the heck he is!

The writing in the story is as good as any of the Chris Ryan books and as usual the action is pretty constant as is the pain the poor lead character has to go through.

If you've liked any of the previous Chris Ryans books then your likely to like this one as well.

It has as much action as his other novels but is improved by the mystery of the lead character has to solve, "Who am I"?

6/10

Saturday 16 May 2009

The Sky People by S.M. Stirling

The Sci Fi novel starts with an slightly alternate history. Back in the 60s the Russians stayed ahead in the space race and actually sent a probe to Venus. Where they beamed back pictures of humans fighting Neanderthals in an earth like environment.

Thats where this story takes off, with the east and west having set up minor settlements on Venus.

The story follows one of the westerners as he greets a new influx of settler/scientists. Then the story moves into adventure. We have an epic voyage, wars, aliens and mysteries.

The story is well written and features constant discovery of new things about this amazing world that keeps the interest level up. The adventure is engaging and the characters seem real enough, so you can follow the plot and really bury yourself in it.

I read this in a couple of days. It was good. :)

8/10

Saturday 2 May 2009

The Hit List by Chris Ryan

This book was first published in 2000 when I still thought Chris Ryan was this big shot SAS guy who could write good books.

Nowadays I think Chris IS a big shot SAS guy who gets other people to ghost write his books.

There's a style in this book that doesn't seem to match that of the other books of his I've read, and not in a good way.

The first half of the book has a lot of action and adventure but in no way belongs to the plot of the book. It's a case of this happens and then that happend and then the other took place and then the plot started. Once I got to the actual plot it was immediately obvious that the first half had been a virtual waste of my life.

The idea behind the book is that the lead character gets recruited into a super uber secret government hit squad type affair. The first half of the book, and I literally mean half, is ex-SAS bloke gets mucked about a bit and peeved and is driven to the super uber secret group. Instead of half of the blummin book, that could have been dealt with in a couple of pages so why waste my life reading all that guff!?

In the end, the book overall is okay, not great, just okay and if you like ex-SAS stories then you'll find this a time filler.