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Oy.
Reading this book was like sneaking into the enemy camp in hopes of getting an idea of why they think how they think. It’s a reminder that there are people in the world who think so differently from me that I have trouble getting my head around it.
This is “an adrenaline fuelled political thriller” according to its back blurb. As far as mechanics go, it’s okay. Decent writing, though very stereotypical characters. The main character is one Joshua Jordan, an ex-military weapons designer who has come up with a missile defence system called Return to Sender which does, well, the reader can work that one out. There are enemies domestic and foreign who want their hands on it, a master assassin in the mix, and America going down the economic plughole.
You could leave the fundamentalist Christians out of it and it would be a decent enough story. Not great; it’s very connect-the-dots and no real surprises, but it would be okay. But the authors being who they are, of course, there’s End Times biblical prophecy chugging along in the background, with a hint of some truly nasty events coming to pass very soon for white, straight, Middle Class America.
What I liked about the character of Jordan is, perversely, precisely the qualities which the expected fundamentalist readers of this book would be supposed not to favour; that he stands out against the born-again faith of his wife, daughter and son and depends on himself and his friends. Well, in this first book of the series, anyway.
Joshua's friends, who call themselves the Round Table, are setting themselves up against what is portrayed as the growing decline and moral decay of America. I was disappointed at the lack of any interesting Antichrist character, demonic possession and dramatic enslaving of citizens with numbers stamped on their foreheads, but I feel sure this is coming up in the next three books of the series. Anyway, begone back to the library with you.
Reading this book was like sneaking into the enemy camp in hopes of getting an idea of why they think how they think. It’s a reminder that there are people in the world who think so differently from me that I have trouble getting my head around it.
This is “an adrenaline fuelled political thriller” according to its back blurb. As far as mechanics go, it’s okay. Decent writing, though very stereotypical characters. The main character is one Joshua Jordan, an ex-military weapons designer who has come up with a missile defence system called Return to Sender which does, well, the reader can work that one out. There are enemies domestic and foreign who want their hands on it, a master assassin in the mix, and America going down the economic plughole.
You could leave the fundamentalist Christians out of it and it would be a decent enough story. Not great; it’s very connect-the-dots and no real surprises, but it would be okay. But the authors being who they are, of course, there’s End Times biblical prophecy chugging along in the background, with a hint of some truly nasty events coming to pass very soon for white, straight, Middle Class America.
What I liked about the character of Jordan is, perversely, precisely the qualities which the expected fundamentalist readers of this book would be supposed not to favour; that he stands out against the born-again faith of his wife, daughter and son and depends on himself and his friends. Well, in this first book of the series, anyway.
Joshua's friends, who call themselves the Round Table, are setting themselves up against what is portrayed as the growing decline and moral decay of America. I was disappointed at the lack of any interesting Antichrist character, demonic possession and dramatic enslaving of citizens with numbers stamped on their foreheads, but I feel sure this is coming up in the next three books of the series. Anyway, begone back to the library with you.