May 27 2007

Recoil

Category: BooksChrisM @ 7:40 am

Recoil – Andy McNab

The 9th in the Nick Stone series, Recoil does feel quite similar to other books in the series, but then again I read these sorts of books because I enjoy them, not to actually challenge myself intellectually or anything.
The main character is in Switzerland, recovering from his last book/job, and is coming to terms with losing one of his best friends. His rich girlfriend tries to help him re-acclimatise, but her father doesn’t help much.
The girlfriend works for a charity, and disappears off to the Congo, which concerns Nick. Cue lots of fighting and details on using weapons. Nick had been to central Africa some two decades past, and has some unpleasant flashbacks.
We have the normal army chatter, obvious bad guys, crooked Ruperts (commissioned officers), helpless innocents and large explosions. If you’ve read all his books, you will end up buying this, even if it is just more of the same; if this book doesn’t interest you, you’re not going to care about the plot repetition with only minor tweaks…

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May 26 2007

Blackout

Category: BooksChrisM @ 4:15 am

Blackout – Chris Ryan

I’ve actually read a number of Chris Ryan’s books, but as these reviews are only covering the books I’ve read since emigrating to Kazakhstan, this is the first time one of his has cropped up.
I got this book, and the next similar Andy McNab one, at Christmas, when I normally ask for these sorts of books. Some intellectuals have complained about these books being formulaic, and without much originality. I would not argue a great deal to be honest, but sometimes it can be nice to simply veg out when reading a book. Especially if your stomach is still busy trying to digest a few days of over feeding, as well as your liver freaking out at the Vodka & Baileys suddenly assaulting it 😉
In this book, we see an SAS soldier (Josh Harding) regain consciousness, but sadly not his memory, in a desert. The story quickly leads into three cities suffering electrical blackouts. Authorities worry it is a terrorist cell. The story follows Josh’s efforts to rediscover who he is, why he is where he is, and of course, what is behind the black outs.
OK, so hardly ground breaking in itself, but like I said, I was happy enough reading it.

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