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longtimereader's review
4.0
Meet Kristian Clark, who all the girls swoon over. He's all noir in style. He's a PI, who happens to be in the here and now, aka present time. I'm not sure how he wound up being the stereotypical noir private eye. Kristian made me laugh, as he works on his noir image, but can't smoke a cigar without choking on it. He's an interesting character, a reasonably complexed guy, with typical confusion for a guy about his age.
Before the book gets going good, Kristian is pulled back into his old world of spy-secret agent missions. He's back with his former team, and they all have varying views of Christ and Christianity. Through various missions we get to know more and more about Kristian. Why did he change lines of work? What broke up his team before? Can they pull off missions again?
There's a bit of satire, and humor in this book, as it works with the more cliche parts of these genres. Christian ethics and morals aren't left out of this work, making it more enjoyable. It has a bit of romance, and a great deal of action and adventure. In some ways it's like a cleaner, younger version of the well known 007. The tech is fun, I enjoy most things sci-fi, so the variation on some tools in this book made me think of some movies I've enjoyed as well. While it's a bit bumpy in places, I liked it and would read the rest of the series if given a chance. I think it's a 4 star read.
My copy came from Celebrate Lit. My thoughts and opinions are my own, left of my own free will. I wasn't required to leave a favorable review.
Before the book gets going good, Kristian is pulled back into his old world of spy-secret agent missions. He's back with his former team, and they all have varying views of Christ and Christianity. Through various missions we get to know more and more about Kristian. Why did he change lines of work? What broke up his team before? Can they pull off missions again?
There's a bit of satire, and humor in this book, as it works with the more cliche parts of these genres. Christian ethics and morals aren't left out of this work, making it more enjoyable. It has a bit of romance, and a great deal of action and adventure. In some ways it's like a cleaner, younger version of the well known 007. The tech is fun, I enjoy most things sci-fi, so the variation on some tools in this book made me think of some movies I've enjoyed as well. While it's a bit bumpy in places, I liked it and would read the rest of the series if given a chance. I think it's a 4 star read.
My copy came from Celebrate Lit. My thoughts and opinions are my own, left of my own free will. I wasn't required to leave a favorable review.
fiction_aficionado's review
4.0
3.5 stars ~ Well, this is definitely one of the quirkier books I’ve read this year. In fact, I was a little unsure what to make of it at first. The hero definitely had a retro feel to him (with shades of Sam Spade), but then there were other things that put this book firmly in the present, and others yet that took it into the speculative realm (like freeze guns, memory imbibers, and even some references to the spiritual realm toward the end). I get the feeling that I would be able to make better sense of the opening chapters of the book if I went back and read them again now that I’ve finished the book, but at the time I did feel a little lost as to who was who and what was going on. Nevertheless, I read on.
I hope I’m not speaking amiss when I say I came to the conclusion that this story is partly spoofing the spy/suspense genre—or having fun with it at the very least. The comedy is dry enough and subtle enough that it may go over some readers’ heads, but once I cottoned on, it significantly increased my enjoyment of the story. The one thing that really detracted for me was the lack of proof reading, with basic grammatical, punctuation, and word-use errors cropping up with annoying regularity—the kind the spell-check doesn’t pick up.
But on to the story, which centres on Kristian Clark, a private eye who thought his agent days were over—until he was drafted into a new team that he describes as a multi-purpose team: a new branch of the CSI, FBI, and CIA. The team handles a variety of assignments over the course of the story, but it seems that their arch nemesis is a group called the Neos: a ‘strange, anarchist band who’ve made it their mission to topple capitalism with their own brand of mixed fascism, Marxism, and about every other ism that never worked.’ And thanks to some direct insights the reader gets into the Neos’ agenda, it seems they’re also intent on toppling Kristian himself. Though for what reason, we are yet to discover.
Kristian himself was a likeable collection of contradictions. He’s a highly competent agent—able to carry on conversations while taking down several opponents at once—but much less confident when it comes to relationships; especially when it comes to the lady who unknowingly owns his heart. And kids. He’s also notoriously bad with names! Through the course of the novel he grapples with matters of faith, his guilt over the loss of a teammate who was like a brother, and a hero complex that seems to have every woman but the one he loves throwing themselves at him.
It’s a tough life for this reluctant agent (have I mentioned how much he hates undercover work?!), and it's not about to change any time soon, with 'The Boss Man' shaking his fist at the end of this novel much like Dr. Claw of Inspector Gadget fame: "I'll get you next time, Kristian. Next time!" I’m also curious to know how Kristian handles the impromptu family he’s managed to acquire. He might be an introvert, but it doesn't look like he'll be enjoying the quiet life any time soon!
I received a copy of this novel through Celebrate Lit. This has not influenced the content of my review, which is my honest and unbiased opinion.
I hope I’m not speaking amiss when I say I came to the conclusion that this story is partly spoofing the spy/suspense genre—or having fun with it at the very least. The comedy is dry enough and subtle enough that it may go over some readers’ heads, but once I cottoned on, it significantly increased my enjoyment of the story. The one thing that really detracted for me was the lack of proof reading, with basic grammatical, punctuation, and word-use errors cropping up with annoying regularity—the kind the spell-check doesn’t pick up.
But on to the story, which centres on Kristian Clark, a private eye who thought his agent days were over—until he was drafted into a new team that he describes as a multi-purpose team: a new branch of the CSI, FBI, and CIA. The team handles a variety of assignments over the course of the story, but it seems that their arch nemesis is a group called the Neos: a ‘strange, anarchist band who’ve made it their mission to topple capitalism with their own brand of mixed fascism, Marxism, and about every other ism that never worked.’ And thanks to some direct insights the reader gets into the Neos’ agenda, it seems they’re also intent on toppling Kristian himself. Though for what reason, we are yet to discover.
Kristian himself was a likeable collection of contradictions. He’s a highly competent agent—able to carry on conversations while taking down several opponents at once—but much less confident when it comes to relationships; especially when it comes to the lady who unknowingly owns his heart. And kids. He’s also notoriously bad with names! Through the course of the novel he grapples with matters of faith, his guilt over the loss of a teammate who was like a brother, and a hero complex that seems to have every woman but the one he loves throwing themselves at him.
It’s a tough life for this reluctant agent (have I mentioned how much he hates undercover work?!), and it's not about to change any time soon, with 'The Boss Man' shaking his fist at the end of this novel much like Dr. Claw of Inspector Gadget fame: "I'll get you next time, Kristian. Next time!" I’m also curious to know how Kristian handles the impromptu family he’s managed to acquire. He might be an introvert, but it doesn't look like he'll be enjoying the quiet life any time soon!
I received a copy of this novel through Celebrate Lit. This has not influenced the content of my review, which is my honest and unbiased opinion.
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