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hidekisohma's review
3.0
So a bit of a backstory on this book.
When i was around 14 i found this for $1 in the clearance section of barnes and noble. I read it, and for my 14 year old self, i remember it being very adult and scandalous. I forgot about the book for years and years until i finally remembered it a few months ago. I decided to find a copy and re-read it. and here we are.
The book is very much a male fantasy book. it's about a Vietnam vet (who has flashbacks because of course he does) and now runs a boat charter company. He gets kidnapped multiple times, has sex multiple times, talks to people about stuff multiple times, and shoots people multiple times. There, that's basically the whole book.
The problem is, the main character Ben Kane is extremely unlikable. He basically has 2 parts to his personality. horny and sarcastic. that's really about it. There's no subtlety, no nuance, whenever he's with a female character, he's horny, whenever he's with a male character, he's sarcastic.
There's literally only 3 reasons he survives all the scrapes he gets into.
1. he gets knocked unconscious 3 times in the book, and every time, they tie him up or capture him instead of killing him.
2. TWICE when he was captured, they didn't take his gun for some reason (he said it was because 'they must have patted my pocket and felt the handkerchief and didn't feel the gun' get the hell out of here)
3. the villains are oddly gracious and/or stupid. like there wasn't a single time the villains wanted to kill him when capturing him. they always offer him a deal. Seriously, the first time they take all his money, but then they leave him with $3000 and call the ambulance for him before they leave. I gotta say, pretty gracious bad guys.
it's one of those books where the main character is supposed to be this bad ass lady's man, but there's no reason he should be. he's got no personality, he's useless without his plot armor, and he's a cheater. he technically has a girlfriend in a woman named michelle, but cheats on her 3 times in the book. (Hey, nick stone, pssst. if you're going to have a lady's man main character, don't give him a serious love interest). Ben Kane said that he "Felt slightly guilty" but then cheated on her 2 more times, so i mean, he couldn't have felt THAT bad.
There's a scene in the book where he ruthlessly kills an old man, and his ex-boss weaver blackmails him into working for him with that knowledge and Ben's like "it was self defense!" i'm like "bro. yeah he was evil, but he was an old shakey man in a wheelchair who was crying. that's...that's not self defense. sorry dude."
Ben does a lot of sitting and listening to people, or being creepy staring at women's bodies. he does a LITTLE bit of shooting/action, but really not that much. out of 250 pages maybe..... 20 of it is him doing action stuff?
All in all, this book is just a popcorn 80's male fantasy novel. I will say it read very easily and i wasn't confused by the writing style at all. If i come across the sequel i'll probably read it, but it will be a while before i do so. No way can i jump into another Ben Kane story that quick. 2.5 out of 5 rounded up to a 3.
When i was around 14 i found this for $1 in the clearance section of barnes and noble. I read it, and for my 14 year old self, i remember it being very adult and scandalous. I forgot about the book for years and years until i finally remembered it a few months ago. I decided to find a copy and re-read it. and here we are.
The book is very much a male fantasy book. it's about a Vietnam vet (who has flashbacks because of course he does) and now runs a boat charter company. He gets kidnapped multiple times, has sex multiple times, talks to people about stuff multiple times, and shoots people multiple times. There, that's basically the whole book.
The problem is, the main character Ben Kane is extremely unlikable. He basically has 2 parts to his personality. horny and sarcastic. that's really about it. There's no subtlety, no nuance, whenever he's with a female character, he's horny, whenever he's with a male character, he's sarcastic.
There's literally only 3 reasons he survives all the scrapes he gets into.
1. he gets knocked unconscious 3 times in the book, and every time, they tie him up or capture him instead of killing him.
2. TWICE when he was captured, they didn't take his gun for some reason (he said it was because 'they must have patted my pocket and felt the handkerchief and didn't feel the gun' get the hell out of here)
3. the villains are oddly gracious and/or stupid. like there wasn't a single time the villains wanted to kill him when capturing him. they always offer him a deal. Seriously, the first time they take all his money, but then they leave him with $3000 and call the ambulance for him before they leave. I gotta say, pretty gracious bad guys.
it's one of those books where the main character is supposed to be this bad ass lady's man, but there's no reason he should be. he's got no personality, he's useless without his plot armor, and he's a cheater. he technically has a girlfriend in a woman named michelle, but cheats on her 3 times in the book. (Hey, nick stone, pssst. if you're going to have a lady's man main character, don't give him a serious love interest). Ben Kane said that he "Felt slightly guilty" but then cheated on her 2 more times, so i mean, he couldn't have felt THAT bad.
There's a scene in the book where he ruthlessly kills an old man, and his ex-boss weaver blackmails him into working for him with that knowledge and Ben's like "it was self defense!" i'm like "bro. yeah he was evil, but he was an old shakey man in a wheelchair who was crying. that's...that's not self defense. sorry dude."
Ben does a lot of sitting and listening to people, or being creepy staring at women's bodies. he does a LITTLE bit of shooting/action, but really not that much. out of 250 pages maybe..... 20 of it is him doing action stuff?
All in all, this book is just a popcorn 80's male fantasy novel. I will say it read very easily and i wasn't confused by the writing style at all. If i come across the sequel i'll probably read it, but it will be a while before i do so. No way can i jump into another Ben Kane story that quick. 2.5 out of 5 rounded up to a 3.
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