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wheel_of_mushroom's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
4.0
kkomo's review against another edition
5.0
I’m so glad I was “behind” on a few of the books in this series, so I was able to go from that GIANT cliffhanger in the last book, right into this one. Goodness- that’s a gut wrenching way to wait a year.
Anyway, as with all of Brad Thor’s Scot Harvath books, this was excellent. I have a couple of things I would flesh out and liked handled differently, but overall a great installment. Very interested to see where we go from here!
Anyway, as with all of Brad Thor’s Scot Harvath books, this was excellent. I have a couple of things I would flesh out and liked handled differently, but overall a great installment. Very interested to see where we go from here!
dburley37's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
austin_ch's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
papidoc's review against another edition
3.0
OK thriller, but with some internal inconsistencies that made me laugh (and wonder) from time to time. Billed as a "survival" novel as much as an adventure thriller, but there was very little realistic about survival in it. Within the author's plot, there was much opportunity to have brought in significant wilderness survival knowledge, but it was almost nonexistent. It was a terrific opportunity to showcase real survival skills and knowledge, but it didn't happen.
Spoiler
Instead, the main character seemed to survive mostly by finding things - a remote cabin with a dead trapper, a helpful (and beautiful!) woman who just happened to be a nurse who spoke English (in the middle of Russian wilderness, no less), and other such saving, but completely unrealistic, artifacts.veenzcal's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 stars -
Edit: this is my first and probably last Brad Thor novel and I did no research on the type of books and style that he typically writes. Just picked it up randomly but these are my thoughts as a first time reader who also enjoyed other survival novels like Hatchet!
Overall it is a decent action / survival thriller as the main character Harvath is trying to make it out of the depths of Russian wilderness and away from Russian mercenaries as he was brutal kidnapped. The story points of Harvath fighting to make it out was a decently gripping read.
In general there was just a huge lack of humanity in the book. The initial brutal murders and kidnapping had no justified motivations leaving the reader to just say “I guess they’re Russians so you know... evil!” which is just lazy writing on the part of the writer to basically try to deliver an NCIS episode premise as plot points. This lack of humanity becomes even more present at the end of the book when Harvath **spoiler** survives but then decided to go on a really awful revenge rampage that results in murdering a child just so one of the Russians will know the pain of loss like Harvath will have to face for the rest of his life. I can fully sympathize with the sheer amount of trauma and PTSD Harvath is going through after such an ordeal. But Brad Thor provides absolutely no contextualization around these characters, leaving the readers wondering if they are supposed to be cheering on for the murder of innocent children.
Definitely wouldn’t recommend this book if you want interesting or well developed characters who are conscious of how their actions impact the innocent or want to see characters actually deal or confront with their trauma in non-disturbing ways. The best way to read this is to just sit in the action and skip the last few chapters
Edit: this is my first and probably last Brad Thor novel and I did no research on the type of books and style that he typically writes. Just picked it up randomly but these are my thoughts as a first time reader who also enjoyed other survival novels like Hatchet!
Overall it is a decent action / survival thriller as the main character Harvath is trying to make it out of the depths of Russian wilderness and away from Russian mercenaries as he was brutal kidnapped. The story points of Harvath fighting to make it out was a decently gripping read.
In general there was just a huge lack of humanity in the book. The initial brutal murders and kidnapping had no justified motivations leaving the reader to just say “I guess they’re Russians so you know... evil!” which is just lazy writing on the part of the writer to basically try to deliver an NCIS episode premise as plot points. This lack of humanity becomes even more present at the end of the book when Harvath **spoiler** survives but then decided to go on a really awful revenge rampage that results in murdering a child just so one of the Russians will know the pain of loss like Harvath will have to face for the rest of his life. I can fully sympathize with the sheer amount of trauma and PTSD Harvath is going through after such an ordeal. But Brad Thor provides absolutely no contextualization around these characters, leaving the readers wondering if they are supposed to be cheering on for the murder of innocent children.
Definitely wouldn’t recommend this book if you want interesting or well developed characters who are conscious of how their actions impact the innocent or want to see characters actually deal or confront with their trauma in non-disturbing ways. The best way to read this is to just sit in the action and skip the last few chapters
kstumpf's review against another edition
3.0
Not my favorite Thor book, not my least favorite. Since Full Black, Mr. Thor seems to have lost his drive to be the best writer of thrillers in the world. He has his formula, it has not changed for the last 3-4 books, and I guess it works.
I just wish he would get back to being BRAD THOR and deliver an awesome story.
I just wish he would get back to being BRAD THOR and deliver an awesome story.