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3.27 AVERAGE
3.27 AVERAGE
I come to the Preston & Child thriller factory through a side door - Preston's nonfiction Lost City of the Monkey God. I take a dim view of double-bylined novels (I have visions of James Patterson overseeing a sweatshop of toiling writers, like a Cuban cigar factory) but I can see where P&C must have a lot of fun cranking these things out. Gideon Crew is half nerd, half McGyver, and the whole book is a comic book without the pictures. But as Johnny Carson used to say, buy the premise, buy the joke. If you're willing to accept the preposterous premises, it's fun.
Preston/Child collaborations almost always end up as fast reads, partly because they are typically short and easy, but mostly because they use pacing very, very effectively to keep you wanting to read just one more chapter. Of course, that chapter is probably only a few pages long and induces you to want to read another chapter and then another and then the next thing you know it's 3am and the book is done. There just aren't good stopping points in a preston/child book.
Gideon's Sword is a 2011 novel by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. The book is the first installment in the Gideon Crew series. The novel was optioned by Bay Films and will be produced by Michael Bay.
Plot summary
The story introduces Gideon Crew, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory who is also a former art thief/master-of-disguise. The first 50 pages is a little like a Bond pre-titles adventure. He learns from his mother that his mathematician father (who had developed a flawed encryption) had actually warned his boss about the flaws. This resulted in his murder. Gideon exacts revenge from his father's murderer. As a result of this, he is recruited to be a freelance operative by an ultra-private security/engineering firm working for the Department of Homeland Security. His mission: to trace and retrieve plans for a mysterious super-weapon being brought to the United States of America by a Chinese scientist before the Chinese can recover them. Things immediately get out of control when he witnesses a black SUV chase down and crash the cab the scientist is riding. Gideon gets there in time to pull the man from the wreckage and write down a long string of numbers he rattles off. There's nothing else on him.
The hunt is on for the "lost" plans, wherever the scientist hid them, the meaning of the list of numbers, and how it all ties together.
This was a quick ‘okay’ read that does not overstay its welcome. It had a few decent twists which made it a little unpredictable. This helped to keep interest levels up. But its not anywhere near the quality of work we have come to expect from Douglas & Child. Ultimately it was a little disappointing. It doesn't match the usual level of cerebral action and mystery, along with interesting characters, they've established in their previous books. All in all the book feels a little flat and the characters one dimensional. Crew seems to fumble his way through situations.
Lots of action and violence, a hint of romance, but it all seems so shallow and 'half-baked'. Rather like a lackluster movie plot. Meh.
Plot summary
The hunt is on for the "lost" plans, wherever the scientist hid them, the meaning of the list of numbers, and how it all ties together.
This was a quick ‘okay’ read that does not overstay its welcome. It had a few decent twists which made it a little unpredictable. This helped to keep interest levels up. But its not anywhere near the quality of work we have come to expect from Douglas & Child. Ultimately it was a little disappointing. It doesn't match the usual level of cerebral action and mystery, along with interesting characters, they've established in their previous books. All in all the book feels a little flat and the characters one dimensional. Crew seems to fumble his way through situations.
Lots of action and violence, a hint of romance, but it all seems so shallow and 'half-baked'. Rather like a lackluster movie plot. Meh.
it was okay. I wasn't as drawn in like the Pendergast books, or even some of their solo efforts.
it read like a screenplay. Didn't really get a feel for the character or have any feelings for him one way or the other.
it read like a screenplay. Didn't really get a feel for the character or have any feelings for him one way or the other.
A quick read, easy plotting & characters, nothing dramatic or new in the twists. Fairly average book.