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cojack's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars. I’m not sure whether Evan Smoak’s exploits were especially ridiculous this time or whether I’m kind of bored of them. I know I need to suspend disbelief with these stories, but I did a bit of eye rolling this time around. This is a typically fast-paced, “how will he get out of this jam?” Orphan X book. I enjoyed the hanging question of whether this is his last mission. No spoilers, don’t worry. I probably would have liked this book more if it didn’t have dog fighting and prison scenes. That’s content/plot I generally don’t enjoy, so that’s affecting my rating for sure. Anyway, if you’re into Orphan X books, this one is decent and fits right in with the formula. His introspection and desire to get out add a nice dimension.
bianca89279's review against another edition
4.0
Kudos to Gregg Hurwitz for maintaining such a high standard over five novels.
I wasn't as keen on #4 in the series, as I thought Hurwitz went overboard, but he brought the latest Orphan X offering more into the realm of reality/possibility.
Evan Smoak is still a great leading man, with qualms about his past, and his future.
As it's the case with stand-alone novels in a series, there is some repetition of things I had read in the previous instalments, while I understand why, occasionally, I was getting impatient.
In saying all that, I breezed through this novel, which is no easy feat these days, given my subdued reading mojo.
I wasn't as keen on #4 in the series, as I thought Hurwitz went overboard, but he brought the latest Orphan X offering more into the realm of reality/possibility.
Evan Smoak is still a great leading man, with qualms about his past, and his future.
As it's the case with stand-alone novels in a series, there is some repetition of things I had read in the previous instalments, while I understand why, occasionally, I was getting impatient.
In saying all that, I breezed through this novel, which is no easy feat these days, given my subdued reading mojo.
rick_k's review against another edition
3.0
Into the Fire is the fifth Orphan X novel, and continues to open up Evan's world and relationships. You see more friends and a growing network of trusted allies. This is all very positive and recalls the growth we saw in a character like Harry Dresden in Jim Butcher's excellent Dresden Files series. While the character grew, the mission in this outing was somehow less engaging. Evan's elite training, planning and situational awareness make him impossibly untouchable. He does deal with injury in this book, but always seems to just focus through it and perform impossible stunts with perfection. I am hopeful the changes we are seeing in Evan and his methods will breathe new life into this series going forward.
jwillis81's review against another edition
5.0
The thing that I've really grown to appreciate about this series is that each installment has a very different scope. The first one was a local affair, the second one was mostly contained to an estate, the one immediately prior involved the President of the United States, and this one starts out small and the web gets larger as the book goes on. It's refreshing to see the protagonist undertake so many different missions, each of which add to the myth and development of his character, and finds new ways to put his training to good use. I highly recommend this thriller, just as I do all the other books in this series.
pilebythebed's review against another edition
4.0
Out of the Dark, book 4 of Greg Hurwitz’s Orphan X series seemed to wrap things up in a bow. Hero Evan Smoak had discovered the hidden secrets from his past and killed the man responsible (a man who just happened to be the President of the United States). At the start of Into the Fire, Smoak has decided that with his past behind him, he will also give up the mantle of the Nowhere Man, a persona that he developed to help people in trouble. Of course, before doing that he needs to complete one more job.
The very cold open involves the killing of Grant Merriweather, but before he dies he gives up the name of his cousin Max. It turns out that Greg is a forensic auditor and has entrusted Max with information to take to the media in case of his death. But before he can do that Max finds himself the target of a hitman and while on the run finds his way to Evan Smoak’s number and possibly the client in Smoak’s last case.
Into the Fire is a Russian doll of a novel. Every time Smoak thinks he has cut the head off the organisation that is targeting Max he finds another level deeper. And each time he goes deeper the level of difficulty for him goes up, this includes spending half the book battling a concussion which throws off his balance and timing. But Smoak will be Smoak, backing himself in a range of increasingly dangerous situations including being dropped into the middle of a dog fight and infiltrating (and then escaping from) a prison to kill one of his targets. This is, as always, suspend-your-disbelief and sit back and enjoy action from a master of this genre.
Smoak continues, slowly, on his journey to become a normal human being, a theme that underlies all of the books in this series. He continues to mentor the trainee orphan, computer hacker-whizz teenager he took on a couple of books back. His relationship with neighbour Mia goes cold and then becomes more complicated as he tries to help out his other neighbours in the only way he knows how. And he has to grapple with the real concept that shortly he will stop doing the only thing he has been trained all of his life to do.
Into the Fire is another great entry in this ongoing action series. Unsurprisingly, in the age of prestige streaming TV, it is also in development as a TV series. And not to disappoint fans too much, Hurwitz leaves a little dangling to set things up for a possible action-packed future.
The very cold open involves the killing of Grant Merriweather, but before he dies he gives up the name of his cousin Max. It turns out that Greg is a forensic auditor and has entrusted Max with information to take to the media in case of his death. But before he can do that Max finds himself the target of a hitman and while on the run finds his way to Evan Smoak’s number and possibly the client in Smoak’s last case.
Into the Fire is a Russian doll of a novel. Every time Smoak thinks he has cut the head off the organisation that is targeting Max he finds another level deeper. And each time he goes deeper the level of difficulty for him goes up, this includes spending half the book battling a concussion which throws off his balance and timing. But Smoak will be Smoak, backing himself in a range of increasingly dangerous situations including being dropped into the middle of a dog fight and infiltrating (and then escaping from) a prison to kill one of his targets. This is, as always, suspend-your-disbelief and sit back and enjoy action from a master of this genre.
Smoak continues, slowly, on his journey to become a normal human being, a theme that underlies all of the books in this series. He continues to mentor the trainee orphan, computer hacker-whizz teenager he took on a couple of books back. His relationship with neighbour Mia goes cold and then becomes more complicated as he tries to help out his other neighbours in the only way he knows how. And he has to grapple with the real concept that shortly he will stop doing the only thing he has been trained all of his life to do.
Into the Fire is another great entry in this ongoing action series. Unsurprisingly, in the age of prestige streaming TV, it is also in development as a TV series. And not to disappoint fans too much, Hurwitz leaves a little dangling to set things up for a possible action-packed future.
joestewart's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed it and the plot how to pace that was quick but not too quick. I’ll read some more in the series.
baya_111's review against another edition
4.0
Really enjoyable book. This series is nice (though after reading two books I'm wondering if I'll end up sick of the main character thinking about quitting at the end of each book).