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A review by thogek
ESPionage: Regime Change: A Psychic CIA Novel by Tom Easton, Tom Easton, Frank Wu
adventurous
medium-paced
3.0
I like ESPionage: Regime Change's concept: older long-retired telepaths (and other rare abilities) drawn back into deadly national espionage scenarios, and how that might realistically work.
Unfortunately, for me at least, the writing had a number of issues that felt like disruptive speed bumps along the way. Many times I completely lost track of who was where in a scene and who was speaking what parts of dialog (and I backed up to try to reorient myself, not always successfully) due to a frequent lack of cues. And a few times the who-was-where just didn't make sense, including one case of someone entering a building, crossing a lobby, climbing four flights of stairs and approaching a door in the time it took for one character to speak one short sentence. Just lots of clumsy writing moments that too-frequently bumped me out of the story as I backed up to figure out what I'd missed.
The story, overall, was still a mostly fun read, albeit more for the ideas behind what was happening than for the bumpy storytelling. And I did like the fair portrayal of older (70+) protagonists. However, while the end (and the "a psychic CIA novel" subtitle) clearly sets up for more story to come, I'm just not feeling the pull of interest to read them when they do.
Unfortunately, for me at least, the writing had a number of issues that felt like disruptive speed bumps along the way. Many times I completely lost track of who was where in a scene and who was speaking what parts of dialog (and I backed up to try to reorient myself, not always successfully) due to a frequent lack of cues. And a few times the who-was-where just didn't make sense, including one case of someone entering a building, crossing a lobby, climbing four flights of stairs and approaching a door in the time it took for one character to speak one short sentence. Just lots of clumsy writing moments that too-frequently bumped me out of the story as I backed up to figure out what I'd missed.
The story, overall, was still a mostly fun read, albeit more for the ideas behind what was happening than for the bumpy storytelling. And I did like the fair portrayal of older (70+) protagonists. However, while the end (and the "a psychic CIA novel" subtitle) clearly sets up for more story to come, I'm just not feeling the pull of interest to read them when they do.