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michaelbtice's reviews
154 reviews
The Sentinel by Lee Child, Andrew Child
4.0
The first collaboration between Lee and Andrew, and I think that, once the torch has been fully passed, we will still have lots of the same two fisted action, as always.
This one? With no particular place to go, Reacher rolls into town, starts out helping some random guy, makes amazing leaps of deductive reasoning, and fights Russian ransomware hackers and punches literal Nazis.
Like every good hero should.
Always punch Nazis.
A fun romp, and it's nice to see that, with Andrew starting to take the reins, they are moving into more modern stories, but while Reacher remains his old Luddite self.
This one? With no particular place to go, Reacher rolls into town, starts out helping some random guy, makes amazing leaps of deductive reasoning, and fights Russian ransomware hackers and punches literal Nazis.
Like every good hero should.
Always punch Nazis.
A fun romp, and it's nice to see that, with Andrew starting to take the reins, they are moving into more modern stories, but while Reacher remains his old Luddite self.
The Outfit by Richard Stark
3.0
I think I enjoyed the first 2 books more than this one. Yeah, Parker told them what was going to happen and he did it, but it just didn't seem to have the same verve that the first two Parker novels did.
Still a fun read, that I honestly should have finished quicker, and I'll keep on going in between my other readings.
Still a fun read, that I honestly should have finished quicker, and I'll keep on going in between my other readings.
The Mediterranean Caper by Clive Cussler
1.0
Where do I start with this? About 23 years ago I read the only other Dirk Pitt book I have ever read. It was Inca Gold and my 16 year old self loved it. I decided, while taking a break from reading way too many Jack Reacher novels, that I would find some other bit of flippery to occupy my reading time on airplanes while traveling for work, and went back to the well to pull out the very first Dirk Pitt novel published.
I wish I hadn't.
Perhaps I am applying a modern sense of morals to a book that came out 44 years ago and I should accept this novel for what it is based off of the time in which it was written? I think perhaps not.
We start off with our "hero " meeting a woman who he first slaps because she is being, what he deems as, hysterical and then, because she hasn't had a man in the 9 years since her husband dies, immediately has sex with her on the beach. Was this acceptable then? I'm pretty sure Dirk just raped a woman.
The book then continues to follow a cliff hanger, how will Dirk get out of this trap, format where Dirk is naturally the only person smart enough to understand how anything works, what is going on, and how the day will be saved. He is, naturally, the smartest and the best at everything he does, because he is a man, and all men aspire to be him. The manliest of men.
Working through all these problems that only Pitt can see, and that are revealed to the reader at the end, wrapped up with a nice little bow, leaving us entirely in the dark, Pitt makes his way around the island battling the German mastermind at every turn, coming up with the most out there idea as to what is actually going on, while providing absolutely no proof until the very end of why any of this happens to be true or why anyone should understand it. Maybe I like my mystery to have a few clues along the way? I could be wrong, though. I guess it all should be in the hero's head and then just presented at the end like the "fresh" catch of the day. You either buy it or you don't.
Minor aside, when the radio operator is described as a, "your black," with his, "low, resonant voice," I winced. Man did I ever wince so hard.
Really, though, why did I devote the time it took me to actually finish this book? It wasn't a matter of figuring things out ahead of time, which there were a few parts where it was easy to do that, I'm looking at your Unterseeboot, but more that you couldn't figure anything out because this was really nothing more than the story of Dirk Pitt bumbling around an island, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and stitching together a bunch of unrelated nonexistent clues to form a cohesive narrative that absolutely had to be true because Dirk Pitt said so!
And the overt misogyny at the very end with the women working their typewriters in that office? That was way over the top.
One mystery about this book that I cannot solve, and there are ample clues to be found within its pages, how did it spawn so many sequels?
I wish I hadn't.
Perhaps I am applying a modern sense of morals to a book that came out 44 years ago and I should accept this novel for what it is based off of the time in which it was written? I think perhaps not.
We start off with our "hero " meeting a woman who he first slaps because she is being, what he deems as, hysterical and then, because she hasn't had a man in the 9 years since her husband dies, immediately has sex with her on the beach. Was this acceptable then? I'm pretty sure Dirk just raped a woman.
The book then continues to follow a cliff hanger, how will Dirk get out of this trap, format where Dirk is naturally the only person smart enough to understand how anything works, what is going on, and how the day will be saved. He is, naturally, the smartest and the best at everything he does, because he is a man, and all men aspire to be him. The manliest of men.
Working through all these problems that only Pitt can see, and that are revealed to the reader at the end, wrapped up with a nice little bow, leaving us entirely in the dark, Pitt makes his way around the island battling the German mastermind at every turn, coming up with the most out there idea as to what is actually going on, while providing absolutely no proof until the very end of why any of this happens to be true or why anyone should understand it. Maybe I like my mystery to have a few clues along the way? I could be wrong, though. I guess it all should be in the hero's head and then just presented at the end like the "fresh" catch of the day. You either buy it or you don't.
Minor aside, when the radio operator is described as a, "your black," with his, "low, resonant voice," I winced. Man did I ever wince so hard.
Really, though, why did I devote the time it took me to actually finish this book? It wasn't a matter of figuring things out ahead of time, which there were a few parts where it was easy to do that, I'm looking at your Unterseeboot, but more that you couldn't figure anything out because this was really nothing more than the story of Dirk Pitt bumbling around an island, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and stitching together a bunch of unrelated nonexistent clues to form a cohesive narrative that absolutely had to be true because Dirk Pitt said so!
And the overt misogyny at the very end with the women working their typewriters in that office? That was way over the top.
One mystery about this book that I cannot solve, and there are ample clues to be found within its pages, how did it spawn so many sequels?