A friend of mine with similar taste told me they hated this book. And that I would hate this book. And for 70% of the book, I thought them a pessimistA friend of mine with similar taste told me they hated this book. And that I would hate this book. And for 70% of the book, I thought them a pessimist. Or myself a moron who just enjoyed everything. I never thought it would be a contender for my top book or two of the series, but I found it..fine. Well, every bit of these 3 stars is for that first 70% of the novel.
When I crossed the 70.1% threshold, I watched not just this book, but the Dune saga itself, take a spiraling nosedive in quality. What was once a series that left me pondering subjects like politics and religion, or grappling with new concepts just introduced to me, devolved into an experience that ultimately left me just feeling sorry for Herbert. With everything going on in his personal life at the time, it's hard not to ascribe the drop in quality to personal upheaval.
The book's biggest crime is that it cheapens the rest of the saga. Herbert has always had some issues as a writer, but they are at their most obvious and most impactful in Heretics. Dune sometimes left me feeling stupid, but it was never because I couldn’t grasp the actual concepts or ideas or anything. It was because I was trying to follow the scattered author. Several times, I found myself asking, "Wait, how did they know each other?", "Wait, what happened with that attack?", "Wait, why do they want [thing]? Didn’t they say they hated [thing]?", etc.
Then, of course, there are the infamous sex topics and scenes in Heretics. It's not the horror of them that hurts this novel so gravely. It’s not even the subject matter. It’s that it reads like a 14-year-old trying to write a weird dark humor short story. And that, really, sums up most of Heretics so perfectly. It’s all just a shame....more
I had been passively putting off writing this review of the fourth Dune novel having originally given it 4 stars. Is this book literally perfect? No, I had been passively putting off writing this review of the fourth Dune novel having originally given it 4 stars. Is this book literally perfect? No, as with anything with Herbert, it is far from it. But it just may be my favorite novel in the series thus far and, judging it in the silo of science fiction or, perhaps, within the series, it is purely amazing. The main purpose of the story, this time, is not to tell a story. Rather, Herbert clearly wants the reader to ponder leadership, sacrifice, and the cyclical natures of history and power.
As with the other novels between Dune and God Emperor of Dune (and most apparently in Messiah), Herbert moves further away from the space opera/action setpieces of Dune and delves further into commentary on power, religion, humankind's tendency towards its own suffering, and the power dynamics between the ruling and working classes (especially when a religious head of state is in power).
Theocracies are a clear danger that faces us today, but what if the being in power at the head of it all was an actual god? What if the ruler of man was an actual, timeless being that had ruled across millennia? The titular God Emperor is just that.
A perfect example of how Herbert's writing in Dune gets more and more bizarre, approaching the lunacy of an acid trip, is the God Emperor. A man no more, he is a bing that has fully merged with the sandworms of Arrakis and transformed into...something else. His prescient ability allowing him to see humanity’s past, present, and future makes him both omnipotent and isolated.
While I found myself feeling sorry for The Tyrant, as many in the universe have come to call him, his Golden Path to mankind's salvation is one of pain and oppression. The Golden Path is a main focus of the novel. A series of steps and events that is the actual one and only path to mankind's survival rejected by Paul Atreides due to its harsh nature and thousands of years of pain and oppression, it leaves the reader wondering if it was all worth it by the book's conclusion.
I still find myself sometimes wondering, especially in today's climate, if something like the Golden Path WOULD be worth it. Perhaps not oven thousands of years, certainly, but with how awful things continue to get for your average person (especially in societies in decline such as the United States), one can wonder if something like a series of several (even more) oppressive rulers might be worth it if ***WE KNEW FOR A FACT*** that it would lead to our eventual age of prosperity where everyone was on equal footing and taken care of. I often lean towards no, but God Emperor of Dune has had me constantly revisiting the idea since I finished the novel months ago. ...more
Another book that makes me yearn for a 10 star system, Arrow Through the Heart feels like a "passing grade" in that it accomplished what it set out toAnother book that makes me yearn for a 10 star system, Arrow Through the Heart feels like a "passing grade" in that it accomplished what it set out to do. However, the first half of the book feels like a slog with little to do with the heart of the life of Crawford Gordon, a Canadian businessman with a large part in getting the Avro Arrow program off the ground.
The Arrow, which my grandfather worked on, was to be both Canada's highest technological and military achievement before, of course, politics came in and cost tens of thousands Canadians their jobs with zero notice.
The book is the biography of Gordon, however his time involved with the Arrow program is bookended by a lonely but, sadly, "normal for rich people of that time" upbringing and then a deathly spiral into alcoholism that ended it all.
While the early years of Crawford Gordon are certainly relevant to explain the, seemingly kinda shit, man he became, the book felt it got lost in these details for too long. This caused me to set the book down and not pick it back up several times.
All in all, though, Stewart's style of writing is fantastic, easy to read, and his level of research and personal interviews showcase his passion for what is truly a fascinating story.
I'll always feel close to the Arrow program, especially since losing my grandfather and his giving of this book to me. I look forward to reading more of Stewart's books covering it....more
Another great outting into the universe of Dune. Also another great outting that I found myself enjoying more than the original novel. CoD continues tAnother great outting into the universe of Dune. Also another great outting that I found myself enjoying more than the original novel. CoD continues the story of House Atreides and travels more into the realms of the fantastic and the mystic than its predecessors with pleasantly unpredictable turns.
The only thing I will say against it is it feels, only at times, a bit scattered and unfocused. It might leave you at an interesting point in a substory at the end of a chapter only to hand wave the resolution of that story away later with a passing comment of another character. While the other novels did this as well, it felt a bit more jarring to me this go around, at least for me personally. That said, the hate I see this book gets in many reviews crying about things like "there were no heroes! >:(" makes me feel like so many people missed the point of the series itself.
TLDR I very much enjoyed this novel. While it didn't quite reach the level of Messiah for me, it came very, VERY close....more
The fourth and final compendium continues The Walking Dead's hot streak of compelling storytelling it's been on since the end of the second compendiumThe fourth and final compendium continues The Walking Dead's hot streak of compelling storytelling it's been on since the end of the second compendium. Character development is yet again the centerpiece of the story as characters mature beyond their "do what you need to do to survive" worldview and towards establishing society again, with a focus on society.
Where Compendium 3 established that mankind could re-establish trade and usher in a new world order similar to medieval times, Compendium 4's focus is on how to establish society itself again once the structure is there. Kirkman examines the pitfalls of capitalism and a caste society through the Miltons, the upperclass ruling family of the ultra-advanced Commonwealth. This storyline even features a working class revolution that I did not see coming in a story like The Walking Dead.
Without saying much about the final ending, I will say it came out of nowhere and very abruptly, but I found it to be overall satisfying. Farewell, The Walking Dead....more
Let me start off by saying the main point of this review. I thought this book was absolutely amazing.
Nearly every issue I had with Dune, the series dLet me start off by saying the main point of this review. I thought this book was absolutely amazing.
Nearly every issue I had with Dune, the series debut, was addressed in Messiah. No longer did I find myself flipping back and forth to previous chapters or the glossary. No longer did the flow sometimes awkwardly stumble over itself. I could go on. Not that I disliked Dune, but it was not an instant 5-star like I found with Messiah.
The meta commentary of Messiah once again addresses politics, the follies of cults of personality/the messiah complex, etc like Dune did, but communicates these metaphors and statements in such more clarity and cleverness. Where Dune was commentary wrapped in the hero's journey, Messiah is commentary wrapped in "yes but heros are terrible things."
Now God Emperor of the known galaxy, Paul finds himself both all-knowing and lost in the Jihad carried out in his name foreshadowed throughout Dune. The story unfolds largely through the eyes of Paul or those who seek to dethrone or control him, but mostly through dialogue aside from a few set pieces. But the dialogue is rich and full of symbolism and meaning.
Negan was my favorite character in the show and I absolutely loved reading the source material in Compendium Three recently, but I have to say the HerNegan was my favorite character in the show and I absolutely loved reading the source material in Compendium Three recently, but I have to say the Here's Negan comic left me with a question of "why bother?"
The "bonus episode" television episode of the same name that was shot to keep the show afloat while covid had suspended main production had told an interesting story of your every day fuck-up meeting the harsh reality of the zombie apocalypse. A slow transformation.TV Here's Negan...Negan was a bit of a fuckup. He cheated on his wife and regretted it. Bit of a douche, but an everyman. Comic Negan was far more shallow, a bit more like his apocalypse era future self, etc.
At the end, I didn't feel like had learned too much more about why he is the way he is while the TV show did a great job of showing his slower transformation and how he had reacted to the evil of man. Which is something both comic and show really try to get access, that the real threat is man and not the zombies.
He's still got some great moments, but it just felt completely unnecessary....more
Reading this third compendium of The Walking Dead was a complete treat. Having been a fan of the earlier seasons of the show and binging it over the lReading this third compendium of The Walking Dead was a complete treat. Having been a fan of the earlier seasons of the show and binging it over the last year to wrap it up, I can never help myself from comparing the comics to their television counterparts evy time I read one.
Previous compendiums of TWD have left me thinking "the scenarios seem better in the comics, but boy do I miss the television characters." As the Compendium Three arrives at the switch in focus from survival to reigniting order and civilization, I was thrilled to find myself really finding the comic characters to be the better take in the key storylines of All Out War and the beginnings of the Whisper War.
And boy, what a treat Negan was. Jeffrey Dean Morgans portrayal of Negan has always been a huge highlight of the show for me. Maybe even my favorite part, but I was not prepared for how much I'd enjoy comic Negan. Funnier, more direct, this Negan also get a little more insight of his strict moral code.
All in all, these have been my favorite storylines by far in The Walking Dead comics and have really loved the character development....more
What a challenge it was to land this book onto a 5-star scale. Is this book worth all the hype? Yes. Are the people that couldn't make it through the What a challenge it was to land this book onto a 5-star scale. Is this book worth all the hype? Yes. Are the people that couldn't make it through the first chunk justified? I have to also say yes.
You might read the first sentence of this review and think I must've had trouble deciding between 4 and 5 stars, but it was more between 3 and 4. Were we allowed to have decimals, I'd have gone for a solid 3.8. But I LOVED this book, so why just 3.8 stars?
I find myself agreeing with the reviews that say the beginning is a hard slog, the writing comes off as pretentious at times, etc. The beginning of the novel throws so much information at you without much introduction to the world at all. The usual defense to this is "but they included appendixes that include a glossary." I'm willing to let *some* of this slide though, mainly because the novel is somewhat in the structure of a history book. But at the end of the day, I really don't think a reader should need to look up things in a glossary to understand what is happening.
So why 4 stars and not 3, aside from rounding up from 3.8? It really is everything fans promised it would be. Herbert expertly crafted a rich and deep world of interwoven politics and economics. There is a rich history that could fill pages and pages of deep in-universe history books, a history that has brought the different factions and Houses to where they are at the start of Dune. The creation of the Kwisatz Haderach has been in the works for thousands of years, for example. Arrakis, Dune, has its own deep history and hopeful future of a lush, green world before it. There is just so much going on and it is so deep.
Not to mention, this book absolutely deserves extra points for what it did for the sci-fi genre as a catalyst.
The characters are deeply flawed and interesting. Nobody fills the role of perfect hero, save Paul who is clearly foreshadowed to have a terrible fall from grace more and more as the novel plods on. Leto is perhaps the only true "hero", but pays the price for this fairly early in the novel.
While I do have criticisms of this book, I immensely enjoyed myself being totally wrapped up in this universe and am looking forward to more....more
**spoiler alert** The second compendium of The Walking Dead has some serious improvements over what the first collection held from narrative style to **spoiler alert** The second compendium of The Walking Dead has some serious improvements over what the first collection held from narrative style to characters to the world itself.
Obviously the story picks up where the last dictionary-sized batch of TWD comics left off at the fall of the prison and takes us all the way through discovering Alexandria to meeting the people of Hilltop. My only complaint with the pacing of the comics vs the show is I didn't feel the group spent enough time on the road after the prison to really sell the idea that they're these grizzled group of badass wanderers that tackle anything thrown at them. Without the larger group of Terminus from the show and some other encounters, it's hard to buy Rick's proclamation to Jesus that they can handle any fight when they got their ass handed to them by The Governor and just took out some random road people other than that. That and Rick's paranoia seems a little less justified than in the show since TV Rick has seen a bit more reason for it.
The story itself is great. The shift from survival mode to "we can rebuild the world" is perfectly paced as the group slowly sees the progress that some survivors in Virginia have made wi the establishing communities and small towns. Trade routes are being designed and it all makes sense with the gradual pacing as tbe characters struggle to come to grips with coming out of pure survival mode and try to adjust to a somewhat more normal life, but not without knowing that at any moment the threat of people could come up. The lead up to Negan is great. He doesn't appear yet but they tease him quite a bit and tbe story ends with Rick telling Hilltop he can handle him without issue.
Gone are the women being relegated to background noise and emotional outbursts (man did they do Carol dirty in the last outing). Andrea, Michonne, and even Rosita at times prove to be not only important, but key players in decisions and just really being badasses.
Let's talk about the bolding in the first compendium. It's never perfect in comics, I get it. Some writers seem to not even understand it's meant for emphasis. Even so, the first compendium had by FAR the worst holding I've ever read in a comic and a large part of me thinks they literally thought it was supposed to just be at random. This is completely fixed by the second compendium and lord am I grateful for it. No more giant immersion breaks because the characters are talking like they just learned what inflections are....more
Reading the Mitch Rapp series has been a different experience in my mid-30s than it was in my early-20s and this book is probably the "worst" offenderReading the Mitch Rapp series has been a different experience in my mid-30s than it was in my early-20s and this book is probably the "worst" offender. While I don't mind indulging in the 24"/Jack Bauer adventure stories of my youth, American Assassin pushes the envelope of "badassery" a but too much in this prequel outting.
Reading about Rapp in his 20s-40s is a real treat most of the time. Part of that magic is just how good he is. The character functions as a Jack Bauer, whom Vince Flynn wrote an excellent season for in 24, type. He's certain, smart, calculated, and frankly good at taking out bad guys in increasingly complex and entertaining ways.
So what is the issue with the novel? Well, he's certain, smart, calculated, and good at taking out bad guys. So why is that an issue here? It's not earned. He's like 19 and is already the unstoppable force of nature he is in the later in the timeline books. This kid took some judo classes and shows up at the doorstep of Stan Hurley, established in the novel as a top of his class assassin/spy. Yet Mitch easily handles him in their first encounter to prove himself. The reaction of the other characters? "Oh my god he is just SUCH A NATURAL BADASS!"
That gets boring. Rereading this book after nearly a decade, I was hoping to see Mitch get honed and molded into the lethal weapon he is in later novels. To see him struggle with the death of his fiance and how he got on the road he wound up on. Instead, we got half a chapter of him looking back on dealing with this grief. He's already a lethal weapon when we meet him. He's outsmarting CIA spies that have made a career out of this.
Some characters do get a worthy representation. Notably Irene Kennedy makes an appearance and injects a much needed example of a woman handling shit and getting it done in these books. Thomas Stanfield remains the quiet, stoic, collected master spy but with an extra spring in his step due to not being approaching death by this point in the series timeline.
All that said there were enjoyable moments, I just didn't want the 35 year old Rapp inhabitating his 21 year old body....more
Like many others, I was a fan of The Walking Dead show on AMC before diving into the comics. I first dove in when living in Florida, anxiously consumiLike many others, I was a fan of The Walking Dead show on AMC before diving into the comics. I first dove in when living in Florida, anxiously consuming every second of TWD and Metal Gear Solid content when I dove into the comics. I loved them in the moment.
Having gone back a bit more mature and with a different lens on the content I consume, I'm a BIT less of a fan of the first arcs showcased in Compendium One (I did the volumes previously in FL and got a bit past where C One leaves you). The biggest problem TWD has isn't even the plot or the characters, though I'll get there. It is the bolding of the text. Many comics suffer from this, but TWD seems to be a top offender. A typical sentence might be "He SAT down AT his desk TO write A review of The WALKING Dead Compendium One." It completely constantly took me out of the story and broke my immersion.
Next up, the characters. The women in C1 are often reduced down to annoying side characters who often are there for the purpose of either advancing the male characters or being tied solely to sex. The exception is Andrea who, unlike her awful (imo) TV adaptation, stands out as a secondary leader of the group and top fighter and warrior. Michonne, a strong staple of the television series, is mostly used to be a rocky upset to another established relationship of the series. Gone is her badassery and this, original, Michonne is a run of the mill survivor who just happens to wield a sword. Maggie's arc consists entirely of "let's be married and have lots of sex!" and "I wanna have a babbbyyyy!"Neither of these are an issue at all on their own, but that is quite literally all she seems to be there for plot-wise. Two other women just simply go basically crazy with one completely obsessing over her lack of a boyfriend to the point they go absolutely and completely insane. Another betrays the group for a chance with another man.
The plot itself though progresses nicely. There are far less filler arcs than the show and the comic more directly addresses the changes in the characters, most notably Rick, that they must undergo to adjust to the brutality of the horrifying new world they must live in. There are no "lets make you wait two weeks for a cliffhanger only to deliver a random prequel episode that will not affect the plot." However, it is not quite enough to make up for the lack of depth many of the characters have which is an area the tv show really overshadows the comic. ...more
I wish I could rate this a 3.5 but here we are. When I first dove into this book, I was a bit concerned I had just purchased 310 pages of "orange man I wish I could rate this a 3.5 but here we are. When I first dove into this book, I was a bit concerned I had just purchased 310 pages of "orange man bad." However that was not at all the case. Wolff seems to treat the subject matter as objectively as he possibly can while giving the reader a fairly behind-closed-doors look at the chaos and lack of structure in the first 9 months of the Trump presidency.
One thing I have to really knock Wolff for is the structure of his writing throughout the book. There are SO MANY run-on sentence and breaks that should've been just different sentences. The book reads like: Effrum, who recently started to participate in Good Reads (recommended to him by Salad and Cheer, both friends of Effrum who met on online on social media, a playing field that recently previously quiet politicians have been more vocal), a smartphone app out of California, decided that he was going to have a sandwich, the classic bread, meats and lettuce, for lunch. By the time you get to the end of the sentence you forget what he was even talking about. As I imbibe in the odd vice before reading sometimes, this made it a bit hard to follow at times. That and introducing someone's history then not mentioning them for 100 pages so you forget which small player that even was.
Those criticisms aside, this book is expertly handled. Not once did I feel Wolff was sensationalizing. There was no doom and gloom about Trump (though I am interested in his other 2 novels, written after things got a lot crazier), but rather Wolff paints the picture of a man ignorant of the duties and limitations of his job who is desperate for the approval of others.
Along with Trump, the book is largely focused on Steve Bannon with some eye openers about how the two really felt about each other and Bannon's view of Trump being the biggest threat to Trumpism. Likewise, Wolff gives enough context here to actually understand what is really at play with Bannon throughout the tumultuous first year. Not only that, the book does a great job of explaining the chain of events and circumstances in America that set the stage for the Trump campaign.
I recommend this to anyone else who is morbidly fascinated by where we've gone as a country and wants to cut through to the actual facts and not the media hate of the orange....more
This is quite possibly my favorite book series. I fell off the wagon with keeping up with it for a bit and decided to restart the series from scratch.This is quite possibly my favorite book series. I fell off the wagon with keeping up with it for a bit and decided to restart the series from scratch. This is the only book I wasn't really excited about getting back to.
This is the first novel that the star of the series, Mitch Rapp, makes an appearance following the success of Flynn's debut novel, Term Limits. Unfortunately, this isn't the greatest introduction for Rapp. Rapp's skills and attitude are what draws the reader into this very well-crafted thriller series. Always coming up with ingenious solutions to operational hurdles, always telling off politicians in the way that many Americans think, etc. The issue here is that Rapp spends the majority of the novel in the confines of the White House, his operational savvy and attitude locked within its walls. There's only so much room for Rapp to really show off what makes him an exciting character when he's stuck in one building, often confined in a hidden storage closet with an unsuspecting partner and Anna Reilly, his future wife.
Which brings me to Anna. Anna is a great character in future novels, showing off her individuality with her driven career goals and no hesitation to challenge Rapp on their relationship. But in this novel, she is somewhat reduced to a damsel in distress who immediately develops feelings for Rapp after he saves her from a traumatic rape attempt by a terrorist. The novel starts off with her well enough by diving into the strength she has built up following a sexual assault in her past and how she has developed her career through her smarts and charm, but then falls off a cliff a bit when she is reduced to fawning over Mitch despite the circumstances at hand.
The plot itself is probably the most cartoonish of the Flynn novels with terrorists taking over the White House in an explosive morning. While I don't expect a 24-esque book series to be completely grounded in reality, the rest of Flynn's novels still feel very much more realistic and more in line with the reality of the possibilities of America's enemies seizing the opportunity to hit where it hurts most.
One thing I do think this book (and many others in the series) deserves praise for is understanding the antagonist's POV. Flynn never steers clear of touching on exactly what motivates extremists from wanting to destroy the United States. Aziz, the head terrorist of the novel, has his own sections where the book is written from his POV and you learn just how much America has completely ripped up country, spiraled them into economic devastation, etc. They will always be the bad guys in novels like these, but it is nonetheless refreshing to not have the villains reduced to moustache-twirling Villain McVillainfaces....more
Having recenely read the Jedi Apprentice series from the 90s and 00s in preparation for this book, I'll admit it took me a bit to adjust to Obi-Wan anHaving recenely read the Jedi Apprentice series from the 90s and 00s in preparation for this book, I'll admit it took me a bit to adjust to Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon's relationship as it is VASTLY different from that series. I can't fault Claudia Gray for that though nor did it impact my rating.
This is a story of a Jedi Master and Padawan very much at odds with each other. In a bit of a generational role reversal, Obi-Wan plays the rule-centered youth with a deep respect for the Jedi Code and Qui-Gon being the rebellious rogue Jedi that Phantom Menace hinted at. Recently given an offer to join the Jedi Council, Qui-Gon must decide whether or not he wants to take it. However this would end his relationship with Kenobi, which both think may actually be for the best despite Kenobi's pain at his master hiding this from him. All of this plays in the background as they embark on a mission and Qui-Gon struggles with his old fascination of Jedi prophecies, including the prophecy of the Chosen One that eventually leads him to believing Anakin Skywalker to being just that.
Given a mission to a distant planet at the request of another of Count Dooku's former Padawans, the pair embark on a fairly interesting adventure that kept my attention but was a tad dull at times. But that was almost refreshing after so many stories that didn't really focus on a "day in the life of a Jedi before the Clone Wars". The characters all have depth and interesting back stories that are all fleshed out. In particular potential rogue Jedi Rael Averross.
Glimpses are given into Qui-Gon's own training as a Padawan and the events are neatly tied to the present as well as future of the Star Wars saga. All in all I enjoyed it, but I have been far more gripped by other Star Wars novels before Disney came and wiped them out and demoted then to "Legends", in particular the Republic Commando series....more
My fiance told me this book was originally a book about consumerism when the pandemic struck and the author decided to make it more of a tale on race My fiance told me this book was originally a book about consumerism when the pandemic struck and the author decided to make it more of a tale on race as well as dealing with unfamiliar crisis. Having completed it, I can confidently say that the switch was most certainly a jolting one. The book, which suffers from a very long and rambling style, has 100 different half-baked ideas that never really pay off right down to the actual series of events that never completely come to fruition right until the sudden ending.
When I say there are a ton of half-baked ideas, none seem to really get fully explored. There is a nearly 2-page shopping list of things the main female protagonist wants to pick up at the grocery store which, sure, could be a commentary of consumerism. When the power goes out at their vacation home, the kids are disappointed they don't have TV or the Internet. Sure, kids are glued to technology. Then this commentary is completely abandoned and never touched again. Then there is the idea the book tackles race. In my opinion, the book more lightly grazes upon race issues then runs onto the next idea immediately. In their BnB, the caucasian family at the center of the book answers a knock at the door to an African American family saying they are the owners of the house and would like to stay the night. There are some fleeting thoughts of "could THESE people really own this nice place?" internal questions asked, the family realizes oh my maybe we were a little judgy the next day, and then the issue/theme is never visited again.
The style of writing seems to ramble on and on about elements completely irrelevant to both the plot and themes the book attempts to explore. There were good moments for sure and I was at least engaged, but this style took a fairly unrecoverable toll on the rest of the novel for me.
I realize I am being hard on this book and to be honest if 2.5 was an option, that is where I would be. There are good aspects executed well though. I enjoyed an overall arching theme of the tenuous nature of human relationships and the fronts that people put up for reasons like a working relationship, not wanting to sound racist by voicing one's ignorant views, etc. The concept and feeling of dread, when present, was expertly done. The issue is that these amazing moments of tension and dread were constantly interrupted by chapter-long mundane goings-on around the household. If this were intentional, I did not appreciate what the result was. This book is apparently being made into a movie and I can't imagine how they will actually stretch it out to feature-length with how most of the book felt overly descriptive of things like cabinets.
Then there is the ending. I won't spoil it. However. It leaves you with BIG questions. Now, I'm a David Lynch fan. I don't need things to be all laid out and left with everything resolved. The ending of this novel even somewhat thematically mirrors the end of Season 3 of Twin Peaks. But the questions you are left with aren't really justified by the inherent promise of a big payoff throughout the rest of the novel. ...more
This was the first of the Flynn books I read in my early twenties after starting on another one on a Barnes and Noble employee's recommendation and reThis was the first of the Flynn books I read in my early twenties after starting on another one on a Barnes and Noble employee's recommendation and realizing it was in a series. Even without the series's main protag, Mitch Rapp, Term Limits establishes several other recurring characters and stands on its own.
When younger, I was taken in by the assassins' motives and the book truly asks several questions about the decay of the American democracy in the face of a broken political system filled with broken politicians on both sides of the aisle, casting the American public into poverty while they continue to fill their own pockets with special interests. In a post-Jan6 world, it is admittedly harder to support the actions of these revolutionists.
That said, the assassins are still ones to be sympathized with and Flynn does masterful job weaving a tale of political corruption, espopniage, and political backdoor dealings that awakened me a bit as a young adult to the reality that the government is often not truly seeking the best interest of the American people. The pacing of the novel is amazing, especially for a no-experience author who was a bartender prior to the publishing of Term Limits. Flynn proves to be the master of political thrillers and his initial outing is no exception. It's a real shame that he passed away before any conclusion could be given to the Mitch Rapp universe, if he even intended one....more
While this book is well-written, informative, and complete, it only directly lays out the events of the trial and falls a little short on providing coWhile this book is well-written, informative, and complete, it only directly lays out the events of the trial and falls a little short on providing context for the future. Abrams could've been well served to devote some time to writing about how this trial shaped the foundation of laws in America and how intent, self-defense, and man slaughter would come to be defined after the founding of the country....more