false 2 0 false false Tue Dec 23 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 14 10:34:01 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 23 19:10:30 -0800 2008 my stepmother is the reason I still have a job. She's one of the only people I know who buys books! She doesn't take them out of the library or obtain them secondhand at the Strand -- no, she'll be at a store shopping for other, completely unrelated things, and suddenly be like, "Hmm, that looks like a cool book, I think I'll buy it." Totally randomly -- without regard for author popularity, good reviews, etc. She'll just see a book and casually spend $30 on it because it catches her eye. And she does this FREQUENTLY! In hardcover!

So she gave me this one, and at first I conveniently "left" it at her house, and then I felt bad (for the reasons above), so the next time I saw her I made a point of retrieving it, and made a vow to myself that, GODDAMMIT I WILL READ THIS THING COVER-TO-COVER COME HELL OR HIGHWATER!

Finished it today, and must say that the writing quality is surprisingly, refreshingly -- dare I say -- excellent for a thriller. But that's the only reason I'm giving it more than zero stars.

If this book contained any more testosterone, it would have given me a female boner. It's got it all: superfluous acronyms, pages and pages of weaponry stats, post-arms-shed "man-to-man" duels, references to any objects besides actual human-being men as "she", sailboats, submarines, zeppelins, helicopters, motorcycles, yachts, various politically-important (and of course simultaneously bombshell) women on multiple continents sweating and/or outright pleasuring themselves in the mere presence of the hero... I mean, the list goes on and on. And the irony is that the male protagonist doesn't really "do" a whole hell of a lot. He mainly just strides around lookin' pertty.

But the writing is more than decent -- poetic, even. It's actually kind of cute that a guy would take the time to read this instead of just renting porn or going on a shooting spree at the mall.

I sure wish authors like this would use their powers for good rather than evil.

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