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Athena Force #3
Exposed
Exposed by Katherine Garbera released on Aug 25, 2004 is available now for purchase.
304 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
2 people are currently reading
90 people want to read
About the author
Katherine Garbera
793 books659 followersKatherine Garbera is a USA TODAY bestselling author of more than 100 novels, which have been translated into over two dozen languages and sold millions of copies worldwide. She is the mother of two incredibly creative and snarky grown children. Katherine enjoys drinking champagne, reading, walking and traveling with her husband. She lives in Kent, UK, where she is working on her next novel.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 16, 2019
This book only receives 2 stars because I managed to force myself to finish it. There were several times where I was tempted to hurl it at the nearest annoying insect.
My problems with this Exposed fall into three main categories: style, characters and setting.
Style
The majority of the content of this book is scene setting narration or the main character's internal monologue, probably both. I couldn't tell the difference between the two. Suffice it to say that there was entirely too much "tell" and not nearly enough "show".
Additionally and probably causally, the dialogue is sparse, stilted and decidedly unnatural. At one point early in the book the lead character is on the phone with her colleague and lover and there is an entire page of scene setting narration/internal monologue between dialogue lines in a conversation. The dialogue itself is as dry and passionless as a laundry list. As this was very early on in the book I assumed that this was meant as an insight into the characters feelings about the relationship. I discovered later that it was actually one of the more natural conversations in the book.
Characters
Perhaps as a result of the writing style and the fact that we did not see much of anything outside the protagonists own thoughts, all the other characters come across as cardboard cutout place holders. This includes love interests, villains and characters from previous books in the series. There is no character definition, let alone any development.
The protagonist herself is also ill defined despite the fact that we hear about her ad nauseum. She seems to flick-flack between confident, ambitious and not a little calculating and unsure, inept and impulsive to the point of idiocy. There is no character growth, nothing that happens in the story seems to affect her for longer than the scene it happens it. She also does not seem to have any impact on the story happening around her. The questions she asks in her "interviews" do not have any relation to the information she receives, the conclusions she draws or any established journalistic, investigative or interview practices.
Setting
This author, and the others in this series, seem to be trying to create a Charlie's Angels style story full of strong confident women who come together to solve a mutual mystery while dealing with life altering events of their own. So far each author has failed more astoundingly than the last.
This member of the team contributes to solving the over-arcing mystery is to send a couple emails, let someone else do the work for her and "accidentally" add one new fact to the story. Her interactions with characters from previous stories are colourless and meaningless as all her other interactions apart from turning the dead team mentor into some sort of Obi Wan style guardian angel in her head.
At least her research into the previous books in the series she is supposed to be co-authoring is a little better than her research into everything else. There are glaring errors that even a layman (not involved in the industries or fields in question) reader like myself can spot. These included errors in aircraft, firearms, bladed weapons, investigation and interview techniques, military organisation, political organisation, stealth techniques, jungle survival, night vision device use, close quarters combat and many others. At one point she even hides behind a pot plant in a hotel lobby and sneaks into a hospital by hiding behind a couple of teenagers.
In fact the author needs a new editor, if she ever had one. Aside from the glaring research errors and the abominable and confusing style there are places where she contradicts herself from one chapter to another and in one case from on paragraph to another.
Conclusion
I really wanted like this series, it sounds like a fun concept a great example of strong independent women making there way in the world. Unfortunately so far it has missed the mark completely and each book has been more difficult to read than the last. I only read this one to find out what happens with the over-arcing mystery and I was rewarded with one rather meaningless fact that contributed exactly nothing relevant to the mystery. Like her heroine the author was obviously far more concerned with her own story than that of the team.
Looking at the rest of series the Rainy storyline won't be resolved for at least 3 more books and then there are another 23 books after that also somehow linked with these people. I'm sorry I don't have the energy. I think I'll go and read a Kathy Reichs book now, at least she can do her research and her heroine is a real strong independent woman at the top of her field.
My problems with this Exposed fall into three main categories: style, characters and setting.
Style
The majority of the content of this book is scene setting narration or the main character's internal monologue, probably both. I couldn't tell the difference between the two. Suffice it to say that there was entirely too much "tell" and not nearly enough "show".
Additionally and probably causally, the dialogue is sparse, stilted and decidedly unnatural. At one point early in the book the lead character is on the phone with her colleague and lover and there is an entire page of scene setting narration/internal monologue between dialogue lines in a conversation. The dialogue itself is as dry and passionless as a laundry list. As this was very early on in the book I assumed that this was meant as an insight into the characters feelings about the relationship. I discovered later that it was actually one of the more natural conversations in the book.
Characters
Perhaps as a result of the writing style and the fact that we did not see much of anything outside the protagonists own thoughts, all the other characters come across as cardboard cutout place holders. This includes love interests, villains and characters from previous books in the series. There is no character definition, let alone any development.
The protagonist herself is also ill defined despite the fact that we hear about her ad nauseum. She seems to flick-flack between confident, ambitious and not a little calculating and unsure, inept and impulsive to the point of idiocy. There is no character growth, nothing that happens in the story seems to affect her for longer than the scene it happens it. She also does not seem to have any impact on the story happening around her. The questions she asks in her "interviews" do not have any relation to the information she receives, the conclusions she draws or any established journalistic, investigative or interview practices.
Setting
This author, and the others in this series, seem to be trying to create a Charlie's Angels style story full of strong confident women who come together to solve a mutual mystery while dealing with life altering events of their own. So far each author has failed more astoundingly than the last.
This member of the team contributes to solving the over-arcing mystery is to send a couple emails, let someone else do the work for her and "accidentally" add one new fact to the story. Her interactions with characters from previous stories are colourless and meaningless as all her other interactions apart from turning the dead team mentor into some sort of Obi Wan style guardian angel in her head.
At least her research into the previous books in the series she is supposed to be co-authoring is a little better than her research into everything else. There are glaring errors that even a layman (not involved in the industries or fields in question) reader like myself can spot. These included errors in aircraft, firearms, bladed weapons, investigation and interview techniques, military organisation, political organisation, stealth techniques, jungle survival, night vision device use, close quarters combat and many others. At one point she even hides behind a pot plant in a hotel lobby and sneaks into a hospital by hiding behind a couple of teenagers.
In fact the author needs a new editor, if she ever had one. Aside from the glaring research errors and the abominable and confusing style there are places where she contradicts herself from one chapter to another and in one case from on paragraph to another.
Conclusion
I really wanted like this series, it sounds like a fun concept a great example of strong independent women making there way in the world. Unfortunately so far it has missed the mark completely and each book has been more difficult to read than the last. I only read this one to find out what happens with the over-arcing mystery and I was rewarded with one rather meaningless fact that contributed exactly nothing relevant to the mystery. Like her heroine the author was obviously far more concerned with her own story than that of the team.
Looking at the rest of series the Rainy storyline won't be resolved for at least 3 more books and then there are another 23 books after that also somehow linked with these people. I'm sorry I don't have the energy. I think I'll go and read a Kathy Reichs book now, at least she can do her research and her heroine is a real strong independent woman at the top of her field.
Want to read
November 18, 2008bombshell series 2nd bk
Read
July 28, 2011i really liked this athena force book, i wasn't a huge fan of the last one though
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews