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Shock and Awe
A mysterious American billionaire has hatched a plot to fight terrorist fire with fire. Former soldier Boyce Hammond is tasked with leading a ragtag mob of militants in an audacious attack that will inflame the entire world.
Carla Smukowski, an ex special forces operative, struggling to come to terms with her brother's murder by Islamic radicals, agrees to join the American militants in hijacking a nuclear shipment and transforming it into a deadly weapon.
As Carla comes to appreciate the enormity of what she's involved in, FBI Agent Boyce Hammond begins to fear that the group he has infiltrated might actually pull off its apocalyptic scheme. But by then events have taken an unthinkable turn, and suddenly the target is much closer to home.
Carla Smukowski, an ex special forces operative, struggling to come to terms with her brother's murder by Islamic radicals, agrees to join the American militants in hijacking a nuclear shipment and transforming it into a deadly weapon.
As Carla comes to appreciate the enormity of what she's involved in, FBI Agent Boyce Hammond begins to fear that the group he has infiltrated might actually pull off its apocalyptic scheme. But by then events have taken an unthinkable turn, and suddenly the target is much closer to home.
472 pages, Paperback
First published September 7, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 4, 2017
This was weird. The idea is that some billionaire is gathering ex-military and paramilitary types in order to pull off nuking Mecca.
This is kind of the horse pill you have to swallow to read this. And one of the weird things about it, is that the book takes such care to craft the details about the various forms of munitions—and I have no idea if it's right, but it's convincingly portrayed—that you get the sense the author really cared about what he was writing. He didn't just slap together a few preconceptions about firearms (which he totally could have). Even if he was wrong about the weapons (again, I'm not saying he is, I'm saying I couldn't tell), he wasn't lazy.
But...what a weird premise, in need of some fleshing out. "We're going to blow up Mecca because that will neuter the Muslim threat." Really? You know, I'm not even going to say that's wrong; it seems to be a fantasy for some. But I without substantial backup, there's a serious chance that your characters are just going to look like insane idiots.
But I got past that. Isaak is not a hack, as noted. So he rewards your reading with several very good sequences, and the plot hangs together pretty well at the low-level. (This is kind of the opposite of most novice writers, who rapid fire the high-level stuff at you with sloppy low-level know-what-I-mean stuff.) There's decent suspense at several points, and you end up caring about the characters.
The characters are another weird point, though. A great many of them seem to have come from the redneck cliché store. I hate saying it because, again, a lot of work went into this, but it felt like the author was drawing heavily from popular media portrayals of gun enthusiasts, militia, etc. He fleshes them out as the story progresses, thankfully.
The last odd thing is the denouement. I won't do spoilers—even though this is pretty incidental to the 400+ previous pages—but if you're gonna do a batshit conspiracy theory type story, the payoff should be something other than the fairly pedestrain sorts of left-wing fantasies that typified literature of the Bush years. (This is not a spoiler, but it's intimated repeatedly, for example, that Bush himself would kinda-sorta be happy to see Mecca nuked. That's a bizarre claim.)
I still kinda liked it overall. I really felt like the author got into the action scenes in a way that most authors kind of glide over. Flaws aside, the book as such held together pretty darn well. I don't think the book sold well—I think I got it when a friend of mine who was running a book review site forwarded it to me—and sadly the guy hasn't written another one.
This is kind of the horse pill you have to swallow to read this. And one of the weird things about it, is that the book takes such care to craft the details about the various forms of munitions—and I have no idea if it's right, but it's convincingly portrayed—that you get the sense the author really cared about what he was writing. He didn't just slap together a few preconceptions about firearms (which he totally could have). Even if he was wrong about the weapons (again, I'm not saying he is, I'm saying I couldn't tell), he wasn't lazy.
But...what a weird premise, in need of some fleshing out. "We're going to blow up Mecca because that will neuter the Muslim threat." Really? You know, I'm not even going to say that's wrong; it seems to be a fantasy for some. But I without substantial backup, there's a serious chance that your characters are just going to look like insane idiots.
But I got past that. Isaak is not a hack, as noted. So he rewards your reading with several very good sequences, and the plot hangs together pretty well at the low-level. (This is kind of the opposite of most novice writers, who rapid fire the high-level stuff at you with sloppy low-level know-what-I-mean stuff.) There's decent suspense at several points, and you end up caring about the characters.
The characters are another weird point, though. A great many of them seem to have come from the redneck cliché store. I hate saying it because, again, a lot of work went into this, but it felt like the author was drawing heavily from popular media portrayals of gun enthusiasts, militia, etc. He fleshes them out as the story progresses, thankfully.
The last odd thing is the denouement. I won't do spoilers—even though this is pretty incidental to the 400+ previous pages—but if you're gonna do a batshit conspiracy theory type story, the payoff should be something other than the fairly pedestrain sorts of left-wing fantasies that typified literature of the Bush years. (This is not a spoiler, but it's intimated repeatedly, for example, that Bush himself would kinda-sorta be happy to see Mecca nuked. That's a bizarre claim.)
I still kinda liked it overall. I really felt like the author got into the action scenes in a way that most authors kind of glide over. Flaws aside, the book as such held together pretty darn well. I don't think the book sold well—I think I got it when a friend of mine who was running a book review site forwarded it to me—and sadly the guy hasn't written another one.
June 17, 2017
Shock and Awe is a tightly written, fully fleshed out story of a retaliatory strike after 9/11. The team is well designed, with excellently detailed character, without preamble or redundant back-story. There is great deviation between the team, with both links to American funded organisations and the cultural elite vying for power or freedom. The intrigue and action are well focused, as are relationships explored within the book. The finale starts unexpectedly, which although adds to the overall unpredictability of Shock and Awe, somewhat diminished the expertly crafted suspense, leaving readers potentially feeling short-changed. Overall, Isaak should feel proud of a thriller which is a real compulsive read.
October 25, 2022
I really enjoyed this engrossing book.
Even though the plot - a billionaire deciding to gather together a group of rag tag militants to hijack a nuclear shipment - sounds a bit far-fetched, David Isaak has transformed this into a riveting, fast moving adventure.
It's great to see a strong female lead character and the tough ex special forces operative, Carla, is as tough as they come and she commands respect, even from a bunch of misogynist militants. She has been hired to corral this group into a coordinated and cohesive team that will carry out a mission that could wreak havoc across the planet.
There are a few potential spanners in the works, including an undercover FBI agent, Boyce Hammond, who needs to stop this mission before thousands could be killed - but where do his loyalties lie? The FBI is dragging its heels and he suspects there may be more than just Bureau politics at play which could destroy his mission. And he may have a soft spot for Carla.
There are some fascinating turns of plot and a few come out of left field and this is what makes the book so enjoyable.
Even though the plot - a billionaire deciding to gather together a group of rag tag militants to hijack a nuclear shipment - sounds a bit far-fetched, David Isaak has transformed this into a riveting, fast moving adventure.
It's great to see a strong female lead character and the tough ex special forces operative, Carla, is as tough as they come and she commands respect, even from a bunch of misogynist militants. She has been hired to corral this group into a coordinated and cohesive team that will carry out a mission that could wreak havoc across the planet.
There are a few potential spanners in the works, including an undercover FBI agent, Boyce Hammond, who needs to stop this mission before thousands could be killed - but where do his loyalties lie? The FBI is dragging its heels and he suspects there may be more than just Bureau politics at play which could destroy his mission. And he may have a soft spot for Carla.
There are some fascinating turns of plot and a few come out of left field and this is what makes the book so enjoyable.
January 29, 2012
The premise is interesting, and the book starts off okay, but it never really captivated me as good thrillers tend to do. I think this is partly down to the writing by this first time author, it's never exciting, lacks real drama and at times feels like padding to make an average story longer and more dramatic than it really is.
I persevered because it had an okay start and was perfectly readable. However by the time one reaches the last third of the book, it became unreadable nonsense because the story moves out to sea with its boats and ships. This is where the writing becomes bogged down with nautical language which to anyone not familiar in the slightest, might have trouble following and imagining. I struggled and started to speed read, skipping lines, and sometimes paragraphs to get the gist of what was happening. It's clear the author is knowledgeable about a lot of things, and he takes great pride in hammering nonsensical bits of story to show off, again, filler, padding, not needed. Please don't make me roll my eyes yet again.
By the time I finished I felt the story was anti-climactic and dull. I was relieved the book was over though. This is the fault of the author and his editor. Even reading the synopsis on the back cover feels a bit wishy washy. I'll be glad to return this back to the library!
I persevered because it had an okay start and was perfectly readable. However by the time one reaches the last third of the book, it became unreadable nonsense because the story moves out to sea with its boats and ships. This is where the writing becomes bogged down with nautical language which to anyone not familiar in the slightest, might have trouble following and imagining. I struggled and started to speed read, skipping lines, and sometimes paragraphs to get the gist of what was happening. It's clear the author is knowledgeable about a lot of things, and he takes great pride in hammering nonsensical bits of story to show off, again, filler, padding, not needed. Please don't make me roll my eyes yet again.
By the time I finished I felt the story was anti-climactic and dull. I was relieved the book was over though. This is the fault of the author and his editor. Even reading the synopsis on the back cover feels a bit wishy washy. I'll be glad to return this back to the library!
December 20, 2007
This is David's first novel and is a very interesting read for a new writer.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews