Combustion (Judd Bell & Corey Purchase, #2) in Aussie Readers

Jul 02, 2013 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc-are, netgalley-reviews, aussie-author, provided-by-publisher

Combustion is the perfect read for big budget, action film fans. The explosions come thick and fast, planes fall from the sky and buildings come tumbling down as a madman's twisted environmental crusade wreaks havoc across LA, and NASA astronaut Judd Bell and Australian chopper pilot Corey Purchase are reunited in an effort to save the world - again!

In the first book, Velocity, the pair were forced to work together in an effort to recover a hijacked space shuttle, and Judd's girlfriend Rhonda, f
Combustion is the perfect read for big budget, action film fans. The explosions come thick and fast, planes fall from the sky and buildings come tumbling down as a madman's twisted environmental crusade wreaks havoc across LA, and NASA astronaut Judd Bell and Australian chopper pilot Corey Purchase are reunited in an effort to save the world - again!

In the first book, Velocity, the pair were forced to work together in an effort to recover a hijacked space shuttle, and Judd's girlfriend Rhonda, from a group of mercenaries who planned to detonate a dirty nuke.
Combustion opens around nine months after those events as Judd, Corey, Rhonda and Steverson are meeting in LA for talks with the company making a movie about their heroic exploits. While Rhonda and Steverson are still enroute, Bunsen initiates the first phase of his plan to force the world to reconsider their reliance on fossil fuels - releasing a controlled amount of the airborne nanotech virus he spent 20 million dollars developing, which targets combustion engines and detonates their fuel supply. As vehicles begin to explode all over LA, a chance encounter reveals to Judd and Corey the existence of an antidote, and with emergency services crippled it is up to the pair to retrieve it and then stop Bunsen's plans for global destruction.

Combustion is all about the action that unfolds at a breakneck pace. From a foot chase of a packed school bus, to cycling stunts on the Hollywood Freeway, explosions galore and daring aerial feats as Corey attempts to outrun a surface to air missile (or two). This is cinematic action, unsurprising since Worland has a background in screen writing. I compared Velocity to a Nicholas Cage movie but I think Combustion reminds me most of Die Hard 4 (Live Free, Die Hard).

That makes Judd John McClane (Bruce Willis), I guess and there are some similarities, for example Judd is equally as uncomfortable with the hero tag, though for different reasons than McClane, and it is something Judd has to work through as he and Corey careen around LA. In general though Judd's motives in Combustion are more altruistic and he curses a lot less (actually I don't think he curses at all!).
I love the humour of the banter between Judd and Corey and between Corey and Spike (yes his dog).
Corey is more of an equal partner in Combustion than the sidekick he was relegated to in Velocity. He brings specific skills to the adventure and with Judd doubting himself, he steps up to take the lead when needed in his own way. There is also romance for Corey in this novel with film agent Lola whom he rescues from a burning building.

Just like Velocity, Combustion is a fun, exciting, fast paced and action packed novel. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see either on the big screen sometime soon.
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Jul 13, 2013 Bree T rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc, series, saving-the-world, adventure, aussie-author-challenge

NASA astronaut Judd Bell is looking forward to a few days at the Beverley Wiltshire hotel with his girlfriend Rhonda. After he and a few others saved the Atlantis 4 shuttle, it’s been a bit of a wild ride. Judd has been treated like a hero, but there’s a cold feeling inside him that shies from the attention. He doesn’t think he’s a hero and a few days with Rhonda and catching up with Corey, the Australian chopper pilot who shared his adventure might be just what he needs. They’re going to meet w NASA astronaut Judd Bell is looking forward to a few days at the Beverley Wiltshire hotel with his girlfriend Rhonda. After he and a few others saved the Atlantis 4 shuttle, it’s been a bit of a wild ride. Judd has been treated like a hero, but there’s a cold feeling inside him that shies from the attention. He doesn’t think he’s a hero and a few days with Rhonda and catching up with Corey, the Australian chopper pilot who shared his adventure might be just what he needs. They’re going to meet with the studio responsible for adapting the saving of the shuttle into a big blockbuster movie and do a few promotional appearances.

It’s somewhat fortuitous that he and Corey are together when it happens. All around Los Angeles at the same time, engines begin exploding – cars, trucks, buses, airplanes, chainsaws. Anything that has a combustion engine – the exhaust turns purple and then black and then it explodes. LA becomes chaos as thousands of cars blow up, causing huge amounts of damage. Corey and Judd are able to get information from an injured man that it’s a nanotech airborne virus that gets in to the fuel line. It was supposed to be developed to be used in warfare, to disable an enemy’s weapons before they were able to be used but someone has taken it and used it in an urban manner. California has more cars per capita than any other location in the world – the perfect place to make such a statement of how they are killing the environment and should be stopped. And millionaire Zac Bunsen is willing to sacrifice people in order to get his conservation message across to the masses. And blowing up all of the engines in the local area isn’t the only thing he has planned – there’s another part to his plan that will release the virus to the entire world and cause a destruction that hasn’t been seen before.

In the devastation, Judd sees opportunity. He’s driven to do something, to try and stop this madness any way he can. It might be the only way to ease the cold feeling inside him, to erase the moment where he did nothing and replace it with one where he did something that mattered.

Combustion is the second novel to feature the unlikely pairing of NASA astronaut Judd Bell and outback Australian chopper pilot Corey Purchase. Having saved the world once already, the two are looking forward to a weekend of discussing the movie script and doing some promo. Corey has been hitching his way around America, seeing the country and has managed to find himself many new fans along the way. His ever-faithful dog Spike is by his side as always but Corey tries to keep the conversations he has with Spike secret even though in LA, it’s okay to be eccentric. Most people are, in some way or another. Neither he nor Judd counted on being thrust right into disaster, yet again.

These books are so fun and easy to sink in to – they’re like a huge big budget action flick where the pace is breakneck from the beginning. The plot moves along at a rapid pace and never stalls. Judd and Corey race around LA on push bikes and later on in a helicopter helped along by an antidote to the nanotech virus, attempting to stop Zac Bunsen and his men from completing the next phase of their plan which would cause even more catastrophic devastation. Judd and Corey work as a seamless team, both of them bringing their strengths to the union. Judd is focused, always thinking and Corey tends to be more of a “let’s do this and see what happens” wingman but I noticed that in this book he seemed to come up with more ideas and plans, speak out more. Perhaps their earlier adventure gave him more confidence in himself and his abilities. He grew on me greatly in this book. I liked him in Velocity but it took me a while to warm up to him and his ‘different’ personality. In this book I was on board from the get go and his relationship with Spike integrates into the plot naturally. I don’t even question it anymore. In fact most of the time I find myself wanting to know what Spike is saying and wishing Corey would translate everything. And then I catch myself and think you are wanting to know what a dog is saying.

I really enjoyed the plot of this one – humans have come to rely on technology and vehicles so much. We use them for transport, for emergency assistance and enforcing the rules, to ship food and other goods. The idea of everything with a combustion engine blowing up was kind of a frightening one. Zac Bunsen advocated a more simpler existence, less reliance (or no reliance) on cars and vehicles and respecting the environment a bit more. That’s interesting because it’s certainly something that has been raised before but he didn’t seem to consider the repercussions of that – like food. There are many places that aren’t capable of producing their own food due to design or location. He’s a sociopath so presumably he doesn’t care, but it really isn’t just as simple as blowing up all the vehicles in the world. A simpler existence is actually not always an easier one.

Combustion is a book that takes you on a wild ride but it’s also comfortingly familiar. It’s the sort of book where you know that it’s okay to get attached to the good guys. Steve Worland is carving himself a pretty handy niche in the area of action novels.

8/10 ...more

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Jul 20, 2013 Josh rated it it was amazing

Shelves: own, review_books, read_2013

"The plan was, simply, to make people switch off their combustion engines. That's why the Swarm was designed to turn a vehicle's exhaust purple as soon as the engine was infected, then black before it exploded. It was a warning, so people understood that if they didn't turn off their engines they would die. Of course, for the warning to be effective, some people needed to die early in the process."<\i>

A nanotech virus, dubbed the Swarm, is released over the densely populated LA. It infects gasol "The plan was, simply, to make people switch off their combustion engines. That's why the Swarm was designed to turn a vehicle's exhaust purple as soon as the engine was infected, then black before it exploded. It was a warning, so people understood that if they didn't turn off their engines they would die. Of course, for the warning to be effective, some people needed to die early in the process."<\i>

A nanotech virus, dubbed the Swarm, is released over the densely populated LA. It infects gasoline causing vehicle to explode and can survive in smog for years. The worldwide ramifications of this virus are extreme. Recent heroes (of previous installment VELOCITY) Judd Bell and Corey Purchase just happen to be in the city of angels when hell hits earth, and leap into action in an effort contain the spread and get the counteragent to the authorities before it's too late.

The protagonists in Corey and Judd are not cast from the traditional mould. Judd's an astronaut, Corey, a light helicopter pilot - yet I couldn't imagine a different combination of heroes for these books.

Hindering their progress is a deadly duo with delusions of changing the world by force; Kilroy - a hired muscle of sorts, and Bunsen, the brains of the operation.

Bunsen's warped rational leads to inducing mass hysteria and death; effectively creating a hell on earth as LA and its inhabitants burn for the sake of kick starting the widespread and prolonged use of clean renewable energy to down scale greenhouse gas omissions is as scary as it is believable.

Worlands fiction is a fast addiction. His thrillers read like big budget Hollywood blockbusters. In VELOCITY we saw the theft of a space shuttle, in COMBUSTION it's a major US city set alight. The ambitious and all consuming scale of these stories can't be underestimated. Despite the seemingly far reaching plots, Worland manages to create a distinct sense of plausibility further embedding the readers imagery into this dangerous landscape where the innocuous could be the catalyst for large scale devastation.

Like VELOCITY, COMBUSTION is a fast paced thriller which pulls no punches. It has a couple of great lead characters, intriguing antagonists with reasons to support their actions, and a nice ensemble cast to complement Judd and Corey. I cant wait to see what's next from Steve Worland.

This review also appears on my blog: http://justaguythatlikes2read.blogspo... ...more

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Jun 24, 2013 Tien rated it really liked it

Shelves: australian-author, giveaway, own, action, usa

After the action-packed Velocity (Worland’s debut), the beginning feels slow. Understandably so, however, as Combustion is set approximately a year after Velocity. The main characters’ current situations and the new set of baddies need to be set up prior to the action taking off. In Velocity, the terrorists are avenging personal injury whilst with Combustion, they are seeking to ‘save the world’ (albeit punishing it by destruction) from environmental threats. It was an interesting sci-fi / specu ...more

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Jul 16, 2013 Helene Young marked it as to-read

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Oct 06, 2013 Hilde rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: series, thriller, e-book

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