2012;
229 pages. Book 4 (out of 14) of “The Project” series. New Author? : Yes. Genre : Action Thriller. Overall Rating : 7*/10.
Three experts on crop viruses, including one
who worked for the CDC (Center for
Disease Control) are murdered in a very short time. Someone apparently thinks they knew too much
about something, and it seems to concern what’s written on some cuneiform inscriptions on some ancient clay tablets.
This
all happened here in the US, and there's some evidence that the killers have ties
to the CIA and the Pentagon. So who ya
gonna call?
No, not Ghostbusters. How about a
secret group called “The Project”, a black ops intelligence unit that answers
directly to the President? Sounds like a
plan.
But this time, they may be in over their clandestine heads. Whoever is behind these killings semms to
know the Project’s every move, even before they take a step.
What’s To Like...
Black Harvest
is an action-thriller, kind of in the Jason Bourne style, but with the emphasis
on the team, not the individual. There’s
also a history/mythology angle like you'd find in a Steve Berry novel, but that
peters out rather quickly. Still, it was
neat to see Alexander the Great, and the Greek goddess Demeter worked into the
storyline, to say nothing of the cuneiform tablets. I had never heard of “Erinys”, the vengeful
aspect of Demeter. I also enjoyed
learning the origin of the word “nightmare”.
The action starts right away and the pacing is incredibly fast. There are a lot of characters to keep track
of, but I have a feeling that the Americans are all recurring ones. The good guys are developed nicely, but all
the Russians are portrayed as goons, even the women.
Some of the setting are way kewl.
Greece is always a treat for me, and when’s the last time you’ve read
any book that had part of the story set in Bulgaria? The Texas panhandle setting will bore most
readers, but my company had several chemical plants there, which I visited
numerous times, so it was sort of nostalgic to “see” the area once again in this
story.
There’s
a bunch of cussing, a bunch of sex, and one case of torture, so you probably
don’t want little Suzy and Jimmy reading this.
The chapters are of “James Patterson” length, so you’ll always find a
convenient place to stop reading for the night.
Indeed, the 229 pages are split into 69 chapters; so on the average,
there’s a break every 3 pages or so.
This
is only a “semi-standalone” novel. The
ending was so-so, as it leaves a slew of loose major plot threads, involving
things like containing the blight, Korov’s possible turning, and AEON. Some of these, especially AEON, may be
resolved in the next book in the series, but then I have to wonder why they
weren’t combined into a single book.
Excerpts...
Gelashvili had
risen to power in the criminal underworld of Moscow by emulating his idol and
fellow Georgian, Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, otherwise known as
Stalin. If Zviad suspected treachery,
someone died. If someone failed to carry
out their assigned tasks, they died. If
someone opposed him, they died.
Something could always be done to encourage motivation. (loc. 377)
“This sucks, Kemo
Sabe.”
“Kemo Sabe? You going native on me?”
“I always wanted
to say that. Tonto always said that to
the Lone Ranger when the shit was about to hit the fan. Kemo Sabe.
Has a nice ring to it.”
“What does it
mean?”
“You don’t want
to know.” (loc. 1463)
Kindle Details...
Black Harvest sells for $3.99 at Amazon. Most of the other books in the series sell
for $4.99,
and Book 1, White Jade, and which I haven’t
read, is free. Alex Lukeman also
has two non-fiction books available, about the meaning of dreams and
nightmares, which both sell for $9.99.
Not many people could recite
Beowulf in Anglo-Saxon. Not many would
want to. (loc. 158)
There
were quibbles besides the dangling plot threads. Some of them were WTF’s, such as the
Pentagon’s computers seeming to be incredibly easy to hack into. Also, Ronnie is a Navajo, yet has no qualms
about crawling around in a crypt. Sorry,
I know several Navajos. There’s no way
they’d be caught in a room full of dead people’s bones.
More serious is the lack of focus in the storyline itself. Our heroes start out trying to solve the
mystery of the ancient tablets and fighting the evil Russkies. But the latter gets resolved about a third
of the way through, and the historical intrigue of the former just kind of
evaporates into thin air. The Russian
baddies are replaced by American baddies, who are again quickly disposed of,
and after that, the new evil peeps are the mysterious AEON folks.
There is an antidote for the virus, but I don’t recall it ever being
clear that the good guys acquired it.
Indeed the whole raid on the Utah facility is little more than a small
side story. And funnily enough, of the
three onstage Ultimate Evils (one Russian, two American), none of them are
dispatched by our intrepid heroes.
But maybe I’m overthinking all of this.
The bottom line is: Black Harvest was
an entertaining book from the first page to the last, ideal for a day at the
beach or for an airplane trip. Just
remember to put the analytical lobe of your brain on hold when you go to start
reading it.
7 Stars.
Add 1 Star if you like Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt series.
I overthink those stories too.
No comments:
Post a Comment