Fast, action-packed fantasy-adventure that’s not too demanding.
In the second book of Rich’s series, Airman Aaron Craymer is part of a strange and deadly group of soldiers: a black ops unit of vampires trained by the U.S. government.
Aaron and his Gitmo-based team survived an attempt to purge them from the ranks of the American military, but their exoneration has a price: they have been ordered to hunt down and destroy, within a short time frame, members of the Russian military—another group of vampire commandos. Contingent on success, Aaron and team have been offered a pardon and their freedom; but with failure comes judgment at the hands of the president of the United States. As they undertake their quest to destroy the only other known undead covert unit in the world, the team also faces numerous other threats, including intrigue within their own ranks and strange infections unknown to the truly living. The challenges these vampire commandos face are sufficient enough to endanger the existence of their entire race. In this odd combination of Tom Clancy–esque military thriller and modern-day vampire story, the bloodsuckers are something other than truly undead, monstrous fiends. The text, which is mostly clean and professional—besides unusual choices, such as not rendering “Marine” in uppercase—has a staccato rhythm. Along with some rather cartoonlike choices—e.g., Aaron’s twin is named Darren—characters have only a perfunctory amount of personality. Still, though it’s not particularly deep, the well-paced, action-packed story will satisfy fans of the genre.
Fast, action-packed fantasy-adventure that’s not too demanding.Pub Date: March 2, 2015
ISBN: 978-1508665212
Page Count: 298
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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