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Title: True Believer
Series: Terminal List #2
Author: Jack Carr
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 512
Words: 154K
While the Terminal List was a revenge story about a special forces military man, this was just a military story about a military special forces man. It was also 25% longer. Mainly because we get the extended edition of James Reece sailing the ocean running away from Da Man and then becoming a guide and conservation hunter who traps poachers with his expert military knowledge. While all of that is going on the author weaves all the backstory of the badguys and their dastardly deeds so when Reece gets approached to join the CIA to take down said bad guys, we are fully up to date on just how dastardly and badguy’y they really are. It felt bloated to me. Necessary but bloated.
We get all the “Brand X” name dropping I expect from books written by special forces guys. I know I talk about it, but I simply don’t understand. Does the general populace care? Or are you writing for other special forces guys? Because that seems like a very small market. And my polling shows that 100% of the general reading populace (namely, myself) doesn’t care if you use a spiderco folding knife XT-305 or if you just write that the character used a folding knife. I can kind of understand when it comes to the gun-side of things, but even then, dial the fanboy back a notch, ok? I don’t need to know that your Jannhauser 3000KtY rocket propelled grenade launcher uses the side rail system with the Bugaboo xts targeting system with the modified Cobra trigger upgrade to reduce the pull to two pounds. Just tell me Side Character Y blew up the russian oligarch with the Jannhauser 3000 rpg and we’re all good. Or a rocket launcher, or whatever. Joe Public (the anonymous pseudonym of that great master we all know and adore, ie, me) doesn’t care.
I know I’ve complained a lot. But you can still enjoy a good military book and have complaints like this. The above are the reasons this doesn’t get higher than the 3star rating. It doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the story or the action or the pow pow, bam bam, slice slice. It just means I won’t be rating this higher.
I plan to continue this series and I suspect all the above issues will be in the next books as well, so I’m not expecting this series to suddenly “get better”. It is what it is and I’m ok with reading a series that is 3stars for a couple of months. It does make me wonder about going back and trying the tv show again. Just don’t know if I can get past that awful grey tone overlay. It really bugged me.
★★★☆☆
From OfficialJackCarr.com
SOMEWHERE A TRUE BELIEVER IS TRAINING TO KILL YOU.
HE DOESN’T CARE HOW HARD IT IS. HE ONLY KNOWS THAT HE WINS OR HE DIES. HE ONLY KNOWS THE CAUSE.
When a bomb goes off during a holiday fair in London, the body count is horrific and the nation’s market goes into a tailspin. This, it turns out, is just the beginning of a series of coordinated and murderous attacks against the whole of the Western world. As the scope of the mayhem grows ever wider, pulling in country after country, the United States goes on the offensive. Who is pulling the strings? What is their motive? And most important of all, how can the attacks be stopped before bloodshed and economic freefall bring America and her allies to their knees?
There is just one man who stands a chance of answering these questions. Former Navy SEAL James Reece is the only and crucial connection to a shadowy former Iraqi commando who could provide leads the CIA desperately needs. Reece might be America’s last hope. Unfortunately, he is also America’s most-wanted domestic terrorist. To rein him in, a bargain is struck and Reece becomes the reluctant tool of the United States government, traveling the globe to target terrorist lead- ers and unraveling a geopolitical conspiracy involving a traitorous CIA officer and a sinister assassination plot with worldwide repercussions. There is always another true believer out there willing to kill for his cause. James Reece will be there to stop him.
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