Fotografía de autor

Scott McEwen

Autor de One-Way Trip

11+ Obras 464 Miembros 8 Reseñas

Sobre El Autor

Incluye los nombres: Scott McEwen, McEwwen Scott

Series

Obras de Scott McEwen

Obras relacionadas

Etiquetado

Conocimiento común

Género
male

Miembros

Reseñas

Once you've invented and built a killing machine, turned it on and pointed it at an enemy, you'd best get out of the way while it does its work. That's essentially the story here.

On the one hand, the killing machine is a man. He has hopes and dreams, desires and loves. The story tries to get a bit of that in. This helps humanize things and get the reader to identify with the sniper. We also see how it motivates the machine.

On the other hand, the man is a machine. A deadly machine that observes, calculates, attacks, survives and kills. Most of the story is about the machine and how it single-mindedly fulfills its mission, even without the approval of its masters.

The writing is compelling, especially the latter half. It's full of (almost too much) detail and realism about the military, the politicians and bureaucrats trying to control them and the opposing forces. The reader can almost be excused for believing the story is non-fiction.

The book almost lost me at a few points. During the first half, there seemed to be a few too many viewpoints. The time spent with the bureaucrats as they discussed the situation dragged on and on. During the operation, I got the feeling that the depiction of the main character, the sniper, was going a bit too far. He was too good, too smart, too resilient to bullets and bombs. This made him a bit more like James Bond than the realistic character the story called for.

All in all, though, this was a very enjoyable book.

[Disclosure: I received a free copy for review.]
… (más)
 
Denunciada
zot79 | 2 reseñas más. | Aug 20, 2023 |
Wyatt finds himself running from the police when his friend, Derrick calls him for a ride, only to find out that Derrick's ride is actually a getaway from a robbery and assault. When Wyatt is thrown in jail for the crime, he thinks that his life is over, but he is suddenly whisked away by a stranger who says he can make all of Wyatt's troubles go away. It sounds too good to be true, and before long, Wyatt finds out that it isn't going to be that simple. To rid himself of the charges, he must survive Camp Valor which trains young men and women to be operatives for the government. Meanwhile, a powerful figure who believes that he has been betrayed by a graduate of Camp Valor vows to find the traitor, kill him, and destroy the program that made him into the weapon that was used against him.

Camp Valor's plot is not unique - a young person wronged by the system that should have protected him is given another chance to prove himself. What makes it intriguing are the many twists, turns, and surprises that are woven into a story filled with action, adventure, and a little romance. Character development is somewhat lacking mostly due to the number of secondary characters who have minor roles in the story. One issue I had with the book is that it is shelved as a middle grade story, but two of the villains are cannibals, eating body parts and gruesomely murdering their victims, making this story a little too violent for the middle grade age group. Overall, however, this is a very good action adventure.
… (más)
 
Denunciada
ftbooklover | Oct 12, 2021 |
Wyatt is back at Camp Valor, but this time his formerly missing father is now in charge of the camp and his brother, Cody has come back with him to train. Wyatt burns with the need for revenge against Hallsy who killed his friend Dolly and The Old Man in the aftermath of destruction of the Glowworm Gaming Network, but he must put those desires aside as a cyberterrorist named Encyte has found a way to use technology to trick people into performing acts of terrorism. Once such victim is Jalen who unknowingly kills hundreds of people while he believes he is playing a video game. Wyatt finds a way to get Jalen into Camp Valor so that he can use his skills to make up for what he has done. All of this will depend on the new Secretary of Defense who may decide that Camp Valor is too dangerous to remain in operation.
The ending of The Trigger Mechanism is fairly predictable and suffers from too many conflicts and relationships to be satisfactorily addressed in one book. Several intriguing issues are raised and solved, but without delving into the emotional impact that they have on the main characters. Overall, The Trigger Mechanism is an action packed story that ties up the loose ends left at the end of Camp Valor.
… (más)
 
Denunciada
ftbooklover | Oct 12, 2021 |

Premios

También Puede Gustarte

Autores relacionados

Estadísticas

Obras
11
También por
1
Miembros
464
Popularidad
#53,001
Valoración
½ 3.7
Reseñas
8
ISBNs
79
Idiomas
4

Tablas y Gráficos