The Reckoning: A Novel by James Byron HugginsMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
An enjoyable novel by Mr. Huggins. The plot was very clear cut and very predictable, but in some ways, I'm not sure that worked against the novel. As it turned out my reading of the novel was driven almost singularly by the main character, Gage.
Gage, was ridiculously cool. His military skills and personal abilities made him easily one of the coolest combat characters I've read about in a long time. He could have used a little three dimensional buffing, but knowing the final show down was coming really kept me pulling through the book regardless.
Another POV character, Kertzman, was quite as enjoyable as Gage. Kertzman was a three dimensional straight shooter bent on getting to the bottom of the escalating conflict. He also served as excellent backup ;)
We had several other POVs throughout the book and I feel there was perhaps one or two too many. I had trouble tracking with the intricacies of who is who and what are they doing; it is possible, however, I just didn't put in enough work to figure it out.
And did I mention Mr. Huggins does amazing fight scenes? Some of the best I've read, ever. Pacing, content, drama, all very very good.
One last note on this book: Often it seems that heroes who are Christian opt not to pull the trigger at the crucial moment. They lay down their gun or just walk away(or lay it down to save their love interest--which we all know never really works). The Reckoning: A Novel Does not repeat the mistake. Gage is not blood hungry, but neither does he simply put down the gun when evil needs to be stopped.
I hope you don't get the idea I'm advocating mass murderer Christian killers, but it's a breath of fresh air to have a manly main character who doesn't fear using lethal force to shut a situation down when necessary.
Morally the novel was spotless. Plot wise it was mediocre. Character wise it was alright, but main character wise it was highly enjoyable.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment