Book Review - The Unknown by Brett Battles (Jonathan Quinn, Book 14)

I accidentally stumbled upon the Jonathan Quinn series and have loved each and every one of them. The past few books seemed to have lost a little magic with so many major characters having been killed in previous books, that I was afraid the series was on an unchangeable path downward. Then the 14th book was published.

The Unknown (Jonathan Quinn, Book 14) by Brett Battles is a spy thriller. It is available as an eBook, audio book, and those paper things your grandparents used to read.

The Good

Shift of Direction. The main ideas of this series is Jonathan Quinn is hired to clean up bodies after an assassination. That was interesting for about three books, and then the author realized he needed to go in a different direction. The last few books have focused on dealing with the aftermath of several main characters dying. While those deaths made for shocking endings, the series didn't seem to know where to go from there. But this book put it back on a great path with a different type of mission that fits in the world Brett Battles created.

Story. The story is solid. The characters are well developed. The adventure is well constructed. Nothing felt like it was coming out of left field or was a cheat. It is well paced and held my attention the whole time. I'm excited to read the next book.

Action. The action was really exciting and didn't feel like a repeat of what's come before.

SciFi Element. These stories are fairly grounded and realistic. The scifi element introduced is something very far into the future, and yet the way it was introduced and handled made it feel like it fit.

The Bad

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What I Would Like to Have Seen

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Overall

The Unknown (Jonathan Quinn, Book 14) by Brett Battles is a spy thriller that pulls you in from the first page and doesn't let go until the last. All my favorite characters (minus the ones who've died in previous books) were back as was The Office, the black ops government agency involved in questionable cloak and dagger required for every spy thriller. The action is exciting, the scifi element was used in a believable way for this otherwise realistic world, and the story was very enjoyable and well structured. I highly recommend this book and give it 5 out of 5 eReaders.

     

 

Book Review - Destroyer: Rewinder, Book 2 by Brett Battles

I love time travel stories, but it's rare to find one that isn't just a rehash of a story I've read or watched or heard over a dozen times. Rewinder presented a really fresh take on time travel that really grabbed me, but it seemed complete. So I was curious to see where the author would go after that with two more novels.

Destroyer: Rewinder, Book 2 is science fiction, time travel adventure written by Brett Battles. It's available in all formats: eBooks, Audiobooks, and those paper things your grandparents used to read.

Overview

The world where Great Britain won the Revolutionary War has been changed to our reality where America triumphed. Now a new mystery faces the main characters threatening to further change history.

The Good

Interesting Mystery. Most of this novel involves a strange man in grey following the main characters, and they have to figure out who he is and why he is following them. The answers and motivation are definitely interesting. If only it had stopped there.

The Bad

Undermines the Original Novel. The first novel, Rewinder, was a concept story. Instead of taking our reality and changing it to an alternate history, the author did the inverse taking an alternate history and changing it to ours which was really clever and rarely done. The story was finished. There was nothing new to add to the concept. Unfortunately the author decided to add two more books which completely undermine the original concept.

Unlikeable Character. Being a concept stories, the characters are not fully developed, because they aren't the focus. That's fine for first book and half of this book which is a mystery. But then the time jumping begins, and although the reader has figured everything out just past the midpoint, the protagonist is not very bright so the reader has to struggle thru the rest of the novel waiting for him to catch up and figure things out, which he never fully does.

What I Would Like to Have Seen

I wish the author hadn't written this book. The first book had such a fresh approach: the original world was the alternate version of our planet that had a change in a major historical event, and when the time travelers went back to study it, they accidentally changed history to create our world, the one we currently live in. The story was finished. There was nothing new to add to the concept, and this book proves it.

Overall

Destroyer: Rewinder, Book 2 is a disappointing follow up to an excellent science fiction novel with an almost never used twist on the time travel genre. The story actually undermines all that was accomplished by the first. And the characters were mainly plot devices to advance the ideas of the first, not interesting individuals that the reader cares enough about to want to see further adventures featuring them. I give it 3 out of 5 eReaders.

    

Book Review: Jonathan Quinn Series

I don't read a lot of spy thriller-type novels, but I do watch a lot of that genre of movies. They tend to work better as movies than books, because it's more interesting to see exotic locals than to read about them, and it's more fun to watch action and fight scenes than read about them. 

The Johnathan Quinn series is a series of action, spy thriller, drama, novels and short stories written by Brett Battles. It features a cleaner (someone hired to bury the body after a government or other entity assassination) who finds himself involved in a lot more than he ever signed up for. It's available as eBooks, Audiobooks, and those old-fashioned paper book things.

The Good

Main Characters. Most of the characters are interesting and developed enough that I care about them, but only the main three characters are developed enough that I feel I really know them and are fully fleshed out. There is a whole slew of secondary major characters that feel a little generic and undeveloped, but that's okay because character development isn't the main focus of this type of story.

Writing. The writing is clean, crisp, and precise. Brett Battles could easily write for radio with his uncanny ability to paint such vivid and precise pictures of both settings and action. I can literally see the book as a movie in my mind without even trying.

Exotic Locals. The adventures of Quinn and crew take them all of the world to places I've heard of and some I never have. The author spends sufficient time describing each location in enough detail that you understand the context but not so much that you feel like you're reading a travelogue. He also describes the locations from the point of view of the man on the street and not a travel channel, so you feel like you are there observing the scene in person and not like you're watching it on tv from a helicopter.

Same but Different. There is a definite formula to these books that makes each one immediate feel familiar and comfortable and you aren't surprised at what you're getting. But the stories and characters evolve from book to book enough that each story feels new and different and not like a remake of a previous one. 

Understands this is a Novel and Plays to those Strengths. The author understands that these are novels to be read, not a movie to be watched. He understands that we can't see the locals or the action--we have to read it. So he does an excellent job focusing on the parts that work best in prose--discussions between characters, internal monologues, and suspense--and keeps the action to a minimum with vivid descriptions of fights that tend to end quickly. 

Audiobook Narration. Most of the novels are read by Scott Brick, who I really enjoy. (The official second novel of the series has someone else reading that does a terrible job, so I haven't bothered to read it. The short stories are not yet available as audiobooks.) He has a very measured, serious tone that works well for this type of story. I know a lot of people don't his style, and if you are looking for a more dramatic style with lots of variation, this isn't it. His voice never changes for different characters so you do have to pay attention to who is speaking. But for this type of story his style works well. I pick up a lot of titles because of his reading and have enjoyed all of them.

The Bad

Formula = Predictability. Each book in the series follows a very similar formula, which is typical of a lot of series. The problem with the formula in these books is it makes it too easy to predict what is going to happen and when. Suspense, twists, wondering what is going to happen next are all essential elements of the spy thriller genre and the reason people read them. When you follow a strict formula, the reader can easily predict what will happen next and how situations will turn out which is counterproductive to the genre. The author also has a bad habit of regularly killing off major secondary characters at the end of his books, so when the deaths come, they lose a lot of impact because you knew it was coming.

What I Would Like to Have Seen

I wish the author would stop killing secondary major killers in such a predictable way. It cheapens their deaths. And I wish he'd mix up the formula a little more so the action wasn't so predictable. There is a lot of suspense, and I enjoy it, but there could be more.

Overall

The Johnathan Quinn series is one of the best spy thriller series I've ever read (or watched if we include all formats of entertainment). The books are well written with interesting characters, and the series is constantly evolving to keep the stories fresh but never straying far from the roots of the original novel losing the magic that hooked me from the beginning. I give it a solid 4.5 out of 5 eReaders.