Review: Better Pacing and a Still Interesting Premise, but.....(minor spoiler alert)
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 3, 2012
I still felt it would have been beneficial to the story to receive more graphic color by perhaps bringing in additional parties.  Millions of people were dying from starvation and exposure and this was being portrayed at a "10k feet" angle.Nothing bad seemed to happen to the main characters.  Even when General Allen "passes" it is with a qualifier that both his wife and 2-children preceded him.  It was almost as if the author was fearful that the story would be adversely effected if a main character came to some form of untimely demise.  I do realize that it does build franchise value and this is the safe approach.  However, I personally prefer the "imperfect world scenario" where bad things can happen to good people/main characters.Another issue is how everything seemed to run like proverbial "clockwork" for the "good guys" where the "bad guys", despite having the foresight to develop a 30-year plan to dominate the international electronics component markets and build a world class espionage apparatus and military strike force, simply cannot get out of their own way!On the positive front, I vastly enjoyed the improved pacing of the story.What has kept me invested over the course of the 2-entrees (and likely the 3rd) is the premise more than anything else.  Without casting any aspersions on the author, I can only speculate what a more accomplished author might have been able to to with the same structured premise?