Review: Please, David Haskell, edit the book meticulously and publish a new version.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 10 13, 2013
Here's the major problem with this book: it appears that someone has attempted a cut-down or rewrite and left traces of the old version behind.  Another, more serious issue in a narrative sense, is the weakness of the through line, making any form of suspense ineffective.  The book should be a contemporary thriller, but I find, in its present form, nothing to make me turn the page. In fact, on many occasions I was turning back to try to figure out who the (endless parade of) characters were meant to be, which side of the conflict they represented and why we were supposed to care about them.  The hero is flat, his cohorts have little going on either and what should have been a great opportunity for a story revolving around the extension of Big Brother in today's world, has been missed.  There are many spelling, grammatical mistakes and typos and it appears to have been rushed into publication to match current events rather than being a carefully constructed and suspenseful story.  It has earned its two stars only for its cover and the fact that, for the most part, the formatting has worked well (a challenge with Kindle).  Another version needs to have a lot more going on, could be shorter, needs the characters to be fully rounded and sympathetic in some way so that we are rooting for them and caring about the outcome.  As well, the author needs to examine the 'voices' with which his characters speak.  In this version, they all sound alike, no matter what their background.  My disclaimer here is that I did download the book for free (which, by no means devalues the book - I read it with as much care as any other). But it is my policy to review all freebies (again, with care and also with disinterest and fairness) so that at least, the author can take some steps to ameliorate his story-telling. (Note; 'disinterest' does not mean I was not interested, a linguistic problem in this book!)