I put it down after reading halfway !
I found it derivative and formulaic - another tragic, heroic, genius, forced to fight evil. I don't know if I'll pick it back up.
Preston & Child seem to be "jumping on the bandwagon"!
Preston and Child never fail to deliver, whether in collaboration or singly. "Gideon's Sword" is no exception.
This story has a real twist...the hero learns he has a year or less to live near the beginning of the book!
As he struggles to deal with this fact he is drafted into a mission with world-changing potential.
Gideon soon finds himself persued by Nodding Crane, an extremely dangerous assasin working for the Chinese who are determined to recover their secret.
The plot is straight-forward and moves along very smoothly toward an edge-of-the-seat climax on an abandoned island.
As is always the case with these two authors the characters are easily identified with, the action is solid and plentiful. The facts are well researched and believable...except maybe the final battle which might strain the imagination somewhat.
In my opinion, Preston and Child are amoung the best adventure novelists ever. Read their books. I was a believer after my first novel.
The book was not up to the standards I have come to expect from these two authors. My primary compliant is
the character, to me, is not likeable. I did not have any empathy with him. I did not understand how he he morphed into the person who continually lied and changed appearences.
If they wrote a second book with character I would read it and if I felt the same after it I would not read any others with Gideon as the main character.
Gideon is tasked with uncovering and finding what a dangerous mysterious secret weapon is - but the defecting Chinese physicist with the answer is killed before he could find out. Reminds me of a James Bond thriller, with action in New York & Hong Kong as Gideon stays one step ahead of the bad guys who want to prevent the Americans from finding out what it is. Gideons' history/motives/ loyalties and background are explained in this first in the series. An entertaining and unpredictable read, and, like Bond, Gideon survives to fight evil another day.
