I had a hard time getting into this book. I don't know why, exactly. It isn't like "Lions", where the writing was clunky and stilted. A part of it is just a busy schedule, which isn't helped by the fact that the longer you go without picking up a book, the harder it is to pick back up. Still, this one didn't grab me the way I had hoped it would.
The book does have an interesting premise: "what if the Soviet Union didn't really collapse, but instead, rolled over and played dead until the time was right to strike". It's certainly big in scope, but alas the book doesn't really do too much with it. The idea is touched on once or twice, but it's almost an afterthought. To be fair, we can't really expect Harvath to take down an entire superpower by himself. At the same time, having him focus on finding nukes and dismantling a "Star Wars" style missile defense system isn't really what we were sold. It's not bad, but I feel like this could have been a more epic entry than the 24-style outing that we got.
The book attempts to flesh out Harvath, with him reflecting about his relationship with his father. It does give some more details about his history, but it doesn't really connect with the plot. It's more like something that acts as bookends. It's well intentioned, but again, the book doesn't do enough with it.
Meg Cassidy sits this one out for the most part. I was certain that their relationship was going to end, but while there are tensions due to Harvath's job and commitment to said job, the two are still together by book's end, albeit attempting a long distance relationship. It does buck the trend of having the female love interests cycle out book to book. Still, it would have been cool to see her play a bigger role in the plot. I don't know how much longer she'll be sticking around, but we'll see.
We do still get a new female partner to team up with Harvath. This one doesn't turn out to be a love interest, though. She doesn't even really meet Scot up until the last third of the book. It was surprising, but it worked. She has her own goals and reasons for stopping the villain du jour that aren't really tied to Harvath or even the well being of the United States. When all is said and done, she just goes home. It was a good breaking of the expected formula.
This read was very sporadic. It got to the point where I actually considered starting over again. I opted against it, though, because I'm behind schedule enough as it is. Still, though, I do want to give this a re-read at some point. I don't think this run through gave it a fair shake. I know that, much like with George R.R. Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" books, Thor fans will read through the entire chronology more than once. I don't know if I'll go that far; I still have to finish this read-through. On top of that, there are plenty of other books on my to-read pile. Still, I wouldn't mind taking another crack at this one some time down the line.
The book ends with Harvath getting a new mission. Had more specifics been dropped it could have been a cool sequel hook/segue to the next book: Blowback. As it is, I think the intent was more for a general "and the adventure continues" type thing. Either way works, really, though I think I would be more partial to the first option. Maybe the prior does turn out to be the case, I guess I'll just have to see
