Jason

Going in, I expected this to be one of those men's adventure pulps that were popular back in the 60s, with the chief focus being on lots of sex and lots of violence.

I was wrong, because while there is sex and violence, it was never in copious amounts nor was it the chief attraction. They're there, but only as the plot dictates and the plot didn't dictate for it much.

The writing was good and was the prime driver for the book. The plot was basic, but the writing and dialogue more than made up for it.

3.75 stars.

This was better than the first because it was actually a spy novel, whereas the first book in the series felt more like crime fiction. I enjoyed the low stakes nature of the plot as well as the use of Sweden as the locale.

My one critique is that it seems like Donald Hamilton's knowledge of firearms and how they work was limited and incomplete. On the other hand, at least he wasn't like these modern action thriller writers who are overly detailed about guns.

I swear the guy narrating these things sounds exactly like James Coburn, lol.

A solid ⭐⭐⭐⭐. I was expecting a bog standard thriller novel, but this shit was - to quote a Gwen Stefani song - was bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s. Like seriously, the thing that I thought was going to be the epic climax was only epic (and crazy af), but not the climax. It just got wilder from there. Goddamn.

You know what? Screw it, ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 1/2 stars.

As this was just a way to bridge [b: Kris Longknife: Defiant 129581 Defiant (Kris Longknife, #3) Mike Shepherd https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1410565714l/129581.SY75.jpg 124803] and [b: Kris Longknife: Resolute 129580 Resolute (Kris Longknife, #4) Mike Shepherd https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388777220l/129580.SY75.jpg 124802], there's not much to comment on or to review. I did laugh at Trouble playing Kris, though. And the whole bit with Jack getting drafted got a sensible chuckle out of me.

In all honesty, I didn't think I would like this book at all. Indeed, I went in expecting to DNF it pretty quickly.

I was wrong and I ended up liking it a lot. It was interesting seeing how the role and status of women in society changed throughout the years from the point of view of a group of women who lived through it.

It was good until the ending, which felt rushed and after the often over-the-top zaniness of the rest of the book (one of the main characters, Lord Worth, had his precious oil rig outfitted with stolen military weaponry that he himself had stolen!), it pretty well flopped. Otherwise, it was a fun read that I would recommend for anybody who likes old action movies.

⭐⭐⭐ out of 5.

Originally read this when I was a teenager and enjoyed it. I've re-read twice since (including just this week!) and I think it still holds up as an enjoyable read. One major difference between then and now is that I'm more knowledgeable about the Star Trek franchise now, so I was able to catch more of the references and easter eggs that otherwise flew over my head when I read this way back in ‘97.

I will note that the writing does feel a bit clunky and some references I mentioned don't quite line up with the canon (the Klingon Empire, for example, didn't collapse during the events of Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country). Aside from that, I can't think of any negatives that would make this not worth reading. I would recommend this as a good starting point for anybody looking to dip their toe in the Star Trek literature.

I read this book several years because I love military science fiction and thought that this would be a good one to jump into.

It honestly wasn't. The premise was interesting, though I thought it weird that no one was questioning why a cargo ship always seemed to be getting into all sorts of peril and deadly danger. Of course, the book reveals why - Because the captain is secretly working for the government and doing missions under the guise of being but a humble trader, selling his cabbages or whatever. - but it's just weird that nobody like “WTF?”.

What really bugged me is how under-armed the main character is. Her whole goal with serving on The Glorious Fool is to rack up the required years of experience so she can apply to join an elite special forces unit. But despite the Fool's rep, Devi only shows up with three weapons:

1. A plasma shotgun that can only fire a few shots before it's battery is drained (though it does double duty as a club)
2. A handgun that fires big armor piercing bullets, but with massive recoil (that can break arms if you're not wearing powered armor when shooting it).
3. And a blade coated in white phosphorus...that can only be used for 180 seconds before the fire has to be extinguished, less the phosphorus turns the blade brittle.

I know that it's probably dumb to criticize a book because of that, but I mean...come on. Devi is serving on a ship with a rep like the Fool's and she's only packing three weapons, two of them basically worthless?

For a character that's supposed to be a kicker of ass, Devi sure ends up on the wrong end of the ass whoopings. Almost every fight scene ends with her getting wrecked (or rekted, as the internet likes to say) and having to be rescued. I don't think her chances getting into that elite unit are looking good.

As for the romance, it was rather bland from what I remember of it. A Hallmark Christmas movie does romance better than what this book did. I didn't realize that there even was a romance element when I started reading and still wasn't 100% sure mid-way through.

I don't know, I might re-read this book soon and see if my opinion has changed in the six years since. As of right now, Fortune's Pawn is sitting somewhere between a 2.5 and a 3 stars.

I have no idea what the hell I just read. It was weird, very weird. The ending was a disappointment because there was no payoff, or at least I didn't feel like there was. It felt like things were building to a climax...and it just never happened.

Edit: I'm revising my rating from three down to 1.5 stars. I kept thinking about this story today and the more I did, it's faults became more glaring. The development of the relationship between Agnes and Zoe had next to none. One minute the former is espousing the history of an apple peeler she's trying to sell to the latter, the next they're engaged in some bizarro sadist relationship conducted completely via email and instant messaging. There's no build-up over a long period of time so there's no real tension or even since of dread as Agnes descends (like a bowling ball dropped off the top of the Empire State Building) into madness.As for the "disturbing" nature of the plot, it isn't. What happens between Agnes and Zoe is weird and not much else. I was expecting to be creeped or grossed out to the point that I would DNF the book and honestly? We're probably talking like PG-13 for the most part. You could maybe stretch it out to an R rating (since I appear to have slipped into movie ratings somehow), but it's no more disturbing than like the first Halloween movie.

I think ultimately, the book would have been better if it had been longer, since then more substance, more meat could have been added to it.