Reviewed by Jeff Sexton on
Every Airplane Action Movie You've Ever Seen - And That Is Why It Works. Briefly looking through the other Goodreads reviews (as I do before writing my own reviews), I saw a few criticisms along the lines of "you can pretty well imagine any airplane action movie you've ever seen, and that is what you have here" - and, yes, that is actually valid. But need I remind readers of this review that many of those movies have made *millions* of dollars at the box office, and at least a few others have achieved a cult following over the years? There are *reasons* these movies work, and it is for these same reasons that this book works as well. Another, much more valid, reviewer noted that the opening scene - featuring a hole in the side of a falling aircraft - had absolutely nothing to do with the book, and in fact (my own point here) was immediately retconned at the beginning of Chapter 1. This, along with the visual of the cover that makes the reader think that this will be about a falling aircraft, *almost* smacks of deceptive advertising - which a careful examination of the cover shows is *barely* averted by the fact that if you remove the title and flip the image into a 3D (mathematical) plane such that one end of the cover is closer to you than the other, it is clear that the actual image is *not* of a plane *falling*, but *flying*. Which is actually the action tale we get - a man forced into a Job-esque (or perhaps Solomon-esque?) decision of watching his family be murdered... or he can murder 150 people while committing suicide. Along the way, the FBI gets involved and we get a compelling ground story, though the bit at *Yankee* Stadium (not Dodger Stadium as another reviewer noted) during the ninth inning of Game 7 of the World Series is in fact contrived yet cool. Ultimately even with these issues, this is still a 5* book - though yet again, I do not understand why *this* book gets all the hype and publicity while other books that are at least as good languish in obscurity.
And from the other side...
"That was then. Now I Just Want You To Burn." Ok, so that title is a bit spoilery, as it is in fact a line that occurs late in the book. Though out of context, it is just cool. :D This is one action-packed book that has a few cliches - hello, ninth inning of Game 7 of the World Series- yet still manages to keep the reader glued to the page, desperate to see what happens next. Like some (yet far from most) other airplane action tales, this one has a strong ground game (even the dang World Series scene turns out cool, if contrived) mostly featuring an FBI agent regularly frustrated by FBI bureaucracy and seemingly as immune to damage as Halo's Master Chief. (Seriously, I think this dude absorbs more critical wounds than I've ever seen in any other action movie.) If you're looking for a straight up "don't think too much and just enjoy the action" type of tale, this one really is pretty dang good, up there with most any Die Hard *movie* (the books the first two Die Hard movies were based on actually had a *bit* more thinking involved, and yes, I've read them both - about three years ago, IIRC). While I still don't understand the *massive* hype and publicity of this book - I've seen as-good-or-better tales languish in obscurity *this year* simply because they don't have the strength of a Mega publisher behind them - again, for what it is, this book is truly solid and a really fun time.
As you can see from both lines of thinking, this book is still, even with its issues and even with my questions re: strength of publisher, very much recommended.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 5 October, 2021: Finished reading
- 5 October, 2021: Reviewed