Getting Better All the Time 3.18

"Last Man Standing"

a book by David Baldacci, evidently he's popular...unfortunately I finished this book on NewYearsEve, so it won't count for my "Book-A-Paycheck" resolution.

I learned from this book that you can take general formula for fantasy and apply to FBI thriller. Sure you have to replace the +1 flaming sword with a custom made semi-automatic SR75 assault rifle, and the orcs with drug dealers, but with a decent FindAndReplace, it should be easy enough to do.

I'll give the book a C-

I suppose the moral of the story is "no good dead goes unpunished"
And often the FBI agents rant about how they put their lives on the line, and no one in America cares.

As I summarize, you can maybe see why I gave it such a low grade. Unbelievability.

And lots of stereotype characters. All the men are super strong and brave, all the women are super beautiful. The Hero's boss gets mad when the hero breaks the rules, but he'll allow it. The Boss's boss wants to destroy Hero by being a relentless follower of the rules.

I would say the Hero is a flat and static character. Lots of bad stuff happened to the Hero, but I don't think the hero has changed over his entire life. Always done good, protected the innocent, been quiet, loyal, brave, thrifty, organized, hard working, ethical, doesn't think about religion, only cares about doing his difficult job perfectly, no other passions or interests or opinions. Not someone I cared about.

And sometimes, there were word combinations that just were stylistically wrong, so that I would remember that I was reading a book.

...spoilers follow...seriously, I'm gonna give away the story so you won't have to read it.

The story in chronological order...

Hero gets face burned off saving hostage school children. One of the kids dies in the rescue attempt.

Years later...Hero and team are ambushed, only hero survives because he mysteriously froze before the attack. Now no one trusts hero. And who set up the ambush.

Lone SurvivingHostageTaker escapes from prison.

Local DrugLord is suspected of ambush, but what is his motive? DrugLord's son is missing, last seen by Hero before ambush.

Hero visits psychiatrist reluctantly.

That's the first few chapters...then boring stuff...and we find out in the end that...

DrugLord's Accountant was trying to organize other gangs for business reasons, and sold out DrugLord. DrugLord's Assassin kills Accountant because Assassin has his own plans for selling a different drug.

DrugLord's assassin is working for FarmHand.

FarmHand was hired by Mother of killed-child-hostage to kill everyone involved in the case of her child's death...including judge, prosecuting attorney, defense lawyer, and Hero's team. She has affair with FarmHand.

FarmHand organized the ambush, made look like DrugLord's action, and kidnapped DrugLord's kid.

FarmHand has buddy-psychiatrist that was taping and selling psychiatrist-FBI-related-patient consults to criminals. Buddy-psychiatrist had previously planted the "freeze" idea in hero's mind. Assassin kills buddy-psychiatrist and kidnaps Hero's Psychiatrist.

FarmHand kept DrugLord's kid, and Hero's Psychiatrist on the horse farm plantation that is run by the parents of the killed-child-hostage.

Father of killed-child-hostage had SurvivingHostageTaker sprung from prison and brought to him by mafia, so Father can torture, kill and turn SHT into a taxidermy exhibit.

Big shoot out, lots of bad guys die. Hero outsmarts & kills Assassin.

DrugLord finds son.

Mother runs FarmHand over with horse, and she is fatally wounded.

Psychiatrist learns through hypnosis that Hero had erotic dreams about mother, and actually helped mother kill his step-father. Hero angry with psychiatrist and drives off into the night.

Posted by joncim at January 3, 2008 09:56 PM