Saturday, July 21, 2012

Brainstorm ------ almost gave me a brain freeze

A chilling premise. Good characters. Twist ending (which I won't spoil for you, although I sure would like to talk about it right now!) Starts off fast and doesn't slow down. I've been told I've reviewed too many "chick lit" books and not any "guy books." So, if by "guy books" you mean those with bombs, boobs, sex, fighter jets, assault rifles, Marines, POWs, matrix trips, a gerbil and a psychic threat...then my last read was just for you!

In Brainstorm, author Gordon Kessler touches a nerve that we weren't aware was raw. But, once twanged that nerve will never be the same again.

Amazon describes it as:

Click HERE to purchase
What if a small American town is secretly replicated, populated with kidnapped scientists and psychically talented civilians, and then used as a proving ground while training psychic assassins? Political and military leaders of the Free World are the targets of these psychic warriors, and Project Brainstorm's goal is world domination.

Gold Rush seems to be just another sleepy little Colorado community full of friendly, caring citizens, quaint cottages, and a sort of quiet peace, held gently by the picturesque mountains that surround it. However, something isn't right in Gold Rush, and early on a Monday morning Robert Weller awakens with a cautioning and insuppressible voice inside his head. He soon finds a secret behind every door, a motive with every glance, and a lie beneath every spoken word. After meeting a strange but beautiful woman named Sunny who insists they were once lovers, people begin dropping dead around him without apparent cause. The world he thought he knew twists upside down as paramilitary teams hunt him, and his own wife and the people he considers friends turn against him.

Weller is thrown into the middle of a military mission to rescue thousands of the town's citizens from a plot to destroy the free world. In time, Weller discovers he was once the CIA's top remote viewer, and it's not just the bad guys who will lose if he survives another day.

BRAINSTORM goes beyond the bounds of ordinary reason. It blends the past (the CIA's "Project Stargate," a twenty-year exploration into remote viewing and psychic powers as background) with the present (incredible new developments in nonlethal weapons such as acoustic cannons, sticky foam, anti-traction substances, electromagnetic pulse devices, and infrared lasers). And it throws in a very sobering reminder; that there are still thousands of American MIAs from the Korean and Vietnam Wars.


It didn't come as much of a shock to me to find out that Mr. Kessler is a former US Marine parachutist, recon scout and Super Squad team leader. His writing proves an amazing knowledge of all things military (good and bad). With his history as a published, well-received writer, with a degree in creative writing, I can't help but wonder how on earth so many silly mistakes made it through even the first edit, much less the last one! Using "saw" instead of "seen" (loc. 1202), "pealed" instead of "peeled" (loc. 2107), the improper use of possessive "hello's" (loc. 2181), an extra o in "loosing" (loc. 4858), and in loc. 5000 a phrase that I couldn't make heads of tails of...with Robert posing Sunny on the table "as if she were in her finally resting." Sadly, there were a lot more. Especially a shame in such an otherwise amazing book.

I personally did not like the way the book ended. I thought the story should have ended several pages earlier and the last few pages were too "Twilight Zone-ish," in my opinion taking away from what was otherwise an absolutely magnificent tale that had me on the edge of my seat, having to slow down my reading so I wouldn't finish it too quickly. I look forward to reading more of Mr. Kessler's work....when I'm asked to review another "guy book" I'll be ready!

1 comment:

  1. Interesting! Too bad the ending was a little bit of a letdown, but the rest of it sounds compelling. And your comments regarding the errors confirm the absolute importance of good editing! (As an editor myself, thank you for that!!)

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