Saturday 1 April 2017

Any minute now by Eric Van Lustbader

"Any minute now" by Eric Van Lustbader. This book is published by Forge books in 2016 and has 368 pages.

Red Rover is a private contractor working for CIA. They are sent on blackest of black operation to kidnap and interrogate Saudi born terrorist El Habib from Pakistan. But the operation fails. There is a traitor. One member is lost. Gregory Whitman and Felix Orteño want to capture El Habib, but NSA directs them to leave him alone. The lost member is replaced by mysterious Charlie. A group that calls itself Alchemists wants to create an ultimate warrior. 

What is Luther Saint Vincent's agenda? Who is mysterious Preach? What is the China connection? What is 'The well'? How come Whitman has a multi faceted personality?

A group of powerful individuals works out of the government channels. Whitman has quit this group long time ago. Preach thinks of him as a son for his future. 

Author has created a number of sub plots. Some of them are not even relevant to the story. What was the significance of Sidney Julie story? What was the significance of story of Luther's mother? Why was character of Lucy introduced in the story? Why crow can't see Charlie? Some parts of the stories take the book from the realm of fiction to realm of fantasy. Spirit of dead crow telling secrets to Preach, Black magic and voodoo are some examples. At one point readers can't make sense of what is happening and why. 

The story is about the creation of an ultimate warrior, a killing machine without remorse or emotions. However the sub plots divert attention from the main focus. Reader gets confused about which the main plot is. The story goes all over the place. 

As a result author had to run all over the place to converge all the threads. He could have done away with some sub plots and made the story lean and bearable. What was the significance of the title?

Why did I read this book? Eric Van Lustbader's non Jason Bourn novel. 
What I didn't like? Magic, digressions. 
What did I like? Umm!

Give it a miss.


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