I rate according to Audible’s own star system: so wo stars means “okay”.
I discovered this was part 5 when I got it, so I decided to take a chance and spent a credit to at least listen to book 1 first; after that I purchased parts 2-4 as ebooks – which obviously means I liked them enough to keep purchasing the next novel. Finally, I arrived at this one, part 5.
Frankly, I’m disappointed with part 5. Only a few (out of many) chapters are centered around the core mission, while the rest of the story is derailed by some sort of cross between a road movie, a travel guide and a lot of culinary details, plus quite a lot of borderline preachiness about nature, culture, politics and religion.
Moreover, this is no longer about Dan the lone wolf assassin, but he’s joined fulltime not only with the two ex-Delta Force guys from previous novels, but also with a local fixer who we are constantly told is a true team member as well – although I still don’t know why, exactly.
Also, way too much repetition and exposition; a lot of characters explaining the plot to eachother.
Worst of all was the romance, that was truly unbelievable to me – that a trained and experienced professional on such an important stealth mission could behave in such a very emotional and unprofessional way, basically from the moment he lays eyes on his love interest – who he has never met before. What were the whole team doing anyway, being out drinking and scouting nice places to hang out so many nights on this mission?! Nah, didn’t buy it at all. It feels very forced on the author’s part, meant to add some kind of “rescue the damsel” plotline. This actually takes up more time in the novel than the true mission.
In short, this storyline really fell flat for me, pity.
The narration is okay; he’s very good at African accents as far as I can tell (as a non-African) but on the other hand he’s not conveying the ‘bad ass factor’ a story like this requires imho (e.g. his heroes all sound quite chipper and friendly, not like hardened killers/fighters/warriors). To my ears, there’s no menace conveyed in the narration at all – at least not with the three heroes.
All in all this story is not for me, sorry. Sincerely wanted to like it more.
~ I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. I was not required to write a positive review and this reflects my honest opinion of the work.