Book One: The Omega Strain
3.75 out of 5 stars
While reading The Omega Strain, I could tell that the book was going to be shorter than the average thriller novel I read. I paused it and quickly realized it was only a slightly longer than 3-hour book. I don’t mind that at all, I enjoy books that can complete a full arc in a short amount of time.
The problem that I had with The Omega Strain was that it didn’t really complete the arc. Sure, there was a beginning, middle, and “an end” but only sort of. The real ending appears to be coming in at least another two books.
Now, thankfully, I’m reading this as a box set – so I can jump right into book two. But when you need another book to make the first book feel okay – it’s a strike in my book.
But, onto the things that I did enjoy. The virus chat was pretty good – Vincent didn’t dive too deep into it alluding to a lot of things (and making the reader infer/guess some others). But, I still enjoyed the premise and I thought that the systematic assassinations of the carriers were pretty freaking BA.
Mitch Herron as a character is someone that I’m still getting used to. I think I’ll like him, but right now there just isn’t enough going on and enough character building to know how I really feel.
Overall, it’s a book that feels like it needed a bit more, but still, a book that I enjoyed. Vincent could have doubled the length of it and really added some good detail in it that I felt was missing.
I’m a little curious how much of a full arc each book will have, or if the full box set will have a better overall arc.
Book Two: The Shadow Enclave:
4 out of 5 stars
So, The Shadow Enclave is the second book in the Mitch Herron series – and each book clocks in around three hours. While this is more than enough time to write an amazing book – sometimes you’re missing some things. I mentioned in my review of the first book that I didn’t really feel like I got to know Mitch at all. I honestly didn’t feel like I got to know him much more in book two, but there were a few scenes where he described “what he would have done” and how he was going against his wiring.
We also learn a little bit about who trained him along with what he’s probably considered (a beta). I infer this because he ends up meeting the only two Alpha’s ever created (and they were all created by the same group – The Shadow Enclave).
The Enclave feels like this shadow government “they have hands in everything” kind of group – and that’s exactly how Vincent wants you to read it. It feels like he’s trying to spark some interest by including the group the way he does – and he even strikes a nerve with Mitch (who seems to have very little emotion) when he realizes that he’s just a puppet and he’s not just killing “bad guys”.
The Shadow Enclave as a novel was a blast to read – a lot of action and a lot of back and forth compared to The Omega Strain – but still some hits and some misses.
The biggest scene that bugged me in Enclave was the farmhouse scene. It just reminded me too much of that scene in The Bourne Identity where he has to shoot the gas tank to get to cover. Honestly, Vincent could have even taken some liberty here and written something like “it felt like overkill in The Bourne Identity, but honestly, it works” or something like that. It just felt almost like a shot for shot rip off. Another similarity to the Bourne story – he was a government assassin who has gone off the reservation and the government will stop at nothing to kill him.
Overall, an enjoyable 3-hour novella – and one that I’ll keep reading. I want to figure out who the heck Mitch Herron is and I want to see where his death spree will take him.
Book Three: The Lazarus Project
3.5 out of 5 stars
The Lazarus Protocol has Herron jet setting all over the world in search of The Master (who he thought he’d already killed). He wants to put an end to the Enclave but The Master is seemingly the only one standing in his way.
I was hoping while reading the other two (which kind of just ended) that Vincent was going to wrap up book three with a neat little bow. Unfortunately, he didn’t. That’s not to say that this book or even this entire series hasn’t been damn entertaining, it’s just a little bit of a bummer. I assume that just means that we still have some more Herron waiting in the wings… maybe?
Lazarus was definitely the most action-packed book of the series to date. It had Herron almost lose out numerous times and there were a few times I thought “is Vincent really going to do that!?” but then only to prove me wrong. I do enjoy when a book has me so into it that I don’t know what’s going to happen next. The Herron series has felt that way from the beginning.
The fact that the trilogy now is lacking some sort of finality of the arc (or really of each story) I still wonder if there are more books waiting to come out. Vincent is an awesome writer and I hope that he’s able to devote some more pages to Herron if he ever decides to write a book 4.
Overall, some hits and some misses – a book and a series that I enjoyed but didn’t love to death. Not every book is going to get that distinction!
Tom Jordan nails it with his narration though. He definitely made these books jump off of the page!