I am a fan of this series. It’s engaging it’s fun and easy to listen to. The narrator does a fine job and keeps a great pace.
My biggest issue with this novel is the way the author depicts “Hailey”. She is going to be weak, falling apart, and barely able to hold herself together at some point during every novel – but then she’s going to pull herself together and save the day. It’s just weird. Everybody thinks she is beautiful enough to be a model. She is able to fight (and win) against assassin’s who have been trained to kill their entire lives. She is a marksman shot and she is the most gifted analyst – verging on mystical ability. But at the same time she is falling apart insecure and weak, and she makes the worst decisions. She is the only one who can run into the field at the last minute. But the book doesn’t ever tell us she has any actual training to be a field operative.
So, yeah, I find the plot and pacing fun, and it’s really good mindless driving story. I just don’t like the depiction of the female characters as overly insecure, filled with self doubt – but then they are an expert at literally everything.
And it’s funny how he tries to do the same thing with “Axe” – but then “Axe” just meditates his way out of death and is “accepting” of his fate, but then zens his way into a “And you can never surrender” SEAL ethos.
I think these qualities make these characters…laughable.