Aug 03, 2004 09:40 PM
5078 Views
(Updated Aug 03, 2004 09:44 PM)
In the last few years, I have ready many F.F. novels. My first - and still one of my fav 'sunday reads' - was ''The Devil's Alternative''. So it was with some expectation that I picked up ''The Veteran'' from my library. I figured... How wrong can you go with a nice collection of 5 stories from one of the masters of entertaining thrillers?
Well, I guess I discovered just how much!
Firstly, let me say that like in all his other books, F.F. has paid meticulous attention to facts; all the stories have in-depth details of the 'hows' and 'whys'. Let me also say that after this positive point, everything falls apart.
The characters almost all sound more like visiting professors than flesh and blood people. I mean, I'm all for explanations, but a little bit of subtlety surely adds to the fun in reading, right? Then there are these repetitions (I particularly caught sentences that began with ''Privately he thought....'') and a sense of being cheated at the end of every tale... Everything ends up being wrapped up nice and tight, with a mild dose of emotional saccharine!
Overall, I found it to be a ''once read, already forgotten'' collection. If you are willing to read this book just for kicks, then I think you'll probably get 6, on a scale of 10, in thrills. Worth a few hours?
Maybe.
... Just.
