Review:The Edge of Alone by Sean Black

The Edge of Alone by Sean Black, (Ryan Lock, #7), Kindle edition, 2016, 426p.

2 out of 5 stars.

I reviewed previously:

Gridlock (Ryan Lock, #3) 4 stars

The Edge of Alone is a mediocre book living inside an exceptional series. I read the book previous to this new release, Fire Point, which was an excellent romp through the dangerous world of Lock and his buddy, Ty. I was so enthused by book 6 in this series that I picked up The Edge of Alone immediately after finishing and was disappointed.

The first thing that stood out to me about The Edge of Alone was that the bad guy in the book resembled the bad guy from the last book, Fire Point. Let me expand on that a little – both were women who were experts at manipulating the men around her. Don’t get me wrong, I like a woman being a bad guy in these books, it usually adds variety, but in The Edge of Alone it seemed more cliche. Add in the fact that both women were called Gretchen – and I just felt like the author was being lazy.

This book fails in reaching the standards set in previous books also – the first third of the book dragged and barely touched the main characters, Lock and Ty. If I was a first time reader of this series I would have put the book down in boredom. The establishment of the evil school took so long, and the girl that the two men were being hired to protect seemed to suffer from special snowflake syndrome pretty badly. Finally when Lock and Ty are on the case, the action followed the supporting character, Ty, more than Lock. As much as I enjoy Ty as a character, I read these books for Lock.

The Edge of Alone is poorly edited, with the wrong names being used on numerous occasions, so many grammatical errors that the English teacher in me wished to dig a hole and bury myself and even a paragraph repeated twice. All things that the most rudimentary editor should have picked up. I’m unsure how a book with so many errors has been added to a stellar series. I’ve seen that the author is planning on releasing a edited ‘fixed’ version of The Edge of Alone, but I’m not sure if the other issues with this novel beyond spelling and grammar will be addressed in that correction.

The plot, once we actually got to the part in which Lock and Ty were taking down the school was enjoyable, and I didn’t hate reading it – which means I’m comfortable giving this book a 2 star rating. Sean Black writes action scenes so well, and the last half of the book flew by and I was flipping the pages faster and faster. I will be reading the next novel in this series, but I certainly was disappointed by this effort.

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Releases For The Second Half Of The Year

Top Ten Most Anticipated Releases in the Second Half of 2016. I’ve included releases from July, August and early September. I’ll probably do another list similar to this in late August/early September when more release dates are available. One of my favourites, Geoffrey McGeachin’s Charlie Berlin series, will be due for a new book soon, but so far I haven’t heard anything about it.

 

Sean Black’s The Edge of Alone – July 10. The 7th in a great series about Ryan Lock, who works in private security but always seems to find himself in deep trouble. Already pre-ordered.

Scott McEwen’s Ghost Sniper – July 12. A favourite series of mine, and one of the few American military fiction authors who I don’t want to give a lesson on tolerance to. His characters are real, but so so tough. Will buy on kindle.

Ace Atkins’s The Innocents – July 12. I’m hoping that this one can recapture the awesomeness that was the early releases of this series. Has one of the most memorable sidekicks ever written in Boom. Netgalley copy.

Alex Kava’s Reckless Creed – July 26. Cute series about a man (called Creed) who trains service dogs. They are still thrilling, but I will admit to reading mostly because of the dogs.

Stephen Leather’s Dark Forces – July 28. SPIDER SHEPHERD! The best UK thriller series, in my humble opinion. My favourite series, and I always pre-order this one. (and often end up with a hardback and kindle copy.)

Jack Coughlin’s Long Shot – August 16. Excellent series about a sniper – was the first American military fiction author that I ever enjoyed. The last book made some questionable choices regarding characters and who would be featured in this book, but I’m waiting to see how this one turns out. Will order from library.

Erik Storey’s Nothing Short of Dying – August 16. I’ve already read this one! AND IT WAS SO GOOD. Expect more fapping, more hyping and lots of 5 star reviews for Nothing Short of Dying. Best thriller debut of 2016, hands down. Netgalley copy.

Chris Ryan’s Bad Soldier – August 25. The Fourth book in the Danny Black series. Each one is just as good as the previous release – all have been four star reads for me. Black is a believable character who you can’t help but root for. Will order from library.

David McCaleb’s Recall – August 30. I’ve never read McCaleb’s work before (he might be a debutant for all I know), but I saw Recall on netgalley and immediately wanted to request it. I’m trying to get ahead of my reviewing queue before I request any more, but this is high up my list of anticipated new releases. Netgalley/kindle copy.

William Kent Krueger’s Manitou Canyon – September 6. Kreuger writes atmospheric thrillers, of which I have read three or four, but I am so behind on the Cork O’Conner series I know I should just pick up the next book in the series and read my way up to these new releases.

Ranty Roundup – February

So… It’s 9 days into March, and here I am, posting my summary for the previous month! Ha. I’ve got an extremely busy few months ahead of me, and I probably won’t be too active on the blog until May, but I will continue to abuse the service that is twitter, follow me @bookybecksa and I’ll follow back.

I only read two books in March, The Innocent by Sean Black and Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte. I can’t choose a favourite because I loved BOTH! I’ll be posting a review of Agnes in the next week or so, hopefully. It’s on my Classics Club Challenge list, so I really do need to review.

February was also the month of the #BBAW, which I loved participating in! I just wish I had more time/energy/resources/foresight to actually participate more. It was a great community event, and I really do hope that the organizers make it happen again next year. I met many new blogging friends and followed SO many new people on twitter who are constantly opening my reading horizons.

I also attempted to start reading Ulysses – but then realised that reading such a challenging book (I could only tackle it in five minute moments before I would get frustrated) during uni semester is probably not the best idea.

March is going to be focused primarily on fun, genre reads. I am going to lowkey participate in the #slaythatseries which runs from March 13 – March 20. I’ll post a TBR for that readathon a day or two before it hits us!

Like usual, I will tackle a classic this month – I missed the official pick for the classics club spin, but as I have not seen which number won, I will post my list today and then check out what spun up. A little naughty, but the classics club spin is one of my favourite bookish events, so I don’t wanna miss out!

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Books Read in February – 2

Agnes Grey – Anne Bronte – 4 stars
The Innocent – Sean Black – 4 stars.

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Book Reviews in February

None! (such a naughty book reviewer!)

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Challenge progress

Read my Books Challenge

Agnes Grey – Anne Bronte

1 book read in February / 2 in 2016

Classic a Month Challenge & Classics Club

Agnes Grey – Anne Bronte – Review to come

Series a Month

Did not participate in Series a month during February.

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March TBR

One Hit – Jack Coughlin and Donald A. Davis
Promise – Tony Cavanaugh
Fire Point – Sean Black
State of Emergency – Andy McNab
Off the Grid – C.J. Box
First Response – Stephen Leather
Classic for the classics club

My Goal for the month will be to read 5-6 books.

Review Spree = 20/1/16

Silent Creed by Alex Kava, hardback from library, 2015, 336p.

3 stars.

I’m really enjoying the Ryder Creed series and Silent Creed was an enjoyable installment in the series. It takes place after a natural disaster (a theme that I usually love) and involves Maggie O’Dell from Kava’s other crime series. To be honest, I would prefer if the Ryder Creed series focused more on Ryder and the people that inhabit his world, and it seems strange that his and Maggie’s paths keep crossing so often.

I found some parts of this novel to be quite slow, and personally I think it could have benefited by a strong subplot or two. The final third of the book picked up the pace and became much more enjoyable as the tension mounted. The ending was really great, and I will pick up the next book in the series, but if I’m not impressed by that one, it will most likely be a series I abandon.

Gridlock by Sean Black, paperback from library, 2011, 288p.

4 stars.

Gridlock is amazing. It blew me away. It really brought out the characters and the plot was racing. It would have to be one of my favourite reads of the last half of 2015, and made me so excited to read the rest of the series. The feeling of this series is very similar to that of the Joe Hunter series by Matt Hilton, but the Ryan Lock series has just kicked it up into high gear at the end of this book. The final events made me drop the book in my lap and wonder how the world can be so cruel.

I’ve just finished the next book in this series, and although I didn’t enjoy it as much as Gridlock, it was still a great addition to this very strong series. I will review that book, The Devil’s Bounty, in the coming weeks.

Ice Force by Matt Lynn, paperback from library, 2012, 482p.

4 stars.

This is the latest book in the Death Force series, and I am fearful it will be the last. It was excellent. The books in the Death Force series are shameless action romps, but the thing that sets them apart from most other military action novels is the aspect of teamwork. Despite a very strong character in the main protagonist Steve, Lynn has created a very strong group of military experts who work together to achieve their goals. To me, this just seems to be more realistic than the lone wolf taking on whole armies approach that many of these novels take. I have a not so secret crush on Nick, and although it makes me feel like a cradle robber I love how far his character has come along.