Tiger Reef

Rating:
Summary: Good action, no frills
Review: The title above describes well Mckinna's writing style. Some authors are known for innovative or flashy writing styles that are as much a part of the story as the characters inhabiting the pages. But not here. Here Mckinna cuts to the chase, shoots from the hip, I could probaby think of a couple more cliches to describe his "to the point" style of narration. I guess you could say his lack of style is a style unto itself. It also lends itself to telling a story that needs no embellishment. He wisely lets the story drive itself along, and it does...without question. Instead, Mckinna spends his time developing characters which either endear themselves to you, or repluse you. As far as action adventure stories go, he does well putting characters you like, Ben and Sass, into a set of events that hook and drag you along. And the villian, he was as disgusting a character I've ever encountered in a novel and was fascinating as much as he was repulsive. Mckinna gets an A plus for character development here. The fact that he seems to know well what he is writing about, mainly the diving aspect, keeps you interested as well. I imagine many people picked up the book the first time for the same reason I did, and that was the dive related story line. I imagine a lot of Cussler fans read this one. Though not as much an international espionage story as Crash Dive, actually it wasn't at all, it stands up well as a character driven adventure. One word of caution, if you are squeemish, don't give this one a try. Mckinna plays hard ball, and pulls no punches when it comes to his villian. Ok, two more cliches there. The followup book Shark Lake was more in the same line as this, more character driven than plot jumbled. Which is good. Though it is a good effort to immitate Clancy's work, I believe the character centered stories that the series has developed into, will keep a loyal group of readers returning to the book isle at wal-mart, looking for the next installment in the series.

Rating:
Summary: Good action, no frills
Review: The title above describes well Mckinna's writing style. Some authors are known for innovative or flashy writing styles that are as much a part of the story as the characters inhabiting the pages. But not here. Here Mckinna cuts to the chase, shoots from the hip, I could probaby think of a couple more cliches to describe his "to the point" style of narration. I guess you could say his lack of style is a style unto itself. It also lends itself to telling a story that needs no embellishment. He wisely lets the story drive itself along, and it does...without question. Instead, Mckinna spends his time developing characters which either endear themselves to you, or repluse you. As far as action adventure stories go, he does well putting characters you like, Ben and Sass, into a set of events that hook and drag you along. And the villian, he was as disgusting a character I've ever encountered in a novel and was fascinating as much as he was repulsive. Mckinna gets an A plus for character development here. The fact that he seems to know well what he is writing about, mainly the diving aspect, keeps you interested as well. I imagine many people picked up the book the first time for the same reason I did, and that was the dive related story line. I imagine a lot of Cussler fans read this one. Though not as much an international espionage story as Crash Dive, actually it wasn't at all, it stands up well as a character driven adventure. One word of caution, if you are squeemish, don't give this one a try. Mckinna plays hard ball, and pulls no punches when it comes to his villian. Ok, two more cliches there. The followup book Shark Lake was more in the same line as this, more character driven than plot jumbled. Which is good. Though it is a good effort to immitate Clancy's work, I believe the character centered stories that the series has developed into, will keep a loyal group of readers returning to the book isle at wal-mart, looking for the next installment in the series.