Brotherhood: Infinity To Zero

Rating:
Summary: Brotherhood: Infinity to Zero by John Ling
Review: Reviewed by Michael LaRocca- 3.5 stars out of 5

Do you like pulse pounding, nonstop, over the top spy action? Assassins, guns, moral dilemmas? Is James Bond a bit too mild for you? If so, then you will absolutely love this book.

Ling's goal was to merge a mainstream action thriller with Christian symbolism and Chinese culture. It sounds like a daunting task, and yet this man has pulled it off beautifully. I found it extremely difficult to stop reading and do what I most needed to do, which was sleep. He's that good.

John Ling was born in Malaysia, and he currently lives in Malaysia. What he's done in between is anybody's guess. But I do know this. The man can write!

Many "spy" novels are all about action and never about character, setting, credibility, etc. That's not the case in BROTHERHOOD. It's all there. The action is intense. Since the author is not from the West, he invents phrases we've never seen before. Phrases that we should have seen before. I love this man's command of the English language. I chuckled at some of the goriest bits of the book, simply because of the language. I love it when that happens.

Picture a professional organization of killers dedicated to rapid-fire assassinations. Working covertly, they execute their marks with superhuman quickness. Is this the stuff of movies or suspense novels? No, it is not. Such organizations have a long history. John Ling takes us into their world.

Moses Chen is Chinese, 6'1", someone who has managed to get out of "the game." His older brother, David, has not been so lucky. His curse is to keep on killing, because if he stops it will endanger his family. The Syndicate will make him pay the price, so he keeps taking the jobs, no matter how ugly they get. David always protected Moses when they were young, and in his way he has never stopped.

Vivian Chen, the younger sister, is a lawyer. Mary, the matriarch, doesn't know what her sons do for a living. She doesn't even know if they're alive. She certainly doesn't know that they're being stalked by two mysterious persons, Lizzy and Bruno.

Yes, this is a book about killing. But it's also about loyalty. About family. About good and evil, about what these overused phrases really mean, about black and white and shades of gray.

The settings include New York, Malaysia, Sweden, England, Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia. The author most definitely makes the reader feel he's been to them all. John Ling is obviously what we would call a "world citizen," and this quality definitely strengthens his writing.

In short, if you love nonstop action, or if you want a whirlwind tour of the world, or if moral and ethical issues appeal to you, this is a book that you definitely should read.

Rating:
Summary: Brotherhood: Infinity to Zero by John Ling
Review: Reviewed by Michael LaRocca- 3.5 stars out of 5

Do you like pulse pounding, nonstop, over the top spy action? Assassins, guns, moral dilemmas? Is James Bond a bit too mild for you? If so, then you will absolutely love this book.

Ling's goal was to merge a mainstream action thriller with Christian symbolism and Chinese culture. It sounds like a daunting task, and yet this man has pulled it off beautifully. I found it extremely difficult to stop reading and do what I most needed to do, which was sleep. He's that good.

John Ling was born in Malaysia, and he currently lives in Malaysia. What he's done in between is anybody's guess. But I do know this. The man can write!

Many "spy" novels are all about action and never about character, setting, credibility, etc. That's not the case in BROTHERHOOD. It's all there. The action is intense. Since the author is not from the West, he invents phrases we've never seen before. Phrases that we should have seen before. I love this man's command of the English language. I chuckled at some of the goriest bits of the book, simply because of the language. I love it when that happens.

Picture a professional organization of killers dedicated to rapid-fire assassinations. Working covertly, they execute their marks with superhuman quickness. Is this the stuff of movies or suspense novels? No, it is not. Such organizations have a long history. John Ling takes us into their world.

Moses Chen is Chinese, 6'1", someone who has managed to get out of "the game." His older brother, David, has not been so lucky. His curse is to keep on killing, because if he stops it will endanger his family. The Syndicate will make him pay the price, so he keeps taking the jobs, no matter how ugly they get. David always protected Moses when they were young, and in his way he has never stopped.

Vivian Chen, the younger sister, is a lawyer. Mary, the matriarch, doesn't know what her sons do for a living. She doesn't even know if they're alive. She certainly doesn't know that they're being stalked by two mysterious persons, Lizzy and Bruno.

Yes, this is a book about killing. But it's also about loyalty. About family. About good and evil, about what these overused phrases really mean, about black and white and shades of gray.

The settings include New York, Malaysia, Sweden, England, Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia. The author most definitely makes the reader feel he's been to them all. John Ling is obviously what we would call a "world citizen," and this quality definitely strengthens his writing.

In short, if you love nonstop action, or if you want a whirlwind tour of the world, or if moral and ethical issues appeal to you, this is a book that you definitely should read.