Paul J. Bartusiak

[b:Source*Forged Armor|17903862|Source*Forged Armor|Paul J. Bartusiak|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1368104436s/17903862.jpg|25039707] has a compelling story, believable characters, an interesting premise and a detailed setting. That would usually rate it four stars (really liked it) based on my scale, but I need to back it off a star for two reasons.

The first is the voice or tone of the book -- while there's action in the story, the tone of the book seems to downplay that action. It's not easy for me to explain and I'll admit it's a personal preference of mine. Others may like this style, but it didn't work very well for me.

The second reason is something that I'm beginning to have less and less patience for in authors these days -- a need for more, better and consistent editing. If I ever publish a book (unlikely), I like to think I would invest heavily in an excellent editor or perhaps even editors. I realize I may have to change my mind if I ever get to that point and I'm staring at an extremely expensive contract and I want my book to see the light of day.

The book itself has many things to like about it. My three stars means "I liked it". And I am looking forward to reading [a:Bartusiak|6471193|Paul J. Bartusiak|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1345914781p2/6471193.jpg]'s next one, [b:COOL JAZZ SPY|24986010|COOL JAZZ SPY|Paul J. Bartusiak|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1424525443s/24986010.jpg|44608015].… (mere)

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

The unique and intriguing premise of Paul J. Bartusiak's new novel -- that the US military decides for the first time in its history to design a vehicle through open "crowdsourced" input from the general public -- ensures that this book is at least a little better than the typical Tom-Clancy-ripoff technothriller; but make no mistake, this is still a Tom-Clancy-ripoff technothriller, even down to the central event propelling its plot being almost exactly the same as The Hunt for Red October. (In a nutshell, a Russian uses the contest in an attempt to pass along military secrets while defecting, but passes along the secrets in a sly way that most of the Americans don't catch onto, except for one brilliant analyst withering away at a desk job within the defense department.) Featuring nearly every cliché ever even invented in the military technothriller genre -- from the world-weary top brass to the sexy but tough-as-nails female scientist, the crude and jokey junior agents and a lot more -- this will try the patience of most general audience members, although I suspect that this will go down just fine with hardcore technothriller fans who burn through a novel like this every week. It comes with a limited recommendation today, only to such fans.

Out of 10: 7.1… (mere)