Customer Reviews

Critical Mass

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A good action packed novel. It was not quiet as exciting as Crossfire and Countdown. A Japanese billionaire loses his family (mother,father,wife,and child) in the atomic bomb blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The billionaire,many years later starts making plans for revenge. His plans include Ernst Spranger and his lesbian sidekick(both are ex Stasi). This group of ex Stasi agents steal the components to assemble a nuclear bomb. Our hero Kirk McGarvey enters the picture and promptly disrupts the scene for the bad guys. McGarvey does battle with this group all over the globe. He also does battle with the goons who belong to the Japanese billionaire.The daughter and ex-wife of McGarvey are also kidnapped by the Stasi renegades. This just adds to the action of the book. The book finally reaches a screeching finale. You will be greatly entertained by this book.

As evidenced by my title for this review, I didn't care for Critical Mass. As a matter of fact. I'm being generous giving it a 2-star rating. I decided to read Critical Mass because I was given it and 9 other books by Hagberg by my brother; now I have to decide if I want to invest more of my time reading this author. In my opinion, Hagberg's premise for Critical Mass was interesting, but his character development in general is weak and his main character -- CIA assassin and top agent, Kirk McCarvey, comes across more like a cartoon-like action figure than a real person. Further, Hagberg's narrative style and ability to create dialog that people would actuall speak leaves a lot to be desired. If this isn't enough to convince you to bypass this book, the action sequences, while numerous, are mostly predictable and not very exciting. I'm not usually this critical about someone's work, but Critical Mass was, to me, a crtical mess.

Hagberg is Sean Flannery's cartoonish alter ego. Or, actually, Flannery is Hagberg's highbrow alter ego - as Hagberg is his real identity. And Hagberg shows his true identity almost to a fault in this thriller. Countdown and Crossfire were tight ropes of action that just kept coming. This one has the action coming at you too but its a bit more uneven. And the Japan-bashing, at a time when Chirstie Yamaguchi couldn't even land a photoshoot for a Wheaties box, was a bit irresponsible. None the less, its a breeze to read.

At issue, a Japanese computer magnate who's bent on destroying the U.S. for its use of nuclear weapons on his homeland. Yes, a unique plot - hardly ever used before. Much of the action and many of the plot twists are as cliched its main plot, but when McGarvey goes into blitz mode, it doesn't matter because plot and reality often get shredded with the goons - and that's ok, its why I read Hagberg, remember, Flannery is his highbrow self.

While I was not overly impressed with this outing, Hagberg more than redeems himself in Dessert Fire and Highflight, two of his absolute best, regardless of pen name.

Bottom line, I'd read it, but read the other four I've mentioned in this review, then catch up with this one.

Comments, email me

I picked this one up, if I can be entirely honest, I did it based on the cool cover. It was, however the plot that got me to actually purchase Critical Mass. It was my first Hagberg novel, and my introduction to Kirk McGarvey, someone who would soon become my favorite spy in modern fictional print. What I really like about Kirk isn't that he could wipe the floor with Jack Bauer from 24, or take out James Bond on any given day...no, what I like about Kirk is that unlike the other two fictional characters, Kirk would most likely be wounded along the way, and dislike the art of killing at the same time. Kirk is a deeply flawed character, and I seriously believe it is his shortcomings which drew me into not just liking him, but rooting FOR him through several other books along the way.

Critical Mass by no means is where Kirk got his start, I believe his debut (so-to-speak) came from Without Honor, a book I STILL haven't found, and am dying to find and read...but even though I didn't read his humble beginnings, I have picked up every single McGarvey tale since. While you don't have to read all the books in order, I'd recommend doing so anyway because towards the last 5 novels or so, he begins to refer to previous exploits enough that it may spoil a surprise (or ten) if/when you eventually go back and pick them up.

A pretty good handle on the action sequences, and he convinced me that he knew how to write a good old-fashioned action/adventure novel. Many people seem to be making comparisons between Hagberg and Clancy, but I would like to clarify this to a degree: Hagberg writes like EARLY Clancy. In MY opinion, the last Clancy novel worth reading was 'Executive Orders'...everything since has been sub-par to downright pure drivel. Also, imagine Clancy's best novel with at least one-third of the novel trimmed down because of the repetition or outright needless additions and whatnot that he deems critical to including...Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Sum of All Fears, but he could have easily trimmed 350 pages and it would have been JUST as good (probably better).

Kirk McGarvey is much more a spy ala James Bond than he is Jack Ryan. That isn't to say his writing suffers, not at all, Hagberg has delivered a fantastic adventure story, much of which is totally unbelievable, but then when was James Bond believable? I get into 007 because he's FUN more than anything else, and that is why Kirk McGarvey is Da Man! A chip off the CIA's block and a pretty exciting one, too. Just when you think it's over and the story is fizzling to nothing, watch out! Hagberg is the real deal and even if he never gains the popularity of Tom Clancy or Ian Fleming, he IS a fun author to read. Oh, and the final twist? VERY worthwhile and satisfying. Give him a try, he just might surprise you.