Customer Reviews

The Gamma Option

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"The Gamma Option" is Jon Land's third novel featuring his semi-recurring hero Blaine McCracken. Like all his other technothrillers, this one involves someone trying to take over the world and only one man, Blaine McCracken, can stop them. Everything you've come to expect from Land is present here, however, unlike his other works, this one starts slowly and doesn't really accelerate rapidly until about the book's midpoint.

In this one, a dictator has learned of a submarine that was sunk during World War II. The dictator learns of the secret cargo and stops at nothing to get it in order to destroy most of the world's population. However, Blaine McCracken and his trusty sidekick Johnny Wareagle are joined by a mysterious woman named Evira to prevent the destruction. Caught in the middle of this is Blaine's newly discovered son who has been kidnapped. Blaine must try to rescue his son while also preventing the dictator from achieving his goal.

While still an entertaining read, this one seemed to develop more slowly than previous Land novels. Also, there were a large number of typographical errors in the edition I read -- the first paperback printing. The conclusion is satisfying, but if you've read other Land novels, the surprise twist(s) at the end are probably not very surprising. Overall, it's still better than many other technothrillers out there, but if you're a first time reader of Jon Land, pick up one of his earlier titles as they are better reads than this one.

I think that the situation described in the book is so close to reality that it frightens. even that the book is rated fiction it is based on a true situation here in Israel that may happen any time. This is a very fascinating book , filled with lots of action scenes that I believe would fit perfectly in an action movie.

This spy/action novel is the classic "super-hero" story, with superbly trained ex-agent Blaine McCracken taking on the Mossad, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the US security establishment, and solving the mystery of the USS Indianapolis, where the intelligence community's liabilities go to in "retirement," and more.

McCracken is a better fighter than everyone else, has no problems jetting around the world, master of all skills, yada yada.

The entertainment factor decreases as the book continues. This would probably be a more interesting movie than a book.