Customer Reviews

Land of Fire (Paragon Softcover Large Print Books)

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

 

 

Trooper Mark Black!?! He sounds like a comic book hero...and it's just that writing style which I find Ryan uses in his books.

The character is undercover, he's under the watchful eye of his older brother [Andy Black..the names get worse] and there's even a female spy thrown in for good measure. They get compromised and they must fight their way out to the Chilean border. The latter is perhaps the only contribution that Ryan has actual experience of. Then, twenty years later, those naughty Argies are at it again and this time a more experienced Black returns and guess what?...he bumps into that spy again etc. etc. etc.

A poor plot, lifeless characters and an immature writing style. All this book needs is some comic artwork throughout and it will be a book the whole family can enjoy.

This book was a bit dissapointing for me, but it's another good story, it certainly ain't great, but i read it with great excitement sometimes.
Ryan knows how to interest people, and even though this is not one of his best, i think it's worth a read.
4 stars are justified.

This book was dissappointing, i was expecting better of Ryan.
The story is not so good, the names (Mark and Andy Black)
and it wasn't the usual class of Ryan that i'm use too.
it isn't that bad,there are some nice parts in the story, but overall i'm dissapointed.
I think 3 stars are justified.

I'm reviewing the audiobook version of this story and right from the start this was the sort of book that had your attention - and kept it. Sometimes we had to pause it whilst driving as our attention was so taken by the story that we weren't paying enough attention to the route. That's not something that happens to me very often and was a notable aspect to this book.

The story covers two events, the Falklands campaign in 1982 and a revisit to the Falklands twenty years later. The hero, Mark Black, is a young and fresh SAS member during the first campaign, struggling to find his own position in the SAS with his overprotective brother shielding him. Their major operation during the war goes wrong and they end up having to walk out to the border with Chile, an excellently described journey of a week in the freezing and inhospitable environment. Having also had to contend with a helicopter crash, a ship sinking, loss of fellow SAS men and even the discovery of a young Argentine female spy, there's a lot going on in young Mark's life.

The story moves on twenty years when Mark is on his last tour with the SAS and is a completely different sort of character, older and wiser and with failed relationships in his past. When he and the rest of the team are asked to carry out an observation mission on an Argentine airbase it seems like a fairly straightforward, if dangerous, job. However as they leave the Falklands it seems there may be sabotage and as they arrive in Argentina and suffer losses of personnel and almost constant danger, Mark finds himself teaming up with an unlikely new comrade and being one of the few people who can potentially avert the Argentinians retaking the Falklands. There's danger, double-crossing, firefights, secrecy and more. It's always a gripping ride.

Although overall I loved this book there were a few negatives. The dialogue was pretty dodgy in places and the writing was pretty simple without that much depth, although this is fine for this genre of book, I imagine; it ended a little bit abruptly and I would have liked a little epilogue to tell me what happened in the future, particularly for Mark, but also to explain a couple of loose ends (for example, who caused the food poisoning incident on the Falkland Islands); I was also somewhat surprised at how Mark and the others seemed to extract themselves from almost certain doom many times - it felt rather like a James Bond film in that they always managed to get away. Mark's character was interesting - he is clearly great at soldiering but not so good at reading people, at planning and at relating to women - there's a rather awkward scene that treads perilously close to rape at which point the female character apparently ditches her anti-British sentiment, firmly held for over 20 years, and falls in with him. Still, despite these few reservations this was a great book with the chilly background of Argentina with its cold wind and snow adding much to the enjoyment.

Whoever is responsible for hiring the editor of this book should be fired immediately. The editor should have been fired when he recommended publication.

Simply put, there is no story to this story. It reads like a battle diary. Up to disk 7 (of 11), when I gave up listening to the audiobook version, there had been detailed descriptions of 2 SAS engagements in Argentina, with no reason to connect them, and no storyline at all.

Save your money.

Larry Bellinger