Stopover: Narc #3.5 [Paperback]

Mel Keegan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 2007

Downtime becomes an explosive excursion into an industrial hell-zone. With Scorpio shut down, Kevin Jarrat and Jerry Stone are on furlough, headed for a resort in Rethan's tropics. But when the clipper detours to the halfway station of Sheckley for repairs, the vacation dissolves into unexpected, unpredictable hazard. Stone is fascinated to see the 'gas can with lights' where Jarrat spent his youth, but the tour turns deadly when they run into Scorpio escapees who recognize Jarrat, and the NARC captains find themselves on a flight right into Hades. Cut off from the carrier, backup and weapons, they're surviving on their wits; furough looks like an impossible fantasy. A Pocket-size NARC page-turner, falling between SCORPIO and APHELION, from the award-winning author of Scorpio, Hellgate and Fortunes of War.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

A self-confessed science fiction and fantasy devotee, Mel Keegan is known for novels across a wide range of subjects, from the historical to the future action-adventure ... but certainly MK is best known for the NARC series, featuring iconic characters Jarrat and Stone. Mel lives in South Australia with an eccentric family.

Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace (July 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1441429506
• ISBN-13: 978-1441429506
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,972,827 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars It's ok..., October 31, 2011

By 

Jeep Tenk "Jeeps" (Copenhagen) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Stopover: Narc #3.5 (Paperback)

The Narc series is chronicled over four novels and a novella (NARC 3 1/2), published over a wide span of years, from 1991 to 2007.
The narrative style is uneven, but improves somewhat towards the end of the series - the author tends to forget that the reader is not inside his head and privy to his thoughts.

The two narcotics agency enforcers and co-captains of space carrier 'NARC Athena', Kevin Jarrat and Jerry Stone, are lovers. In a high-tech, inter-galactic society they fight and crush 'Angel' cartels, Angel being a devastatingly lethal drug. Each of the books of the series deals with the eradication of a cartel on a colony world; the final book with a cartel on the home world. The books are written over a sort of template, which can become somewhat tedious and repetitive.
There are interesting, even likeable, characters in the books and loads of action. There are too much emphasis on guns for my taste, but that could just be me.
I like that the sex episodes are not over the top and fits naturally into the story line.

I am in doubt whether to give three or four stars, but as I bought all five books and read them with some enjoyment, I think three stars would be a bit harsh, so four it is. Could I, like Mel Keegan, use 3 1/2 I'd do that.

I have trouble reconciling myself with the fact that this is the author of 'Fortunes of War' (1995); 'Fortunes' being far the better book, in my opinion - I even included it in my listmania on Amazon.com. But Mel Keegan's authorship is very uneven, encompassing books that are downright annoying and amateurish, at least to me.

NARC 1: Death's Head 1991
NARC 2: Equinox 1993
NARC 3: Scorpio 2004
NARC 3 1/2: Stopover 2007
NARC 4: Aphelion 2007