Customer Reviews

Stopover: Narc #3.5

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

 

 

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