বুক রিভিউপয়েন্ট অফ ইমপ্যাক্টস্টিফেন হান্টার/নাভিদ হোসেনবইটা পড়ার ইচ্ছা গত বইমেলায়ই ছিল, কিন্তু নানা কারণে তখন কেনা হয় নি। এবার বইমেলার প্রথম দিকে বাতিঘরের স্টলে ঢুঁ মেরে নতুন বইয়ের অভাবে পুরনো এটাই কিনে ফেলেছিলাম, আর গত রাতে বুঝলাম যে কাজটা একেবারেই খারাপ করি নি।বইটা থেকে একটা মুভি তৈরি হয়েছে হলিউডে, আমার দু’বার দেখা। সম্ভবত সে কারণেই বইটা পড়তে গিয়ে আমি সবকিছু ভালোভাবে কল্পনা করে নিতে পারছিলাম, কখনও ক্লান্ত হয়ে আটকে যাই নি।বাংলা অনুবাদটা প্রায় ৩১৭ পৃষ্ঠার, ৫৬ পৃষ্ঠা আগে পড়া ছিল। গতকাল রাতে গাইনি পড়ার ফাঁকে ভাবলাম, বইটার আরও কয়েক পাতা পড়ে রাখলে কিইবা এমন ক্ষতি হবে? শুরু করলাম পৌনে বারোটার দিকে, রাত আড়াইটার দিকে ঘুমাতে গেলাম গাইনির গুষ্টি উদ্ধার করে, বইটার তখন ২২০ পেজে পৌঁছেছি আমি। ঘুম এল না, মাথায় ঘুরতে লাগল বব লি সোয়েগার, নিক মেম্ফিস, প্রতারণা ইত্যাদি। অবশেষে কিছুক্ষণ বিছানায় এপাশ ওপাশ করে আমি আবার বইটা নিয়ে বসলাম, একেবারে শেষ করে তবেই একটা প্রশান্তির ঘুম দিতে সক্ষম হলাম।বব লি সোয়েগার একজন স্নাইপার। পৃথিবীর সর্বকালের সেরাদের সেরা। সেই বব ফেঁসে গেল কুখ্যাত এক দলের হাতে, সালভাদরের আর্চবিশপ হত্যার দায়ে শরীরে দুটো বুলেট নিয়ে পালাতে শুরু করল বব। ঘটনাচক্রে তার সাথে জড়িয়ে পড়ল স্পেশাল এজেন্ট নিক মেম্ফিস, আস্তে আস্তে বেরিয়ে এল থলের বেড়াল, ছিঁড়ে গেল রহস্যের সুতো। প্রায় একা হাতে পাপীদের সাবাড় করে বিচারের কাঠগড়ায় দাঁড়াতে হল ববকে, মামলা তার বিপক্ষেই ছিল কিন্তু একেবারে শেষে ববের উকিল বের করে নিয়ে আসলেন প্রাণঘাতী এক ট্রামকার্ড, ববকে বেকসুর খালাস দিতে বাধ্য হল আদালত।অনুবাদের মান যথেষ্ট ভালো, বইটার একমাত্র সমস্যা বন্দুক, গুলি ইত্যাদির বিস্তারিত বর্ণনা, যা সাধারণ পাঠককে সম্ভবত একটু হলেও বিরক্ত করবে। কিন্তু চমৎকার একটা বই এটা, উপহার হিসেবেও চমৎকার হবে, অন্তত দু’দিন ঘোরের মধ্যে কেটে যাবার বই এই পয়েন্ট অফ ইমপ্যাক্ট।আমার রেটিং ৮.৫/১০বাতিঘর প্রকাশনীবইমেলা ২০১০মূল্যঃ ২৪০ টাকা (গায়ের দাম)পয়সাঃ উসুল
Before I start a review of this book, there's two caveats that I should probably address. The first is that I have a deep and abiding interest in guns and all the information that surrounds them, which makes the information in this book—length of pull, turned case necks, all kinds of manufacturers and statistics that are too numerous to name—a pleasure to read about rather than a chore. It's not everyone's cup of tea, and I know and respect that. But this is my own opinion, and it was just the icing on the cake for what is already a very well written book. The second caveat is that I already saw the movie which was (loosely) based on this novel, called Shooter, and starring Mark Wahlberg. Having seen it, I could at many times predict what was going to happen and had a more intimate knowledge of the characters.Anyway, on to the good stuff.I don't read a great deal of what you'd call thriller novels. One or two on occasion, usually while I'm on vacation. In the past, a great deal of Tom Clancy, which I always feel inexplicably guilty for having read. Don't ask me why. But reading thrillers on the whole is something that leaves me feeling like my time could have been better spent, as if there were novels with deeper plots, better developed characters, generally more complexity to them.Point of Impact, however, ignored all my feelings and went straight for the kind of themes I love, and threw in some truly memorable characters along with plot twists that just kept catching me by surprise. I read it in two days after I first picked it up and like any good book it would not let me go, whether because I wanted desperately to know if one character or another was still alive, or whether I viciously hated another and wanted to see the main characters bring him to justice—one way or another.A lot of people give Bob Lee Swagger, the main character of this book, a bad rap for being who he is. Sure, he's a backcountry hermit who lives with his guns and devotes himself to them as one might a lover, and to most that will make him irredeemably crazy. But anyone who focuses on that is ignoring several important details, not the least of which is the fact that the U.S Marines teach that kind of singleminded dedication to one's weapon, and that Swagger has used this dedication to overcome vices such as drinking to excess. To be sure, his character is painted in broad strokes at times, and when he lapses back into a Southern drawl for long periods where it seemed before that he hadn't had it before, it can be a little hard to take with a straight face. But he's not what you'd call stereotypical. He reads some of the famous nature writers, like Emerson and Thoreau. He writes and types because he enjoys it, and has a gift for it—though many do not see it in him. And he has a gift for hard work, not just in terms of shooting but of planning, along with the nearly inhuman patience required for the setup work of long-range shots.I won't detail the other characters too much, but suffice to say that there are some that I adore and some that I loathe, and while only a couple feel as real as Bob I think that's all the reader really needs. The real centerpiece of the book is the plot, in any case.With conspiracies that run so deep and wide they make your head spin, strategies and tactics that seem to defy the abilities of human reasoning, and enough plot twists to keep you consistently on your toes, Point of Impact is typical of the thriller genre. But what makes it believable is the scale: the plot isn't to end the world, not to wipe out an entire country. It's to kill one man and save the asses of a few people who by all rights should be in jail or on death row. Given the world we live in today, that's a lot more believable, and makes the book seem a good deal more realistic and down to earth. Apart from the rifles, there's not much gadgetry, either. Even the 'bad guys' are crammed into musty old trailers, not much better off than the characters they're hunting.I won't say that this book is perfect. There's not a few points where I grew bored while I was reading, particularly during FBI agent Nick Memphis' long blocks of description. Bob grew to caricature proportions on occasion, and some of the feats that he accomplished were simply too big to be believable. But if you manage to forgive these small mistakes, you'll find Point of Impact to be a rewarding book that will take you for a hell of a ride.
What do You think about Point Of Impact (2003)?
I finally gave up reading this book on page 270. Which honestly was hard for me to do because I've never given up on a book before. Well, I gave up reading FAST FOOD NATION but that was different. Anyway, reading this book was an uphill battle only because Hollywood had recently turned it into a movie --a bad movie and although I never saw it, the mere thought of it shied me away from reading it. However, I decided to put my best foot forward and read the book and then see the movie and then draw my own conclusion as to what went wrong. But you see, in the very beginning of the book, I already had problems with the initial setup. Basically, Mr. Hunter paints himself into a corner because the character he creates of "Bob Lee 'The Nailer' Swagger"is so supremely almighty powerful and awesome that it's impossible for the reader to buy for one second that the bad guys would be able to convince Bob to work for them. Absolutely impossible. So, I overlooked this, thinking that Mr. Hunter's writing would carry me through the holes and blemishes and bestow upon me a sense of genuine enjoyment as I discovered how Bob exacts his revenge but alas, I just couldn't ignore my instincts, which were: this premise/characters are full of shit. And when the clay feet crack --the statue comes down next.
—Lucas
Leon: Have you tried any of the books in the Sean Drummond series by Brian Haig? If not you might want to check them out. I think they would be right up your alley.
—Leon Aldrich
Bob Lee Swagger is a tough, unforgettable character. The action, settings & plot are all plausible. If you like conspiracy theories, guns & snipers, it's a great read. Well written & thought out.The biggest surprise to me was that when I tried to re-read the books maybe 5 years later, I couldn't get back into it. I didn't think of it as a read-once book. It's better than that. Maybe a little too good & I remembered it too well to make a re-read worth it. Usually my memory is worse than that.
—Jim
