How do you tell if a book has samurai in it? Don't worry, they'll put a katana on the cover. A book about ninjas is a little harder, since they are invisible to anyone that hasn't just been killed by a ninja. How do you tell if a book is a thriller? Don't worry, they'll put a gun on the cover.Professional protectors - the fifth profession.... get it! - Savage and Akira are teamed up to protect a travelling businessman. Things go horribly wrong and Savage is beaten to a pulp after seeing the businessman and Akira killed. Akira is also beaten to a pulp and sees the businessman and Savage killed. And so begins the twist in this David Morrell thriller.A lot of thrillers take you from point A to point B very efficiently to the point of cliche. Some authors even churn out the same book dozens of times in this manner. The thing that keeps you coming back is the the taut writing, thrills and cool escapism. The strength of The Fifth Profession is that it starts with the standard thriller plot setup and then eschews that for a different plot entirely. It makes the entire story novel. See what I did there?There are some annoying aspects to Morrell's novel. David has a habit of hammering certain points and descriptions at the reader, to the point I started assuming everyone had "karate" calloused hands. To some people this could be annoying and enough to throw the book against a wall - which I wouldn't be doing this since I read this on my iPad. To others the plotting and pacing will keep you entertained, as it did with me.
This book started out great, mystery intrigue spying and bodyguard-ing. Then it took a left turn out of interesting into crazy town. Spoiler Alert* Their brains were messed with. So it goes on and on and on Matrix style with is this a dream is this a real memory or is this fabricated. Chapter after chapter as they are chased and chase people. Oh and then all of a sudden the woman who was saved is suddenly and inexplicably in love with our protagonist. Seriously there is hardly any meaningful conversation or emotional exchange and then it is all "I love you" and "I would follow you into hell" it would be way more believable and I would have not sprained my verisimilitude had she just wanted a quickie in the sack. But back to the is it real is it not problem. The author lost me about 3/4th of the way though the book. Perhaps I was not paying attention and speed reading because "oh no is this a dream or not let's chase and be chased" was happening. (never I) but I have no idea WHY the main character and his (Again suddenly and inexplicably BEST-EST friend in the world) had to have the same memory, that happens to happen later in real life? Really? So if any of you careful readers could drop me a line to explain it to me that would be great, because I am sure as heck not going to re-read this.
It was a pretty decent book over all. It did an excellent job the reader in suspense until the end of the book. My major complaint with the book was that the author seemed very fond of particular descriptive phrases. These phrases appeared way too many times in my opinion. "Karate calloused hands", "Sad, melancholy eyes", "Jamais vu". It was so repetitive it became very annoying. You would think a professional writer could come up with different words for essentially describing similar situations.
—D J
What a missed opportunity. Morrell is probably one of the sloppiest bestselling writers around. While the story could have been cool, the book is bogged down by his repetitive writing style - what's up with those karate-callused hands in every second paragraph and Morrell's obsession with people tasting bile on a constant basis - to name only a few.On top of that he forgets and drops an entire major plot line halfway through the novel and offers up a finale that makes neither sense nor does it offer any satisfaction. The story drags in too many places and the moralistic finger comes up a few times too many throughout this ill-conceived lesson in Japanese history.Overall this is a pretty mediocre book that I would not recommend to people.
—Guido Henkel
This is the 2nd time I read this book. The first time was way back when I was in college. All I remembered was that I had found the book to be awesome then. Well after hundreds of thrillers later, thousands of life experiences later, a few paradigm shifts in my personal outlook towards life, I enjoyed the book but not THAT much. What I had once labelled as awesome has now fallen back into being a good "One Time Read" page turner.The plot is a bit far-fetched. It starts off in a furious and lucid pace but fails to elevate the momentum somewhere down the line. The pace starts halting, the narrative becomes repetitive. However, what works all the way is the relationship between 2 people from the same dangerous profession but with completely contrasting cultural outlook. Add a little romance in the mix in the form of a beautiful woman with a courageous heart and you have good concoction going. I must mention that this is the work of a master story teller. What has been attempted in "The Fifth Profession" is a unique mix between espionage and executive protection. Now, considering the fact that Honour plays a pivotal role in this story, you can only imagine how tricky perspectives become since Honour in Espionage and Honour in Executive Protection are two whole different worlds.If you haven't read this book, I think you should.
—Dipanjan
