I have only made it 30 pp into this book and after a month, this is shaping up to be a DNF book.I attribute my struggle to1. The many British idioms, slang and military terms. This slows me down considerably but would not cause a DNF per se. But to that I add--2. The 1st person narration. I know my comments must run on like I am obsessed with PoV, hehe. Here, the POV of the SAS soldier would not be a deal breaker; after all, I survived the 1st Person narration of the Hunger Games Trilogy and actually consider Catching Fire to be a Favorite.No, my problem is I don't like the hero, pr more specifically, the author's limitation in creating the hero. I cannot get into the story because Ryan has created a very WRONG character.I get that the hero is a highly trained, elite soldier, but c'mon! The man's son has been kidnapped by a pissed off IRA drug dealer, and he can chat and eat breakfast? And he hardly has mentioned his son, instead thinking of his live-in girlfriend who isn't even the boy's mom. Grrr! Forcing myself to read page after slow page, I find myself wondering if Chris Ryan had kids when he wrote this novel, or had friends who had kids, or ever read a book about a father...or seen a movie about a father...or is just a huge male chauvinist selfish pig.30 pages into the story, and I hate the hero and the author.The old adage stands: write about stuff you know. I think Ryan should not have been writing about fatherhood at this point in his career. Or at least, that is what I have learned 30 pages into Zero Option.If anyone can assure me it gets better, please let me know. For now, I have no intention to read a story in which the hero is more worried about sleeping without his girlfriend than how his 4 year old endangered son is doing.
Very flat boring unrealistic character. Appears not to have any thoughts or feelings and never stops to contemplate why his family has been kidnapped. The biggest opinion that we get of Mr. Sharp is that he thinks the IRA are bastards. Since there is no insight in to his own thoughts it would be asking far to much for him to try to acnowlage other peoples thoughts. Also the term PIRA is used far to much. Sometimes 4 times in a page. Dosn't seem to realise that everybody generally refers to the PIRA as the IRA so once its been established that this is taking place after 1921 and we are talking about the PIRA there is no reason to keep repeating this. There are also plenty of other terms that you can use eg. Provos, Provisionals, RA etc.
What do You think about Zero Option (1998)?
P.T. Deutermann is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors. David Stafford exposed corruption within his department as a reward he is sent to a very mundane job a government Siberia. He stumbles on a government employee who decides to make a million dollars by selling a deadly cylinder which contains a virus.There is a lot of action but Deutermann brings all of the characters to life; from a mute psychic girl to various government agencies all trying to reign in David Stafford. Cover-ups come from every direction and the higher ups bring pressure to their teams to parrot the cover-ups.Very good.
—Johnnie Gee
My first venture into a Cris Ryan book. The reason I picked it up at the charity shop? It stared with Z which crossed of a letter on the a-z challenge! Maybe not the best reason to buy a book, but actually it wasn't too bad a read. It's pretty fast paced, he seems to know what he's talking about, all the terms are pretty easy to follow. So why only three stars. His son and girlfriend have been kidnapped and he still goes off on a mission - I mean really, I don't have kids but if I did I would move heaven and earth until I got them back.
—Kingfan30
