Aftershock

This is the second E-force book.  I reviewed the first one when that first came out, as it looked like good fun, and I believe I said something along the lines of it's a series with great potential but was slightly let down by mediocre writing, and that I had high hopes for a sequel or three.

Well, this is the sequel, and it was definitely better written than the first.  Bits still felt a little awkward (especially at the start), and the characters still weren't fantastically developed in terms of the members of E-force (I still get a few of them mixed up), but the supporting characters who were trying to survive the disaster were pretty well evoked, though there were rather a lot of them involved!

The action was great.  Plenty of it, and once it really got started, say from about the third chapter or so, it really was quite well written and engaging.  Took no small effort to tear myself away from it for tea.

I think this is a series that (please!) might turn out to be something like the Dirk Pitt books--a long-running series with a core of central characters and then supporting cast brought in as needed.  But the closest thing to compare it to would have to be Thunderbirds.  In fact, it practically is Thunderbirds, brought into the 21st Century and in adult book form (there is some swearing--though less than many thrillers--and not everyone makes it).  So I was amused by the Stingray reference--I imagine that like the character who had watched every episode of Stingray obsessively, the author Sam Fisher has probably watched every episode of Thunderbirds, maybe several times over.  Like my brother really.  And by extension, myself.  I think I've seen most/all of the original Thunderbirds, the new one two or three times, and then a handful of Stingrays and Captain Scarlets.

Whilst being a Thunderbirds fan, or vague appreciator as in my case, is probably not necessary, I imagine it's a bonus.  The craft used are effectively Thunderbirds craft, with a few added extras, and rather than a philanthropic family there's instead a group of dedicated rescue personelle with little/no ties to the outside world and thus forming a tight-knit team within E-force.

I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Could have been better than it was if the main characters had perhaps been developed a little more--though by the end they were becoming more distinct entities than the Tracy brothers in the original Thunderbirds ever really were--and I think there was a definite improvement in writing style/quality as the book progressed.  So I have high hopes for the future of this series.

E Force, State of Emergency

Hmm. Think Thunderbirds, but written more recently. It was good enough that I finished it, but the characters were rather shallow, the action seemed somewhat drawn out (seriously, how hard is it to get out a burning building?! Most of a book's worth of action it seems...). A reasonable plot, but the whole thing shouted Thunderbirds, especially because the vehicles were the 'mole' and the 'firefly', and the two main vehicles were a very fast Mach 10 rocket type thing and a larger, slightly slower carrying aircraft. Hmm. Sounds rather like Thunderbirds 1 and 2 to me. Same with the secret island. Other than being somewhat cliched, and the characters being so shallow they were practically transparent, it was fairly decent. But the main characters were all but indistinguishable from each other, which did lead to me confusing them several times over. Could probably do with a few less main characters, or to be from first person perspective, so that you actually care whether they survive the mission or not. It was the first book in the series, so I am tempted to read the next, if there is a next. One moment... Ah, it's only just come out, there are no others yet. Working on the basis that most authors do improve as they go along, and books tend to get more interesting the further you get in a series (up to a point, when they can end up very samey). So, if you happen to see it in a library, it's probably worth getting out and reading. Unless you're a major fan of Thunderbirds, and want to read what is, in effect, a new version of Thunderbirds, it's probably not worth buying a copy.