Envision, if you will, an aging, retired Spook and a young, fragile teenage genius. A perfect partnership! Together they lay siege to the bullies of the world, the North Koreans, Iranians, Middle Eastern terrorists.
One has the wisdom and the master-chess-player ability to anticipate the opponent. The other has the ability to penetrate multiple, proven-impossible firewalls to wreak havoc on ill-intentioned enemies.
The author, Frederick Forsyth, has been at this a long time. He started out as a journalist, has written 17 books such as DAY OF THE JACKAL, has won three Edgar awards and was the recipient of the lifetime achievement award, the Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers of America.
His prose, unlike that of Dan Brown or Tom Clancy is spare, terse, and tongue-in-cheek humorous. His statements are fact-checked by experts.
For example, when speaking of the Russian GPS system, the Glonass-K2, Forsyth has this to say: “Glonass will define a Russian naval ship’s position to ten to twenty yards anywhere in the world. It relies on twenty-four satellites spinning in inner space. Any hacker seeking to disrupt the system would have to suborn five separate satellites simultaneously, which is clearly impossible.”
Clearly impossible, that is, for anyone but our two heroes. Join them as they high-center tankers, blow up mountains and enemy missiles, and generally do what we all wish WE could do to right the world order.
An intelligent pleasure to read!
I grew up reading Asimov and Heinlein, but haven’t delved into too much current science fiction. That may change.