Breakthrough

The Book in 1 Sentence

A book with no sense of what kind of book it wants to be where the consequences of individuals can all be forgiven thanks to technology.

Brief Review

Weird things are happening to vehicles and electronics in the Caribbean. While this is going on, a team is sent to investigate which leads to find a massive spinning object that is not built by the nations of Earth. The team must fight politics, touchy scientist, and mother nature to survive.

Why I Read this book

I think this came from a 2-for-1 sale on Audible. I honestly have no idea.

In-Depth Review (Favorite Quotes)

This is a book that puts the idea of fiction, far before the idea of science. I am cool with the introduction of aliens, alien technology, even aliens that speak English. The last one making for easy relationships between them and our intrepid heroes.

There are two things that completely ruined this book and made it hard to finish where the definition of a "White Hat" which in the book is "someone who fights hackers" which in reality is someone who hacks to test environments because they were paid for. The other one is someone who ISN'T the President of the United States authorizing a nuclear device to be detonated. Let us say that anyone in the President's office could authorize it "With the full authority of the President," well there are about 30 safeguards that have to go into play for a nuclear device to go off. It is even referenced at a point in the book.

I have no issues and kind of enjoy the idea that we could learn to talk to dolphins. I can get behind that science, sure. I even enjoy the little foreshadowing that the male dolphin says at one point that is glossed over. That's right Mike, I saw it. That doesn't bother me and made for interesting story. I have no issue with 2 guys beating a team of 10 in a gun fight. All the same training, these two are just better. Cool, its crap story, but I am here for it. What I have a problem with is that nothing is permanent. I won't say more because that gives a way plot points, but there are no consequences at all in this story.

Rating

This book has a very intriguing premise. However, basic high school writing, lack of research, and the lack of consequences means that this is a fluff piece written by a proverbial college dropout. I wanted to like the book, but just didn't care in the end as it got more and more ridiculous, and further and further away from basic information. This is a 5, at best, leaning hard on what it could have been.

As an afterthought, this book like Elantris was a debut entry into writing a novel that I also thought was poorly written. It is about 10x better than this, but that is besides the point I am making. I would assume that Brandon Sanderson who wrote Elantris has gotten better since one of his books is constantly on the bestsellers list. I would hope that the rest of this series is better as he learns more about what people do and do not like. I will not continue the series though.

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