This spy thriller, sitting on a park bench, deserted and a bit stained, with no one around, invited me to sit down and read a bit of it; then I rescued it from the threatening rain and put it on the bottom of the pile of books to be read. This is #17 of Mariani’s now 18 spy novels, all featuring ex-SAS operative Ben Hope, repeatedly coming out of retirement for one last assignment. This is the only one I have tackled, or ever will.
The diverse list of characters includes an elderly billionaire French industrial tycoon, his niece, her expert code-breaker ex living in Moscow, their 12 year old daughter, a group of ruthless Russians trying to take control of all humanity by using secretly coded brain implants to program people’s thoughts, a conspiracy-theory nutcase, and, of course, Ben Hope, the James Bond-like master spy. The extreme importance of a missing1957 coded cipher to the modern plotters, the central thesis for the entire plot, is never made clear. The idea of controlling behavior with brain implants is interesting but hardly new, already being used medically in some branches of neuroscience; the complete control of us with brain-computer interface devices is the dystopian fear of many imaginative futuristic Artificial Intelligence gurus (and fiction writers) who warn us about being overpowered and made zombie slaves to machines that are smarter than we are.
The plot is extremely complex, with lots of interconnections and unpredictable twists, but the feats of the spy are very unrealistically heroic. He never misses a target even when shooting a pistol over his shoulder while dragging a wounded man through a dense forest in the dark (covering seven kilometres in 90 minutes). There is an oversupply of gratuitous violence and extreme cruelty. The car chase makes James Bond’s automotive exploits seem like a tame scenic drive through a park on a Sunday afternoon.
Obviously many readers enjoy the over-the-top unrealistic action of Scott Mariani’s thrillers, as he has sold more than 2 million books in his native Great Britain alone. But at least I did not waste money on this one. I prefer my spies to be more realistic, or at least to be pursuing something that is of obvious importance.
The Passionate Reader 