review 1: Lester Ferris is the last representative for the British empire on a small island in the middle of the pacific. Once it was one of their territories but it wasn't given up due to profiteering that led to pollution. The island is on its last legs and will soon be evacuated because the pollution has turned into a biological threat. Lester is sitting around until his government calls him back but his relationship with a boy on the island, drug related underbelly on the island, and the various reps from other government and NATO cause a whole host of problems. The book is different from Harkaways's first two in that it is much slower in pace. He attempts to do some character building and develop this poignant relationship between Lester and the boy which I find less than succe... moressful. The book and Lester connect through their love of comic books. The boys learns English through them and he uses terms like Zerg, pwn, and ftw. Harkaway goes into painful detail explaining each term which is both annoying and shows how he is out of date for the terminology and expects the audience to be as well. My main gripe is with the tigerman persona, without going into detail, I just don't buy into it or his initial ruse. Again the novel is painfully slow and the action is only in the last 40 pages or so and leaves with the sentiment that I wish the rest of the book was written the way it ends. review 2: An interesting combination of thriller and introspective lonely guy story, with some hand to hand combat and a preteen kid thrown in. Definitely a guy book; the women characters were not so impressive. I liked the scifi-ish idea that this island out in the ocean had been ecologically destroyed and that it could possibly spread and DESTROY THE EARTH... but this isn't a scifi book and that isn't the focus here. I kept tinking this would be a good graphic novel or movie, lots of good visuals. less
