Amok by Barry Eisler

This is the first Barry Eisler book that I have read. The publicity of his first book many moons ago introduced his books to me, but I never got around to buying them.  (John Rain books.)

AMOK is a stand-alone novel involving an ex-military man pulled into helping the CIA. He'll get 5 grand a week, and they will keep his abusive father in prison. But Dox doesn't think his old man should stay in prison. His father's parole is coming up and he's in two minds about it. The family wants him to side with them and requests he stays in prison.

He accepts the job, or else there is no book. 

Next, we meet Felix, Joko, and the lovely and single-minded Isabel.  She has tapes to get to America. She wants to expose what happens when the cameras have stopped rolling. 

This book is set in 1991. Eisler mixes fiction with real events with expert ease. 

It's a good story and fast-paced. There's even a love story, but the timeline is too short for the book's deep "I love you" part. 

The characters acted as I would expect them to. The meat of the book is to expose a hidden war raging in Timor for the last 16 years. 

The face-off between Dox and Joko seemed too fast after the build-up. But Joko ultimately won. 

All up, this is a brilliant book. The story is a cracker 👏 and it's well worth a few notes of your hard-earned cash. 

The Contestant by Nick Thacker

This is the first Nick Thacker audiobook that I have read / listened to. The story is about Josh Lane, an ex-military computer genius who takes a job working for Bearbridge. 

The company implants an AI chip in his head that allows him to do many things that are unclear. The company also gives him a prototype car to use. 

Then he is kidnapped. 

He is to be a contestant in a game. 

A fiery death awaits those who lose a round. 

There is a surprise contestant as well.

Also, the NSA has a vested interest in him. 

This is an interesting book. 

I wish there wasn't an NSA component. 

Nick writes plot-driven books with little detail and characterization. Millions of people love this style, but that's not for me. I prefer character-driven books. Still, I enjoyed this book. 

The next section deals with the audiobook. For some reason, this book was on the BookFunel site. Which means I need to download the app and burn data to listen. That's kinda shitty. And it cant be downloaded so I couldn't listen on my preferred app. 

Was this a computer-spoken book?  There are many clues pointing to the possibility that it was. For example, the same tone was used for two speakers in a conversation. There were so many run-on sentences, it wasn't a pleasure to listen to. Then the audio editing was messed up with several pages repeated often throughout the book. It's a really good way to throw someone out of the story world. 

It annoyed the fuck out of me. 

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