That difficult second album.... ⭐️⭐️
The blurb:
He was once called Orphan X.
As a boy, Evan Smoak was taken from a children's home, raised and trained as part of a secret government initiative buried so deep that virtually no one knows it exists. But he broke with the programme, choosing instead to vanish off grid and use his formidable skill set to help those unable to protect themselves.
One day, though, Evan's luck ran out . . .
Ambushed, drugged, and spirited away, Evan wakes up in a locked room with no idea where he is or who has captured him. As he tries to piece together what's happened, testing his gilded prison and its highly trained guards for weaknesses, he receives a desperate call for help.
With time running out, he will need to out-think, out-manoeuvre, and out-fight an opponent the likes of whom he's never encountered to have any chance of escape. He's got to save himself to protect those whose lives depend on him. Or die trying . . . .
The review:
As I read books, I write notes in my little notebook as I go along, just to remind myself of bits I like, things I've noticed etc. Anything that I might find useful for a blog post.
Looking back at my notes while I read 'The Nowhere Man' probably tells you all you need to know about my feelings for this one - here is just a selection:
"This is utter bilge" (In hindsight that was a bit harsh)
"Eugh, I don't remember the first one in the series being as pretentious as this?!"
"I'm pretty sure I enjoyed the first one, why is this one so laborious?"
"If I have to read one more lenthy, complicated fight scene, I'm going to stick pins in my eyes."
So no.... it's not going to win my favourite book of the year that's for sure.
Perhaps I owe it to this one to provide some context? This is the second one in the Orphan X series and bear in mind that I actually quite enjoyed the first one. Action thrillers are not normally my cup of tea so I'm already on the backfoot. However, I was looking forward to seeing Evan's character develop.
In the first book there was loads of interaction between Evan and normal civilian characters and through this we were able to see his dual personality, and how he has to hide his true self to the world. There was so much humour in his interactions with other characters and this really lightened the overall tone of the book. It also made you care about him and alleviated the long action sequences.
Hurwitz seemed to have made a conscious decision in this second book to go 'all out action-packed". There was no let up and for me that became monotonous. Also the villain was like a pastiche of the worst of the old-school Bond Villains. I didn't find him believable at all, he really was one step away from having an eye patch and a feline friend on his lap.
I can totally see that if you love action thrillers, then you would probably find this an exciting read. But for me I need a lot more character shaping in order to give two hoots about all the martial arts and gun warfare that's going on.
Not sure I'll be hurrying to read the next one in the series.... you can't win them all.
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