This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, Librarything & Tumblr by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Threshold
Series: Chess Team Adventure #3
Author: Jeremy Robinson
Rating: 1/2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 351
Format: Digital Edition



Synopsis:

Did Not Finish at 39%

My Thoughts:

“So, what, Christianity is founded on a magical charlaton?” (Jack Sigler)
“Jesus spent his childhood in Egypt, as did Moses, so it's possible both men found some ancient source of knowledge and used what they learned to perform amazing miracles.” (Hercules)

Yeah, I'm done with this.When Christ's Divine Nature is denied, then I stop reading. I will also not be reading any more by Jeremy Robinson.

☆☆☆☆ ½ ( )

Robinson has written another fast paced adventure in which super soldiers have to face supernatural forces in order to save the world. After a massacre with a lone survivor King is faced with personal tragedy in which he has no time for because the world has gone to hell. The team is sent out on a mission without King, but he can’t be out done because he has to save Fort Bragg all by himself. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a read/listen in which you can turn the brain off and just relax and have some fun. ( )

This is the 3rd book in the series, and by far the weakest. I had a hard time getting into this one, and it wasn't until the last 75 pages or so that I found myself interested. I found the first two Chess Team books to be excellent thrillers with interesting ideas and plenty of action. While there is action in Threshold, most of it is King dashing around fending off attacks and always being a step behind. Eventually, most of the Chess Team comes together to face the Big Bad, but it's at the very end.

The most interesting parts of the book had nothing to do with the main bad guy, but instead were about the intrigue surrounding King's family. The political stuff seemed a bit overwrought, and if I understand it, a very convenient way wrap up the unlikely role of the President in the Chess Team's adventures. Also, one of the main characters makes what I think to be an odd choice for someone so dedicated and focussed as an elite special forces soldier. I see where it is heading for future stories, but again, the word I come up with is "unlikely."

Robinson's writing is fine, the descriptions good and the dialogue natural. My problems were with the plotting and pacing of the first 3/4s of the book. It just wasn't that interesting.

Over all, I think this will be good for fans of the series, but not one of Robinson's best. ( )

The Chess Team is back and so are some of the bad and good(?) guys. King goes on what he thinks is a simple favor to help some people, but ends up finding everyone dead except for a small girl. Fiona becomes his ward and the Team and he prepare for whatever is coming next. Historical Babylon and the lost language of the gods, golems that kill anyone with knowledge of any part of the ancient language from aboriginals in Australia to Indians in America. Add to that the theft of ancient artifacts, even from Merlin's tomb. And while this is all happening, Deep Blue is not always able to help them, King's parents aren't who he thought they were and the Chess Team was split up on a mission with not all of them making it back! Another great Chess team thriller with the ground work established to lead into the next book. ( )

Thanks to the quick action of Jack Sigler and the other members of a highly specialized group of soldiers known as the Chess Team, Fiona Lane manages to escape a ruthless terrorist attack on her family's reservation in Oregon, leaving her as the last speaker of her tribe's ancestral language. The team moves her to Fort Bragg in North Carolina, and, to better protect her, Jack becomes her foster parent. When the Chess Team learns of similar attacks wiping out the last speakers of ancient languages across the globe, they set off trying to piece together why someone would want to destroy the last traces of the old languages, leaving Fiona in good hands. Yet even the base isn't safe from the mysterious threat as strange, gigantic creatures of living stone reduce much of the base to rubble, and the team discovers that Fiona has disappeared. Jack and his team begin the frantic search to uncover the truth behind the mass killings and mysterious creatures before Fiona winds up like the rest of her tribe.

The action in "Threshold" comes at you like a machine gun, almost non-stop, not allowing the reader any chance for a breather which works great for the story, adding to the sense of urgency both to find Fiona and to stop whatever is happening to the last speakers of the languages. I found myself staying up well past midnight to get through just one more chapter before grudgingly turning in for the night. I also enjoyed the story's take on the Tower of Babel, what happened when the one language changed to many, and the potential for what could happen if the languages were reunited.

As for the characters, I found Fiona, Jack and the Chess Team very likable. They were no nonsense when it came to work and getting the job done, but also allowed themselves a chance to act like a family, joking and talking with the ease of people who had been through so much together that they are comfortable with one another. I liked the "friend" of the team Alexander Diotrephes and the villain Richard Ridley, but felt that something was lacking. They are both incredible and very original characters, but with constant references to a battle or conflict in what may be an earlier book, I sensed that I was missing important parts of both their histories with regards to Jack and the Chess Team.

Not to worry, though, as I plan to read the earlier Jack Sigler stories. If the fast-pace action of "Threshold" is any indication, those early books should be just as good. ( )