Where to start? The book is a good read but as others have said it could probably have been whittled down to 350 or so pages. One of the things that ruins any book for me is when the author makes glaring mistakes when describing something that any small bit of research could correct. For example, the authors mistakenly says one of his characters opens a can of MRE (Meals Ready to Eat) when any bit of research would let the author now that MREs are packaged in plastic bags.
Another: the author has one character looking at a description of Homomotherium, a prehistoric sabretooth tiger and reading that the animal looked to be equal parts man and sabertoothed tiger with the animal standing upright.
Another: a US Marshall's duty handgun, which is mentioned a number of times is a Sig Sauer .45 ACP pistol (45 caliber) but he later describes his gun as a .9mm pistol with a 15 round clip. And here arises another mistake, the author continuously refers to inserting a clip in various pistols and rifles when what he means is "magazine".
A big error on the authors part is when he tries to describe a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter's capabilities. First he say the Blackhawk is a modified Huey, just completely wrong. He suggest that a US Marshall, who can fly a Huey just needs 10 minutes to become familiar with the flight controls and flight control panel to be signed off by an instructor pilot to fly the Blackhawk, impossible, could never happen. He mistakenly says the Blackhawk has a max speed of 300 mph when it is max speed is approx 185 with a DO NOT EXCEED speed of 222 mph. Again, Hunter and his team have to leave an area that is being firebombed and Hunter tells the US Marshall that they have 2 minutes until the attack and this Marshall is able to start the APU and two engines and then take off without hydraulic power (which is impossible because the hydraulic pumps are driven off the engines. Regardless, there is no way you can get a Blackhawk helicopter airborne in two minutes, its just impossible. And lastly, the Blackhawk does not have a cloaking device to mute the sound of the engines.
The author also mentions an A-14 aircraft,(have no idea what an -14 is)but the author writes that they must have come from a cruiser off the coast; I'm sure he meant carrier, as in aircraft carrier but again just another sloppy mistake.
The special assault team that Hunter leads to track the creature are all plausible except the token small framed female sniper that carries the big .50 cal Barrett rifle. Not that the sniper being a female is the problem but that the sniper can't hit anything with her weapon except one long range shot, other than that her skills as a sniper leave a lot to be desired. She tells of her past exploits of long range shots and even taking out a squad of bad guys at long range but she misses a target at 20 feet when her team needs her the most.
What was hard to justify was the creature's abilty to absorb mutiple gunshot wounds from a team of miltary specialists but not go down. Only the .50 cal is able to deter the creature. And with the vast number of rounds hitting the creature its hard to believe that none hit it in the knees (taking out its ability to move ) or even a head shot (take out the brain and there's no functional movement at all). But to succumb to knive, sword and a wolf attack is real stretch of believability.
The climatic battle is well written but gives Hunter unbelievable Superman strength and skills to overcome the creature.
Another: the author has one character looking at a description of Homomotherium, a prehistoric sabretooth tiger and reading that the animal looked to be equal parts man and sabertoothed tiger with the animal standing upright.
Another: a US Marshall's duty handgun, which is mentioned a number of times is a Sig Sauer .45 ACP pistol (45 caliber) but he later describes his gun as a .9mm pistol with a 15 round clip. And here arises another mistake, the author continuously refers to inserting a clip in various pistols and rifles when what he means is "magazine".
A big error on the authors part is when he tries to describe a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter's capabilities. First he say the Blackhawk is a modified Huey, just completely wrong. He suggest that a US Marshall, who can fly a Huey just needs 10 minutes to become familiar with the flight controls and flight control panel to be signed off by an instructor pilot to fly the Blackhawk, impossible, could never happen. He mistakenly says the Blackhawk has a max speed of 300 mph when it is max speed is approx 185 with a DO NOT EXCEED speed of 222 mph. Again, Hunter and his team have to leave an area that is being firebombed and Hunter tells the US Marshall that they have 2 minutes until the attack and this Marshall is able to start the APU and two engines and then take off without hydraulic power (which is impossible because the hydraulic pumps are driven off the engines. Regardless, there is no way you can get a Blackhawk helicopter airborne in two minutes, its just impossible. And lastly, the Blackhawk does not have a cloaking device to mute the sound of the engines.
The author also mentions an A-14 aircraft,(have no idea what an -14 is)but the author writes that they must have come from a cruiser off the coast; I'm sure he meant carrier, as in aircraft carrier but again just another sloppy mistake.
The special assault team that Hunter leads to track the creature are all plausible except the token small framed female sniper that carries the big .50 cal Barrett rifle. Not that the sniper being a female is the problem but that the sniper can't hit anything with her weapon except one long range shot, other than that her skills as a sniper leave a lot to be desired. She tells of her past exploits of long range shots and even taking out a squad of bad guys at long range but she misses a target at 20 feet when her team needs her the most.
What was hard to justify was the creature's abilty to absorb mutiple gunshot wounds from a team of miltary specialists but not go down. Only the .50 cal is able to deter the creature. And with the vast number of rounds hitting the creature its hard to believe that none hit it in the knees (taking out its ability to move ) or even a head shot (take out the brain and there's no functional movement at all). But to succumb to knive, sword and a wolf attack is real stretch of believability.
The climatic battle is well written but gives Hunter unbelievable Superman strength and skills to overcome the creature.
Well, this book was a bit of a disappointment. Though it did have some cinematic qualities, and some relatively sympathetic characters, the creature itself defied all credibility. The havoc that ensued was just utterly unbelievable... and so was the history of the creature (***SPOILER: I mean if the whole biology of this creature was just to kill, kill, kill.... and its painting showed that it was not capable of social or cultural activities, why in the world were there paintings at all? And the whole destruction of their race....Ridiculous!***END OF SPOILER). Needless, to say, the plot had some holes. Also, the book itself was drawn out, making the repeated scuffles redundant. You can only hear about fangs and the like so many times. It probably could have stood to be edited down from 565 pages to about 365. But, all that being said, I can see how this would appeal to some because there is a lot of painstaking detail about artillery and the like. From the description, this sounded more like a Bigfoot book, but be warned it is more of a government/military thriller.
Good read. A little too drawn out but lots of action. Not at all scary but I haven't read a really creepy book in a while. *sigh*
Page turner; I found it hard to put down.
loved this book
A page-turner, a breathless read tracing the struggle between good and evil.
