Late last month, I dropped the first half of this series review.
As of them I had just read the first 2 books in the series and I decided to review them.
Well now, I'm officially done with the remaining 3 books and can fully review the series as a whole 😃✨.
I've already said all I needed to say about my 2024 Fifty Books challenge in the previously linked post, so I'll go straight into the review.
The World is about to get shaken up, but for the first time in a long while, it's going to be for good. The American President is about to finish up the plans of his Peace Plan and is determined to recite it in front of the whole world from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Yet, when senior American officials who support the plan suddenly starts violently dying. Andrew Clark orders Ryker and his team of CIA operatives to hunt down the killers and bring their reign of terror to an end.
This story kicks up immediately from where The Persian Gamble starts and in short time, like almost his stories, Rosenberg takes us neck deep in the action again.
We're introduced to a whole new band of terrorists who rival or even surpasses Al Queda and the Hezbollah to shame in both their accomplishments in the kill count and their cleverness when doing it.
If I were to group this series into halves, I'd say this is the beginning of the second half where the USA helps tames the flames of a terrorism war in the Middle East.
Let me just say this, if you thought the adventures in the harsh cold of Russia when reading the Kremlin Conspiracy, or the sabotage mission in the salty waters of the Pacific Ocean when reading the Persian Gamble was a ride of a thriller.
Nothing would prepare you for the trill the adventures in these desert sands...
Special Agent Marcus Ryker, his partner Kailea Curtis and Israeli Officer Yigal Mizrachi are captured in an IDF raid.
Their captors are Hezbollah, famed as one of the most brutal terrorist agencies when it comes to torturing of American and Israeli captors.
With Marcus having a 10 million dollars bounty on his head and Yigal being the Israeli Prime Minister's nephew, this is quickly becoming one of the most nightmarish captive situation the Israeli and American government has ever seen.
Regardless, there is a slim ray of hope here. The captors aren't fully affiliated with Hezbollah as their commands who ordered the raid was a defector to Karios, and the biggest advantage, and saving grace to the captives, is the simple fact that their captors didn't know who they had caught.
This book was simply one of those "It couldn't get any worse" scenarios, and like every time we come across those scenarios in a movie or story, we gradually watch it get drastically worse.
This particular book is when Joel's pictorial word abilities are put to the test because everything had to do with description.
From the First few pages of battle to the movements and brutalization/interrogation of the captives, everything he wrote could be vividly imagined, seen amd felt by the reader, giving us the full experience of a master author's work.
As the book gradually goes on, the action of the fight in the beginning switches insanely to pure thriller as the word and gravity of what this Hezbollah squad had done rippled through the world.
The reader, the good guys and the bad guys stay in wait for the outcome, tension full in their bodies.
Would the transport of the captives go well?...
Would there be an escapee?..
Or would one or all be killed via transit?....
Whatever the outcome would be, surely it would leave a mark..
This is the latest book of the Series and possibly the most triggering.
The hunt against Kairos is finally looking to get headway as a senior and trusted aid to the head of the terrorist organization has been caught, and he has been used to find the base of the organization.
The American government, orders a strike force to quickly bomb the base in hopes of killing the head and destroying the terrorists once and for all.
Yet this decision was precedented and planned for by Kairos and they used it to their advantage for a counter attack which caused major blows to the American President and Marcus Ryker.
In the disarray, Karios launches their biggest attack yet, and the target is no one else but the Pope.
This story was filled with many shockers and bomb shells.
Change in government positions and trust broken due to jealousy and pure hatred.
This book marks a new dawn for the fight against terrorism in the Rykerverse (dubbed by me)
Regardless, like I said earlier. This had to be one of the most chaotic books in the series and the fans felt the full force of it.
As Marcus tries to save multiple lives, shoot down an airplane from a tower with less than ideal forces working against him.
Profess his love and propose to Annie after finally getting over his first wife's death and also getting nearly fatal injuries.
And left bed ridden, the fans are left breathless at the end.
Yet it's not over, just one of Kairos numerous plots had been foiled. Yes, plenty of the highest official's had been killed and/or captured yet the founder, The Father of Destruction, Abu Nhakba, still remained.
This hints at readers that there might be one or two more books still coming, yet we haven't gotten word so it's all hearsay for now.
Still, I and every other person who has read this story till the ending has just one more question.
If there is another crisis, would Marcus, after all he's been through, still be fit to battle it?
Or would the baton be passed down to another?
After reading this series I think I've come to understand geo-political reasoning in the Middle East, a little better now.
It's a bit scary that the beginning of this book happened before the midway Middle East crisis and Russian Crisis happened in real life though.
Regardless, I won't question or write down my thoughts as Joel C Rosenberg's books have a reputation of coming true.
Regardless, like he has said in numerous interviews; "He isn't a prophet. He just writes what he feels to be the worst case scenarios, and at times he's also appalled that they are coming true.
Anyways, reading this series was a treat for me, even more so than it was when i first earlier read the first book (maybe because I understand the stakes better now?)
Normally it would have taken a lot faster than 3 weeks for me to finish it but there are more activities in my life now than when I was 16😂
I give it a ranking of 9.5 out of 10 and I vigorously recommend it to every and all readers✨
It's an experience you simply won't forget❤️.
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