MovieGuy

Worst Book In The Series? You're Not Wrong!

Revisado: 04-05-25

I'm gritting my teeth and getting through the series just to end the journey and hope that it at least ties a nice bow around the ending. But sadly, this book was probably the weakest in the series so far.

It's like someone else said in a review from a prior book... it's like the author is a middle-schooler who is trying to meet a word limit for a class assignment. The story is so ridiculously watered down it's not even funny. We get chapters where the visit fine dining restaurants and discuss food. They visit a mall. They go apartment shopping and on and on and on. And is there ANY payoff for any of these silly, superfluous chapters? No, of course not. They are completely pointless dead-ends.

There is also shockingly little conflict given the category that this book is in. And I'm not even talking about fighting. ANY conflict would be welcome. Even a verbal one once in a while would be a nice change. It's basically the love boat in space.

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So Much "Filler" And So Little Story

Revisado: 03-18-25

I've really soured on this series, but since I've invested so much time in it, I figure I owe it to myself to see it to the conclusion. But it's become harder and harder to indure. My issues with it:

1. There is an incredible amount of "Filler". Chapters after chapter which don't move the plot forward *at all*. For example: chapters on hiring new chefs. Chapters on increasing the size of people's quarters. They'll have long long discussions about speculation about what might happen years and years from now. Etc. And is there *any* payoff for these chapters? Does something important happen, like a chef turns out to be an enemy spy, or the relocating of people's living quarters produces some catastrophic accident? No, of course not. It's 100% completely wasted space.

2. After a while, all the characters seem more and more alike. They all have the same speech patterns (e.g., "you're not wrong"). None of them have any defining quirks. How many books could you say that about? They are all the nicest people you'd ever meet, Is this an episode of "Leave it To Beaver?" and they are all insufferable windbags, launching into long boring lectures at one another, allegedly to impart their not-so-infinite wisdom. It gets tiresome very quickly. If someone WERE actually to talk to me like that I probably wouldn't be able to stand it for long.

3. To the extent there is conflict (which is long and far between), every conflict is a butt-kicking. After a very very long time, some threat will finally show up, they'll go "oh no!" and then immediately find a way they can beat the living snot out of their opponent without taking any losses. Time after time after time. It's actually laughable how little danger this is in this supposid "Mil SciFi".

You know what would be funner than all the above? Stuff that actually happens. Challenges that seem insurmountable, or even *are* insurmountable. Loses that happen. You're not writing a "cozy" you know! This is supposed to be war! UGH. A couple more books... gotta keep telling myself it's only a couple more books to indure.

This is not the way stories work guys! *sigh*

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Who Woulda Thought...

Revisado: 03-01-25

I had given up on this series, but decided since I was so close to the end that I might as well grit my teeth and finish it out. I'm glad I did! Who woulda thought that Terry Mixon would actually put some of his characters (ok ok, one of his characters) in mortal danger? It's about time! The result? A fairly compelling story and at least a chapter or two of intrigue and nail biting drama. Honestly, most of a book like this should be like that, but baby steps... at least he's getting better.

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Another Solid And Enjoyable Story

Revisado: 06-26-24

I'm a big fan of this series. I think I've audible-ed through these 3 times now over the years and still get a thrill out of listening to them. This particular story isn't one of her best imo. But it's still a 4/5 for me. The inclusion of the clueless kid, who is kind of a blumbler who seems to get everything wrong, and the story being so much about him was a bad idea imo. I'm glad that he didn't really become one of the leading characters if the books that came after this one. Still a solid story though, and kind of halfway between "cozy" and "hard boiled".

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Where Is The Conflict? I'm Done With This Series

Revisado: 02-12-24

The series started out like gangbusters. A really good protagonist with lots and lots of stuff going against him from *every* angle: personal, professional, and even just survival. He was easy to care deeply about,

I think the series peaked around book 3 or so. But now in the last two books it has fallen off a cliff, and sadly, this will be my last book in this series.

For nearly two complete books now, we've had little to no conflict. And when I mean conflict I'm talking about *any* conflict, not just fighting. Everyone loves each other and nobody gets in disagreements. Promotions for everyone! And no personal conflicts to overcome. Is this "The Love Boat"? Oh wait, even that had more conflict. People who used to not get along, suddenly do now. The main threats are nowhere to be seen, and the goodguys, again, are showered with gifts out of the blue. New tech, new knowledge, new allies. Heck, even a growing proportion of the ones that *were* villains are now allies. It's crazy!

I guess it's great being the goodguys in this story, because every day is sunny, love is in the air and even long forgotten family members are inexplicably re-united. The scary evil badguys, when they finally make an appearance, are quickly dispatched without a single casualty on the good-guy's side. To give you an idea, in a 20+ chapeter book, not even 2 chapters are devoted to the "big fight".

For the main character, everything is going *so* well that he's barely even a factor in the story any more. He defers everything to his subordinates, and when he does make a decision, they usually tell him he should be doing something different (and they're right). It's getting painful to read/listen to. Another weird thing is that arguably the story started with the main characters being Jack, the marine, the mechanic, the professor, the documentarian, and the judge advocate. Strangely, these have all been reduced to minor roles now, in fact many of them go books without even making a token appearance now. You'd be hard pressed to name another series where this was the case, and there's a reason for that: it's a terrible idea!

I've consumed over 200 audiobooks (and a respectible number of them from JN Chaney), and I've never seen (actually listened) to anything like this before. It's like the writer has no clue how to write a story, and each book gets worse and worse. Story is conflict, conflict is story, and your characters need to be developed. if you don't lay out nearly insurmountable challenges for your protagonist, you are basically now writing a cosy mystery... minus the mystery.

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Very Good Start To The Series

Revisado: 09-19-23

I'm definitely hooked on this story. Jack is a great, and sympathetic character, and we immediately meet some good villains as well as some alleys.

The reader is so-so. His different characters aren't very distinct, and he does female voices very poorly.

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Bad, Inexplicable Episode In A Good Series

Revisado: 09-18-23

I'm a fan of JN Chaney, I've enjoyed a number of his series before this one. I've been enjoying the Last Hunter series, but this story seems rushed and poorly thought out to me, and because of this it also reveals how shaky the foundation of the story is.

The main problem with it, is that it's just bad storytelling. Why?

1. In a good story the protagonists have to be challenged. They have to have big ups and big downs. This story had no downs at all. It was like Christmas every day in "Last Hunter" headquarters. Everything they tried worked out, and then they were unexpectedly showered with gifts as well. Huh? How is that even a *story* guys??? Seriously!

2. The protagonist (aka "Main Character") has subtly changed. All Jack now does is ask his subordinates what they should do, make dumb suggestions which they tell him is dumb, and then he agrees. The story is now, for better or worse, about Lisa, Derrik, and Amanda.

3. The conflict is getting more and more ludicrous. The scary, evil, secret organization had 100 years to perfect the alien tech that they discovered, and in 100 years they seemed to accomplish almost nothing. But our protagonists take the same tech, and in hours/days get it not only working, but also innovate and improve on it. *slaps forehead* aye aye aye

4. The Locusts and Novarites come to invade the Federation 100 years after being defeated, but they also don't seem to have innovated much, and they are confounded by a single 100 year old ship.

And more.

I'm sticking with this series at least for one more book, mainly because despite the stupidity of the story, and the bad storytelling, I am somewhat hooked on the main characters. But if the next one isn't a lot better, that will be the last one for me.

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A Story Mostly About His Drinking Problem

Revisado: 06-05-23

I was a teenager in the 80's, so movies like St Elmos Fire, Pretty and Pink, and the rest of the John Hughes movies meant a lot to me. And I knew of, and admired Andrew McCarthy from the afore mentioned movies, plus others like Mannequin, Weekend at Bernie's, and Less Than Zero. Those movies meant a lot to me then, and still do today. So I was overjoyed to see that McCarthy was writing an autobiography.

The audiobook was interesting, and I'm glad that I listed to it, but it strikes me as overly negative. Every story, every adventure, every success and every failure seemed to be in the constant context of his drinking problem. And while I'm sorry to hear that, and hopefully he's stayed sober recently(?), it really wasn't what I was interested in hearing about. Would have loved to hear more about his adventures in making those top movies (or the others even). Would have loved to know about some of the friendships, and rivalries that he had. And after listening to the audiobook, my conclusion was that his movie career as an actor pretty much ended in the early 90's, but looking at imdb tells a very different story. He's been a working actor and director for at least 4 decades, which is impressive. I wish he would stop beating himself up over that.

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Not Up To Series Standards

Revisado: 12-29-22

I love this series, but to me this is by far the weakest of the books. Some of the action is good, but there are too many loose ends (like Paxton Hamura, Tommy Voodoo and chief Brubaker to name a few). The story is overly complicated and the resolution comes much much much too quickly/easily not to mention abruptly. It's almost like the writer just kind of quit on this story 3/4 of the way through.

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Yep, He's Malfoy

Revisado: 11-27-22

I enjoyed the first half of this audiobook. The part where he talks us through his stint as Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies. As a Harry Potter geek, that was very fulfilling and interesting. The second half, about his life after Harry Potter... not so much. My take away from this is that, despite his best efforts, he has pretty well embodied Draco Malfoy, both on-screen and off. His personal relationships and film career after Harry Potter did not go well, and he's basically a loser. Sorry to hear it Tom, I was rooting for you.

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