jnhamm's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
3.5
auspea's review against another edition
Feeling nostalgic for Scott Horvath after a 5 year hiatus due the authors toxic political rants. Dead fall was a dead end for me.
jecamp86's review against another edition
3.5
I’ve been pretty critical of this series and author because I never feel like the characters grow or are in any kind of serious peril and the trend continues. Harvath goes to Ukraine to take out the most evil Russian mercenaries and of course it’s seemingly no big deal. You never believe his characters are in serious mortal peril. There’s a few side bar storylines that don’t really amount to much (another villain who claims he’s smart but reader can tell this guy is an idiot and he crumples very quickly). I think this series peaked with Backlash the last time the main character felt like he was in true danger and each book since has felt overly formulaic just a change in plot but the characters copied and pasted over from the last book (they all like Nicholas’s dogs, funk music and fine dining, and a morbid sense of humor which the author always assures us is a sign of high intelligence). Spoiler alert: expect more of the same with 2024.
blackknight's review against another edition
4.0
When I was half way through the book Dead Fall by Brad Thor it reminded me of two scenes from the movies Enemy at the Gates and Wonder Woman. The sheer violence and horrific ways the people getting killed breaks the romanticization that always associated with wars and battles in general.
This novel actually starts kind of like a horror novel where a Brave Ukrainian descent American women Anna Rusko tries to save the orphanage that she looks after in Ukraine from a roving and thieving band of rogue mercenary group called Ravens. It was comprised of Hardened criminals, Psychos from Mental Asylums headed by mysterious man Colonel who are ripping apart any villages they came across by means of systematic looting, rape and murder on par with various terrorist organizations around the world.
At the same time Scot Harvath along with his colleagues from private intelligence company called Carlton Group was tasked with assassination of a Middle East individual currently in a Russian friendly Eastern European country to undermine the efforts of Russia without CIA’s fingerprints. After the successful completion of this mission Scot sneaks off to Poland to have a romantic weekend with his Norwegian fiancé Sølvi Kolstad current head of a secret unit within Norwegian intelligence. But as usual trouble knocks his weekend plans in the shape of fan favorite Troll aka Nicholas and his two awesome yet massive dogs Argos and Draco. The Mission was to extract Anna Rusko from Ravens and if she isn’t alive he was given a free reign to kill all those responsible for her death.
Meanwhile A tech mogul who is an critic of Russian Government was found dead just like some of the oligarchs in Moscow by jumping from a building but the only difference is that the apparent suicide happened not in Moscow but in Washington DC. FBI Counter Intelligence was roped in the investigation which leads to the ugly underbelly of the US Politics filled with corrupt Politicians, Scheming Power Brokers and Megalomanic Billionaires who wants to shape the US based on their twisted ideas. How these separate storylines integrate and whether Scot completed his mission or not forms the rest of the story.
Before reading this novel I first heard the author’s interview in SOFREP Radio podcast which kind of gave me the idea what I can expect from this novel. I was actually surprised how Brad Thor mentioned many lines from the book especially regarding the US politics in that episode while reading it. Aside from that there are many interesting aspects I found in this novel as Harvath was forced to go to Ukraine with No Team, Backup and CAS to reduce the ‘footprint’. Only his basic kit, Troll and his expertise as well as four members from International Legion was provided to go toe to toe against tactically savvy and ruthless Ravens. From the moment he enters the outskirts of Kharkiv he was bombarded with Ambush, Betrayal, Urban Combat and multiple shootouts. This all happens even before he meets his team to go against the Ravens.
This novel also speaks in depth about the horrors faced by innocents in middle of the active battle field. The atrocities committed by Ravens were explained in as little as possible still the lack of information gives you chills about the predicament these people had to go through just because they’re powerless against Ravens. Both inner monologue of Anna Rusko who is facing physical and sexual abuse in hands of the ravens since her capture and Scot Harvath when he experiences in firsthand the horrors done by Ravens was very disturbing to read. But as I said this novel doesn’t give a proper ending of the whole war or save every group of people they came across. It was written as close as possible to reality of the war as Innocents, fellow soldiers are killed and Harvath was pushed to his limits no matter what he tries.
The only drawback I felt was the final battle between Harvath and his team with Ravens was not up to the level of some of the other action scenes in the book. As a Non-American some of the political POV was also little bit confusing for me. Other than that it’s a good novel filled to brim with Badass Characters, awesome combat scenes and nail biting moments. At the end proper hints where there for continuation of this novel let’s see. Thanks for reading my review and as usual I’m open to critics and what not.
This novel actually starts kind of like a horror novel where a Brave Ukrainian descent American women Anna Rusko tries to save the orphanage that she looks after in Ukraine from a roving and thieving band of rogue mercenary group called Ravens. It was comprised of Hardened criminals, Psychos from Mental Asylums headed by mysterious man Colonel who are ripping apart any villages they came across by means of systematic looting, rape and murder on par with various terrorist organizations around the world.
At the same time Scot Harvath along with his colleagues from private intelligence company called Carlton Group was tasked with assassination of a Middle East individual currently in a Russian friendly Eastern European country to undermine the efforts of Russia without CIA’s fingerprints. After the successful completion of this mission Scot sneaks off to Poland to have a romantic weekend with his Norwegian fiancé Sølvi Kolstad current head of a secret unit within Norwegian intelligence. But as usual trouble knocks his weekend plans in the shape of fan favorite Troll aka Nicholas and his two awesome yet massive dogs Argos and Draco. The Mission was to extract Anna Rusko from Ravens and if she isn’t alive he was given a free reign to kill all those responsible for her death.
Meanwhile A tech mogul who is an critic of Russian Government was found dead just like some of the oligarchs in Moscow by jumping from a building but the only difference is that the apparent suicide happened not in Moscow but in Washington DC. FBI Counter Intelligence was roped in the investigation which leads to the ugly underbelly of the US Politics filled with corrupt Politicians, Scheming Power Brokers and Megalomanic Billionaires who wants to shape the US based on their twisted ideas. How these separate storylines integrate and whether Scot completed his mission or not forms the rest of the story.
Before reading this novel I first heard the author’s interview in SOFREP Radio podcast which kind of gave me the idea what I can expect from this novel. I was actually surprised how Brad Thor mentioned many lines from the book especially regarding the US politics in that episode while reading it. Aside from that there are many interesting aspects I found in this novel as Harvath was forced to go to Ukraine with No Team, Backup and CAS to reduce the ‘footprint’. Only his basic kit, Troll and his expertise as well as four members from International Legion was provided to go toe to toe against tactically savvy and ruthless Ravens. From the moment he enters the outskirts of Kharkiv he was bombarded with Ambush, Betrayal, Urban Combat and multiple shootouts. This all happens even before he meets his team to go against the Ravens.
This novel also speaks in depth about the horrors faced by innocents in middle of the active battle field. The atrocities committed by Ravens were explained in as little as possible still the lack of information gives you chills about the predicament these people had to go through just because they’re powerless against Ravens. Both inner monologue of Anna Rusko who is facing physical and sexual abuse in hands of the ravens since her capture and Scot Harvath when he experiences in firsthand the horrors done by Ravens was very disturbing to read. But as I said this novel doesn’t give a proper ending of the whole war or save every group of people they came across. It was written as close as possible to reality of the war as Innocents, fellow soldiers are killed and Harvath was pushed to his limits no matter what he tries.
The only drawback I felt was the final battle between Harvath and his team with Ravens was not up to the level of some of the other action scenes in the book. As a Non-American some of the political POV was also little bit confusing for me. Other than that it’s a good novel filled to brim with Badass Characters, awesome combat scenes and nail biting moments. At the end proper hints where there for continuation of this novel let’s see. Thanks for reading my review and as usual I’m open to critics and what not.
hedyd's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5