2 out of 4 stars
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Final Report by Jeff Shear centers around Jackson Guild's journey as a spy. It was written in the first person's perspective. The story started in 2010 when Guild was sent to Los Alamos to find out who bombed Washington. He spied on scientists like Sutton, Grant, Exner, Almont and Gomez. On his journey, Guild learned about the company that was a mastermind behind the building of a nuclear bomb, and how it got in the hands of the enemy. Later on, scientists he was using for information started dying one by one. It was only a matter of time before he discovered who murdered them.
The characters in the book were fully explored. I learned about each character's interesting background, their well-known tactics and contributions to the invention of a nuclear bomb. Therefore, it was easier to picture them in real life. For instance, Allie's life as a scientist and a gambler was detailed in a very satisfying manner. Unfortunately, this was the only thing I enjoyed about Final Report.
When I chose the book to review, it was categorised under C/T/M/H, and even the description explained it as a thriller. To my disappointment, when reading the book, I found it to be more of a historical fiction novel that occasionally uses science fiction techniques. It focused more on the creation of a fourth-generation nuclear weapon, wars and the missions Guild was involved in in the '90s. Again, the plot was predictable: there were no thrilling contents the book claimed to contain. It was more about the protagonist having conversations with people he was allocated to spy on.
There were also some French phrases that came up in the book without being translated: “Tiers du Cylindre" and "a Voisins du Zero". These two phrases were not the only ones, and I had to look up their meanings. Which was time-consuming and distracting. For these reasons, I rate Final Report 2 out of 4 stars. I'm not leaving it with 1 star because it seems to be professionally edited and proofread. Out of 129 pages in the book, I spotted only 6 grammatical errors and typos. For example, "It could a sign that he was in the position to sting me with an EpiPen". The author left 'be' before an 'a'. Like I said, there were few errors that did nothing to detract from the plot's significance.
Since thriller lovers will likely get disappointed, I recommend Final Report to people who love historical fiction and science fiction. If you want to know more about nuclear weapons and their uses in combat, this is the right book for you.
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Final Report
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