Review by rachelinds -- Sandra Eden's War by Michael Low

[rachelinds]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Sandra Eden's War" by Michael Low.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Sandra Eden’s War by Michael Low is, for all intents and purposes, a superhero story. Sandra Eden could very well be Wonder Woman without superpowers. That being said, however, I give the book 2 out of 4 stars because of its lack of substantial plot and ability to engage the reader.

Sandra Eden is a British special agent who is deployed to France at the end of World War II with the vague goal of stopping the Germans and hastening the end of the war. Yep. That’s her entire goal. Nothing more specific. This is immediately put in jeopardy, though, as her parachute fails to deploy as she falls to the ground. The pilot sees this and reports her as dead, so another agent is sent in to take her place. Against all odds, however, Sandra survived! How lucky that there was a cluster of trees perfectly set to break her immense fall and leave her with just a few bruises! At this point, the tension is palpable. The replacement who has been sent in was told to shoot anyone who claimed to be Sandra. How will Sandra prove herself to the new agent? How will she prove that she is alive and not a German operative pretending to be Sandra? No worries, all Sandra has to do is describe the pilot of the plane who dropped her off, and the snafu with the parachute is forgotten.

The remaining one hundred and twenty pages of the book follow in the same manner. Something comes up, has a lot of potential, and then is quickly resolved and forgotten. This book is evidence that just because a book has a setting and characters does not mean it has a plot.

However, the writing of the book is not awful. It is plain and concise, but it is clear. No words are wasted or frivolous. One benefit to this style, though, is that the grammar is spot on. Almost robotically so in speech, but I’m America. Who am I to judge how the British communicate in the Queen’s English? Even if it feels as though the fictional characters might be reading off a script sometimes…

Overall, this book has potential, but it doesn’t feel complete. A bit more character and plot development would serve the tale well. I like the premise, but the actual work doesn’t quite stand up to par. I would recommend this book to any World War II fanatics who want to learn a bit about the world of espionage at the end of the war, but I would not rely on it as more than a cursory overview.

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Sandra Eden's War
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