3 out of 4 stars
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Collision by Siegfried Finser is a tale of corporate espionage, intrigue, and murderous plots. The story revolves around two corporations. Premium Technical Products Incorporated is run by Armand Dillon, a ruthless, single-minded CEO who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. And what he wants is money, power, and unquestioned loyalty. His business is acquiring other companies, stripping them down, and multiplying his profit. He has a select crew to carry out his mission at all cost. The latest target of his greed is the Alliance for International Communications Incorporated and its leader, Lucinda “Lucky” Brahms. Lucky is the polar opposite of Dillon: She leads with heart and has a large contingent of very loyal followers. Dillon knows he can never take over AIC with Lucky at the helm, so he orders his “fixer” to remove her from the picture by whatever means necessary.
Drawn into the resulting fray are a series of characters: Charles McLane, Lucky’s own “fixer”; his son Robert, a business student; Lucky’s personal assistant, Jolene; and Stu, a veteran and friend of Robert who becomes seduced by the dark side. The suspense builds as Armand Dillon sends his team after Lucky and everyone she holds dear. After they are nearly killed in a crash caused by one of Armand’s henchmen, Charles, Robert, Jolene, and Lucky find themselves running for their lives. It remains to be seen if they can run fast enough or far enough to escape the inescapable will of Armand Dillon.
In both the prologue and the author’s own description of the book, he states his intent to show two extremes of the cutthroat world of business: those who lead by pure intellect without regard to those involved, and those who lead with heart and weigh every decision with special consideration for everyone involved. Lucky and Dillon represent those extremes. He does an exceptional job of showing the cold-hearted evil that is Armand Dillon. There is no question that Lucky is the protagonist of this story, and that Armand Dillon represents pure evil at its worst. Through Dillon, the author also shows the overwhelming power of greed as, one by one, those Lucky relies on fall under his sway.
There were a few issues with character development. For example, the author represents Stu as one of the good guys. He is a veteran on scholarship, working hard to create a new life for himself after his service. In the beginning, his attitude toward business is very negative. He believes that corporate America is driven exclusively by greed, and he tries to discourage Robert from pursuing a future in it. But after one meeting with Dillon’s henchman, he agrees to spy on Robert and his father in exchange for funding and a future job in the same corporation he so despises. It was unrealistic. I was also disappointed that there was no relationship development between Stu and Robert (who became best friends at their first meeting) or Robert and Jolene (who decided they were in love before their first coffee). This made the relationships seem very shallow and unbelievable.
There were quite a few errors throughout the book which could have been avoided with an extra read-through and a dictionary. For example, he describes a piece of furniture in the office as a “cadenza” instead of a credenza and refers to a "sheath of papers" instead of a sheaf of papers. A recurring punctuation error was the overuse of the ellipsis. He uses it frequently when a simple comma would be correct. There were many other mechanical errors as well.
In spite of the frequent editing mistakes, the plot of the story was well written. The author manages to build suspense and keep the reader engaged in the story. Unfortunately, the story ends abruptly without resolving any of the conflict. I am not opposed to a good cliffhanger. However, the author didn’t set up the ending in any meaningful way; it just ended. For this reason, and the editing errors, I can only give this book 3 out of 4 stars. Any reader that enjoys stories about corporate espionage will surely enjoy reading this book. It is my understanding it has undergone a reprint, so it is possible the errors have been corrected. I only had access to the first edition.
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Collision
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