Review by HopeK -- East Wind, 2nd edition by Jack Winnick
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HopeK
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- Latest Review: East Wind, 2nd edition by Jack Winnick
Review by HopeK -- East Wind, 2nd edition by Jack Winnick
[Following is a volunteer review of "East Wind, 2nd edition" by Jack Winnick.]
East Wind
Jack Winnick
When terrorists detonate a nuclear bomb in the harbor at Los Angeles, the fate of the free world rests on two young agents. What follows is an action-packed, suspenseful tale, woven artfully against a backdrop of realistic office politics and everyday minutia. Can FBI agents Lara and Uri find the second nuclear bomb before millions of innocent people are murdered by extremists? Or have she and Uri made a catastrophic error in judgement?
Author Jack Winnick can thank his long career as an engineering professor for his ability to break down complex information into easy to understand paragraphs. The story is easy for the layperson to understand, despite delving into territory that some other authors perhaps could not navigate as successfully. You won’t feel confused. You will be entertained, and you might be surprised by the things that you learn, also. There are no tedious blocks of difficult to follow information, despite this story being rich in realistic details and actual science. Winnick maintains the fast pace of the story whilst still delivering all the pertinent details. This is no small authorial victory; Winnick has demonstrated real skill in balancing the technical with the entertaining.
Winnick’s writing is honest, and his characters are mostly true to life. Especially notable are the characters Hossein and Walid. Hossein, bomb maker for terrorist organisation, Hezbollah, isn’t a cliché. He could have been. Instead, owing to Winnick’s clever descriptive prose, with its sharp parallels to real life and considerable skill in portraying humanness, we are even able to smell the brine on Hossein’s hands as he drags in his nets, if we take a moment to visualise him.
Walid, student and terrorist, is the most complex and heartbreaking character. He is tortured by his own actions, by his sense of duty to Hezbollah, and also by the realization that his most despised enemies are as human as he is. He is a complex but realistic character, even contradictory at times, but always unflinchingly human.
The office bickering and banter relayed in the novel is a nice touch which adds an element of honesty to the story. Characters are never stagnant against an office backdrop, instead constantly interacting with the office and their colleagues. Nobody is perfect, nor do they pretend to be. Winnick has veered away from clichés as much as possible, and the result is true to life characters.
The romance between Lara and Uri, however, feels forced. It seemed contrived and artificial, and mostly comprised a series of dry paragraphs describing the clothes that Lara was wearing. We get it – Lara is a bombshell, smoking hot. However, ‘hot colleague looking sexy in her clothes’ doesn’t make for riveting reading.
Real lust isn’t stilted. It’s not comprised of delicate blushes and long monologues. It’s raw, passionate, gritty, awkward and stupid. People in lust are rarely stilted and controlled, yet Uri and Lara interacted in just such a manner during their dates. The result was a contrived and unbelievable, at times outright tedious bunch of very routine conversations between the two main characters, during which not much happens. The exceedingly long personal history which Uri relates to Lara over dinner was unrealistic. People don’t go on dates and recite monologues. That’s not how flirtation works. Also notably absent were all markers of affection and romance between the two characters. There was no genuine flirtation, nothing that would cause most women to lose their minds over the man. The small indications of lust, such as private jokes and small keepsakes was just not there. The whole thing just feels fake.
Towards the end of the novel, the attachment between Uri and Lara seemed slightly more genuine. The smaller details were a bit more realistic. Despite the increase in realism, the romance still seemed contrived, fake, and forced. I feel that there was no reason for it to even have been included in the story. The chemistry between Lara and Uri is non-existent.
It’s not as though Winnick cannot write a realistic portrayal of a relationship. Uri’s doomed relationship with his ex, Danielle, is artfully told. The pain and emotional attachment is real, and the divorce is played out within a realistic time frame. It does seem unusual that Lara, upon hearing that Uri’s divorce has begun, immediately begins trying to seduce him. Few women are that aroused by divorce papers. Uri’s failed relationship with Danielle is infinitely more realistic than his tryst with Lara, and though we aren’t introduced to Danielle, it’s easier to visualize her relationship with Uri.
One of the most impressive elements in this novel is the amount of information that Winnick has conveyed, some of it very complicated, in easy to read and understand paragraphs. It’s no easy feat to explain the intricate workings of a nuclear weapon in language that a layperson can understand. Similarly, the hotpot of Middle Eastern politics is complicated, yet Winnick has provided sufficient information to keep the story engaging and understandable. Page-turner is something of an understatement. Winnick also ought to be commended for the skill he has displayed in objectively characterizing a set of characters which could not be more different from one another.
If you want a sappy romance novel where the characters have passionate trysts amidst raging gun battles, this is not the novel for you. But if you’d like a suspenseful page turner that will keep you guessing until the last page, this is a novel that should definitely be on your reading list.
The pace of the story is steady, but fast, and the plot is easy to understand, but will keep you guessing. There are some punctuation errors which distract from the story, but the formatting is excellent. The story is organised neatly into carefully crafted chapters that are neither too long nor too short, which makes it easy to dive in and read a chapter here and there.
What I liked most about this novel was the sensitive manner in which Winnick has portrayed different types of characters. The characterization in this novel is superb. The thing that I liked least about this novel was the contrived romance between Lara and Uri.
I’m awarding this novel a well-deserved rating of four out of four stars, with a tentative recommendation to kindly remove the few eye-gouging punctuation errors and the single noted typo which interrupted the flow of the story like its namesake, the gong.
******
East Wind, 2nd edition
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
East Wind
Jack Winnick
When terrorists detonate a nuclear bomb in the harbor at Los Angeles, the fate of the free world rests on two young agents. What follows is an action-packed, suspenseful tale, woven artfully against a backdrop of realistic office politics and everyday minutia. Can FBI agents Lara and Uri find the second nuclear bomb before millions of innocent people are murdered by extremists? Or have she and Uri made a catastrophic error in judgement?
Author Jack Winnick can thank his long career as an engineering professor for his ability to break down complex information into easy to understand paragraphs. The story is easy for the layperson to understand, despite delving into territory that some other authors perhaps could not navigate as successfully. You won’t feel confused. You will be entertained, and you might be surprised by the things that you learn, also. There are no tedious blocks of difficult to follow information, despite this story being rich in realistic details and actual science. Winnick maintains the fast pace of the story whilst still delivering all the pertinent details. This is no small authorial victory; Winnick has demonstrated real skill in balancing the technical with the entertaining.
Winnick’s writing is honest, and his characters are mostly true to life. Especially notable are the characters Hossein and Walid. Hossein, bomb maker for terrorist organisation, Hezbollah, isn’t a cliché. He could have been. Instead, owing to Winnick’s clever descriptive prose, with its sharp parallels to real life and considerable skill in portraying humanness, we are even able to smell the brine on Hossein’s hands as he drags in his nets, if we take a moment to visualise him.
Walid, student and terrorist, is the most complex and heartbreaking character. He is tortured by his own actions, by his sense of duty to Hezbollah, and also by the realization that his most despised enemies are as human as he is. He is a complex but realistic character, even contradictory at times, but always unflinchingly human.
The office bickering and banter relayed in the novel is a nice touch which adds an element of honesty to the story. Characters are never stagnant against an office backdrop, instead constantly interacting with the office and their colleagues. Nobody is perfect, nor do they pretend to be. Winnick has veered away from clichés as much as possible, and the result is true to life characters.
The romance between Lara and Uri, however, feels forced. It seemed contrived and artificial, and mostly comprised a series of dry paragraphs describing the clothes that Lara was wearing. We get it – Lara is a bombshell, smoking hot. However, ‘hot colleague looking sexy in her clothes’ doesn’t make for riveting reading.
Real lust isn’t stilted. It’s not comprised of delicate blushes and long monologues. It’s raw, passionate, gritty, awkward and stupid. People in lust are rarely stilted and controlled, yet Uri and Lara interacted in just such a manner during their dates. The result was a contrived and unbelievable, at times outright tedious bunch of very routine conversations between the two main characters, during which not much happens. The exceedingly long personal history which Uri relates to Lara over dinner was unrealistic. People don’t go on dates and recite monologues. That’s not how flirtation works. Also notably absent were all markers of affection and romance between the two characters. There was no genuine flirtation, nothing that would cause most women to lose their minds over the man. The small indications of lust, such as private jokes and small keepsakes was just not there. The whole thing just feels fake.
Towards the end of the novel, the attachment between Uri and Lara seemed slightly more genuine. The smaller details were a bit more realistic. Despite the increase in realism, the romance still seemed contrived, fake, and forced. I feel that there was no reason for it to even have been included in the story. The chemistry between Lara and Uri is non-existent.
It’s not as though Winnick cannot write a realistic portrayal of a relationship. Uri’s doomed relationship with his ex, Danielle, is artfully told. The pain and emotional attachment is real, and the divorce is played out within a realistic time frame. It does seem unusual that Lara, upon hearing that Uri’s divorce has begun, immediately begins trying to seduce him. Few women are that aroused by divorce papers. Uri’s failed relationship with Danielle is infinitely more realistic than his tryst with Lara, and though we aren’t introduced to Danielle, it’s easier to visualize her relationship with Uri.
One of the most impressive elements in this novel is the amount of information that Winnick has conveyed, some of it very complicated, in easy to read and understand paragraphs. It’s no easy feat to explain the intricate workings of a nuclear weapon in language that a layperson can understand. Similarly, the hotpot of Middle Eastern politics is complicated, yet Winnick has provided sufficient information to keep the story engaging and understandable. Page-turner is something of an understatement. Winnick also ought to be commended for the skill he has displayed in objectively characterizing a set of characters which could not be more different from one another.
If you want a sappy romance novel where the characters have passionate trysts amidst raging gun battles, this is not the novel for you. But if you’d like a suspenseful page turner that will keep you guessing until the last page, this is a novel that should definitely be on your reading list.
The pace of the story is steady, but fast, and the plot is easy to understand, but will keep you guessing. There are some punctuation errors which distract from the story, but the formatting is excellent. The story is organised neatly into carefully crafted chapters that are neither too long nor too short, which makes it easy to dive in and read a chapter here and there.
What I liked most about this novel was the sensitive manner in which Winnick has portrayed different types of characters. The characterization in this novel is superb. The thing that I liked least about this novel was the contrived romance between Lara and Uri.
I’m awarding this novel a well-deserved rating of four out of four stars, with a tentative recommendation to kindly remove the few eye-gouging punctuation errors and the single noted typo which interrupted the flow of the story like its namesake, the gong.
******
East Wind, 2nd edition
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: East Wind, 2nd edition by Jack Winnick
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Twylla
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- Latest Review: Contagion Domination by William Nisol
Excellent review! It was interesting to see how the leaders of Hezbollah recruited and indoctrinated young men to their cause. The Jihadists inspired a strong sense of purpose in the boys. Interesting study in psychology!
Latest Review: Contagion Domination by William Nisol
