Daily Archives: July 19, 2012

Alpha is a book that I wanted to like more than I did. In it, comic and mystery veteran Greg Rucka introduces his first original prose character in years in the form of former Delta Force member Jad Bell. Unfortunately, outside of an ex-wife and deaf daughter, Jad is as thin a military adventure lead as I can possibly imagine.

The story is a fairly straight forward attack on an amusement park, with a few occasional twists and turns to add suspense. At times the book feels like an unauthorized Die Hard sequel as it seems to hit as many action movie tropes as possible (right down to the endangered family members).

But while everything is very generic, Alpha is far from a bad book. The story moves at a solid clip, the supporting players are well developed and the action is always fast and fun.

But compared to other writers of military adventure stories, folks with names like Matthew Reilly & John Ringo, Rucka just falls a bit short. Perhaps he’s less comfortable in this sub-genre than in his tales of Tara Chase and Atticus Kodiak, but whatever the case, this may be his weakest prose work. Of course, Rucka has been one of the strongest prose writers in crime and spy thrillers for years.

For a light beach read or a quick summer romp, Alpha will definitely thrill plenty of readers despite its flaws.

For more on the book, read the review at the Examiner.