Soft Target
By Stephen Hunter
Simon & Schuster
$26.99, hard cover, 256 pages, 978-1-2019-3870-0 (2011)
Stephen Hunter is one of my favorite authors. I’ve read practically everything he’s written. From the fabulous Time to Hunt, Point of Impact, and Dirty White Boys, to the mediocre Night of Thunder and The 47th Samurai, I’ve kept coming back for more. And who can blame me? Bob Lee Swagger, a/k/a Bob the Nailer, is a fascinating, no-holds-barred lead character that takes over a story the same way a fine actor mesmerizes on the screen.
Early in his writing career, Hunter had compelling writing with more action and suspense in a single chapter than many novels had in the entire story. Unfortunately, his more recent work has been hit or miss. So with a fair amount of trepidation, I dug into his latest novel: Soft Target.
What a disappointment.
Don’t get me wrong. The book isn’t horrible – in fact certain sections were quite good. But the difficulty in reading a new book from Hunter is that having read his previous works, I know that he’s a fabulous writer. And he’s certainly capable of much better than this. (It’s like having an A student come home with a paper in which he’s gotten a B-. It’s not that the grade is horrible – it’s just so much less than you know the student is capable of doing.)
The other problem is that the bad guys just aren’t talented enough. The story centers on a dozen terrorists taking over a thinly disguised Mall of America on Black Friday – the huge shopping day after Thanksgiving. Ray Cruz, the hero in Dead Zero, (and Swagger’s illegitimate son, for those who are keeping track), just happens to be in the mall when the action starts.
After the terrorists kill lots of folks and herd the remaining 1000 or so shoppers to the center of the complex, Cruz and a few other shoppers manage to escape. Soon Cruz takes down one of the terrorists and is armed. From then on, it’s just a straight shooter with little character development or excitement.
One of the problems is the bad guys just aren’t all that talented. Except for one, the terrorists are all young and inexperienced. To Cruz, they’re fish in a barrel. And the brain behind the terrorist plot is a villain too farfetched to be remotely believable.
This is Die Hard at the mall. Literally.
Buy it on Amazon here.
Thanks for the review, sorry Hunter disappoints! Hunter is one of my favorite authors. My favorite radio show, The Book Report, is featuring an interview with him in this weekends show. Despite your warning, Im going to read the book before the show. Elaine Charles, the host, is amazing. You should check it out at http://bookreportradio.com/schedule.html
Posted by: Matthew Z | February 29, 2020 at 12:17 AM