Last Man Standing

Rating:
Summary: Survivor Guilt?
Review: I like Mr. Baldacci's books. After that it's a matter of subjectivity, isn't it? For example, I prefer Absolute Power and The Simple Truth. But Web London's survival of the horrific ambush of his HRT teammates is what begins this dark journey into Web's past. Along the way we meet Romano, Web's "more normal," Corvette loving friend, the lovely psychiatrist Daniels that Web turns to for help, his (anger issued?) supervisopr Bates, the Canfields, Street, Macy and "Big F," for Francis.

So Mr. Baldacci once again innundates us with interesting characters, both good and evil along with a few morally ambivelant ones. The book has several surprises including the ending, which I both liked and was also caught unsupecting.

I do have to add that this time I was facing a long road trip and decided to get the 19 CD audio version read by Jason Culp. Culp does a wonderful job of reading, assigning characters different reading tones and modulations. He made a long book and trip that much more inmteresting, and while I believe books are to be read, I would gladly "listen" to another Jason Culp read novel. 4 stars. Larry Scantlebury

Rating:
Summary: Read at your own risk
Review: Last Man Standing is a good read as long as you are able to overlook some typical faults in Mr Baldacci's writing style. IMHO, many of his charaters are two dimensional and flat and especially so in Last Man Standing. Much of the charater interaction is also two dimensional, with so many "hard stares" that it should become a college drinking game.

I almost quit on this book halfway through as some of the reasons why Web London froze are obvious, but I stuck with it and the pace picked up in the last third of the book.

Rating:
Summary: Go the Abridged Route
Review: FROM THE BACK/CASE: "It took ten seconds for Web London to lose everything: his friends, his team, his reputation. Point man of the FBI's super-elite Hostage Rescue Team, Web roared into an alley toward a drug dealer's lair, only to meet a high-tech, custom-designed ambush that killed everyone around him.

Now coping with the blame-filled words of anguished widows and the suspicions of colleagues, Web tries to put his life back together with the help of his psychiatrist, Dr. Claire Daniels. To do so, he must discover why he was the one man who lived through the ambush-and find the only other person who came out of that alley alive...a ten-year-old boy who has disappeared.

Web's search leads him from inner-city Washington, D.C., to the rolling hills of Virginia horse country-while people connected to him are violently silenced. Acting on his instincts, Web believes he knows where the killer will strike next. Only this time, he may not survive the attack."

This book starts out like a house on fire and has the potential to keep the listener glued to it. Unfortunately, after the initial opening when Web London freezes and watches as his fellow members of Charlie Team of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) get gunned down this book fizzles. This fizzle is brought on by Mr. Baldacci's need to describe every person, place and thing to the smallest detail. What tends to keep you hanging on are the action scenes that tend to promise re-ignition.

Though this book does slow down, there are only a couple of spots where it drags. Mr. Culp who narrates the book does an excellent job at trying to keep things moving. Fortunately, it seems that when you get to these spots, something exciting or gripping happens immediately following them.

There are several things about this book that I really liked. First, Mr. Baldacci does a good job with the characters. That is to say, he did an excellent job at picking the right type of character for the right part. Mr. Culp helped this by giving the characters the right type of attitude and voice for their role in the story. In addition, Mr. Baldacci takes what are basically several stories to start and does an excellent job at bringing them together as the novel progresses.

Another thing the Mr. Baldacci did well was to confuse the reader or listener in this case as to what was going on and who exactly was behind it. At times I found myself thinking that it was an inside job. Other times I thought it was the Frees behind it. When things are finally revealed I was flabbergasted to say the least. Some people don't like it when they can't figure out what is going on or who is doing it. I enjoy it when an author confuses me and keeps me guessing. So many times you figure out who, what, where, when and why with little or no difficulty.

My dislikes for this book are simple, too much description. I'm not one that needs the most intricate detail described to me. Quickly set the scene with as little description as possible and get on with it. Mr. Baldacci, you could have saved a few trees if you would have used less description.

To summarize, this is a good novel that is slowed down by to many descriptive scenes; however, it is saved by the plot, the characters and the narrator.

If you like thrillers then you will like this novel. Just keep in mind that David Balcacci tends to be very descriptive. Though I haven't read or listened to the abridged version of this novel, I would think that is the better route to go and would probably recommend it. I have a gut feeling that I probably would have rated this novel higher then three stars if I had listened to the abridged version.

Mr. Baldacci is a good author and this is the second novel by him that I have tried. The first was Absolute Power which I didn't like and rated two stars and titled my review for it "Absolute Junk".

Mr. Baldacci has never been nominated for any of the main stream literary awards. Based on Absolute Power and this novel, I can understand why. In no way am I trying to imply that Mr. Baldacci is a bad author. On the contrary, Mr. Baldacci is a good author but hasn't written anything that is ready to be nominated for an award.

If you like authors such as James Grippando, Stephen Cannell, John Grisham, Michael Conelly or Kyle Mills, then I recommend you try reading or listening to this novel.


Rating:
Summary: A Rainy Day Indulgence
Review: Last Man Standing is a pleasant but unexceptional foray into the world of FBI operations, murders, revenge, and trickery. Only after finishing it did I realized that David Baldacci is the same author who produced Absolute Power, and I can see some similarities in style, but the punch packed by Last Man Standing is somewhat less. The start, after an almost hokey stereotyped discussion of the close relationship between an FBI Hostage Rescue Team man and his weapons, is about a failed assault on a local D.C. drug kingpin. The hero, Web London, is suddenly nearly paralyzed at the last moment for reasons unknown, but his delay turns out to save his life as his teammates march into a trap. And in the aftermath, the one witness vanishes under extremely suspicious circumstances. Likewise the agent who set up the raid also goes underground. So, we ask, just what is going on?

The best guess is it's somehow revenge from one of London's earlier cases, an idea reinforced as people start getting killed in remarkably precise attacks. Meanwhile London reluctantly works with a fed shrink to find out what might have happened during the raid, and they turn up some very interesting facts.

At its peak, Last Man Standing presents a good and foreboding sense of the deep, dark forces arrayed against Web London and company. I wish I could say that the ending justifies the middle, but I can't. I found the conclusion in many ways to be a let down on the grounds that everything seems a bit too convenient and unlikely. I can't say more without giving it away, and it is worth finishing up to find out what happens. But we're left ultimately with what is not one of fiction's greatest conclusions. My recommendation: good for a lazy weekend jaunt.


Rating:
Summary: Yuck...
Review: Slow, tedious, drawn-out... Might have been a good story, but poorly told. Quite a let-down from the author of Absolute Power.

Rating:
Summary: Blue's Clues are More Challenging than Balducii
Review: Was once tricked into reading one of his earlier books because an editorial claimed he was the next Ludlum, a complete falsehood. Newsflash - this guy ain't even Blue in Blue's Clues!

So I am recovering this summer from surgery and on a bookshelf at the Cape is a mystery novel. Not paying attention to the author (foolish me) I start reading. On a tough night, because of new meds and pain I get several hundred pages into this droner before I realize that it is again Balducci...

Bottom line - he is unidimensional, incapable of misdirection and providing anything but dead obvious foreshadowing. His dialougue could not possibly be any more trite: "thank god they started making water bottles, they make stakeouts easier because you can pee in them..." the line wasn't even written that well. Even with a lack of any thought provoking plot, more often than not he writes himself into a corner and has to go back and undo what he's written earlier and/or add in pages to cover his tracks.

This guy is getting paid to write books??? Will miracles never cease??? Folks taking english as a second language may find some use for this guy - other wise, don't waste your money. He is trite, uninspiring and writes for 5th graders.