Run

Rating:
Summary: Run
Review: An interesting and stylish thriller about arms dealer Lane and a deal that goes very wrong.

Winter's strength here is his style -- original, fast-moving, and a successful use of first-person to show a character's unique voice. I don't normally like books featuring gangsters, but Winter manages to make them vivid without romanticism. Jinx, a major secondary character, is more appealing than he has any right to be. Here and there Winter slips into sentimental hyperbole, but for the most part the language is taut.

The speed of the plot here is breakneck but all the pieces seem to hang together as one layer of conspiracy after another is revealed. At their height events get more than a little improbable, but readers may well be caught up enough not to care. Obviously, there's a great deal of violence, but I only felt it was gratuitous in one place, the exploding of a helicopter with uninvolved "civilians" on board.

For a book that isn't my normal kind of read, I really felt this was well done and I recommend it to readers who enjoy hardcore thrillers.

Rating:
Summary: After a good start, "Run" deteriorates very quickly
Review: Douglas E. Winter's first novel is immediately fascinating due to his free-flowing form of prose. The first few chapters of "Run" set up an interesting, not-so-unlikely, world of gun running. However, once the real action of Winter's book begins, the quality of the story itself ends.

Winter fails to truly nail down his main characters, aside from their stereotypical personalities. Instead, he propels his story through action-- the only problem being the reader looses interest in the action when they do not care about the outcome. Through several plot twists and turns (many outlandish), Winter wraps things up in a climatic battle of street thugs vs. corporate thugs, suitable for a mindless summer blockbuster.

In spite of all this, Winter's setup will keep you reading, hoping that he can bring to the surface something inventive-- instead of a run-and-gun thriller.

I applaud Winter's ambition to create his own style-- which he certainly has, now all he needs to find is some substance.

Rating:
Summary: Don't give up hope.
Review: For those of you who bought this book and scratched your head as to why...don't give up. The strange style of writing (no quotation marks for dialog and first person gangster) really turned me off at first. After reading the first few chapters I was ready to put the book down for good. But reading all the great reviews here on Amazon though, I decided to continue on. I'm glad I did. It's an entertaining story featuring some good characters and although somewhat predictable at times, still very enjoyable. A quick read.

The basic premise is this. The main character Burdon Lane is called into an arms for money deal which goes wrong. Before he knows it, he's on the run from the FBI, police and his business partners. While on the run, he forms an unlikely alliance with a DC gang member who was also involved in the deal-gone-bad. They struggle to make it back to DC, find out what exactly happened and make those responsible pay.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent story rewards impulse buy
Review: I bought this book at a hospital gift shop to try to help pass time while a family member had a very serious surgery. It succeeded admirably. The book is very well done, with a surprisingly engrossing story. There is more than enough action to fuel a "Speed" type of movie. My compliments to an impressive first book.

Rating:
Summary: Not a great author but...
Review: I did enjoy this book. I bought it from a used book store so I would have something to read while having lunch. This type of book isn't my normal thing but they didn't have much to choose from and it did sound interesting...and it was. As long as you are not expecting some award winning masterpiece, don't tend to look for the holes in the story, and are looking for something with some explosive action, you'll probably like this book. I'd say it took me between 6 and 8 hours to read the whole thing.

Anyway, one thing I kept thinking throughout as that while Douglas isn't a great author, and this book is proof of that, his concept would make for a great video game. With the variety of weaponry used, the explosive fight seens, and the not at all complex storyline, this book would make for a great video game translation. I would buy it.

Rating:
Summary: Ouch
Review: I got this book because I needed something to read, I saw good reviews from those that I respect, Booklist, Leonard, et cetera. When I first started to read it, the odd writing style of Winter really slowed me down, but after a couple chapters, I began to get into it. When I finished I almost wanted to just flip the book over and start it all over again. It really left me thinking, I'm amazed at how incredible this novel is, and yet it is also Winter's first. I expect a lot more in the next to come out and personally recommend this book, it lacks all that boring description that makes a book slow, and gets right to the action and the thrills.

Rating:
Summary: Literature as it should be: impossible to put down
Review: Run doesn't put on a literary front, like Snow Falling on Cedars or All the Pretty Horses. Which is a big part of why it (unlike the other titles) accomplishes the feat of being literature handily.

Usually, when I finish a fast-paced book, I put it aside and think about how enjoyable of a read it was. Then I think about it some more, and that's about my only thought: that was a good read. In contrast, reflecting on Winter's tale raises a host of deep questions, of which our culture of guns and violence is only a small part. Winter's story compells us to reconsider our notions of self and loyalty and identity.

Two things set this book apart from others that may seem like it: First, the pace is ferocious, but not just because of plot and character. Winter writes in language that forces us to sprint to keep up, language that buzzes and pops and surprises. Second, this book is compelling in a way that many other books described as "compelling" are not--it actually compells the reader toward something, toward deep introspection and specific questions that ring of universal consequenses.

With scenes darker and tougher than any Spielberg film, narration quirkier than Catcher in the Rye or Clockwork Orange, and writing that reveres language in a way Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho) falls far short of, this book is truly of high literary merit.

Rating:
Summary: Turgid, pretentious, amateur slop.
Review: Style massively over substance, this is one of those books where you scratch your head and wonder how it ever got published in the first place. The premise of a gun runner, while not exactly original, is original enough for you to wonder what the new twist is to make it worth your while. The surprise was to find there is no new twist, unless you consider it clever story telling to take a genre usually associated with two dimensional characters and strip them down to one feeble dimension. The whole thing reads like an out of touch middle aged lawyer had decided to play cool, hip, author in his spare time. Here's hoping his caseload increases.

Rating:
Summary: Intense, wonderful, excellent - Read
Review: This is an amazing and breathtaking book! Absolutely wonderful! It quickly hits you with an intensity that just forces you to not flinch and to continue reading.

Burdon Lane is a gun runner; he smuggles the weapons to those who can't legally get them. And while on a run that is too good and too easy to be true,.... The nice thing for us readers though is that the [stuff] turns into a complicated plan with twists and double twists to match. And like John Woo's "Hard Boiled" where the final battle takes about a fourth of the film, the final fourth of the book is the big payoff that we wanted. I don't know what else to say except that if you like intense, hardcore violence, read this book!

Rating:
Summary: Ouch
Review: What a painful experience that was. I couldn't even finish this book, it didn't hold my attention, the characters were badly drawn and the plot was flimsy.