The Consultant

Rating:
Summary: A hot novel that seems very real!
Review: After 120 pages of drivel that should have taken no more than 20 pages, I gave up. Fact: Alec Donzi can't write and would have failed a creative writing course offered in high school. He seemed most interested in filling pages than in building a plot. One chapter seemed entirely devoted to the virtues of Austrian pumpkin seed oil (I couldn't have made this up). Another to what laptop he needed to buy to write the tripe that he managed to get published. On that point and that only he gives us all hope that we too can be in print.

Rating:
Summary: Should Have Checked A Writing CONSULTANT
Review: After 120 pages of drivel that should have taken no more than 20 pages, I gave up. Fact: Alec Donzi can't write and would have failed a creative writing course offered in high school. He seemed most interested in filling pages than in building a plot. One chapter seemed entirely devoted to the virtues of Austrian pumpkin seed oil (I couldn't have made this up). Another to what laptop he needed to buy to write the tripe that he managed to get published. On that point and that only he gives us all hope that we too can be in print.

Rating:
Summary: New Insights in a World of Intrigue!
Review: Donzi's book The Consultant was refreshing! I learned more than I ever knew possible about the job of a high powered, worldly-wise consultant! Great intrigue and an engaging story line! It's a good read!

Rating:
Summary: Fiction & Reality merge
Review: I devoured my copy of the "The Consultant" within 48 hours. Every decade or so, there comes along a book that you just have to read as it introduces us to a new era of storytelling. I still remember Grisham's "The Firm" back in '91 which was such a memorable book, and now there's Alec Donzi's "The Consultant." This novel is everything a new-millennium thriller is supposed to be and more. Aside from the action and the twists and turns, Donzi communicates valuable information about the reality of the nuclear threat in the Far East, and this authenticates the book. As a former investigative journalist, Donzi has researched his subject well and it shows. I also found the characterizations very well done. The story about a wealthy corporate consultant who gets involved in his last big deal moves like a hurricane through 76 chapters. Along the way, Jerome Birchner, the consultant, encounters high-level terrorists, a renegade CIA agent and a seductive female executive. Readers get a behind-the-scenes look of how Corporate America really works and how shaky world peace really is--it's scary to say the least. The settings of this novel include Naples, South Florida, Dallas, North Korea and Europe (Vienna, Zurich and Paris), as well as Washington. Fact is, I'll take my time to read this book next weekend again. "The Consultant" is a rich and engaging story and I know it is one of these rare books most avid readers will truly enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Worse Than Bad!
Review: I'm willing to overlook a lot when I'm reading a book that is otherwise good -- perhaps because it has a good plot, or the writing is wonderful, or it contains new information on a subject I'm interested in. This book had nothing at all to recommend it. Nothing. The writing is abysmal. The plot is contrived. The characters are thinly drawn. If this book has 17 reviews that give it an average of 4+ stars, then the author and his family/publisher must be writing them. I admit, I read a review like mine before I bought the book, but thought it must have been written by someone with rigid tastes. NOT. Do not buy this book unless you just want to throw away money. I threw away the book. I wouldn't even give it to the Goodwill.

Rating:
Summary: A hot novel that seems very real!
Review: One thing is for sure, you either love this book or you hate it. I love it because of its unique insight. I know it's supposed to be a novel, but this book reads more like an investigative report, although the author borrows heavily from the fiction genre. What's amazing to me is the fact that this book was published in late 2000 and the author probably conceived the idea and wrote the book a few years earlier, and the results would normally qualify as a prophecy as Donzi wrote history before it actually happened. Right now we're seeing much of the content or at least the general premise and various situations fulfilled before our eyes. Nevertheless, Donzi's style is predominantly one of an investigative journalist and that takes time to get used to, but it's a work of suspense and a very interesting subject matter. I'm looking forward to the movie release, if that is in the works as the storyline in The Consultant is great film material; it would make a great action thriller.

Rating:
Summary: A prophetic suspense thriller
Review: Our local high school has several students who can write better than this! The story was full of inconsistencies and extraneous detail. The references to religion were obviously after-thoughts, perhaps the only way the author could get published by Scherf. The errors in grammar and syntax were so jarring that it became a game to see how many there were on each page. Dialog was childish and boringly repeated in the narrative. (I had the impression that the author was being paid by the word.) An editor would have caught these errors; a good editor would have rejected the manuscript as hopeless.
Please benefit from my bad experience. 1.Don't buy anything based on glowing reviews without doing additional research. 2.Have a healthy mistrust of obscure publishing companies. (If a book is so great, an agent will be able to sell it to one of the top houses in the country!)

Rating:
Summary: had potential
Review: Sadly I will have to agree with the other reviewers on the editing. In the beginning I thought it wasn't so bad, but then it really got deplorable. I really really wanted to like the book. It started off well, and the premise and story was original. As was, the style. But in the end it fell flat and I rushed myself just to finish the book (I skipped and skimmed pages). It felt rushed.

The idea of North Korea was intriguing considering the current situation, and there was a some good elements to the book.

In the end, I think the writer has potential. But obviously going from journalism to fiction writing is not a simple step.

And a real need for a real editor would help.

Rating:
Summary: the consultant
Review: This was one of the better books that i have ever read.A real thumbs up on this one.Hard to put it down before finishing it.
Ron Dothage