Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Yes, this would make a great film – but the writing made me cringe, for two reasons. First, the author (I assume it was Keith, ghost-writing for Wallace) hasn't the slightest knowledge of foreign languages, not even at the level used in other techno-thrillers. The most glaring blunder is that Keith thinks a Russian character's patronymic is his nickname. Explanation: a patronymic is a name constructed as "child of [father's first name]," and Russians use them as middle names, or more accurately, as extensions of their first names – so that Sergei, son of Ivan, is named Sergei Ivanovich, and Alexander, son of Sergei, is named Alexander Sergeyevich. But throughout the novel, Keith consistently has the character Sergei addressed in dialog as "Sergeiovich" instead of Seryozha or Seryoga (nicknames for Sergei), and Alexander addressed as "Alexanderovich" instead of Sasha (nickname for Alexander/Aleksandr). Other annoyances include having his Russian characters say "clicks" -- American slang -- for kilometers; having a Frenchman address a Russian admiral as “Admirale,” when the French word for admiral is “amiral”; naming a Russian character “Anatol” – confusing the Russian name Anatoly with the French name “Anatole”; and giving a Russian male the name Ludmila, which is a girl’s name. He has a character comment “ne kulturny, no culture,” when the correct language is the single word nekulturny, an adjective meaning uncultured (actually an insult whose real meaning is boorish/low class). But maybe the worst howler is when he tries to pluralize the Russian word for warrant officer (anglicized as "michman") as "michmen" (when the plural, anglicized, is "michmanny.") (In their previous novel, Final Bearing, they had the Colombian crime boss, the jefe (chief, pronounced “HEFFay”), addressed in dialog, every time, as “El Jefe” instead of “Jefe” – like saying “hello, the boss” instead of “hello, boss.” Ugh.) Second, Keith seems to have done no research, guessing at words he doesn't know. For example, he consistently writes "explosive squid" when he means explosive squib; he calls a helicopter’s collective (control lever) the “collector”; he consistently calls the Russian parliament the "Dumas" when it's the Duma; he writes "Keklivek" when he means "Keflavik" (Iceland); and he writes "Skattegat" for the Scandinavian waters that are either the Skaggerak or the Kattegat. He has an American character say “…there are only a couple of countries in Artic winter right now. Canada and Norway are allies… that leaves Russia” – thereby making Finland and Sweden disappear from the globe. And he writes of “Scotch whiskeys,” when the proper term is “Scotch whiskies.” (FYI, it’s “whiskey/whiskeys” for the American and Irish varieties, and “whisky/whiskies” for the Scotch, Canadian, and Japanese types.) Finally, he should know that the word “none” – meaning “no one” – is singular, not plural. There’s actually a third problem – plot deficiencies at the end of the novel – but that would take too long to explain. -- Sam C., New Hampshire