Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Into the Fire

The latest Suz Brockmann comes out today! It's called Into the Fire and you should buy it and read it. If you're a long time fan, maybe give a refresh read to Flashpoint and Into the Storm for the recurring characters, or just read ITF once, go back and read those two, then come back and read ITF again.

Here's a spoiler free review. Even the summary cover text posted after it isn't too bad, spoiler wise. Myself, I've started to avoid spoilers - I don't want to know everything. I know that the main couple winds up together at the end because it's a romance, but Suz is known to be pretty evil to her secondary characters. And I like to be surprised. I keep trying to read her books slowly to wallow in the world building for a couple of days, but that plan has not been working so well recently. They're thriller/suspense after all, and I think she does a great job with pacing.

She also doesn't stick to traditional "perfect, whitebread" characters for all she writes about Navy SEALs and counterterrorist action. The previous novel All Through the Night featured a hero and a hero - and all the proceeds go to Mass Equality in perpetuity. In this novel, there's an Black/Asian/Irish Hero and a limping, deaf heroine.

Check out the front display at Borders or B&N today. Buy, buy, buy! If for no other reason than to see if my name made it into the Acknowledgements again. But the best reason is that she writes a fun story that can be read over and over.

7 comments:

farmwifetwo said...

If you can figure out who the main character is and the main plot, since lately she's been writing for the bb and they wander here, there, here, there.... adding in this character and that, and that character and this.

I'm getting it out the library this time..... and then decide if I want the pb.

S.

CrankyOtter said...

Really? I don't think she's been writing for the bb at all (except Breaking Point). She has the basic plots of about 3-5 books worked out in advance, so she knows where she's going with it, regardless of our wheedling.

I also don't see the wandering. It seems she's wrapping up some loose ends, yes, but her books have always had at least 3 main plotlines that start separately and weave together into a whole by the end.

With breaking point, she found a way for it to make sense for certain characters to come back. She (and I) thought Molly and Jones' HEA was a given after OOC. But about 80% of her readers thought otherwise, so yeah, she threw them a bone and made that ending definite rather than just speculation. She's also said that it was totally obvious to her who the main characters of the next book will be, but early buzz is that this is also not clear. Not that she doesn't have clarity as a writer, she does, but she likes to show rather than tell, and not everybody interprets the show the same way.

Anyhow, I'll be checking the mail box every day until my signed copy comes. I really dig Izzy who has a POV set in this book so...

farmwifetwo said...

How many times has she dragged in characters for absolutely no reason?

From what spoilers I've read it's again another 2 stories in one. Same plot ideas... get it done and then tell me how many times she's used Izzy's plot idea... give me a break. What's Izzy doing in the story anyways??

Who are the main characters???

I think the last really good one was Flashpoint. I did like Rick's story... it's was only a quarter over shadowed by Jules/Robin.

Ever notice NOBODY discusses the main characters in these books it's always the secondary ones?? WHY??? So she's writing to the bb... making those the bb wants to read about and dragging out their stories to keep everyone waiting for the next, thereby overshadowing the HEA story itself.

http://reviewingtheevidence.com/review.html?id=6317

Thought this was an accurate review of ITS... which took me days to finish.

S. BP was the BIGGEST disappointment EVER!!!! Except for Grady and Molly. I was SOOO upset when I finished it.

CrankyOtter said...

I still think the problem with ITS was that the back cover copy said "and then Tracy is kidnapped" implying that the story doesn't get started until this happens - and it happens after page 250 of 350 pages. So the expectations of someone reading the book after the cover copy is "c'mon, c'mon, when are we getting to "the action"", and being dismissive of anything occuring prior to the advertized plot point.

If you read different cover copy (notice the paperback version doesn't give up *which* person goes missing like the HB does) that said, "The Troubleshooters get together with Team 16 to do some training and hijinks ensue", your expectations would be markedly different. And a firmly believe the enjoyment would be markedly different.

ITS was one of my personal favorites, actually, which could be why I'm going on and on. I didn't think that they were behaving unprofessionally. They were behaving like people. And while everyone wound up being on the attractive side, that's not always the case. The reviewer you pointed to mentioned Lindsey being as good as a SEAL. But that's because she grew up playing at E&E, like a lot of guys, and getting expert advice. Sophia truly sucked at it.

So, I understand that you didn't like ITS, but I really do.

I think the reason people talk about secondary couples is because once something is wrapped up, what's there to say? Most of the talk of the secondary couples is specualation. There's nothing left to speculate about for the primary couple.

I think the book discussions would be vastly different if we read *half* the book, then discussed, then finished it and discussed.

farmwifetwo said...

Had it been any other author you would be complaining about it. Why would someone new want to wade into never ending plot threads???

Let alone repeat plot threads... Izzy's story for one in this book... how many times has it been used before???

What is the books story?? Is it the main characters with others in their sphere or is it the secondary plot thread. Should not the main HEA been the main story, should not a good book discussion revolve around the main HEA??

She use to do the first, until everyone wanted more, more,.. what happened to.... and now we have 2 books in one, the 2nd book being these unending threads and unending characters.

And yes that "sounds like a bunch of h/s students worrying about whether or not someone likes them" is VERY true. Personally, I outgrew that in H/S.

You found CM's to become boring... I find Suz's irritating. Atleast Cathy tends to keep things tied up at the end of the book, writes around her main characters.

Now if you want to read a good, lots of characters, numerous thread possibilities series, try Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar's and read them in the way they were written, not by date in her timeline.

That's how it's done PROPERLY.

S.

farmwifetwo said...

http://www.amazon.com/review/R15X45GIC69PPZ/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R15X45GIC69PPZ

Love the Marylou/Sam comment.... geez, do you think???

S

Janet Webb said...

I confess to adoring the secondary plot lines: so much so I wish they'd get resolved sooner than 4 or 5 book arcs.

Don't think she's writing for the board at all: think she's writing for herself. Nothing would make me stop reading, even if there are things I would wish were different (like for goodness sake, hook Sophia up with someone ... at this point ... not sure if I even care who LOL!!)