Pulse by Jeremy Robinson

Pulse by Jeremy Robinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the second book I've read by Robinson, and I can say I like his style. In Secondworld, he had neo-Nazis who have a sinister plan to destroy the world except for 'their kind'. In Pulse, he deals with an amoral billionaire whose plan is to live forever, and make money on the medical technology by selling it to the highest bidder. Throw in some Greek mythology and it's golden. Pulse is a good combination of high octane action and monster thriller.

I had no idea what to expect, and I honestly liked the tension as the story unfolded. It was a pleasant surprise at how things culminate, although this book has a seriously high body count and plenty of violent deaths.

I rooted for liked the Chess team, including its leader, 'King', Jack Sigler. Each member has something different to add to the team. I did wish there was more character development, but with the rapid pace of this novel, that would be pretty challenging. What I did get of the characters I did like. I especially liked Bishop, a team member with a tragic past and a serious anger problem, but deep at the heart, a true hero.

The villains were a bit underdeveloped for my tastes. I would have liked more viewpoint of Ridley and Reinhart. Ridley just came off as a very evil, self-absorbed guy with too much money. I think it would have been nice to see a flashback that revealed why he was so afraid of dying and was going to such extremes not to die. Reinhart just seemed like the bully type who started off abusing nerds on the playgrounds and who graduates to more heinous acts of bullying and villany. It would be interesting to see a flashback of the event that got him booted from the SEALs as well.

Overall, this was very good. The greek mythology foundation was fun and I loved where the author took it (minus the gory descriptions of the creatures rampages--could have done without that). I couldn't give it more than four stars just because I wish the author gave me more depth in the characters. But I tell you, this was a book that I didn't want to put down. It took me a while to read it because I'm really busy this month, not because of boredom. I'm looking forward to getting the Chess Team member ebook novellas and the other full length books in this series.

I'd recommend this book to fans of Matthew Reilly and James Rollins books.

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