Redemption: (Ryan Drake: book 1): a compelling, action-packed and high-octane thriller that will have you gripped from page one

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Sadly the tone of the characters is not always consistent, and several moments that are supposed to be emotionally important come too soon or are otherwise underdeveloped. The closer we get to the ending the more most characters seem to start following a typical Hollywood formula with all the clichés you may find in generic action movies, along with lines we've all heard uttered before. In any case, the book is written well enough and the story is compelling enough to keep the reader hooked. Will Jordan is better known as The Critical Drinker on Youtube, but he's also a successful author of spy novels. This is his first effort, and it's not bad. Pursued by his former comrades and thrown together with a dangerous woman he doesn’t trust, his journey for answers takes him from Russia to America, Saudi Arabia and finally Iraq. Redemption is never less than fun to read but, unfortunately, it's enjoyable in much the same way that cliché-ridden action-oriented TV shows and movies are still fun to watch, even if you end up yelling at the screen every time a character makes a predictable and easily-avoided poor decision to ramp up the drama, or something unexpected happens purely for expediency rather than because it makes sense.

Will Jordan. You may know me as the author of - Reddit I am Will Jordan. You may know me as the author of - Reddit

This book has action, then some more action, oh, and did I mention it has action? As this is the author’s first book, I prefer to read the next one in the series before issuing an opinion. Thrown together in a race to survive, their differing outlooks and experiences allowed me almost endless scope for creating tension and interesting exchanges.Came to this book as a fan of the author's YouTube persona, The Critical Drinker. I'll frame this by saying that I don't consider myself to be a fan of this particular genre, but props to Jordan for entering a field already well-populated (saturated, even) with big names and heavy-hitters. A new thriller series featuring British CIA agent Ryan Drake—perfect for fans of Lee Child, Vince Flynn, and David Baldacci Drake represents the present. He’s younger and still relatively new to the world of covert operations. He certainly has some baggage (much of which will come out later in the series), but he’s still something of a blank slate with lots of potential for growth. Somewhat ironically, considering how I got interested in reading this book in the first place, my biggest gripes have to do with the characters and the story itself. I certainly see Redemption as the first step in a complex overarching story that will develop over the course of five books. There are an awful lot of unanswered questions at the end, both for Drake and Maras, and the next four books will see both of them searching for answers – sometimes together, sometimes apart and sometimes against each other.

Redemption: (Ryan Drake: book 1): a compelling, action-packed Redemption: (Ryan Drake: book 1): a compelling, action-packed

But it's when the mission is successfully completed that the real danger for Drake begins. Faced with a terrible threat, he is forced to go on the run with Maras - a veteran agent scarred by years of brutal imprisonment. The story is skillfully told and it's a captivating read, yes, but at the same time the events unfold in a way that's seldom surprising. Many of the plot twists are quite easy to see coming from afar, and there's not much that's genuinely new, original or surprising in the storyline. Sometimes the characters are made to do uncharacteristically stupid mistakes for the sake of drama, such as a badly wounded character forsaking their gun and being taunted into a fistfight with a much stronger opponent, even though the same character is supposed to show their enemies (and this one in particular) no mercy. Along with his team, Ryan succeeds in the prison break, only to learn his sister has been taken hostage, and he now needs to free Maras from the clutches of the CIA, and bring her to the terrorist head, a man called Munro, who once worked with Maras for the CIA.Don't you just hate it when it's obvious that the author doesn't have a clue what they are writing about? I also love playing with the notion of who the ‘bad guy’ really is. No character should be 100% good or bad in my opinion, and I think that holds particularly true for the antagonists. In Redemption, characters may do bad things but in their own minds (and perhaps even in the real world) they’re serving a greater good. I think that makes them far more interesting because it gives the reader a different perspective.

Will Jordan - Penguin Books Australia Will Jordan - Penguin Books Australia

Ryan Drake, the main character, works for the CIA as a Shepherd – a special operative who finds and brings home lost agents. In Redemption he’s handed the task of breaking into a seemingly impenetrable Siberian prison and rescuing an inmate identified only as Maras. Things seem to go well, until a phone call from a disgraced CIA agent and former student of Maras forces Drake to go on the run with her.For me the story is all about the changing relationship between Drake and Maras. To begin with he’s deeply distrustful of her, which soon gives way to anger and resentment as things begin to unravel for him. Gradually however he begins to see the humanity in her, and the two of them form a bond of sorts through their shared experiences. It’s not exactly a cosy friendship, as the end of the novel proves, but it’s definitely intense. A major new thriller series featuring British CIA agent Ryan Drake - perfect for fans of Lee Child, Vince Flynn and David Baldacci. What broke my suspension of disbelief was the character of Maras, the woman Ryan and his team are sent to rescue in the beginning of the story. I'm all for strong and interesting female characters, but Maras seems like a superhero in an otherwise grounded story. She's way too strong and fast, unbelievably perceptive, skillful in everything she does, and established as pretty much the toughest fighter there is.