Rise of the Phoenix

Two Bodies: a Skilled Merc, and a Powerful Terrorist… Finding their connection is the responsibility of CIA Analyst Dante Tucker and Delta Force Operative Sgt. Nicholas "Edge" Pierce. It quickly becomes clear that the murdered terrorist is simply the start of something far larger, a plan that intends to shake the foundation of America.

The Heart of Miami is in Ruins… Destroyed by a new weapon, wielded by a mysterious organization. Tucker and Edge are on the hunt for those responsible before the next phase of this plan can be launched. But with each encounter they have to question are they the Hunters or the Hunted?

In this game of cat and mouse that extends from the Everglades to the mountains of Oregon and the nation's capital itself, Tucker and Edge will stop at nothing to bring down those who are responsible!

I received this book for free from Review Copy in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Rise of the Phoenix is a fairly standard action thriller that, while it has issues, gets a lot of things right.  You have the two main characters, both excellent in their field, mixing humor and action as they seek to stop a terrorist threat.  Formulaic?  Sure, but it’s a formula that works, so why mess with it.

The action is what this book gets right.  Once you get past the setup and introduction, which I will address in a moment, the action is high paced.  For the lovers of adrenaline fueled thriller action, Gibbs hits the right marks.  The main characters are also well developed, but as individuals and with their interaction with each other.  They are believable as characters with enough backstory to keep them from being just stereotypical stand-ins, which is a problem in many books in this genre.

I do have two issues with the book, one in setup and the other in editing.  The main characters don’t get introduced until almost fifteen percent of the way through the book.  The prologue, while it does a good job of setting up the tension, spends a lot of time on characters that never make it out of the first couple of chapters.  I am fairly certain that, if read as an omnibus and not as individual pieces, this would probably not be an issue.

My other issue is in the editing of the book.  Fairly regularly the book jumps between past and present tense and back again.  It is actually fairly distracting.  Hopefully the author is working on these issues and plans to release and updated edition.

If you read this book seeing it as act one of a larger book, then it is a decent read.  If you are looking for a complete book that works on its own, Rise of the Phoenix will leave you a bit disappointed.  I wish the author had released his entire story as a single book, rather than split it up.  Still, it offers some fun action and is worth checking out when the later parts of the story are released.

Review by Travis Starnes

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