For those of you who don't know, Jack Carr is an author. He wrote Terminal List, which was turned into an (absurdly 'controversial') Amazon series with Chris Pratt in the lead as former Seal James Reece.
Reece fits the mold of a Mitch Rapp or Lucas Davenport or Michael Bennett or Alex Cross. He's the one guy in the world who has the skills and savvy to stop a murderer or a terrorist or some other threat. That's what makes him "controversial." In an era where men in the current administration wear dresses, makeup, dog collars, anal plugs... in an era where the transportation secretary (a man) pretends to have a baby with another man and then takes extended maternity leave... you get the drift... in that world, a patriotic man who isn't into butt-fucking other guys and who uses his brains and his brawn to physically defend family and country? Well, that guy's CLEARLY the evil we must suppress.
Carr doesn't care. His terror scenarios are plausible, his take on the Islamic invasion of the US and UK refreshingly honest and clear-eyed, his position on America as a flawed country overrun by greedy politicians who care nothing for values and are led by the nose by our enemies is entirely accurate. That's why the ubiquitous 'they' hate him.
I've read two of his works so far and am into a third at the moment. I really like the books - maybe not quite as much as Mitch Rapp - but Carr's work keeps me engaged. Well, it did until this latest effort.
Here's my issue.
George RR Martin's first book in the Game of Thrones series was pretty good. By the third, he'd devolved into a bloated word hound who desperately needed an editor. He'd go on for pages and pages about what the characters wore and what they ate, none of which was relevant to the action of the scene.
Carr is sliding into that territory now, but it's not food and clothes. He's beginning to drone on endlessly about weapons specifications. It might be interesting to somebody who lives and breathes weaponry and ammunition. I don't. And I really don't need a four paragraph explanation of a slide mechanism, where the gun was forged, the grain and pattern of the ammunition or the tension on the trigger. I'm finding myself skimming past that to get back to the story - which is still good, but it's starting to buckle under the weight of the weapon fetish.
I'm sure he knows his stuff, but I don't care. I doubt the average reader cares. It's useless information to me. And it's pushing me away.
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