This is not a bad read. Very much a James Bond adjacent comedic spy novel. It is written like a screen play, and it definitely makes it easy to see it like a movie in your head.

I received this DRC from NetGalley.

So, apparently, this author likes to write for "a generation of people who don't read," which I guess is why it's written with just scripted dialogue and not like actual prose. It does read quickly, but it also omits descriptive language for the most part. Really, it just seems like it's the type of writing someone would do if they didn't like writing.

I think the concept could be fun, and it sounds like the series might get more interesting as it transitions into scifi, but this book just wasn't the hilarious action adventure it was supposed to be. It just felt really heavy handed and repetitive. It has a lot of references that I guess were supposed to be funny (one example: Mark Suckerberg). I think it was trying to be campy, but just didn't get there. It also needed to explain more about the world and the government. Are all schools and vaccines and government workers actually bad? Or are Bong and his associates just deluded and taking it too far while pushing some conservative-sounding ideas? Since it's presenting Bong like the hero, and I'm to believe that standing on your lawn with guns to defend yourself from paying your taxes and whatnot is a good thing, I'm going to need some justification for that. I also would have been OK if it had been left ambiguous and kept us guessing until some reveal at the end, but that would've required some nuance. I think this whole thing would've worked better as a comic so it could focus on the action and the lack of worldbuilding wouldn't have been as apparent.

But anyway, it wasn't a DNF, especially since it was a quick read. 1.5 stars?

Mystery/Thriller Spoof

Review: This was a lot of things piled into one novel (that I did not finish) and funny / interesting was not on the list. Although this could have been a fun romp on the shoulders of Ian Flemming, it seemed forced and bland with flat dialogue exchanges.

Speaking of dialogue, there is this weird setup for each character that starts with their name and a colon. No quotes for sentence stucture with normal dialogue. What this created was a stilted and abrupt delivery of the story line. Not my preference but others may like it.

This is a hard pass for me if ever there are planned sequels.

DNF/5