Goliath

By no means a bad story, this book needs work. Firstly, the overuse and misuse of commas. It's clear an editor has cleaned a lot of this up by the correctly-placed semicolons, but still commas are rampant. Secondly, the "false pretences" of the title and the cover art: this book is NOT about an airship named Goliath. The airship's role in the tale is disappointingly very small. It's actually a story about stolen nuclear weapons and an attempted coup in Russia. The third issue is the fragmentation and confusion of the first several chapters. Each introduces new characters, in a new location, with new priorities. There is no early linkage in the events, and no reason to get to "like" any of the characters. Fourthly, the sheer "ordinariness" of the story makes it a real slog to get through. There is nothing refereshing or new -- the theme is stale.

A lot of action and gun fights. Something on the same premises as a Die Hard movie. Not really my type of book but for those who like guns and fights this is the book for you.

The lack of experience of the writer showed through, needs a better editor. Too much additional, minor detail but overall plot was OK and the characters showed promise. Worth giving the second one a try.