Sacrifice: Book Review

I just finished reading Sacrifice, by Will Jordan. Jordan is a YouTuber who goes by the name The Critical Drinker, and I have been watching his videos on and off for a few years now. I tried his first book, Redemption, a while back, and I thought it was good, and perhaps even great in certain ways. I have a review of that on this blog. Sacrifice is the second book in the series, where Ryan Drake is thrown back into the action again, tasked with saving a hostage before he is killed by a terrorist who has a bone to pick with Drake.

This book is another compelling entry to the series. Rife with tension, fast-paced action sequences, and cut-throat brutality, this book has a lot going for it. I also have some critiques of the book, and they do have an effect on enjoyment.

As usual, for thrillers and mysteries, I only do spoiler reviews, as I think you should just jump into the stories with nothing but an author name to motivate you.

Overall, I like the book, though I have to admit I have a fair amount of criticisms. I will give it a 6/10.

Strides (Spoilers)

What I like the most about the book are the real consequences that you see for the characters. Namely, the death of Keegan at the end was quite visceral. It never crossed my mind that Jordan might have the balls to kill off a central character so early in the series. I figured he might kill some off later on to keep the series from going stale, but Jordan has demonstrated that he is able to provide real stakes for his characters, and I like that.

Another aspect of the story I like, and which is continued from the previous book, is Jordan's ability to create tension and anticipation. The situations the characters find themselves in, and the struggles that they have in working their way out, are executed so well. Once you get to the final act of the story (or any part where the action picks up), the story just grabs you and sucks you right in. This is a must for any thriller.

Missteps (Spoilers)

Strangely, I find that there are quite a few things about the story that I have issues with, even though I enjoyed it overall. I honestly was just very satisfied with the few things I mentioned above, even if there are more negatives.

The first thing I want to talk about is the prose. I listened to the audiobook, but I tried to pay attention to the descriptions as I listened, and I noticed some things about it that were lacking. I did not think the prose was poor. At the same time, some parts were redundant, with Jordan describing things that were evident in the dialogue, or were at least able to be inferred from the surrounding context. This kind of redundancy has started to stand out to me. A story that lacks these things has my respect, because I know the author appreciates the reader's ability to understand what is going on without being handheld.

Another thing worth mentioning was the simplicity of the prose. It wasn't over-indulgent, nor was it childish. It is exactly what I would expect from a thriller. Maybe the descriptions could have used a bit more zest, but I'm not terribly particular about it.

Finally, some of the descriptions are over-dense with information. A lot of the descriptions are loaded with information about the history and usage of guns, and while this is interesting and often important, I thought that some of the info-dumps were shoe-horned in. You can defend much of the description by pointing out that Drake is the main character, and that he would be thinking about these things in the moment, but I did not think it worked every time.

Something that I thought was a little lacking compared to the first book was the characterization. I thought Jordan developed Anya and Drake incredibly well in that first book, but for this one, I did not think he lived up to that same standard. A lot of the characters seem to be interchangeable, without much to say about. McKnight is one example. and I didn't think Anya and Drake were taken in directions that I thought were all that interesting. The hints at Drake's darker past were not dwelled upon long enough, namely because Kurash (is that right?), was killed off so soon in the story.

Another point that is kind of minor is when Drake and his team find that Mitchells had been killed well before they had arrived, thus showing that their rescue attempt had been futile from the beginning. This would be great, if not for the fact that this was the second direct rip of a plot point from the 24 TV Series in two books. I don't think homages are bad. I don't think there is anything wrong with borrowing things, but this is the second time, and when I started to get closer to the twist, I was consciously making the connection and I wasn't feeling the emotions that I felt in 24, because I was too busy thinking about the plot point being borrowed.

One of the bigger problems is that I was a bit underwhelmed by the twist that the private military group, Horizon, was behind everything. That seemed so obvious from the beginning, it was like Jordan didn't even pretend that there was a twist . . . until the reveal came. Horizon was suspicious from the outset, and we shockingly learned that they were behind everything. I was expecting something more to come of it, but there were no other twists, other than learning that Cunningham was working against them, which I suspected, as well.

Finally, I am baffled that the crew got into the helicopter after they retrieved Mitchells' folder. It was so obvious that they would be shot down, and I could not believe that none of the characters guessed this might happen when they explicitly mentioned that Horizon still had some of these missiles in their possession. The obvious answer is the plot, but I don't need to explain why that isn't good enough.

Conclusion

I am genuinely shocked at how many negative things that I mentioned, here. But I genuinely liked more than I disliked it. I went in thinking it was a 7/10, but I'm going to have to shift it to better match what was said above.

Overall, I liked the novel, though I had a fair amount of criticisms that should be acknowledged. I will give it a 6/10.