Chris and Mike share their first impressions of Don Bentley's writing style and what he might bring to the Mitch Rapp universe after reading Matt Drake Book #1: Without Sanction. Click here to listen to our full breakdown of that book and many more thrillers on our other podcast feed.
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00:00:11
Hey guys, I'm Chris and I'm Mike, welcome back to this
00:00:17
week's No Limits, the Metro a podcast.
00:00:21
What's new today, Mike? What's new is that?
00:00:25
I am feeling a whole lot better totally relieved about this
00:00:30
transition to Don Bentley because I finally read my first
00:00:33
Matt drag book and loved it. Yeah, no, I think that has to be
00:00:39
like, probably the biggest takeaway from Reading without
00:00:43
sanction and in a while. So I just just a caveat.
00:00:47
This is just a little, our little notes.
00:00:50
We cut. We recorded an entire episode
00:00:54
covering without sanction, on our other feed.
00:00:57
No Limits of the other podcast. And at the end of this, we'll
00:00:59
put, will leave you with a little expert.
00:01:01
If that if you're interested you can go check out the full thing
00:01:04
and when we recorded that we tried to stay away from Doing
00:01:09
too much comparison with the Metra, you know, even though
00:01:12
it's it was constantly in the back of my mind.
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I don't know about you. Mike, right?
00:01:16
Oh yeah, but I wanted to, I thought that, you know, it would
00:01:19
be cool to just hop back on this feed and give our thoughts
00:01:24
about, you know, what were we thinking.
00:01:26
As we were reading it, obviously you, we already came out and
00:01:29
said, we feel, we feel better about this transition.
00:01:32
I wonder if they also, they were there.
00:01:34
People out there. When they announced that Kyle
00:01:37
was going on, you like, did they go back and read, you know, his
00:01:40
FBI series and like what they see in over, wasn't just like,
00:01:43
boom. The book came out good.
00:01:45
It's a guy like Mills on it. Like, I would love to, I don't
00:01:48
remember that even though I got the, like, I read my first book.
00:01:54
Well then, so still alive. So yeah, I don't know.
00:01:57
Do you remember? No, because I wasn't plugged
00:02:00
into social media. Yeah, I mean, exactly, that's
00:02:02
actually on my mediasite like book media, social media.
00:02:05
All right, I wasn't on that. I wasn't really into regular
00:02:08
social media. I was kind of unplugged.
00:02:10
So I could tell you that once I heard Kyle Mills and read the
00:02:14
Survivor, I wanted more of his stuff.
00:02:16
And then, once we started this podcast, we wanted to read Mark,
00:02:20
Beeman, we did Rising Phoenix. I read a couple of his others, I
00:02:24
definitely want to get to fade. I still think as a tribute to
00:02:28
Kyle, we got to cover fade at some point and I think that's
00:02:31
going to be his first non Mitch Rap Book since I quote Tiring or
00:02:36
having this many retirement from its rap.
00:02:39
I think that's going to be a really fun book to cover.
00:02:42
So I got imagine there were readers, like, you and me and
00:02:45
our listeners just ready to go. Devour Kyle Mills.
00:02:48
Once he took over the series, they, I'm sure people definitely
00:02:51
did that, but I think a lot. Also, we're just willing to say,
00:02:54
let's try something new and their first Kyle Mills book like
00:02:57
me and I think like you was the Survivor at the time.
00:03:01
Yeah, I mean either way, I think you know, go for it.
00:03:04
I think the Don at least with his first novel that I've read
00:03:08
of his is shown to be capable. Obviously, the people are Emily,
00:03:12
bestseller, books and Atria and Simon & Schuster, think he's
00:03:15
capable and II. Definitely think there are
00:03:18
parallels, we can draw from this first book where I could tease
00:03:22
out. Well, I could see that being,
00:03:26
you know, my trap in the situation where I could see that
00:03:29
being You know a character like we even get like a Marcus Du
00:03:34
Monde, like a beefed-up. Marcus Du Monde type character
00:03:37
in. You know who actually instead of
00:03:39
being, you know, cyber genius is, you know, on the ground
00:03:43
because he was a veteran and, you know, got got attacked.
00:03:47
I know what do you want? You want to start with Matt
00:03:48
Drake versus versus Mitch rap? Like your you want to go
00:03:51
somewhere else. Well, I think I just have to
00:03:54
offer a caveat first that both you.
00:03:56
And I have only read the first book without sanction, so we're
00:03:59
no experts. The topic and we could probably
00:04:02
have so many guests and maybe eventually we would definitely
00:04:05
plan to who know Don Bentley style in and out and read
00:04:09
everything. Read his Clancy verse books and
00:04:11
all the metric books forgotten War just came out.
00:04:14
By the way you know it congratulations Pub day just a
00:04:17
little while back that is what the fourth match right book.
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I want to say so yeah, you and I we're novices we have a lot to
00:04:24
go. We're going to cover all of them
00:04:26
at Drake. We really want to commit to that
00:04:28
before or during the transition to Kyle Millen to dime from Kyle
00:04:33
but yeah, I think I just have to kind of yet.
00:04:35
We are not here to try to be experts or breakdown who Don
00:04:40
Bentley is and what he's going to bring to the series we're
00:04:43
simply offering our First Reactions as people who just
00:04:47
read the first metric book, what kind of seeds or what?
00:04:53
Kind of things can we see fitting into the Metro app
00:04:57
universe and what's stylistic item?
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So just a caveat know. Experts but definitely, just our
00:05:02
initial musings, our initial thoughts.
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That being said, I don't think I want to compare the characters.
00:05:09
I don't see a lot of value in that, sure, but I do think it'd
00:05:13
be important to compare. Like you said the White House
00:05:15
scenes. What do we expect on to bring
00:05:17
their just based on this limited knowledge?
00:05:19
But I'm gonna, I'm gonna start with action actually, because to
00:05:22
me the strength of without sanction is Matt, Drake on the
00:05:27
ground operating just doing badass stuff.
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And here's the key, he's not doing NG it and relying solely
00:05:36
on his own skill set. I think Mitch progressed to a
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point where one of his biggest assets is the people around him
00:05:45
and the relationship he's built up with them.
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The relationships, he can call on and knowing how well not to
00:05:53
manipulate people, but to read people.
00:05:56
Because with Mitch of always said, even from the early Vince,
00:06:00
Flynn days, he can read a situation.
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He can put his finger on something that other people.
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And and then he knows how to respond to that in the field in
00:06:08
the moment. And the way mattrick Drake is
00:06:11
operating here and the way Don's writing it, we're actually in
00:06:14
his head the whole first person thing.
00:06:17
So the fact that we're in the head of an operator seeing that
00:06:21
analysis seeing the chess game being played, it's really cool
00:06:25
to know that Don can have that that layer.
00:06:29
And, and I don't think the first person is going to come into the
00:06:33
mid trap series. I whoa, I think that would be
00:06:35
too revolutionary to bring him crazy.
00:06:38
Yeah. No, that's too much, right?
00:06:40
Like that would show that he's not fully committed to the
00:06:43
series, but is committed to bringing his own Works override
00:06:45
and I don't think he's gonna go that route, but I think it does
00:06:49
show us. Danny can write a killer action
00:06:51
scene, holy crap, he can write a character who sees the
00:06:54
battlefield as a chess board and can read it perfectly and has
00:06:59
the Tactical Chops to back it up.
00:07:00
So all of that makes me think damn he's gonna have no problem.
00:07:04
Writing Mitch rap, Scott Coleman Marcus Du Monde Irene Kennedy
00:07:08
having this whole you know Battlefield strategy.
00:07:13
Yeah, and I think I agree. I wouldn't want to compare like
00:07:16
character to character, but the one thing I will say about Matt
00:07:19
Drake which I'm kind of intrigued to see what Don likes
00:07:22
were two reports over is and, you know, I don't it's
00:07:27
definitely helped in his book with the first person but just
00:07:30
like the introspection that that Matt has in his head.
00:07:33
Yes, I know like at times like both Kyle and Vince would deal
00:07:36
with that. But it was very interesting to
00:07:38
see, like, how Don dealt with that with his characters was,
00:07:41
his character going through this PTSD type situation.
00:07:46
What, what is Don's? The you know, stamp going to be
00:07:50
on Mitchell? I think, if you had to pick one
00:07:52
thing from Kyle, I'd probably say the two things like the
00:07:57
lightening up of humor and probably the family aspects that
00:08:01
he's grown to like have the relationship with with Anna and
00:08:05
and Claudia. It's like what are what are
00:08:07
Add-ons you know one or two things, these kind of put it is
00:08:10
he going to dive into that introspection?
00:08:13
I think this is where maybe you know, maybe as we're leading up
00:08:16
to the next one. When we're reading books, two
00:08:19
three, four you know what does that relationship Matt's
00:08:23
relationship with Layla? What does that what does that
00:08:25
turn into? And can we sort of tease, you
00:08:29
know how maybe don is going to want to handle, you know,
00:08:33
relationships within the rappers in the future, you know, it At
00:08:37
the same time, all of this could lead.
00:08:39
It could be all for naught because I'm dying isn't
00:08:43
completely, you know, or you know, I don't know.
00:08:45
I don't know how much someone can be told to do something.
00:08:47
If they're brought on to a writing project, everyone wants
00:08:49
to have their own creative saying and but yeah you know so
00:08:53
it's definitely going to be a wild ride but you're right.
00:08:56
The action is what I'm really excited for and deeper into the
00:09:02
action is the descriptions like you know just that hey ho jump
00:09:06
description. And I like that, the entire open
00:09:08
is that when you're going through the hole, when he's with
00:09:10
that with when he's with that one, Chief or, you know, higher
00:09:14
up and they're doing all the checks together and then all of
00:09:17
a sudden, all the guys like sort of just happened to come around
00:09:20
and then each of them, give them like some sort of solute,
00:09:23
whatever handshake pat on the back.
00:09:27
Like, that was really cool. And I think I can see scenes
00:09:29
where that's going to be, you know, something like that, doing
00:09:32
the research, putting the knowledge, the work in.
00:09:36
Going to fit perfectly in the Raptors dude. 100%.
00:09:41
And you know what, as you said that it just made me think of
00:09:46
I'm in my mind like there's some Mitch rap scene.
00:09:49
It's early Vince, where we get the technical but not so much
00:09:54
technical that it's bogged down by jargon and then we also see
00:09:58
him and the guys, you know, Rendezvous and and it was the
00:10:02
opening scene in transfer of power.
00:10:05
When Mitch doc He's on the beach in Iran, and he comes up over
00:10:09
right from the Dive, Right? He was on like he was on a boat.
00:10:13
He abandoned that, you know, deflated it and then he beaches
00:10:17
in the surf and then under some like peer or whatever he meets
00:10:21
up. With that team of guys, there's
00:10:23
a team of seals there on the beach and they're all changing
00:10:25
out of their scuba gear and putting it in, you know, in some
00:10:29
wet bags. And they're gonna dump it in the
00:10:32
sea, where they bury it. Even, but I'm like, yo, that,
00:10:36
hey, So jump and like you're saying the procedural aspects of
00:10:39
preparing for it but also all the guys communicating and
00:10:43
knowing the steps that they have to take and basically reading
00:10:46
and playing off of one another to do the job seamlessly, dude,
00:10:50
that reminds me so much of Mitch on the beach, what was that
00:10:54
guy's name? There was a team leader of that
00:10:56
Seal Team who doesn't show up again but who is a really cool
00:11:00
character. Damn, it's probably in her notes
00:11:03
for trap trip for transfer power.
00:11:05
Damn, something we got hardcores like, Mark Harris?
00:11:09
Screaming at his computer right now like you idiots?
00:11:13
It's blank blank blank. Dan Harris.
00:11:18
I think was Dan Harris. Was it Dan Harris?
00:11:23
It's gotta be Mark Harris. It was Harris.
00:11:29
It's Harris real last name? Yeah.
00:11:31
Yeah. I think it's Dan Harris, man.
00:11:35
He has to do your Kindle search think.
00:11:37
Yeah. I'm definitely going to, I'm
00:11:41
gonna wager that shows that we are.
00:11:43
The true, Vince plan encyclopedia we can pull it out
00:11:47
or like think we're wrong, but we're actually right.
00:11:49
You know, that was hack it in Strobel to, was it not was that
00:11:53
their introduction and now that I don't think.
00:11:55
So, when's the first time they come up then you see your
00:12:00
immediately proving my point wrong.
00:12:01
Okay, yeah, yeah. I blew it.
00:12:04
I blew it. Running my mouth, I swam for the
00:12:07
fences and just Hit a foul ball. No Hackensack.
00:12:11
And Strobel, I think or mentioned term limits anyway.
00:12:14
Oh yeah. Because they're part of their
00:12:16
brought in whenever we see the first like, seal definitely.
00:12:19
Never Scott comes into play, right?
00:12:21
Exactly. I mean, regardless, I just think
00:12:25
those two scenes are a peas in a pod and you mentioned Frodo, I
00:12:29
do think the way Mitch and Scott Coleman operate together, build
00:12:37
a friendship together, and just are always on the same page.
00:12:41
I feel like we got to see that between, Matt, Drake and Frodo,
00:12:44
but inside his head, sure something.
00:12:47
We never got to see with Mitch like He's not an emotional guy
00:12:51
by any stretch of the imagination, but he's grown to
00:12:54
have a lot of emotional maturity with with the trauma.
00:12:58
He's dealt with and it goes back to your earlier point about,
00:13:01
Matt, Drake and the relationships and the family
00:13:03
Dynamics. I think, even in just book one,
00:13:07
that is handled so well, by Don his relationship with his wife
00:13:12
and the struggles that he's going through.
00:13:14
But also the family of assets that he lost the little girl, a
00:13:18
beer. What it means to him the and the
00:13:21
father and mother, and the father, and mother, who they
00:13:24
activated the beacon. But mad Ray couldn't send in the
00:13:27
Cavalry to save them as he promised.
00:13:29
And now he for six months is dealing with his demons and and
00:13:32
PTSD and seeing their faces. Everywhere he goes, I feel like
00:13:36
that shows. Don has has the chops right off
00:13:40
the bat, to really write a deep personal story line that the
00:13:44
operators are really dealing with and man, we know the trauma
00:13:47
Mitch has been through. We can only imagine In the
00:13:50
trauma, Anna, and Claudia are going to have to reckon with,
00:13:53
eventually they seem to be happy go lucky, you know, in Namibia
00:13:56
sliding down the dunes and whatever.
00:13:59
But Claudia's, really seriously asking, like, what's next for
00:14:02
this family. And Mitch has to answer that
00:14:04
question, and Vince wanted to answer those questions when he
00:14:08
wrote scenes with love her, or hate her Anna.
00:14:11
Like I know fans are divided on that, but there's no doubt it
00:14:16
meant a lot to Vince that Mitch should try to have a normal.
00:14:19
A family life. He he wanted to play with that.
00:14:22
He wanted to see what Mitch would go through.
00:14:25
Because so many of our guys have gone through that and he wanted
00:14:28
that to be his in a story. That's why it is the plot of
00:14:31
his, you know, magnum opus consent to kill.
00:14:35
That's where anodized. That's where Mitch has to deal
00:14:38
with this. That's when he goes Revenge
00:14:40
match on everybody. Like that was Vince's Crux of
00:14:44
this series that Mitch needs to grow makes needs to be put in
00:14:48
those situations that are Very tough on him and his family.
00:14:52
He pretends to be a cold-blooded killer with no emotion but deep
00:14:55
down he is a very caring dedicated human friend and now
00:15:00
father adopted father to Anna and I think the fact that Kyle
00:15:05
ran with that, I'm actually doing for our patrons on our
00:15:09
Patron. Only series Mike stop Mitch
00:15:11
moments. I'm up to number 9 now.
00:15:13
But you betcha cracking into that top five is going to be a
00:15:17
lot of Mitch family moments. I think that really sets this
00:15:20
series apart and Don the showing us Justin book one with the way
00:15:24
he handles Matt Drake and this family of operatives that or
00:15:27
assets that he lost and loved and can't shake and keeps
00:15:30
thinking about, he can write that emotional maturity into who
00:15:34
is also a, you know, a stone-cold killer, Matt Drake,
00:15:37
but he can give them that sense of emotional intelligence.
00:15:41
I think that's the right way to take Mitch at this point in his
00:15:44
life. Yeah, no definitely.
00:15:47
And I think one of the other things that really stood out was
00:15:51
the you kind of mentioned at the top, is the White House scenes.
00:15:54
I think the Matt's going to definitely have the chops to to
00:15:56
write that to, you know, like some of the interactions with
00:16:00
the CIA director and although she ultimately like wasn't that
00:16:04
good of a person but you know the name is between them and the
00:16:07
president the chief of staff, like I see the routing there
00:16:11
that you know, we're going to see scenes that inevitably
00:16:14
aren't every single match. Novel.
00:16:17
You know, placing whether it's Irene or Irene's predecessor or
00:16:22
whoever it may be with the president and we're going to get
00:16:26
a new president, right? So or like, you know, and all of
00:16:30
this obviously can chains can change.
00:16:32
Once we know the ending of code red.
00:16:35
So, you know, it'll be interesting to see where we left
00:16:38
off, but I, you know, just to Echo.
00:16:41
We sent the top. I think we'd on is we're in good
00:16:44
hands with time pressure. Oh, absolutely.
00:16:47
II. I'm real curious as we read more
00:16:50
of his mattrick series and possibly even get into Target
00:16:53
acquired and is other Clancy books, no doubt, he's probably
00:16:57
nailing The Situation Room meetings, and the dialogue
00:17:01
there. If he's ever brought in, like,
00:17:02
Capitol Hill and a committee room or a hearing, you know,
00:17:06
that was Vince, Flynn's bread and butter.
00:17:08
I think, I think Kyle tried it here and there but it
00:17:10
necessarily wasn't his his go to.
00:17:13
I think if Don has started doing that in the Clancy, verse which
00:17:16
I assume he has haven't Even read those yet.
00:17:19
Yeah, he's definitely gonna be a good that's going to be awesome.
00:17:22
I mean, you mentioned some of Don's characters in without
00:17:25
sanction book, one were really compelling he almost had us to
00:17:30
Garrett like character in book. Want you know that chief of
00:17:33
staff was given us to Garrett Vibes, or Hank, Clark Vibes,
00:17:38
just phenomenal stuff right there.
00:17:39
No reason to not trust that he's going to handle.
00:17:43
A post cook White House, you know, like what the heck do you
00:17:47
do with that? Or maybe Kyle tease them up?
00:17:48
We don't even know yet with code red, like everything we're
00:17:52
saying could go right out the window and be completely honest
00:17:55
but I don't know. Is Kyle going to tear him up for
00:17:59
who the president's going to be? Does he leave them in election
00:18:01
cycle to invent his own president because Jorge and we
00:18:05
don't know if what was his name. Jorge Gonzalez Gonzalez is
00:18:09
around long term in the mattrick series or not and on our Without
00:18:13
sanction, episode you and I even had a nice little back and forth
00:18:16
of. Is he good guy right?
00:18:18
His rise. Is he on our team?
00:18:20
Yeah, I think you could argue that his chief of staff is
00:18:23
definitely not on the right side of right.
00:18:25
You know. We're not a fan of him, but the
00:18:27
president is has let you know yet where we, the jury still out
00:18:30
as they say, that would be kind of cool, right?
00:18:33
To have one of those kind of characters.
00:18:35
It's almost like Barbara Lonsdale.
00:18:36
Remember how much we hated Barbara, was it Barbara Lonsdale
00:18:40
who is in The Extreme Measures? Then she ended up becoming like
00:18:44
a friend, right? Yeah.
00:18:46
And then she ended up seeing what the guys do on the on an
00:18:49
op. And they saved her life and she
00:18:51
is a total 180. Has a does a total 180 as a
00:18:54
different perspective and now she defends our special
00:18:58
operations, and intelligence gathering on the hill.
00:19:01
And I'm just like the fact you can have flexibilities and
00:19:04
flexibility and characters. You can work in that Gray Zone.
00:19:08
People who were black, turn white or black, you know, good
00:19:11
and evil. That's really Compelling
00:19:13
storytelling. And Kyle certainly pulled that
00:19:15
off a bunch of times. Even just in book one, we see
00:19:18
Don Bentley pulling that off. It's going to be really fun to
00:19:21
have a new author playing with. It's like a Sandbox, right?
00:19:24
Post code red, could really be a Sandbox for the mid trap
00:19:27
universe and if there's any sandbox, I want to play him as
00:19:30
an adult. It's a trap Sam box.
00:19:33
Yep. Yep.
00:19:34
I'm super excited. Hashtag my traps and box.
00:19:38
Let's see. Tweet at us.
00:19:40
There you go. Tell us.
00:19:42
Tell us one thing that you ultimately have to have in your
00:19:46
first done. Badly novel.
00:19:53
I think there's really good signs pointing to this.
00:19:56
And I think Don has said in interviews, he wants to do it
00:19:59
and I'm thank goodness because I got to have it.
00:20:02
Irene's got to make some badass calculations and some bold
00:20:05
moves. I've got to see Irene.
00:20:08
Do something bold. Do something daring.
00:20:10
Whether she's speaking up to somebody taking charge of a
00:20:13
situation or secretly and like kind of under the covers
00:20:17
planting, some sort of evidence that will bear fruit.
00:20:21
I want to see Irene do some just nasty stuff, which is awesome
00:20:24
stuff. That's a great question.
00:20:26
What do you say? You know.
00:20:30
Scott's become a real like big, big player.
00:20:34
Last couple novels, and I definitely want to can see that
00:20:37
continue in my mind, sort of, like a continuation of what it's
00:20:41
got to be there. I don't want to see him, take a
00:20:43
backseat, become ancillary, you know, small little toy in the
00:20:48
toy box. I need Scott to be almost
00:20:52
one-to-one with Mitch going forward.
00:20:54
Like he's that important of a character.
00:20:56
Yeah. Beside feel like that's true.
00:20:58
And I want to see some more of these other Historical.
00:21:03
May trap, you know, Universe guys come back into the fold and
00:21:06
like, let's let's see more of you know, like, yeah, you know,
00:21:09
I wouldn't mind that. That's a good one.
00:21:10
I definitely want more Scott, Coleman can't disagree with
00:21:13
that. But yeah, if you, if Don can go
00:21:16
and Pull and pluck some character from the depths of
00:21:20
getting forgotten in the mid trap Saga and give them a reason
00:21:24
to be front and center. Yeah, that'd be really cool.
00:21:26
That'd be a lot of fun. I guess on that note how badly?
00:21:31
Because some people are predicting this.
00:21:34
How badly do you want to see? Don be the one to write the kill
00:21:38
shot sequel. I don't know.
00:21:40
Let's, let's see what his own version.
00:21:42
Ovilus II think I was gonna say, would it be his first novel?
00:21:45
Because some people are predicting that.
00:21:47
Really. I, I don't, I don't if they
00:21:50
didn't like Kyle do it. I don't think they'll let you
00:21:53
don't say, Don do it. No, I wouldn't.
00:21:55
Wouldn't that be easier? Because somebody argued this and
00:21:57
I thought it was really good. Wouldn't that be easier to have
00:22:00
him do that? That way?
00:22:02
He only has to basically recapture Vince's writing.
00:22:06
He doesn't have to try to blend parts of Vince.
00:22:09
In parts of Kyle and make it modern.
00:22:11
He can just say, nope, I'm going back where Vince left off.
00:22:15
He basically can do what Kyle did.
00:22:16
Right. Take where Vince left off.
00:22:18
Write the story, wouldn't he be able to do that more freely and
00:22:22
easily going back to kill sha? Take where Vince left off and
00:22:26
try to do what Kyle did with the Survivor.
00:22:28
That's what, what if Code? Red Mage dies shit.
00:22:32
Dude. Stop it.
00:22:33
And stop it stopping, and going for going forward.
00:22:37
Stop it. All of Don's books are just the
00:22:40
books in between kill shot and transfer power.
00:22:44
Chris, you're canceled canceled. All right.
00:22:49
Hot take, I cancel you a unilateral.
00:22:52
I don't know. Cancel you.
00:22:54
I'm going to have Emily. Besler cancel you.
00:22:55
Okay. Every can't thanks.
00:22:59
Thanks the eye out. I think it's just going to be a
00:23:02
sequel to Dakota red and are not even a sql-like.
00:23:06
I think we're gonna see some sort of like ending and then
00:23:09
Donna can just pick up and do whatever he wants and you know
00:23:13
maybe sometime in the future or you know it may never get
00:23:18
answered and it's fine like it's I'd rather Leave it as it is
00:23:23
then you know, have some sort of half acid temperature, you know,
00:23:25
that unsatisfactory attempt just have a book there, you know?
00:23:31
So you'd basically rather end with Return of the Jedi instead
00:23:35
of having some prequels and sequels, is that what I'm
00:23:38
hearing? Well I mean I always like more
00:23:41
content with comes a Star Wars but somehow Palpatine returned.
00:23:46
We wouldn't ever got the Mandalorian if that wasn't the
00:23:48
case and I love that show. So If you can have one
00:23:52
character, let's say somebody gives Don Bentley.
00:23:56
A fifth series to inherit because he's already doing 18
00:23:59
million other things and they go take one character from the trap
00:24:02
and give them a spin-off series. Who'd, you wanted to be
00:24:05
obviously Scott, you've already said that spin-off series well,
00:24:12
since he's already doing the Jack Ryan, Jack Ryan jr.
00:24:15
Stuff. Maybe we Tommy getting drafted
00:24:17
into the the state department, Tommy cash CIA and he becomes
00:24:23
analyst / Handler case, officer whose Diplomat?
00:24:28
I don't know what they call them anymore.
00:24:29
I don't know what they call him anymore, but yeah.
00:24:32
Well, you know, magic, Yong, Yong Aurora Nash, both of them
00:24:36
big roommates Vignesh. Their rooming together.
00:24:38
Both of them go into the Foreign Service /.
00:24:41
Gia. It's a good thing.
00:24:44
We weren't hard to write this series but now I like you.
00:24:49
Well guys if you have any other theories because you know we
00:24:52
haven't read all the Dom Bentley books.
00:24:54
We definitely look forward to covering them here on the
00:24:56
podcast. And by the way, sign up for no
00:24:58
limits, the Thriller podcast, our third podcast feed, we're
00:25:03
going to be covering those books over there.
00:25:05
But if you have other ideas connections of how you think Don
00:25:08
Style and what he's going to bring, To the series, what you
00:25:13
expect? Not necessarily predictions, but
00:25:15
just general thematic. Stylistic and even character
00:25:19
building connections, that can be brought into the series.
00:25:23
Hit us up, we definitely want to hear from you.
00:25:25
You're the experts not us and we would definitely explore that
00:25:29
later on the Pod down the road but for now we're going to leave
00:25:33
you with a short clip from our without sanction review.
00:25:37
Again, we have a full episode over an hour of us discussing,
00:25:40
right? Ranking and rating this book on
00:25:43
No Limits, the Thriller podcast. I absolutely recommend you get
00:25:47
to the very end of that episode, the last couple of minutes,
00:25:51
Chris and I like to when we review a book give our winners
00:25:54
of the book and we both chose Don Bentley as our winner
00:25:58
because that is a kick-ass debut book.
00:26:01
And I read a quote, an extremely powerful moving.
00:26:05
Quote written in first person from Matt Drake, the main
00:26:08
character's perspective and it just shows Donna.
00:26:11
Has the skill the talent, the he Nails.
00:26:15
This one passage, it's just a powerful emotional.
00:26:18
Passage towards the end of the book, I had to read it on air,
00:26:21
so definitely want you to hear that.
00:26:23
Shout out at the end of the without sanction episode over at
00:26:26
No Limits. The Thriller podcast, but here's
00:26:28
a brief preview for you now. 100% with you.
00:26:40
I can't agree more. I don't think I was ever
00:26:42
ambivalent, I wasn't worried in any way, but in the back of my
00:26:46
mind shitty, I was like, I don't know who this is.
00:26:48
I-i've heard all the news, I've read the BIOS, I've heard
00:26:50
interviews, but I've not read his written work yet.
00:26:53
So this was a big opportunity for me to kind of come into it.
00:26:57
Actually, I had two mindsets. One was I want to let this book
00:27:01
stand on its own and read it as it is.
00:27:03
I want to look for these connections.
00:27:05
But another thing is it's it's rather simple and I say that in
00:27:10
a good way because I feel like Kyle he swung for the fences as
00:27:15
we've said, many times and he let his imagination run wild.
00:27:19
And man, that was just a whole lot of fun.
00:27:22
Like everything we did with Mitch going to these You know,
00:27:29
countries, you've never understood before dealing with
00:27:31
these threats. He's never dealt with before and
00:27:35
we just had him in new situations.
00:27:37
I feel like Don really streamlined this book.
00:27:40
It was a very almost straightforward story.
00:27:43
It didn't get overly complex. You didn't lose the reader in
00:27:49
Mindless rabbit holes and sidequest it kept to the story.
00:27:53
It had a tight plot really tight pacing, great action, sequence,
00:27:58
pacing, and so, Not not that I don't like what Kyle did in the
00:28:01
series because we're over the moon about it but I do think
00:28:04
there's a chance for Simplicity here to tell a tight concise.
00:28:08
Mitch rap story in the Mitre, Pune verse that doesn't
00:28:11
necessarily go into this wild imagination and I really thought
00:28:15
Dawn's book here was very grounded.
00:28:16
It's essentially one Ranger dealing with his personal demons
00:28:20
but also feeling the pressure to save another fellow Ranger
00:28:24
because no one will be left behind.
00:28:25
And that that's a very simple story.
00:28:29
At the way he fleshed it out was just knock out.
00:28:32
And so I just, I like the tight simplistic storytelling and I
00:28:37
say simplistic in a very good way Yeah, no.
00:28:40
And I think, you know this book was pretty well received, it's
00:28:43
got a 4.2 on Goodreads 4.4 on Amazon, you know, on the cover
00:28:50
we get a quote from Lee Child sensationally good, you know,
00:28:55
like you said, I think it's very tight.
00:28:56
It's it tells an interest, you know, we I and I guess I
00:29:01
shouldn't claim to be an expert. You know, I've you're more of an
00:29:04
expert in this genre than me, but we haven't had many that
00:29:08
have You know, Dia is the focus. So that's that's something new
00:29:13
to me in Army Ranger. Often times we've dealt a lot
00:29:16
with Navy SEALS or CIA operatives this.
00:29:21
You can tell that, you know, Don hailing from the Army has great
00:29:26
respect for, you know, these these players these operatives I
00:29:32
think during the once we got into Syria and we're getting
00:29:36
into mission mission, preparation Mission action
00:29:39
scenes. Yes.
00:29:40
It was it was freaking Hellman. That's that's where it took off.
00:29:43
It was it was so crisp to so clean.
00:29:47
I'm reading it and I wanted to text you but I didn't want to
00:29:51
like save it for the Pod to just like this is frickin awesome.
00:29:55
You know, that the whole Heigh-Ho Heigh-Ho jump sequence
00:29:58
and going into that description and the pre-flight check.
00:30:02
I've never been more intrigued or like, you know, enthused
00:30:08
about everything that was going on.
00:30:09
Yeah. My new shh, you know, that was
00:30:12
exactly, you know, I cared about I appreciate it and it was that
00:30:17
that attention to detail that really, really sung, that Don
00:30:20
done, put here, I'll be honest, I don't think the book really
00:30:24
started for me until that, hey, ho jump and him embedded in
00:30:28
Syria. The minute that happened to me,
00:30:32
it became a different book and I became a different reader I
00:30:35
unfortunately, and I'll admit to the people.
00:30:37
I started the book in the first third or so.
00:30:41
I would say down on it but I was, I was okay.
00:30:43
I see what he's doing with the PTSD.
00:30:45
I kind of like that angle. Not sure.
00:30:47
I'm down with the writing just yet.
00:30:49
I liked what he was doing in the white house.
00:30:51
We're going to talk about some of the characters and the chief
00:30:54
of staff. Peter Redmond.
00:30:56
I'm like, yeah, I could see where you're going with.
00:30:58
This guy's conflicted interest and his need to get his
00:31:02
presidential candidate elected. That's going to Trump,
00:31:04
everything. And I was even questioning the
00:31:07
whole first person perspective, I think that's an elephant in
00:31:10
the room. We got to talk about at first.
00:31:13
I wasn't sure how I felt jumping back from Matt Drake were in his
00:31:18
shoes in his mind. First person story telling, then
00:31:21
we go to the White House and its third person.
00:31:24
But with a bias we're clearly in like Peter shoes, it's not first
00:31:29
person, but we're being led to believe that Beverly the, the
00:31:32
DCI, the CIA director. She's like she's the bad actor.
00:31:37
And I don't know if I can, truly believe everything being said
00:31:40
about. At her, because it's coming from
00:31:41
this Peter character. We hope you enjoyed that
00:31:51
preview. As Mike said go check it out on
00:31:54
are no limits. The Thriller podcast and as
00:31:58
always we need to thank our patrons Are Special Operations
00:32:01
area are special agents Darryl, Kevin George Matt Dawn.
00:32:04
Dennis Peggy, Catherine, Ray Bridget, Jeff, and Mark Please
00:32:08
Subscribe rate and review asan have a podcast.
00:32:10
You can find us online at the other pod.com or on Twitter and
00:32:14
inside Thriller podcast is also Always, just let Mitch be Mitch.
00:32:30
Just a disclaimer. This podcast is not affiliated
00:32:32
with Vince Flynn. Kyle Mills or Simon & Schuster.
00:32:35
Let's thank you to them for bringing us the wonderful world
00:32:37
of rap. And the music.
00:32:40
Soundtrack is Guerrilla tactics by Rafael Crux.