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00:00:21
So who is your favorite Athena player?
00:00:25
You know, as good as a job as Brad did writing them as Unique
00:00:29
Individuals and as good as the narrator did a story telling
00:00:34
them as individuals. I still don't know, one from the
00:00:38
other, okay? So the only one I can really
00:00:42
point to is Gretchen but who's the one, who was on the
00:00:46
motorcycle? Who is Jesus?
00:00:49
Somebody down, that was really hard.
00:00:50
That was Julie, Erickson, Julie Erickson.
00:00:53
That was pretty badass. She's the tall, she's the tall
00:00:56
one. I think it's all one who told
00:00:58
her Gates people, Megan Rose is the really tall one because that
00:01:02
it was pretty funny. It was like that old board.
00:01:05
Check guy like the the old army guy who's like 50 years old,
00:01:09
which is constantly flirting with her and he called her an
00:01:11
Amazon and Yeah, that was, that was pretty for those scenes are
00:01:16
pretty funny and she was just giving it right back back to
00:01:19
him. So that's right.
00:01:20
And then the ending she liked actually goes after a guy in a
00:01:24
bar and they're all or like I think, Rob Hutton the boss is
00:01:28
like, oh I got a note from so I check that you know, he's
00:01:31
looking for you now that the office over and they're all like
00:01:33
fuck off, bro. Who's your favorite?
00:01:37
Because I mean I would say the one on the motorcycle because
00:01:39
that seems pretty cool where she was chasing cars, blowing up
00:01:42
cars and all this stuff. Yeah, probably Gretchen I'd have
00:01:46
to go with question. I think right?
00:01:48
You know that southern I like the especially when you listen
00:01:51
to it on audiobook you do you get she actually like sort of
00:01:55
tweaks the accents because what Megan was a Daughter of a
00:02:01
Chicago cop. Right?
00:02:03
Right, right. Right.
00:02:04
And Alex, Cooper is like the shy one?
00:02:08
Yeah. You think between Julie and
00:02:09
Alex? The only thing I remember about
00:02:11
Julie is that she was the one who's placed always on like
00:02:13
driving and she was the one, the logistics leader, and maybe
00:02:18
didn't necessarily want to do that every time, but I thought
00:02:21
Grace Gretchen was a good leader, you know, definitely
00:02:24
stood up for her team and For me to go with her.
00:02:29
Yeah, I hear you like the jealousy between her and Riley.
00:02:34
Brad's are not Brad. Scott's new love interest and I
00:02:40
like how Brad writes it, you know, you kind of like I don't
00:02:45
know if you were like if he was writing in a little bit of
00:02:48
sexual tension between the two of them in the last novel.
00:02:53
But then in this novel it's kind of like boom.
00:02:55
All gone away he wants. It's nothing to do with Gretchen
00:02:57
right now. He's all focused on this variety
00:03:02
character and wants nothing to do with Gretchen.
00:03:06
Yeah, like I was saying, I think that love triangle, I would like
00:03:09
to see it. Be worked out on page, a little
00:03:12
more. I think it was again hinted at.
00:03:14
So yeah, I don't feel like we're in a post.
00:03:18
Well, Tracy, we should bring up Tracy.
00:03:20
I was going to say we're in a post.
00:03:21
Tracy, you know period, he's we gotta get Scott's next, love it.
00:03:26
But Traci still, but Traci still around.
00:03:31
I love when she's called in to go to Paraguay as the EOD Tech
00:03:36
and man she's able to classify this EMP and realize what it is,
00:03:42
break it down and explain to the team but she's totally confused
00:03:45
by the the limbs in the concrete and and eventually you know she
00:03:51
wants in, she wants into the game and they need her kind of
00:03:54
there was that other guy who was the other guy on the ground in
00:03:57
Paraguay and they're going to be like working together over
00:04:00
there. He was a doctor who was actually
00:04:02
a spy for us down trying to get into the, you know, the sort of
00:04:07
no-man's-land in Paraguay Yeah, I read that as I was like oh
00:04:12
that's cool crazies back in the action.
00:04:14
Interesting that we just, you know, we kind of got like a
00:04:16
sending-off page in the last novel to me.
00:04:19
This this red is if Brad, like the character too much to leave
00:04:24
her like that and wanted to. Because I think at the very end,
00:04:26
he mentions that the two of them, you know, maybe had
00:04:29
something in are going to continue working together, you
00:04:32
know, maybe a love interest budding.
00:04:36
So, since to like, leave her and on better terms, and just having
00:04:40
Scott be the one to say, I can't be with, you know, we we
00:04:44
mutually agreed to part ways, you know?
00:04:46
Because he wants a family and she can't give it to him.
00:04:49
So, Yeah. And that's rehashed again, but I
00:04:52
think it another cool thing it's doing.
00:04:55
It's just expanding the universe, right?
00:04:56
Like why not give us a glimpse of someone that I'm not going to
00:05:01
say tossed away? And I'm not using that lightly
00:05:04
but like is out of Scott's life and he's moved on from, we're
00:05:08
going to know how his Universe continues.
00:05:11
Well, her life does to write her career does to with what she's
00:05:15
facing and they're in the same universe.
00:05:17
And so, yeah, there. Both going to at some point.
00:05:21
Either cross paths directly or be working on some op that
00:05:25
they're familiar. They have some familiarity that
00:05:28
the other one is also involved. And so I think it's just kind of
00:05:31
cool that we know. She's out there doing her job
00:05:33
and if we never see her again, we can just assume she's doing
00:05:37
her job because she's really good at it and she, she has her
00:05:40
own things. I think it kind of validates her
00:05:43
as a character because we kind of had this heartbroken story
00:05:48
where she can't provide I'd Scott what he wants and she
00:05:52
mutually agrees that it's best for the both of them, to go
00:05:55
their own ways. They have different goals in
00:05:56
life and it's really cool to know.
00:05:58
She's still out there doing her thing.
00:06:00
Yeah. And I like when you know, like
00:06:02
when he brought back in Claudia and cloudy is husband, or fiance
00:06:06
whatever it was, you know, those kind of things are fun, you
00:06:08
know, like you said, just to give us a sense that this is a
00:06:11
universe. And yep.
00:06:14
I almost crave more of these types novels like yeah, I like
00:06:17
the our yearly Edition. But I like, you know, there's a
00:06:21
reason I like term limits. There's a reason that you know,
00:06:23
we like American Assassin and and killing the kill shot is one
00:06:28
of my favorite novels. And I mean, yeah, I guess it's
00:06:30
all in the continuation, but the way it came to us was later on.
00:06:35
And obviously I want, I would love to see a Scott and Britain,
00:06:41
Mitch team up, you know, like do they exist in the same because I
00:06:45
guess we would never be able to see us Scott and James Reese,
00:06:50
because in James Reese's World, Scott is a book character,
00:06:53
right? So now, yeah, that's true.
00:06:57
That's true. No, I I like I agree with you.
00:07:02
These books are fun and the fact that you can approach it.
00:07:05
Like I said before, with this lighter sense of the he knows no
00:07:10
weight of this book has expectations.
00:07:13
You know, when you're waiting a whole year for the next in the
00:07:16
series serialized storytelling, you put a lot of expectations on
00:07:21
that book in that author. And I actually sometimes just
00:07:24
picking up a book saying, hey, I know, it's a spin-off or, I know
00:07:27
it's a one-off or, I know it's it's something else in another
00:07:30
corner of the universe. It doesn't have the weight of
00:07:33
needing to satisfy, you know, certain story plot lines that
00:07:37
have been going on, two, three, four, or even 15 books.
00:07:40
You know, we can kind of step away from that and just tell a
00:07:43
kick-ass story and you drop the Athena ladies right into that
00:07:47
and I'm here for it really worked out for me.
00:07:50
Yep. Yep.
00:07:52
Are there any other are there any other storylines or
00:07:54
characters or do you want to try to wrap up our thoughts and put
00:07:58
it together using the Scorecard. What do ya know?
00:08:00
I think we hit on all the points.
00:08:03
So before we give our scores, we didn't even kick things off.
00:08:06
Chris, how we usually, I know, we kind of just went right in
00:08:09
here. I'm like, yeah.
00:08:11
So, I mean, if we're going to give our scores, let's also give
00:08:13
the the Goodreads scores because we've been referencing them.
00:08:16
I know you do your research here.
00:08:18
What were the actual Goodreads and Amazon scores for this one?
00:08:21
Yeah. And like you said, you know, we
00:08:23
rarely see a book that's below for on Goodreads but this one
00:08:26
had a 3 point 8 7 & A 4 Point one, which is low for Amazon
00:08:30
Amazon tends to be higher for most things, so I don't agree
00:08:35
with either. This course, you know, take them
00:08:36
with a grain of salt, read this novel.
00:08:38
I don't know, I would love, I would love to get a female
00:08:40
perspective on this novel what they think, you know, any any of
00:08:43
our, you know, Dawn Sherry Peggy Bridget, you know, like let us
00:08:51
know our patrons in any other female listeners.
00:08:55
We have, you know, hit us up on Twitter, Instagram, let us know
00:08:57
what you think because We're just two dudes reading about,
00:09:02
you know. Yeah, it's an interesting
00:09:05
topics. I'll leave it at that and so I
00:09:09
see both sides to right, I can see someone being so happy,
00:09:12
they're female operators in a book and then I could see
00:09:14
somebody saying, well, why is it written by Brad or man?
00:09:17
And then someone else saying, well, why is their biggest draw
00:09:21
the sex appeal on every op that they do?
00:09:22
And I mean I could see that side too.
00:09:25
I don't think it's reducing them in anyway, because they're still
00:09:27
amazing. Ders.
00:09:29
But I think whatever somebody else's perspective is on it.
00:09:33
I'd be willing to accept because yeah, I can go both ways on
00:09:36
that. Yeah, but I could tell you my
00:09:39
thoughts are clearly summed up in this limerick.
00:09:44
There once was a project named Athena chasing down leads of a
00:09:50
grand, schema Alex and Megan Julian Gretchen damn.
00:09:55
They make one bed estima Tina schema team others.
00:10:01
No rhymes for Athena. It was, I'll give you an a for
00:10:06
effort stretch. Alrighty, yeah.
00:10:08
I get some stretch points. There are, you had to stretch it
00:10:11
out? All right.
00:10:14
So that's what the people thought of this book.
00:10:16
What did you think about the action in the plot?
00:10:19
You know, that the action was pretty good for me.
00:10:22
I'm gonna go 8.5 on the higher end.
00:10:28
Yeah, you know, one of the things we've done is we didn't
00:10:30
talk about was the opening scene, you know, this prologue
00:10:34
in France, this Jacqueline Marceau character battling to
00:10:37
playing, you know, we're dropped him immediately into the scene.
00:10:40
It was pretty exciting. Get know, that was got a hand
00:10:45
hand hand, fight on this plane, with this prisoner parachuting
00:10:49
with The briefcase I mean then we go right into the Bianchi op
00:10:53
which told you I really liked in Venice and we've even talked
00:10:56
about half of these other action sequences.
00:10:58
There's just almost too many. There's another parachuting one
00:11:02
which really reminded me of transfer of power getting asked
00:11:06
for the White House. Yeah, they nearly overshoot The
00:11:09
Landing. I think it was Julie maybe who
00:11:11
actually flows. It was a roof area, and but she
00:11:13
gets caught right by like something.
00:11:16
Which is kind of again like transfer power, a gust of wind
00:11:19
or the directions change so they overestimate they almost go off
00:11:22
the side of the roof. Like yeah.
00:11:24
And then the the elevators, there's somebody on the comms
00:11:29
who is sequencing the elevators and unlocking doors for them to
00:11:32
move through this building, just a whole lot of really cool
00:11:36
action sequences so I'm giving it that 90, it really worked out
00:11:40
for me. Okay.
00:11:43
What about the blocks? Overall, I liked it.
00:11:50
Some of the connections like the stuff at the Denver Airport and
00:11:52
the listening maybe could have been tied in a bit more
00:11:56
authentically. Certain parts of the plot were
00:11:59
maybe more drawn out than others that didn't need to be as long.
00:12:04
And I think the big reason I'm going to go down here too.
00:12:09
TF2 A7 is almost too many cooks in the kitchen.
00:12:14
The plot I think would have been better served with fewer people,
00:12:18
maybe take out a few of those. This bad guy leads to that bad
00:12:22
guy, you know, Bronco coiiege leads to Thomas Anderson who
00:12:26
leads to and first off. It was Bianchi, you know, one
00:12:30
too many of those. I think just muddied the waters
00:12:32
a bit so I'll give it a 7. Yeah, I'm kind of around the
00:12:36
same thing and it could have been a little tighter.
00:12:39
You we could have had, but I did like its brevity, you know, I
00:12:43
like the fact that it was a, you know, a shorter novel.
00:12:45
It didn't feel like it was missing anything, you know, I
00:12:48
didn't find that I needed to go off on another side quest.
00:12:50
Another mission with the team. I felt that it was it was
00:12:55
tightened in that sense but just you know like you said the a lot
00:12:59
that was hard to keep straight these you know the bad guys and
00:13:02
I think that's also going to reflect in the bad guys.
00:13:04
For work given enough time to like develop with them.
00:13:08
Yeah and then obviously you know this is both by it's going to be
00:13:11
dinged in Vienna as well and doing it a little bit in plot
00:13:14
here. I think the combination of just
00:13:17
like the unbelievab ility some of the aspects of conspiracy
00:13:20
theories overthrown in you know just maybe like a 7.5 maybe
00:13:24
that's Evans too harsh but yeah 7 is a little bit harsh.
00:13:28
I think because of that though I'm going to make up a little
00:13:31
ground in buy-in because like I said, if Thought the book took
00:13:35
itself too seriously or I is the reader was so invested in taking
00:13:40
it seriously the buy-ins like one or two in terms of the
00:13:43
believability by and but the fact that I was along for the
00:13:48
ride it didn't matter if you were transporting body parts
00:13:52
through machine across continents that part to me did
00:13:55
not at all, take away from the story.
00:13:57
So I'm not going to ding it for that on buy-in.
00:14:00
And I'm actually going to give it some credit here with a 4 out
00:14:03
of 5. And here's a big Reason why the
00:14:06
buying with the action is huge, the buy-in with the ladies and
00:14:11
their dialogue and operating and their relationship with their
00:14:13
Handler. Rob is awesome.
00:14:16
Already talked about, I kind of like the Spy versus spy versus
00:14:19
spy. I liked who's handling who, and
00:14:21
they meet in the cabin. I thought was a lot of fun.
00:14:25
And so I'm bought in as a story that I'm just reading for
00:14:29
pleasure and the last thing I was bought in to we didn't bring
00:14:32
up the history. Specs when we were getting the
00:14:36
information dump about operation overcast.
00:14:40
It was like a second wave of Operation.
00:14:43
Paperclip, Operation Paperclip. Super cool.
00:14:46
How we kind of co-opted Nazi scientists and Engineers for our
00:14:50
aims after the war and got them out of Nuremberg trials.
00:14:55
And they're the ones who basically, you know, launched
00:14:56
our space program and so many other scientific Feats.
00:15:01
We were also doing that with the actual physical Tech.
00:15:03
You know the actual Experiments and Technology.
00:15:06
They were building in these bunkers.
00:15:07
We were repurposing and requisitioning them.
00:15:10
Not just the people and their talents, which is heavily
00:15:13
documented, but Brad makes up this idea that we actually were
00:15:16
taking their Tech, their experiments, their physical
00:15:18
property, like the Angela tour and trying to steal that.
00:15:22
I just thought was a cool historical connection.
00:15:24
That works a bit better than some of Brad's other historical
00:15:27
connections from Thomas Jefferson and the clocks or you
00:15:32
know, Hannibal Lecter and the Muslim killing disease.
00:15:34
Or whatever it was right. You know I thought this one
00:15:37
worked a little better. So four out of five on buying
00:15:39
for that, regardless of all the crazy, just stuff that was so
00:15:44
Fantastical. I'm okay with it.
00:15:46
Yeah, I could occur everything about you and I'm, I gave an
00:15:51
extra half point of blot, but I'll go and a half Point low,
00:15:53
and by. And so, the Nets out through the
00:15:54
same score, and I give it a 3.5. No command.
00:15:58
You, you got the halfs today? I think the Athena project is
00:16:01
it's a half book. Yeah, yeah.
00:16:03
So It could go higher could go lower.
00:16:06
So yeah, believability about just some of the stuff in the
00:16:10
book, obviously puts it low. But in the enjoyment of being,
00:16:15
you know, buying is not just do I buy that this could take place
00:16:19
because if you, if we truly went off that for everything, it
00:16:23
would be very low in most of these things, you know?
00:16:26
But I do believe I bought into the idea of who, what the Athena
00:16:31
team is. Their establishment as real
00:16:34
players. Yeah, no.
00:16:37
I like I said, I enjoyed this novel.
00:16:39
So what about the bad guys? Mike.
00:16:43
Yeah. Some of them were really good.
00:16:47
Very interesting. You put this many cooks in the
00:16:51
kitchen. You're like, who is the real bad
00:16:53
guy? And then you randomly throw
00:16:56
someone named Thomas Sanders in there?
00:16:58
I know it's like 50 pages. He I was like who the fuck is
00:17:02
this Thomas Sanders guy? Sorry.
00:17:04
Who the heck? Like stop all these games?
00:17:06
It's like Bianchi Bronco coiiege Armando Brazilian.
00:17:13
Oh and by the way Thomas Sanders, it's like Colonel
00:17:16
Sanders is in this book. Like a mad that mad scientist
00:17:24
from Australia was kind of crazy.
00:17:25
Easy to the Australian side is, oh, he's the one who sends the
00:17:29
prostitute. Yeah, in, right.
00:17:31
He's like it were. There were holes.
00:17:33
There were holes. He was bananas.
00:17:37
That guy, I guess it was like a Brazilian was running him and
00:17:40
keeping him in the game. Even though he knew he was kind
00:17:42
of crazy. He thought I could control him,
00:17:44
right? Yeah.
00:17:46
I guess some of them were more memorable than I had first
00:17:49
thought. Yeah.
00:17:50
And the idea of the amalgam which is going to I think I've
00:17:54
seen you in the next novel. Is very appealing to me this
00:17:57
idea that there's this Consortium, you know, like
00:17:59
Spectre in James Bond of villains, this cabal that are
00:18:04
secretly running things, you know, that's what he'll have.
00:18:07
Two people on Twitter think is really happening right now.
00:18:09
So, Illuminati Illuminati, I wrote, I like that kind of
00:18:15
stuff. I like, I've read other novels
00:18:17
that are, like, with the that as the main antagonist, right?
00:18:22
So I'll dig it a little bit for The amount of them and not not
00:18:26
giving us like, even though, I think I'll brush in something
00:18:29
like the biggest big bed in this novel.
00:18:31
I didn't fully understand bad. I didn't fully understand his
00:18:35
True motivations, we didn't get much about who he is.
00:18:38
Other than the fact that he wants to rule the world, right?
00:18:41
So yeah, go like 43.5 338. Right in the middle, I think a
00:18:46
for is being to genuine generous.
00:18:50
A3 is probably not deserved, I think we, yeah, you can have
00:18:54
halves on everything here. Well yeah, probably next one.
00:18:56
Good guys, you better not have a half unless you're going five
00:19:00
and a half because the good guys has to be a 5.
00:19:04
Like I said, from the ladies from Puttin to Scott, coming in
00:19:07
to Tracy getting back like hands down. 5 out of 5 in the good
00:19:10
guys, but one other bad guys seen when a Brazilian is talking
00:19:16
to that Russian gangster. That was like a really cool
00:19:21
dialogue. It was that that was a cool
00:19:23
scene and then he blows them up at the end that was like
00:19:27
edge-of-your-seat. I thought it was like something
00:19:29
out of a Goodfellas. Just the Way It Was Written in
00:19:32
these two kind of Crime Boss Titans.
00:19:36
Are going back and forth with each other, throwing their
00:19:38
weight around yet. Neither one budges.
00:19:42
And they actually walk away from each other.
00:19:45
I'm like, whoa, they couldn't strike a deal.
00:19:47
Like, what does this mean like to gang?
00:19:48
You know, Warlords or gang Lords?
00:19:50
Walking away from each other saying we didn't get a deal.
00:19:53
Like, you know, the storm is coming.
00:19:54
You know, those two groups are going to clash yet.
00:19:57
Oh breastfeed and gets the upper hand, just blow in the dude up
00:20:00
on the Spot. It was kind of cool.
00:20:03
Yeah, like this idea of like, all right, I'm obviously has to
00:20:07
play this like fine line of you can't just kill this Russian KGB
00:20:11
guy, Because then it will or like that, the mafia guy because
00:20:14
he's gonna have the mafia come on.
00:20:15
And so how can I do it? Where makes it look like, I'm
00:20:19
not the bad guy instead, the ukrainians take the fall and
00:20:21
then like I'll kill the entire Ukrainian so they can't talk.
00:20:25
Yeah, even though it was like very quick.
00:20:28
Pretty well thought out and interesting and that's how
00:20:31
Athena gets him, you know, they tell the guy you know we know
00:20:35
who did this, it's a breastfeeding and or it's this
00:20:38
group you know, this other gang rival gang and we've got them
00:20:41
cornered when secretly. They want to corner a Brazilian
00:20:44
but they get the Mafia the rival gang thinking.
00:20:47
They blew up. This guy's uncle, they get them
00:20:49
to do the Dirty Work. Right?
00:20:51
Right, right. So Athena takes advantage of
00:20:53
that kind of beef internal beef. Setting, like I said, we
00:20:58
traveled heavy. What do you think about the
00:21:00
setting when the dust settles? And it said, and done, I could
00:21:06
go 33.5 like sort of writing right in the middle.
00:21:09
We need a kind of like we said before.
00:21:12
We didn't get enough, we got a lot but we're just like little
00:21:18
bits and tasting everything. Yeah, you know, I like the
00:21:21
Venice stuff. I like the it was a little bit
00:21:23
of a description about the castle in the Germany and what
00:21:27
what the Nazis were doing a little bit about, you know, what
00:21:31
was happening in Croatia. And obviously the Denver
00:21:34
Airport, I don't know like we got like little things but just
00:21:38
it wasn't like quintessential brat setting.
00:21:41
I think what we were getting back to like what we started out
00:21:43
with like lions and, you know, stuff like that.
00:21:45
And then I felt like we were really getting back into it and
00:21:47
the last two novels this was just you know, having places to
00:21:53
have places. Yeah.
00:21:56
Yeah, I hear you there. I think one that I'll add
00:22:00
though, is I really liked in the woods in the cabin with Vicki
00:22:04
right in hand and Denver, her spy stuff.
00:22:06
Yeah. They go on runs.
00:22:08
They'd mean the cabin. So I think that's setting was
00:22:10
good again, we just want to too many places across Southeastern
00:22:13
Europe where I didn't have the flavor of any of them they were
00:22:17
one-dimensional. So yeah, Venice was great, but
00:22:20
everything else, I gotta go with three.
00:22:24
Chris, is that time everybody's favorite segment?
00:22:28
Judge a cover by the book. How you feeling about these?
00:22:34
All right, so we got some ones, I have some female faces on
00:22:38
them. Okay, sure.
00:22:42
So we got a female with a, that's a gun.
00:22:46
I didn't I'd assume in to see that.
00:22:48
That, that's the barrel of a gun now.
00:22:50
I can see it. Yeah, I didn't know that at
00:22:52
first, it just looks like some weird dot on her chin.
00:22:55
Right. Right.
00:22:56
That's that's the barrel. So do you know where this is and
00:23:00
be? I don't.
00:23:04
Yeah I actually don't know where B is where C is, didn't see any
00:23:10
of them. Is that c is Venice, right?
00:23:12
That's them. The plot.
00:23:16
I had thought so is that is that saying marks?
00:23:19
It could be Croatia. Like, I know, like that kind of
00:23:21
connection could be built either Venice or equation.
00:23:25
I mean st. Mark's does have a big dome but
00:23:27
I've never seen it from that angle, right as possible.
00:23:32
It's a little more bulbous on the top.
00:23:35
I mean, that Dome actually looks more like st.
00:23:37
Peter's than it does st. Mark's sure we never go to Rome
00:23:42
and then the other Dome on the right.
00:23:43
The one with the more angles, I have no idea what that is,
00:23:47
because that's definitely not Rome.
00:23:52
I don't know. Yes, he the crew like we're so
00:23:58
where were they at in Croatia again, which Peninsula somewhere
00:24:02
on the history and mystery and Peninsula.
00:24:06
But I don't know what towns there is that words I grab is
00:24:11
yeah. Yeah, that that almost looks
00:24:17
like rum to be done to be honest with you.
00:24:19
That does look like st. Peters Which doesn't make any
00:24:23
sense. Yeah, it doesn't make any sense
00:24:25
and then we get and D is D Venice.
00:24:28
No. Yeah, I guess dkt Venice but
00:24:30
actually looks more like a river in Germany or Belgium or
00:24:34
something like that, you know, right?
00:24:35
It does. And then F, I don't even know.
00:24:38
I mean, d d and f, I'm willing to bdnf.
00:24:42
I'll just chalk up to one of the many Southeastern Europe.
00:24:45
Sure it has. It has like that flavor of has
00:24:48
the flavor at least. Hmm.
00:24:50
So what about I think that's an actual statue of Athena which is
00:24:54
pretty cool. That is cool.
00:24:55
That is cool. I don't know if it's like the
00:24:57
original Thena. There was an Athena in the
00:25:02
Acropolis in Athens. I know there was a real famous
00:25:05
statue there. I don't know if that's the one.
00:25:09
I mean maybe that'd be pretty cool.
00:25:11
But yeah, I mean smart move and covery to put the real Athena on
00:25:15
there. Bees pretty good man.
00:25:20
I'll be honest from not knowing where it is.
00:25:22
It at least has the feel of whether it's a castle in the
00:25:25
Czech Republic or another one of these buildings are just the
00:25:28
streets. Where they're chasing people in
00:25:30
Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, wherever it gives me that feel
00:25:35
and the artistic layout of it and I really, really like my
00:25:39
favorite part of it. How the Athena project is left
00:25:44
margin Justified and not Center Justified.
00:25:48
For some reason, the way the Arches are laid out by putting
00:25:53
the, the on the left side, having the margin line up on the
00:25:56
left, it just works perfectly. I feel like that cover, if you
00:26:00
centered, the text would be all out of whack and off balance
00:26:04
because the Arches are off-centered.
00:26:06
You don't have one arch in the middle and then equal parts,
00:26:09
Arch, left and right and I love the composition of B.
00:26:13
So, for me, I don't particularly like any of the covers the half
00:26:19
face, I get you wanted to show a woman on the cover which okay,
00:26:25
some element of that I understand but the half face
00:26:29
Isn't doing it. And particularly, in a, you put
00:26:32
the face and the gun and the text in, just terrible
00:26:36
positioning, right? Like, it literally has her eyes
00:26:39
says, Ho like, literally her eyes in the spot where eyes are
00:26:43
says, Ho from Thor. Like, that's just bananas lie or
00:26:49
her eyes are underneath the are in the a, I feel like for
00:26:53
something that looks super artsy, you know, you're going
00:26:55
for the shadow. This woman, The Smoking Gun.
00:26:58
It's supposed to be artsy yet, the composition is just
00:27:01
terrible. Yes, that is Athena.
00:27:04
She's looking this up. That's Athena on a statue in
00:27:07
Athens from 80. That is the Athens.
00:27:10
One not there is another one at the Acropolis, but a different.
00:27:14
This is a different one and that's a shield right that we're
00:27:17
seeing a spoon Shield usually holds.
00:27:20
Yeah, yay, you're saying, Like where they put the eyes like ya
00:27:28
know, the cover a which I guess that's the original cover.
00:27:32
Not not a big fan. Yeah, I like be the the
00:27:36
paperback and I don't mind see. You know, although Battersea if
00:27:40
that's Rome kind of dings it a little bit but I like the color
00:27:44
scheme like the a you know, the sort of a arc Arc artistic a for
00:27:50
theater project. So symbol I don't know, we
00:27:52
didn't love them. It's a 32 and a half.
00:27:58
Three, give it. Give it a bump up.
00:28:01
What are you going like? I think because I like be so
00:28:04
much and C is an atrocious is an atrocious because some in the
00:28:10
cover line that is cover see here where they just drop that
00:28:13
symbol. I think these are the new
00:28:15
paperback. Reprints the I think they're
00:28:17
still releasing some of these as we speak, you know, month by
00:28:19
month. They just put that symbol in the
00:28:22
middle and how often times, they don't make any sense.
00:28:25
I mean, this one's clearly in a, it's a triangle, maybe some
00:28:27
conspiracy stuff, it's an a for Athena.
00:28:30
So I think that definitely works for me.
00:28:32
And and because B is so awesome. I'm really having a good time
00:28:35
with be I'm going to go up to three and a half.
00:28:39
Yeah, not great, but they're going to steal that half point
00:28:42
for me. It if this is your first time
00:28:44
listening to a podcast welcome and if you don't know what we're
00:28:49
talking about, go check out our posts for each episode on our
00:28:53
socials, on our IR website, the other pod.com, and you will see
00:28:58
a through F and you can follow along.
00:29:01
So I should just put that plug in every time and if you listen
00:29:05
on Spotify, you should get the cover.
00:29:07
Heart. So I bright leave Spotify does
00:29:09
cover art but I don't think Apple podcast does so, yeah, I
00:29:14
know, I just it's a war thumbnail so unfortunately,
00:29:17
right. Exactly.
00:29:18
Exactly. Well free space time.
00:29:21
Let's round this up. What would you like the most?
00:29:24
What's the winner of the book? Look at what am I?
00:29:29
What do I go with? There's a couple things I could
00:29:31
go with. I really like that.
00:29:34
Bourchek guy. I thought he was pretty funny.
00:29:37
Really. I like the I like the Scott
00:29:40
cameos. Yeah, you know, I do what you
00:29:46
tell me yours? I have a couple.
00:29:47
I'm thinking, I mean, I said it, so I'm not going to go too much.
00:29:51
It's the whole Bianchi op. It's yeah, open the book right
00:29:54
off the gates, you know, from the prologue leading into that,
00:29:58
that scene, you're getting some really badass action right in
00:30:01
the beginning. I love everything about that
00:30:03
sequence, kind of a bummer. My favorite scene came.
00:30:06
So early on. I'm not saying the rest of the
00:30:08
book was a downer but like that set a really high bar.
00:30:12
Bar to try to live up to early on, which is a good thing in the
00:30:15
end because I love that scene. So everything about it.
00:30:20
I like the connections that the team had with each other.
00:30:23
I felt like you know even even if we didn't get too much, you
00:30:28
know as for you you didn't get too much like distinction about
00:30:31
who each individual was. You really got the sense that
00:30:33
this was a team. Yeah.
00:30:35
And how, you know, they had just came off the mission from the
00:30:39
last book and immediately are dumped into this and they go
00:30:42
Non-Stop and that, like bread is a good job of like sort of
00:30:46
Adding some realism into this, like, how like exhausted these
00:30:50
people would be. He's very good with that with
00:30:53
Scott as well. But you know, I just think the I
00:30:57
like the thing in a team like that.
00:30:59
That's my winter. Like it's it's an easy one to
00:31:02
take but I like the Malaya 100%. I agree.
00:31:07
Absolutely. I think that brings me to a
00:31:12
grand total of 40 out of 50 Min this book.
00:31:18
I enjoyed it had a good time. And I think that leaves you at
00:31:23
12 39 3039. Did I 39 39, 39, put that
00:31:32
Cornell education to work. Hey young, 40 out of 50.
00:31:37
There's one important question though.
00:31:38
I have to ask you before we could wrap this thing up.
00:31:42
Perhaps the most important question.
00:31:45
Do you like the ballet? I do like the ballet.
00:31:50
It's your favorite ballet, The Nutcracker.
00:31:52
We didn't even talk about that that scene where we talked about
00:31:55
the other torture scene, which was gruesome, it would with the
00:32:02
collarbone and then flipping them on like, down on like this
00:32:05
inversion makeshift inversion table was that Cooper is Cooper.
00:32:09
The one who interrogates people know, that's a rotes.
00:32:12
I was road. So that's where I was, right.
00:32:14
You said that? You said that men?
00:32:15
Yes, she was vicious in that and then I don't think they end up
00:32:18
doing it. Well, they do have.
00:32:19
The guy's ball testicle in a vice.
00:32:22
I don't think they end up doing too much damage.
00:32:24
They don't crack as nuns, but they do squeeze dude.
00:32:27
When she asks him, if he likes the ballet, I nearly lost.
00:32:31
My mind was one of the few times in a thriller where I'm laughing
00:32:35
out loud. I'm howling like that because I
00:32:38
was like, where are they going with this?
00:32:40
And then when she brought up Nutcracker I'm just like, oh,
00:32:42
how did I not see it coming? How did I not see it?
00:32:48
I'm just laughing with really put him into the prone position,
00:32:51
I don't know why I'm loving this and then he yes I covid Fair
00:32:55
there. And then he like he's wearing a
00:32:57
thong like and she like cuts off his tongue weight.
00:33:01
Like Brad writes that it's just like he had fun writing that
00:33:04
chapter, you can just tell you can just OU.
00:33:06
He was having so much fun. Oh man, do but then there's real
00:33:12
life stuff of like again this is the whole thing about the Athena
00:33:17
It's not just they're using their sexuality and whatever you
00:33:21
know in this flippant way it's like no there's research-based
00:33:24
practices that says a woman in a dominating position, getting a
00:33:28
man particularly in some cultures to take that position
00:33:32
is like ultimate weakness. You know, in that cultures eyes
00:33:35
and that person is going to let be left, totally vulnerable
00:33:39
stripped of their Humanity. It's so dehumanizing to them
00:33:42
that it gives you an advantage in an interrogation, right?
00:33:45
So like They're not just doing this to be Savages and it's
00:33:48
like, look, women are being cool and badass here.
00:33:50
It's like, no, they're actually doing this because they have a
00:33:54
tactical advantage in the field. That is expertly done and
00:33:58
researched and verified and now they're just executing the
00:34:01
mission, you know. So to me the fact that they're
00:34:03
using that kind of stuff is is brilliant, not just because it's
00:34:07
good storytelling but because in some sense it's good operations.
00:34:12
I agree. I can't believe you missed that
00:34:15
scene. Well, good thing.
00:34:16
You remembered it. I originally wanted to open up.
00:34:20
We just jumped right into the book, but when you said and how
00:34:22
you doing today? Mike, I was going to say, well
00:34:24
Chris, I'm doing. All right, but I got one
00:34:26
question for you. Do you like the ballet?
00:34:29
That was so funny. Or what's your favorite ballet?
00:34:32
Or what's your favorite ballet? Mine is the Nutcracker.
00:34:36
That is the only one I know of, so it by default is my favorite.
00:34:42
Trying to think I can end up Ides.
00:34:45
I can name some operas. Yeah, that's what I was going to
00:34:46
say that but I can't name any other ballets so yeah, that's
00:34:50
tells you how good your Romeo and Juliet one.
00:34:52
No. Tell you how cultured we are.
00:34:56
All right. Anything else you want to say
00:34:58
before we close up here? Now, I gotta go and crack open
00:35:03
this Jack car novel that we got in the mail only the head is
00:35:07
the, oh yeah. Next one will be covering here
00:35:11
on No Limits. Well, not this feed, but on the
00:35:14
No Limits second feed or third feet.
00:35:16
At this point, the Thriller podcast we are bringing back.
00:35:21
James Reese. We've got our Advance copies of
00:35:23
only the dead. So by the time you listen to
00:35:25
this, the book might be out to mid-may release date and within
00:35:30
a week or so. So of publication, we are going
00:35:33
to get our thoughts out to you two-part, episode on, what is
00:35:36
this book? Six in the James Reese Series?
00:35:39
Yeah, it is. That means I got to get reading.
00:35:45
It's a thick one. It is a thick one.
00:35:48
We may have to be doing this. Like, we used to only read half
00:35:50
the book and record and read the second half and record so bad,
00:35:55
maybe what happens. All right, we need to thank our
00:35:59
patrons are special operator, Sherry?
00:36:01
Our special agents Darryl Kevin George Matt.
00:36:04
Then Matt Dawn Pig ear a Bridget and Mark.
00:36:08
Please Subscribe rate and review to all three seasons of No
00:36:13
Limits using Apple podcast or Spotify.
00:36:16
You can find us online at throw their pod.com or on Twitter and
00:36:18
Instagram at the further podcast and as always let Athena be
00:36:24
Athena