Andrews and Wilson are back with the fourth book in the Sons of Valor series!
---
🔗 LISTEN & WATCH
Website: https://thrillerpod.com
YouTube: https://thrillerpod.com/youtube
Spotify: https://thrillerpod.com/spotify
Apple Podcasts: https://thrillerpod.com/apple
💬 JOIN OUR BOOK CLUB
Are you a die-hard thriller fan? You’re in excellent company. Join our Book Club on Patreon and dive into exclusive discussions, behind-the-scenes insights, and a 24/7 group chat of all things THRILLER!
👉 https://thrillerpod.com/bookclub
📱 FOLLOW US:
Instagram → https://thrillerpod.com/instagram
Twitter/X → https://thrillerpod.com/twitter
Facebook → https://thrillerpod.com/facebook
📚 ABOUT NO LIMITS:
• The Mitch Rapp Podcast: Deep dives into Vince Flynn & Kyle Mills' Rapp series.
• The Scot Harvath Podcast: Exploring Brad Thor's high-octane Harvath universe.
• The Thriller Podcast: Expanding to the entire thriller genre including Mark Greaney, Jack Carr and more!
---
KEYWORDS:
#NoLimitsPodcast #ThrillerPodcast #ThrillerPod #SpyThrillers
00:00:12
Hey guys, I'm. Chris, now Mike.
00:00:15
Welcome back to this week's No Limits the Thriller podcast.
00:00:19
What's new this week, Mike? Much just so excited we were
00:00:24
able to cover Recoil of Justice by Brad Elder, our patron.
00:00:30
And so if you want to become a patron for less than the price
00:00:32
of a novel a month, you too can support the podcast.
00:00:34
To be the reason we can make more podcasts.
00:00:37
Just head to thrillerpod.com. Click the Patreon tab to learn
00:00:40
more. But Chris, we're going to have
00:00:41
to start plugging that at the beginning of every episode
00:00:44
because we always jump right in and just want to talk about the
00:00:46
books. We got to give ourselves a
00:00:48
little credit here. We got a great group of patrons
00:00:50
behind this podcast. Yes we do.
00:00:53
Yes we do. It was great to talk to Brad and
00:00:55
read his book and you know the the group chat like it's
00:01:01
popping. Popping off.
00:01:02
Baby, it is popping. So if you want to be a part of a
00:01:06
a vibrant crowd who love thrillers just as much as you,
00:01:11
go to our website and subscribe. You'll have a fun time, I
00:01:13
guarantee it. One more plug, we're going to
00:01:16
have to start putting this one early in the episodes too.
00:01:18
Our YouTube channel, we hit 100 subscribers.
00:01:21
We're just trying to get that off the ground the last month or
00:01:23
so. But we are full video podcast
00:01:25
now. So for anybody still listening
00:01:27
to audio, come on over, subscribe on YouTube.
00:01:30
We also have a lot of shorts where we take a couple of clips
00:01:32
from each episode and publish them as YouTube Shorts.
00:01:35
So make sure you subscribe even if you listen on Spotify or
00:01:38
audio only. Please go ahead and subscribe on
00:01:41
YouTube. It just helps us out.
00:01:44
Yep, Yep. Awkward.
00:01:47
We're not used to doing this kind of business.
00:01:48
We just want to talk books. I know it feels takes us back to
00:01:53
like the the the beginning days when we were really trying to
00:01:56
like sell ourselves right off the bat, but.
00:01:59
It's not our wheelhouse. Our wheelhouse is just two Bros
00:02:02
talking books. Yeah, so that's what you're here
00:02:04
for. Well, you come for a damn good
00:02:06
conversation because we read this week Sons of Valor, Four
00:02:11
False Flag, Andrews and Wilson, and I have to say, I'm like,
00:02:19
it's good to be back in the Sons of Valley universe.
00:02:22
It is. It was not disappoint.
00:02:23
It it I would have to say it not my favorite.
00:02:27
Agreed. Very hard to come off of the
00:02:29
last trilogy for sure. It's like it's already a peg.
00:02:34
I'm going to not get a peg down because like, I don't know how
00:02:36
you're going to live up to that. But I will say it definitely
00:02:42
didn't disappoint. I'm I'm going to give it a a
00:02:45
solid rating. I think it's enjoyable.
00:02:48
You know, potentially kick starting like the next trilogy.
00:02:53
Whatever you want. Sure, super.
00:02:57
Emotional trilogy. Like if the last one was Kasim
00:03:00
Nadar, this one's definitely going to be Reza the Iranian.
00:03:02
Right and super emotional, man yeah, super emotional I.
00:03:07
Think so? That's the catch 22.
00:03:10
I unfortunately can't but help compare this to the first 3
00:03:14
which were lights out phenomenal storytelling from villains.
00:03:19
Honestly, I think I said this in our boys over a year ago now and
00:03:23
our Sons of Valor 3 review. I think Kasim Nadar might be one
00:03:27
of the best crafted characters in all thrillers.
00:03:33
It going on the journey of his rise and his fall was so
00:03:37
amazing, so in depth and that character like lives in in my
00:03:42
mind rent free. He was so good and sort of come
00:03:45
to this book after absolutely loving that series.
00:03:49
It's just disappointing that you know, I didn't like it as much
00:03:52
as the first 3, but it was still really good.
00:03:54
I feel like if you put a different title on this book,
00:03:57
change the characters names, but give them the same kind of
00:03:59
relationships, I'd like this book more just because they
00:04:03
won't compare it to their earlier works in the Sons of
00:04:06
Valor universe. So I feel like that's the
00:04:08
downside. But then the flip side is the
00:04:11
whole second-half of this book had me captivated.
00:04:16
Edge of my seat stuff. And really once they get to the
00:04:20
palace and start the investigation, I thought that
00:04:23
was phenomenal writing. So enjoyable.
00:04:26
And then it had a Vince Flynn style race to the finish line,
00:04:29
which was almost like the final half or third of the book was an
00:04:32
entire race to the finish line. So it's like all that was so
00:04:35
amazing. Yet the double edged sword is I
00:04:37
can't help but compare it to the last three, which were far and
00:04:40
away better, light years better. Yeah, I mean, it's that's one of
00:04:45
the problems with successor like, you know, you have to
00:04:47
always try to top yourself. But all right, let's put the
00:04:51
first trilogy aside aside. Yeah, we, we've, we've made our
00:04:54
comment. We this this one does not crack,
00:04:58
does not surpass the third. Definitely the third and 2nd we
00:05:05
can have a conversation about whether or not it passes Suns of
00:05:07
other one, but you know, that's semantics.
00:05:10
So clearly they're trying to set up a new story here.
00:05:15
We immediately start out with this interesting flashback,
00:05:19
right? We we come to realize that it's
00:05:21
a it's a flashback of these two young ideologues on a yacht that
00:05:29
are really going to drive the story going forward.
00:05:31
And, you know, to really think about this idea.
00:05:36
But you know, in the past they had the last novel, they had
00:05:39
these this one singular villain. And now we have sort of this
00:05:44
juxtaposition, one Saudi, one Irani, like, how are we going to
00:05:49
bring this together? One full of privilege, the other
00:05:53
one, like the complete. They're complete opposites,
00:05:55
right? In a sense, yeah.
00:05:57
And the one is trying to feed on the other.
00:06:00
And in the end, like it's crazy when Faisal just gets killed.
00:06:06
It's Reza's only way out one way.
00:06:08
Out. Yeah, of course.
00:06:09
That's it. And he he's playing the game.
00:06:12
And the crazy thing is it opens. You think they're really good
00:06:15
friends. And I went back and reread that
00:06:17
opening scene after knowing who Reza was and and what he ends up
00:06:20
doing. The clues are there from the
00:06:23
beginning. He was playing him like a fiddle
00:06:26
the whole time. And then as we meet his boss,
00:06:29
Golrani, or something like that in the Iranian Ministry of
00:06:32
Intelligence, we learned he was groomed for this since he was a
00:06:37
boy, really a teenager. When they sent him to college.
00:06:40
The idea was to befriend the Crown Prince and ingratiate
00:06:43
himself with the, with the the Royals, knowing the Crown Prince
00:06:46
Faisal was was going to be at Oxford.
00:06:48
And so they went to college together.
00:06:50
They became friends. All this partying and the yacht
00:06:52
scene was really just to get inside and plant the seed.
00:06:56
And it was equally fun. Even though Reza is that good at
00:06:59
what he's doing and believes in himself, watching him be
00:07:03
surprised when Faisal actually kills his brother and usurps the
00:07:06
throne, or at least usurps the Crown Prince duties, Reza was
00:07:12
shocked. He his mind was blown.
00:07:14
He almost got giddy in that scene.
00:07:15
He got like ahead of himself. And I just thought that was a
00:07:18
lot of fun to not only like the audience wasn't underestimating
00:07:23
the villain, but the villain himself was underestimating
00:07:25
himself, you know, like he didn't even think this thing
00:07:27
would happen. And when it does, it kind of
00:07:29
unleashes a new side of him that we didn't see.
00:07:32
And and he just keeps up the persona he and then he becomes
00:07:35
the ambassador. Like he has all that planned
00:07:38
out. Like everything is meticulously
00:07:40
planned. It's kind of like old Soviet
00:07:42
Union spy shit, you know, to have this deep a level of
00:07:45
penetration, Carla stuff. And, you know, here the Iranians
00:07:49
are doing it to the Saudis with the end game of turning them
00:07:52
against the West, getting, you know, the royal family out of
00:07:55
the West pocket and making all these deals with Israel and the
00:07:58
US. What a plot.
00:08:01
Yeah. And you know, initially when I,
00:08:05
when the plot is developing and, you know, there's going to be
00:08:08
this assassination of the Crown Prince and they set it up for
00:08:11
Israelis, I just assumed. And then we introduce Raza.
00:08:13
I just assumed that it was all his plan from the very
00:08:16
beginning. And then you throw in this
00:08:19
wrinkle, like you said, of how it's truly like a mind
00:08:25
manipulation game and things were blossoming on its own.
00:08:28
And I think that's it's so intriguing to see like these
00:08:31
these Co villains in a sense of like but the 1 was definitely
00:08:35
created from the other like a nurtured and and and brought
00:08:38
about. And in the end, like Riser
00:08:42
doesn't understand, doesn't know what Faisal would do.
00:08:46
Like he thinks he knows what he'll do.
00:08:48
He's imploring that he knows what he'll do, But he that's why
00:08:52
he has to kill him in the end, because he's he's totally right.
00:08:56
This guy was going to try to weasel his way out, blame it on
00:08:59
the the the non rich. The underling is, you know,
00:09:02
whatever the Iranian I like to me that that twist at the end,
00:09:08
while I didn't see you coming, is perfect.
00:09:11
Makes perfectly sense. And then then couple that with
00:09:14
that just happened. Rise is getting himself out of
00:09:17
the building, out of the palace, and he catches eyes with
00:09:20
Whitney. I thought that was an amazing
00:09:21
plant where I I wouldn't have been that interested in a round
00:09:26
two of all these characters, like Part 2 wouldn't have really
00:09:29
got me all that invested. But since he locked eyes with
00:09:33
Whitney and knows, you know, she's the American whore who
00:09:36
took me down and ruined my plans, you know, he's going to
00:09:38
have that mindset. He is so dead set on coming
00:09:41
after her and finding out who she is.
00:09:43
That's the fuel that keeps me invested to want a second book
00:09:47
with him as a villain. I, I don't know if the rest of
00:09:49
the book did enough to want me to kick you.
00:09:52
Stick around with him. Also, that other thing, I guess
00:09:54
we're supposed to be kind of hooked with his girlfriend.
00:09:58
She's a child of somebody powerful and she has emotions.
00:10:02
Herself, Yeah. Yeah, so she's also, and Reza is
00:10:07
assigned to her at one point. He's like, as much as I, I love
00:10:10
the sex and everything. You know, she's like a
00:10:12
supermodel, you know, she's so good.
00:10:16
Yeah, he's, he's like, I'm assigned to her, so I'm supposed
00:10:19
to be working on her. And at the same time, she wants
00:10:21
power. So, you know, she comes from a
00:10:23
family that seems to be in the, in the, the upper classes.
00:10:28
So I, I guess I'm kind of interested in that, but I'm more
00:10:31
interested in how he's going to cross paths with with Whitney.
00:10:35
Yeah, I liked how they set that up, you know, both in and around
00:10:38
the epilogue, having Whitney just like recall, you know, the
00:10:43
face of that guy and literally like, mark it her.
00:10:47
She even says like burns it into her face because that guy is
00:10:50
going to be important, you know, sort of setting this up that
00:10:53
they're going to clash in the future.
00:10:54
And then bringing it back to Reza and all he's on the
00:10:58
airplane, right? And all he can think, he has
00:11:00
this beautiful model of a airline attendant who will
00:11:05
probably do whatever for him. But the only thing you can think
00:11:07
about is Whitney's face. And so, like, just that
00:11:10
juxtaposition of the two, that's the only thing they can think
00:11:13
about is each other. I think that probably sets up
00:11:15
the next book. And I, you know, got me
00:11:16
intrigued. I was bought in for the next
00:11:18
one. Oh great.
00:11:20
They are still dangling out the Watson chunk relationship
00:11:24
though. There were a few steps forward.
00:11:26
It was like, you know, 2 steps forward, one step back.
00:11:29
But we didn't really go anywhere.
00:11:31
It was like. All right.
00:11:33
I felt like they've perfectly set it up at the end of the
00:11:35
last. End of last book, right?
00:11:37
They almost kissed, I think they were.
00:11:38
Bound to the London Eye, like, and now, all right, as summer
00:11:43
goes by and like, oh, we got to take a step back and then we got
00:11:46
to be super awkward about it. Let's go back to high school.
00:11:49
Thinking about each other on all the.
00:11:51
Constantly. Constantly.
00:11:53
But they were apart this entire book, pretty much.
00:11:55
They were. Yeah, except for the NASCAR
00:11:58
opening. OK, opening.
00:12:00
I was saving up. For.
00:12:04
When do we talk about Sawyer Saw?
00:12:06
Saw, man. Yeah.
00:12:09
Although I'll be honest, as soon as we had the NASCAR scene and
00:12:13
we were with the family. You know it was coming.
00:12:15
I said it. I said to myself, actually, I
00:12:16
put in my notes, let me see what I wrote down.
00:12:18
Literally reading chapter one or two, whatever it was of this
00:12:21
book, I wrote shit, please don't kill.
00:12:24
Saw this book and I wrote that right at the NASCAR scene when
00:12:28
they're all riding high. Happy family.
00:12:30
I'm like. I mean, yeah, it's like the
00:12:32
what's the quintessential, you know, you present it just to
00:12:35
have it. Check off gun.
00:12:37
Yeah, exactly. You're not going to put that
00:12:40
NASCAR scene there without something.
00:12:42
I mean, although the counter argument there is they could
00:12:45
just be referencing what happened in the past, you know,
00:12:47
showing saw moving on. He decided to stick with the
00:12:50
team. Because that was a very big
00:12:51
scene at the last album. Big.
00:12:53
Part of the last two books. Yeah.
00:12:55
And so I thought it might just be cementing that, you know,
00:12:58
Saw's going to be this Family Guy and this team's guy that
00:13:01
Chunk and Whitney could maybe look at and go, huh, maybe we
00:13:04
can have that, too. I bet his death makes it even
00:13:08
harder for Chunk and Whitney to think because they were talking
00:13:10
kids at one point, which was crazy.
00:13:13
He was like, do you see yourself as a mom?
00:13:14
He's like, oh, shit, did I just ask that?
00:13:16
And she's like, do you see yourself as a dad?
00:13:17
And they were both kind of playing coy about it.
00:13:20
I think Saw's death is going to make it even harder for them to
00:13:22
wrap their heads around. Is that life possible?
00:13:28
No, it's a, it's a super interesting dynamic.
00:13:30
I, I don't ultimately know what I, I mean, I guess I want them
00:13:33
to get together, but then it's like what happens after that,
00:13:37
you know? Yeah, I'm surprised they they're
00:13:40
touching it. Like I was wondering when we
00:13:43
first met Watts. You remember that scene when
00:13:45
she's in the I? Just thought that they were
00:13:47
going to completely avoid it. I thought they were just going
00:13:50
to be almost brother, sister, like, professional relationship,
00:13:53
utmost respect for each other. They're in the trenches together
00:13:57
and, you know, never even like pop into their mind.
00:14:00
And then in Book 2, it pops into John's mind.
00:14:03
That one, three. Yeah.
00:14:05
Yeah, the bar scene. And he's questioning, Yeah, he's
00:14:08
he's he's making comments about her.
00:14:09
And he's like, I guess if you're feeling it naturally, it's got
00:14:12
to come up. I was, I think Andrews and
00:14:13
Wilson had to make that choice. You're either never going to do
00:14:16
it or you're going to do it. And it's going to be a keystone
00:14:19
of the the series. You're all in or you're all out.
00:14:24
Yeah. So what's your, are you
00:14:26
supportive of it or? No, you'd rather not ship them?
00:14:29
You ship them, you ship them. I do too.
00:14:32
I want to say that. I want to say that.
00:14:34
I think even if just for the cutesiness of it all, you know,
00:14:37
like it's just, it's just meant to be.
00:14:41
Yeah. It's like a Disney.
00:14:42
It's a, it's like a Disney story in the sandbox, you know, it's
00:14:45
like. But I'm going to be pissed off
00:14:47
if like the next book is just like this.
00:14:49
Same shit. Yeah.
00:14:51
It's like the Bear. Oh my God.
00:14:53
You watch the Bear, The cooking show about the restaurant.
00:14:56
Have you gotten to the new season?
00:14:57
Season 4. No I'm not, I have not watched
00:15:00
season 4 yet. It's the same freaking thing,
00:15:06
same conversations. You watch a 30-40 minute episode
00:15:10
and they literally have the exact same talk they've been
00:15:14
having however many times. So anyway, I hope it doesn't
00:15:17
become that because this season the bears pissing me off, not
00:15:21
doing anything new, so I don't want this series to become that
00:15:24
with chunk and heels. Yeah, we talked about the big
00:15:28
heavy hitters, though. There's a lot of other
00:15:31
incredible side characters, two of which stand out to me as
00:15:35
making our free space. When we get to the store
00:15:37
scorecard, I might want to save the talk for them.
00:15:40
But I, I, I'm wondering, I think you're going to be on the same
00:15:42
page with who those 2 might be. Is one of them Israeli and one
00:15:46
of them has four legs? Oh damn, I guess there's 4 then.
00:15:52
All the Israelis were operating with and Thor definitely a
00:15:54
runners up, but now there's two others.
00:15:56
So Thor's not Israeli, he's an actual seal, and I think he's
00:16:00
being lined up to maybe replace Saw with the team.
00:16:03
Like like that's like Thor and his handler.
00:16:06
I forget his handler's name. I.
00:16:07
Forget the name. Yeah.
00:16:08
Yeah, they can use him on the team.
00:16:10
That would be good. I was surprised he made it in
00:16:12
that tunnel scene when? With the with the IED.
00:16:14
We sniffed out the IED. Jumping out of a plume of
00:16:18
explosive smoke, Yeah. Yeah, I was shocked at that.
00:16:20
I thought in those in the tunnels, a lot more was going to
00:16:22
go down, and then everyone kind of walked away unscathed.
00:16:25
Well, except for the terrorists. Yeah, when Watts blows up that
00:16:29
truck, that's pretty sweet. And she's the one who gives the
00:16:31
command. She is Mother is God, Mother is
00:16:35
God. It's a.
00:16:36
Great. What a great tribute she gave,
00:16:38
right? There all right, so let's
00:16:40
transition into the scorecard then, because since we're like
00:16:43
sort of dabbling into action suspense, I think where this
00:16:47
book excels is the action sequences.
00:16:52
It's, you know, the, the Halo insertion, it's the boat scene,
00:17:00
like juxtaposition, like the, you know, we're having both
00:17:03
teams come in on helicopters. They're trying to tackle both
00:17:08
boats. The.
00:17:09
Syrian choppers. That was pretty.
00:17:11
Great. And then couple that with, you
00:17:14
know, the extended mission. All right, well now we got to go
00:17:16
into these Gaza tunnels and and fight to the end like that was
00:17:22
amazing. Good stuff.
00:17:23
Yeah, I'm a little tired of the tunnel stuff only in the sense
00:17:28
of we have read so many books with shootouts at tunnels.
00:17:33
I feel like of our recent spat, Jack Carr kicked it off at the
00:17:36
end of was the most Red Sky morning, Red Sky morning.
00:17:40
That like underwater tunnel. And then Speaking of Andrews and
00:17:43
Wilson, their last dark rising novel in The Shepherd.
00:17:47
Tunnel. There was a tunnel.
00:17:48
There was a tunnel. Scene.
00:17:51
I think we had another one somewhere.
00:17:55
Did I feel like Breath or Scott's always finding little
00:18:00
puzzles? He's always.
00:18:00
Funny, Donald. No, there's one.
00:18:04
Oh, we read Steve Berry, the Templar.
00:18:06
Oh yeah, there was a tunnel. A lot of tunnel.
00:18:08
Legacy. That one was cool though at the
00:18:09
end with all like the historical.
00:18:11
Booby traps. Try to find the The Ark or
00:18:13
whatever it was they're looking for.
00:18:14
Yeah, I, I don't know. I was a little over the tunnel
00:18:17
shootout stuff because we've done that a million times.
00:18:20
But having the dog was awesome. Yeah, I, I thought that was
00:18:23
good. But I, I'm going to say for
00:18:24
action, suspense, what really bumps me up, couple of points.
00:18:30
There wasn't much action. It was edge of your seat
00:18:32
suspense. When the investigative team is
00:18:35
in the palace, when they're in the belly of the beast and Saud
00:18:41
is watching them in the palace. Guard works for Faisal and
00:18:44
they're they're pissing him off like Milliken from the FBI is
00:18:47
giving him the business. She's running the crime scene.
00:18:50
No nonsense. Sam is snapping pictures.
00:18:52
With that camera I want, I want Milliken and Sam Octavius to
00:18:56
come back. Sam was the dude IA. 100% agree.
00:19:00
Sam was one of. Jacked NSA nerd like that's
00:19:04
awesome. Using the camera to hack into
00:19:06
their systems like the digital camera has all the tech to do
00:19:09
that. You know, crazy NSA stuff.
00:19:13
He was one of my 2 candidates for free space.
00:19:16
So yeah, Sam was awesome. But the whole time they're in
00:19:19
there doing that investigation of the murder and they're
00:19:23
pushing all the right buttons. Then also with Theobald, the guy
00:19:27
from DIA who has that great relationship with Whitney ever
00:19:31
since they went back to Afghanistan, right?
00:19:33
And he saved her life there and that was that.
00:19:35
Like a hotel. I think 1.
00:19:38
I think that's 2. Is that 2?
00:19:42
It could be. It could.
00:19:42
Be one. They all blend together.
00:19:44
I know what they. They start blending together,
00:19:46
but he was such a great character, such a great support
00:19:48
here. I like his.
00:19:50
He's a badass team leader for this investigative team.
00:19:52
I I, I just like his Wall 50. Two, right?
00:19:55
Yeah, they say. But he also knows how to balance
00:19:57
like when Milliken was pushing too hard he realized they had to
00:19:59
do a little good cop bad cop give and take.
00:20:02
Like he was almost playing perfect diplomat, team leader
00:20:05
and just badass no nonsense. When he pulls the gun on the guy
00:20:08
in the in the morgue, I. Really love that team, I think
00:20:12
and and that team not only boosts up good guys, it boosts
00:20:15
up plot because that was when I felt like the plot really
00:20:17
clicked and it boosts for me action slash suspense because
00:20:21
that was more suspenseful I would say than the other action
00:20:23
scenes to me. Yeah, I was intrigued to see how
00:20:27
this is going to work out when I when I saw what they were doing
00:20:30
that All right, because off the RIP, right, They pretty much
00:20:34
address it with the president saying that Whitney and Chuck
00:20:36
are going to be separated when he's going to lead up this
00:20:39
investigation. Team Chunk, you're going to wear
00:20:42
a sign in the Tier 1 Gold Squadron to, you know, sort of
00:20:45
be ready to act if anything pops off, right?
00:20:47
Yeah. So which it does with the ships
00:20:49
when they get the Intel on the ships.
00:20:50
So from the very beginning, we knew that they were I, I figured
00:20:54
most likely they're not going to interact with each other the
00:20:56
entire no. And I was like, all right, well,
00:20:59
it's going to be interesting to see how you do this.
00:21:03
And I would agree with you that the, the suspense, especially
00:21:07
leading up to the, you know, getting out of the palace, going
00:21:10
back, going, deciding to, you know, going to the embassy,
00:21:14
getting out of the embassy. Going up on the embassy roof to
00:21:18
or to hop the roof of SUV. Oh, wait, hop the wall.
00:21:21
The only way we can say, like, save the world is to go back to
00:21:24
the embassy where it's being overrun by, you know, these
00:21:27
protesters. And then you have set, like, the
00:21:29
team sweat up, obviously. So you have Sam on the airplane
00:21:32
and like you know the whole Argo like like scene at the end of.
00:21:36
That very Argo feel. Trying to, you know, get off.
00:21:39
They eventually get off the term X, but without these cars
00:21:41
chasing them like that, that was just, it was cool.
00:21:44
Dude and all of that stuff I felt like took place in the
00:21:48
second-half of the book. It feels like that three quarter
00:21:51
mark is really just everything is ramping up.
00:21:54
It was a little slow in the beginning to get there.
00:21:56
So that might be a Ding on plot slash buy in.
00:21:59
But once we got there, once we hit the pet scene in the palace,
00:22:02
the rioters, the embassy then goes to the ships with with the
00:22:07
saw scene go, then we go into the tunnels.
00:22:10
That's just when this book was clicking.
00:22:12
So action suspense wrapping all that up.
00:22:15
Where do you land? I.
00:22:17
Think it's 8.5. Yeah, I was going to say 8.
00:22:21
I'm going to say 8. My Ding is the the first half of
00:22:24
the book being a little slow to develop.
00:22:27
Yeah, I'm going to Ding that on plot for sure.
00:22:29
Yeah. True, true, true.
00:22:31
I just mean slow in terms of action suspense.
00:22:33
I cared about the plot moving along, but it wasn't
00:22:36
action-packed. So yeah, all right, plot then.
00:22:41
So my big like problem with this is just the faisal's a kind of
00:22:49
an idiot. Kind of the point though.
00:22:54
Everything is banked on the fact that, oh shit, we have to tell
00:22:57
the the only one who can save the day is the king.
00:23:02
I don't know. I was just like, yeah, it was
00:23:03
cool with them. Like going back, like deciding
00:23:05
to do we're at the embassy, we're going to go or we're at
00:23:08
the airport. We're going to go back to the
00:23:09
embassy and then potentially back to the the palace.
00:23:14
All that was great. But I'm just like, this is what
00:23:17
you're you're you're staking like the the future of the
00:23:21
Middle East on this, the only way we can do it.
00:23:24
Yeah, I was. I was a little unbought.
00:23:27
Interesting. That's funny because I was going
00:23:30
to say that's where I make up ground because I was bought in.
00:23:33
Really. OK, interesting.
00:23:34
And even zoom out further the backdrop of the Saudis and the
00:23:39
Iranians. Talk me in, talk me in.
00:23:41
I'm always talking to you and you talk me in.
00:23:43
I'll talk to you in a little, but I'm I'm also going to back
00:23:45
up a little because the Saudis and the Iranians in bed together
00:23:47
is a plot so unbelievably fake and would never happen.
00:23:51
And like doesn't make any sense to get me to actually believe
00:23:54
that it could in this way, that there's a deep cover plot by
00:23:59
Iran that has been baked and embedded and using the family
00:24:02
dynamics against them. I just think the palace intrigue
00:24:05
was played perfectly by Iran with a deep cover asset.
00:24:09
And while I would never believe, you know, the whole Sunni Shia
00:24:11
split, all geopolitics, right, of the Saudis wanting to be the
00:24:15
major power broker Iran, basically their only leverage is
00:24:18
to fund proxy groups against the Saudis.
00:24:20
You know, on their border, they're involved in Syria,
00:24:23
they're involved in Yemen. You know that basically that's
00:24:27
that's the only card they have to play.
00:24:28
So the these are the two Titans of the Middle East.
00:24:30
And as long as they don't see eye to eye and don't get in bed
00:24:33
together, it's going to be a geopolitical hot, you know,
00:24:35
hotspot with alliances and Western powers coming in.
00:24:40
And the Chinese and the Russians are going to want to deal with
00:24:43
them and get in bed with one versus the other, play them
00:24:46
against each other. So for them two to come
00:24:47
together, I never thought I would buy into that.
00:24:50
This got me to buy into it, which I think is is crazy, but
00:24:53
it's all due to the relationship between Reza and Faisal.
00:24:57
So that worked. And then the palace intrigue of
00:25:00
it all. I absolutely loved how Faisal
00:25:05
has to kind of lie to the people.
00:25:07
Oh, after his phone call with the American president, he knew
00:25:09
he was in a tough position. He had to tell his people.
00:25:12
I got the president right where I want him.
00:25:13
You know, I have the upper hand here.
00:25:15
And the razor tells him, you really want the upper hand.
00:25:18
Release the information now to the world, start the riots, get
00:25:21
this thing going. And he does it.
00:25:23
I was kind of bought into all that happening.
00:25:27
I don't know why it worked for me and and I think on plot I
00:25:30
also go 8 out of 10. All right, all right, Yeah,
00:25:36
yeah, I don't know. I don't know why I'm like being
00:25:38
so hung up by that. I I think it is crazy though,
00:25:40
that to think, you know, that this idea of having and it it
00:25:47
sort of cements this idea that all right, this would be a super
00:25:49
scary thing if this were to actually come to virtually these
00:25:54
the two strongest powers who don't see eye to eye, but
00:25:57
actually coming togethers. Ally to unite Islam?
00:25:59
Yeah. Yeah, you're bringing me, you're
00:26:02
bringing me a back back down a little bit.
00:26:04
So I think I. Think there's many books that
00:26:06
could have written that as a major plot point and got me to
00:26:09
buy in and. Buy it this.
00:26:11
One did and and the thing with the king, when Whitney said she
00:26:14
had to do that, I was like oh shit, she's right.
00:26:16
It it's the only card they have left to play.
00:26:18
The only person who can trump Faisal is the King, and there's
00:26:21
no way to get to the king while Faisal controls the palace and
00:26:24
his people control the palace. So because of that, got to find
00:26:28
the loyalist. You got to sneak in under the
00:26:29
radar, find the loyalist. And Chris, I'm just going to
00:26:32
give my free space. It's the ambassador, The woman
00:26:35
ambassador. She is from the jump.
00:26:40
When we meet her, you know she's somebody you're going to trust
00:26:42
when her and Watts get to have that coded conversation in the
00:26:45
car because they know the driver.
00:26:47
Super. Suspenseful there too.
00:26:49
It's so suspenseful in the way they're kind that, you know,
00:26:51
they've got that vibe where they're they're they're picking
00:26:53
up on what each other's putting down.
00:26:55
I knew they were going to have to do some shit together.
00:26:58
And she's the one who orchestrates them to get snuck
00:27:00
into the palace and and get the king and and convince the king
00:27:05
to turn against his own son. And I, that plot point just
00:27:09
worked for me. So good.
00:27:10
It worked so good for me. Yeah, Princess Ramia is is a
00:27:14
very good character. She's the best, you know, kind
00:27:17
of, you know, her father, they didn't really even touch on
00:27:20
that. But her father was the one who
00:27:22
got, you know, slaughtered like and, you know, very interesting
00:27:28
to put her there as a character to be this like stand alone for
00:27:31
what, you know, the Crown Prince wanted and everything that
00:27:37
Faisal and but maybe even his father is against.
00:27:40
But in the end that they come together, they agree that's
00:27:44
that's a good, that's a good free space.
00:27:45
When her head is on the chopping block, but she does what's right
00:27:48
for her country anyway because she sees the path that it's
00:27:50
going down. Powerful stuff.
00:27:53
Yeah. And got me to buy into the plot
00:27:55
all the more that she wanted to take down Faisal and knew the
00:27:59
Americans were the way to do that.
00:28:01
And I will say that whole like sequence of them sneaking back
00:28:05
into the palace, like in the Range Rover pretty good in the
00:28:08
trunk, like, you know, getting to his room like all of a sudden
00:28:12
freaking what's Theobald is a MacGyver Dr. and he's able to.
00:28:19
Know some medicines to give him. And it makes sense.
00:28:20
He's like, oh, like I, I misread this stuff.
00:28:22
Like, so OK, I was bought in. But yeah, it was just, it was
00:28:25
fun, like. That honestly might be my
00:28:28
favorite part of the book. Everything from the
00:28:30
investigative team trying to get back to the embassy through the
00:28:33
riots, then sneaking them back in to wake the king.
00:28:37
That just, like, sequence of events was my favorite thing
00:28:41
about the book. Even Trump's.
00:28:42
All the action scenes, really. Yeah.
00:28:44
And Andrews and Wilson's wheelhouse, like you said
00:28:47
earlier, is the action, them riding the ship takedowns, them
00:28:50
riding the tunnel scenes. The the the jump with the with
00:28:54
the with the dog is freaking parachuting in.
00:28:57
Dude and then also where chunk goes vertical he goes upside
00:29:00
down on the parachute to throw the frag on the roof.
00:29:03
For a heck. See, all that stuff is great,
00:29:05
but I expected in a thriller you got your tunnel scene, you got
00:29:08
your ship takedown. These are, you know, seals or
00:29:10
whatever. This is a tier one team.
00:29:11
Check in the box. I expect all that.
00:29:13
So when I'm reading it, I really like it.
00:29:16
But when you can craft a plot that's as crafty as what they're
00:29:19
doing inside the palace, that to me just goes next level.
00:29:24
All right, So what are you giving for buying?
00:29:25
You give 8.5 per plot. I gave a 7.5.
00:29:29
Yeah, I gave a flat 8 on plot. Flat 8 OK.
00:29:33
I'm going 4 out of five on buy in because it took a lot to get
00:29:36
to that point where I was invested.
00:29:37
But once I was, I was in. But the one point Ding is like
00:29:41
the first third little less than the first half where I was like,
00:29:45
come on, let's get there already.
00:29:46
Let's get this team on the ground.
00:29:48
Let's get in there. So 4 out of five.
00:29:51
I think you in talking to you, you brought me up.
00:29:54
I was a three and I'm going to go up to A4.
00:29:56
I'm more bought in now after talking to you about.
00:29:59
OK, all right, all right. It's not perfect.
00:30:02
I'll admit that it's no and is nowhere near as good as Kasim
00:30:06
Nadar and the drone stuff. Nowhere near as good as his
00:30:09
manipulation by was it? Who's his Pakistani friend?
00:30:13
Right exactly the wedding scene. Like nowhere near as good as all
00:30:16
that stuff. It's still a good, it's still a
00:30:20
good story to me. Still a good story.
00:30:23
All right, bad guys. Yeah, we would.
00:30:25
What do you think about Faisal, who ultimately like, you know,
00:30:30
doesn't it does, you know, obviously it gets killed.
00:30:33
Interesting character. But then also this, you know, we
00:30:36
we sort of touched on it at the very beginning, introducing this
00:30:39
rise of character. Who is he going to become, you
00:30:43
know, fuelled to be something bigger than he currently is,
00:30:46
Because I thought like he was going to act bigger.
00:30:50
But in the end, he kind of like he had he realized that he had
00:30:53
to defer like he, you know, there was times where he could
00:30:56
have bullied Faisal more. Sure.
00:30:58
Oh, he could have. He definitely like played those
00:31:01
spy card and, you know, trusted confidant very smoothly.
00:31:06
He's very, he's very slippery. I think he needs slippery.
00:31:09
That's a great word. I think if you push too hard, if
00:31:11
he was too direct, Faisal would have seen that as an affront or
00:31:15
a challenge or would have woken up to their relationship.
00:31:19
So I think that every time he was like, but of course, we
00:31:21
defer to your decision. You know your.
00:31:24
Highness, Your Highness. Yeah, your, your Highness, of
00:31:27
course you you can authorize this or not.
00:31:29
You know, I think he just was the ultimate weasel in that.
00:31:33
So Faisal as a villain is not really that big bad of a
00:31:37
villain, although he he tries to be, he tries to wear those
00:31:40
pants. He's not, but Reza is.
00:31:43
And because of that, compared to Kasim Nadar, I want to go like a
00:31:50
three out of five. But objectively they're a good
00:31:52
duo. And and once you throw Saud the
00:31:55
garden, I think we'll go 3 1/2. 3 1/2 All right, I'll meet you
00:32:00
there at 3 1/2 because I guess we would have to look back and
00:32:04
see what we gave Kasim Nagar in books one and two.
00:32:07
That'll be A5. It it it should be.
00:32:11
Remember fun time. Yeah, fun time.
00:32:15
You know what is A5 on this book?
00:32:17
It's good, guys. They're good guys, easy.
00:32:20
I mean to introduce 2 new characters to bring back
00:32:24
Theobald completely and these two new characters that I
00:32:28
personally want around again and I hope they figure out a way to
00:32:32
intertwine them into the group somehow.
00:32:34
You know, just like we have ye like you know yeah.
00:32:37
Is is there a place for Sam? And I'm liking on the FBI chicks
00:32:42
name but. Yeah, Milkin.
00:32:44
Milkin. Milkin.
00:32:45
Yeah. Like these interesting
00:32:47
characters. Like they well thought of well
00:32:50
developed. Not only them, but also some of
00:32:52
the Israelis or even sure and his handler like the other
00:32:54
operators that they're they're downrange with, you know, even
00:32:56
some of them to to come back and cameo or bring them in, you
00:33:00
know, replace you can't replace them, but replace saw or bring a
00:33:03
new guy on expand the team a little.
00:33:06
I think there's an opportunity. Agreed.
00:33:09
Yeah, I'm going. I'm going 5.
00:33:11
Five out of five on good guys. Yeah.
00:33:13
And you? Oh, I figured it out.
00:33:17
You had asked me, is there something missing about the
00:33:19
president and the transition of power?
00:33:21
Who would the vice president took over after an
00:33:23
assassination. I was racking my brain.
00:33:26
I'm like, I think it happened but I don't remember it.
00:33:28
In Sons of Valor, that transition happens in the Tier
00:33:34
One series with Dempsey. I knew we were missing
00:33:37
something. That's the president, the vice
00:33:39
president Jarvis in Dempsey, the second to last, second to latest
00:33:44
Tier one book and then he's full president and Ember the most
00:33:48
recent tier one book. And, and I love how Team Ember
00:33:51
has mentioned a bunch of times, like the president's wife
00:33:53
overseas, she's a lady over. That member, yeah.
00:33:56
Yeah, yeah, that's Dempsey's team.
00:33:58
So I think a lot of the White House Situation Room stuff, we
00:34:02
see more in Tier one than we do Sons of Valor.
00:34:05
But since it's an intertwined universe, that's why we kind of
00:34:07
felt like some gaps were missing.
00:34:09
Because unfortunately, I, I, I haven't had the time to read
00:34:13
that series. I, I, it's something that I, I,
00:34:15
it's on my list. I want to.
00:34:16
Yeah, I've only read a few, but yeah, yeah.
00:34:18
But I love Sons of Valor so much that like, I, I don't care like
00:34:23
that. I didn't understand that, but I
00:34:25
definitely could feel it. You know, obviously being in
00:34:29
this world and reading novels that, you know, rely on 26 book
00:34:34
connections while also not trying to rely on 20, you could
00:34:36
just feel that something was missing there.
00:34:39
I think tier one has only like 10 though, I think.
00:34:42
I don't think it's that that big yet.
00:34:44
But yeah, something was missing with the way Jarvis was
00:34:46
explained but not really explained and his wife was
00:34:49
involved but not really involved in the Parkinson's.
00:34:52
It kind of if you just take that it.
00:34:53
Never comes up again after the first like 3 novels, yeah.
00:34:56
It never comes up to you to take that for what it is.
00:34:59
It could be a Ding on this book, but it just hints at a wider
00:35:02
universe. And if that wider universe were
00:35:04
left on a dress, that'd be a problem.
00:35:05
But it is addressed just in another series.
00:35:11
Yeah, good guys, Really, really special.
00:35:14
I would say best part of the book, I mean honestly, most fun
00:35:18
part of the book is is reading about all these people.
00:35:20
I love the setting. I think it was OK.
00:35:26
I think it was. OK, it was OK.
00:35:28
The palace I felt like. That was like the best part of
00:35:31
the setting, like to put us in the mind of the palace.
00:35:36
They didn't do a great job on like making me feel like I was
00:35:39
on the water like in the Med, you know?
00:35:42
The ship seemed kind of half baked like chunk stuff.
00:35:45
His missions almost just seemed as a side plot Side Story.
00:35:49
Yeah, it almost it it it at times it did felt like all
00:35:52
right, this is a Whitney Watts novel, and we need to have Chunk
00:35:55
in here doing something. Exactly right.
00:35:57
Doing something, yeah. And.
00:35:59
What's crazy about it is that Whitney doesn't even know what
00:36:01
he's doing until the very end. No.
00:36:04
Yeah, and and I mean, you do have to tie in this palace stuff
00:36:09
with the nuke stuff, so. Yes, they're interrelated in the
00:36:14
palace stuff than the nuke stuff.
00:36:15
Let's just be honest. Completely agree 100%.
00:36:18
Aside from like the fact that I love the action part better
00:36:22
there in, but every time they went, they went back to chunk.
00:36:26
I'm like no, no, no, let's, let's no be here.
00:36:29
I agree, 100% agree, and it almost sucks that like the trope
00:36:33
of there has to be a nuke on the loose, you know, like they're
00:36:36
right. They're going to blow a nuke in
00:36:37
Israel and start a false flag war.
00:36:39
It's like you need those stakes, You need that drama.
00:36:42
Yet even that world ending kind of scenario was not the drama I
00:36:47
cared most about. The drama I cared most about is,
00:36:50
is she going to make it safely to the embassy?
00:36:52
Is she going to get pulled through the window?
00:36:53
You know, is she going to find the king and present the video?
00:36:56
Is the king going to believe her?
00:36:58
That drama was so much more intriguing and and powerful to
00:37:02
me than a nuke going off in Israel, which is crazy to say.
00:37:05
And she didn't even know there was a nuke.
00:37:07
She didn't even know. Yeah.
00:37:08
Yeah. And then it's pretty cool how
00:37:10
she does come back in the end to find the tunnel.
00:37:13
Sure. And use her analyst skills to
00:37:15
blow the van. Yeah, but they.
00:37:18
They. She had she had enough stakes
00:37:21
with her plot that it didn't need a nuke.
00:37:24
You know where it's like Chunks wasn't a nuke would have been
00:37:28
even less interesting. But it is tied up because that
00:37:31
is part of Rice's plan, like to push this attack to cement
00:37:35
Faisal's. Leadership you know a villain.
00:37:37
I was disappointed in the his like counter mate at the
00:37:42
MIOSMOMO history of. The intelligence inside Tehran,
00:37:50
Yeah, yeah. Mois.
00:37:52
But I did like his boss though. I like his boss but no like the
00:37:57
the guy that chunks after right? Ultimately, he was a coward like
00:38:01
you know. Because he just wanted to leave
00:38:03
the tunnel, let others do The Dirty work.
00:38:05
He's like, if this thing blows, I'm just going to get out of
00:38:07
here. Yeah, he was weak.
00:38:09
He brings villains down. And he's the reason that Whitney
00:38:13
even figured it out, because she sees a single guy, like come out
00:38:18
of the pop up, Yeah, in the middle of the night.
00:38:22
He probably could knock down villains half a point or so but
00:38:25
I'm just not going to do that but but probably could.
00:38:29
All right. We the setting, I think it's
00:38:32
like a mixed bag. It's sort of half and half.
00:38:35
Yeah. 2 1/2 Three. Go 3.
00:38:41
Just keep it right down the middle.
00:38:42
Keep. It right in the 30.
00:38:44
Not the best, though. Not the finest.
00:38:47
Even inside the palace, I liked more what the characters were
00:38:50
doing. It didn't necessarily have the
00:38:52
descriptive language. Yeah, it didn't really describe
00:38:55
it. I couldn't really feel it.
00:38:56
It wasn't really visual to me. What was visual as the
00:38:59
characters, their dialogue, their actions, their
00:39:01
conversations, the actual place and location was not visual at
00:39:06
all. So what do we say?
00:39:09
Three. Yeah.
00:39:12
Then tunnels. I'm just.
00:39:13
I'm just sick of tunnels. I honestly, I'm going to knock
00:39:15
it down to 2 1/2. Yeah, give Me 2 1/2 and a half.
00:39:19
I've been generous too in earlier categories.
00:39:21
So you know where we're not going to be generous.
00:39:26
I actually don't mind this cover.
00:39:28
You don't mind the cover? OK.
00:39:30
All right. So historically, guys, you can
00:39:32
go back and listen to our Sons of Valor 123.
00:39:35
We're not a big fan of this series cover wise.
00:39:39
Though I have made the argument, at least it has a consistent
00:39:42
voice and that voice does continue.
00:39:44
Here they use the template. It does.
00:39:46
It it has the same kind of feel. I just don't know about the
00:39:50
woman. I'm going to be honest with you.
00:39:52
Don't try to tell me. Maybe the face is watts and
00:39:55
heels, but the outfit, the uniform, I just, I'd never
00:39:58
pictured her in the book doing anything remotely like what
00:40:01
she's wearing. Running from the protesters like
00:40:07
hopping over the fat. She's not dressed like that
00:40:11
coming from the palace after the investigative meet.
00:40:14
Yeah. So I'll tell you.
00:40:16
I'll tell you what I'm going to give points to.
00:40:17
I'm going to give points to the helicopter, sure.
00:40:20
The PowerPoint have a helicopter scene.
00:40:22
Give points to the parachuting, sure.
00:40:26
The kid and up operator is something Andrews and Wilson
00:40:29
always do so. It's it's cool.
00:40:31
Have your day? Sure, no problem.
00:40:33
I'm guessing that while before we were starting I was trying to
00:40:38
pinpoint this set of buildings to see if they were real.
00:40:42
Not 100% sure if they are, but it looks to me like this tall.
00:40:45
The tallest building in this right under the R&E.
00:40:50
Big similarity to the Riyadh. What was the building?
00:40:56
It does at the. Kingdom Center, but it doesn't
00:40:59
you're you're right. You were saying that it evokes
00:41:01
like this city in the middle of a desert oil, you know, very
00:41:06
Arab. I'd say it has that.
00:41:08
Abu Dhabi, you know, like. Exactly.
00:41:09
Dubai, if it's not Riyadh or Tehran, you you really had an
00:41:15
opportunity to use one of those, so at least you get the feels of
00:41:21
it, even if it's not the actual city and it could be a city
00:41:24
we're just missing. That's entirely possible.
00:41:25
True. Very true.
00:41:26
Very true. What does that mean then on
00:41:28
cover but. I will say if it is another city
00:41:31
that we're missing, then I'm going to dock it because it
00:41:34
should be either like one of those, it should be Riyadh.
00:41:38
Yeah, it should be. Maybe Tel Aviv, because that's
00:41:40
where like the attack is going to go.
00:41:42
And I looked up Tel Aviv. It's not Tel Aviv.
00:41:43
It's not Tel Aviv. Yeah, that's interesting.
00:41:46
So you had a clear you could have picked either of these two
00:41:49
all. Right.
00:41:50
All right, all that being said, it's straight down the middle.
00:41:54
It's like a 2 1/2 three. Yeah, 2 1/2.
00:41:58
Give me a 2 1/2. I'm with you.
00:42:01
Free State space, though, to end a little positive, I'm going
00:42:04
with the ambassador. Her conversation with Watts, her
00:42:07
sacrifices later on, her really playing the game.
00:42:10
Low key diplomat who knows the power brokers, knows the
00:42:14
insurance and outs of the system.
00:42:17
She just gets it done. She's trustworthy, she's honest,
00:42:21
she's loyal, and in the end she saves not only her country, but
00:42:25
perhaps the entire Middle East and the world.
00:42:27
Really, I think it's all thanks to her.
00:42:30
This plot comes together. I can't see a way things work
00:42:34
out. As good as Watts is, as good as
00:42:36
Chunk is, I don't see this working out without someone like
00:42:39
her. So she played her role
00:42:41
perfectly. All right, well, it's it's tough
00:42:46
because we already like sort of sung their praises in in good
00:42:49
guys. But I was I was super intrigued
00:42:51
by this dog and Navy SEAL combo at at the very end.
00:42:58
And I think I want to know are they going to come back?
00:43:01
Like obviously there's an opening on the team.
00:43:03
It's going to be very hard to replace saw.
00:43:06
But sure, you know, I almost also wanted to give my free
00:43:10
space to Riker, like just to sure his emotional journey to
00:43:15
this book. And you know, it's so funny,
00:43:17
this guy who he literally runs head first into everything and
00:43:21
never gets shot and like, you know, always has a horseshoe up
00:43:25
his butt and and comes out unscathed.
00:43:28
But then to see when his buddy doesn't have that fortune and
00:43:33
him click because he's like the Joker, right?
00:43:35
He's the enormous of the Comic Relief.
00:43:38
And to see that switch, I felt like Anderson wasn't just very,
00:43:43
very much so caught the essence of that, you know, that
00:43:45
relationship between the two of them.
00:43:48
Remember saying that too, at the end of book three, I was like,
00:43:51
Saw had his story, the family stuff in book 2, him sticking
00:43:55
with the team in book three, I was like, we got to see some
00:43:58
evolution from Riker. I think it's time for him to
00:44:00
kind of take a step in who he is and and what he gives.
00:44:04
Like he gives his all for the team, but I mean what he gives
00:44:06
in terms of the story and the and the characters.
00:44:10
And I think we saw a change in him, him reacting to what
00:44:13
happens to Saw he go. He goes like primeval on
00:44:15
everybody. So he even makes his way into my
00:44:18
Limerick. That's how much I liked Riker.
00:44:21
There once was a mole named Reza fooling Prince Faisal.
00:44:24
What a beta as Saw pays the price.
00:44:27
Riker don't play nice. Whitney gets the king, The Data.
00:44:30
Oh. There you go.
00:44:33
All right. It's it's hard to rhyme with
00:44:35
some of those words, so you did a valiant effort there.
00:44:37
Mike, I gave it a shot. I gave.
00:44:38
It a shot. B minus can you start rating my
00:44:42
limericks? Just throw throw out a grade.
00:44:44
I'm going to give it a B plus. AB plus I'm very happy with
00:44:50
because I felt writing it like it was ACC minus.
00:44:52
So thank you. Appreciate it all.
00:44:57
Right. Well, that leaves us, me with a
00:44:59
39, you with a 38.5. Interesting.
00:45:02
Little lower than I thought it was going to be, but.
00:45:04
Yeah, same. I'm glad I praised a number of
00:45:08
things in the beginning, particularly the action, the
00:45:10
suspense, the plot, because that really was what had me gripped.
00:45:14
If you look at it as a complete story, I don't know if it did
00:45:17
all the things that I know Andrews and Wilson are capable
00:45:19
of, that we've seen and everything else they've written.
00:45:22
So I think we maybe we're a little harsh, but only because
00:45:25
we're grading it on a curve against what we know.
00:45:29
You know what masterpieces they've put out?
00:45:32
Exactly. Wow, we gave sons of LR47-I.
00:45:38
Don't know if you remember what I did with Sons of Valor 1 and
00:45:40
2. Gave it that perfect fifty.
00:45:43
Yeah, when you weren't there. That was not the real score.
00:45:46
So the real score when I was there was Sons of Valor had a 47
00:45:52
and a 48 and then Sons of Valor 2.
00:45:54
When we scored it, it had a 44 and a 45 and Sons of Valor 3.
00:46:01
What what did we? And it was the lowest but close
00:46:05
4342. So this is a little bit lower
00:46:07
than that one. I think it's just hard to top
00:46:11
that that trilogy, you know, and we reserve the right maybe
00:46:15
elevating the score if if the next two books or next book, you
00:46:18
know, we'll see how Ryze's stories goes.
00:46:21
So. Yeah, at least I'm interested to
00:46:23
want more of him. You.
00:46:24
Know yeah, I'm intrigued. Same, same.
00:46:30
Before we get out of here, Mike, just like we talked about the
00:46:34
top, we need to thank our patrons, our deputy director,
00:46:37
Sherry F and Brad E, our special agents, Adam, Mike, Ben, Darryl,
00:46:42
George, Matt, Dawn and Chris. Please subscribe, rate and
00:46:46
review to all three seasons of No Limits on the Apple Podcast.
00:46:51
You can find us.online@thrillerpod.com or on
00:46:54
Twitter and Instagram at Thriller Podcast.
00:46:56
And as always, just let's saw be saw.