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00:00:15
Hey guys. I'm Chris and Mike and welcome
00:00:19
back to this week's No Limits. The Thriller podcast.
00:00:24
How you doing this week? Mike Chris you know I'm doing
00:00:27
well down here in Myrtle Beach, get in my golfing in, not a
00:00:33
whole lot of beach time and of course I got to make some time
00:00:36
to podcast with you my body. Yep.
00:00:40
Yeah we haven't spotted a couple weeks.
00:00:42
We we worked a lot of the beginning, the monster like the
00:00:45
end of March and we're going to bank up, a couple episodes took
00:00:48
a little bit of a break. It's kind of nice and I'd say,
00:00:51
Happy Belated Birthday to you, Mike.
00:00:54
Thank you, thank you. April is both of our birthday
00:00:57
month. It's a special month here, on
00:00:59
the No Limits podcast. And dude, I am, I am pumped to
00:01:06
talk to you today. About golf.
00:01:09
I'm just getting over about the Masters.
00:01:12
Good job do Masters, like actually April.
00:01:15
It was an amazing month. Not only are both me and Mike
00:01:18
born, we get the Masters, it's the beginning of Spring.
00:01:22
Mike's down here, golf in 36 holes in one day.
00:01:25
I'm freaking jealous Springs, getting ready to say.
00:01:28
He's getting ready to sandbag our Penn National trip in July
00:01:35
TBD to. We're going to do a queer, do a
00:01:37
whole life. Pod that entire weekend.
00:01:39
I gotta do feel it. Gotta do it.
00:01:41
Gotta do it. Yeah.
00:01:42
We'll be together the whole weekend but this month is Pub
00:01:47
month for the new author. We're going to be covering on
00:01:50
the Metro a podcast. Don Bentley yes, forgotten war
00:01:54
is that the new one coming out and by the time you're hearing
00:01:57
this it might be out or just about be coming out and correct
00:02:01
me if I'm wrong. That's book for in the mattrick
00:02:04
series correct. Yeah.
00:02:07
So we're actually going to do Interesting here, we're going to
00:02:10
keep it to a normal. No Limits, Thriller podcast book
00:02:14
review episode for without sanction, by Don Bentley the
00:02:18
First on Bentley book, and the first Matt Drake book, and we're
00:02:23
going to actually save a little bit of our conversations of how
00:02:26
we see this book fitting in some of the, the character building
00:02:31
the universe building. How that fits into a potential,
00:02:35
Mitch wrap universe. So, Of course, there are two
00:02:38
very separate things but we're going to record a separate
00:02:41
discussion next week for the Metro at podcast where Chris and
00:02:46
I kind of look for parallels or at least influences that Vince
00:02:50
Flynn and that series may have had on Don Bentley's first book
00:02:54
because there's clearly influences.
00:02:56
There's lots of things being done here.
00:02:58
I'm excited that, you know, thematic things and stylistic
00:03:01
things that could be brought into a meat wrap.
00:03:04
Story that I'd be really excited for.
00:03:06
And so I think that will be a fun sexy.
00:03:08
For thing to do, let's let this book stand on its own today with
00:03:11
a review and discussion episode, but I'm definitely chomping at
00:03:14
the bit to see if you caught anything that might really
00:03:17
aligned with what we're looking for.
00:03:20
Don to do moving forward after Code Red.
00:03:23
Yeah, and I couldn't help myself like, as I'm listening, as I'm
00:03:26
reading, you know, thinking about, you know, how he would
00:03:31
write this in a mid trap universe, or, like, insert
00:03:35
character X here for this character?
00:03:38
You know, but then I found myself and I think we're going
00:03:41
to get into it in terms of the progression of this book, you
00:03:44
know, I love doing first book and I loved doing first book and
00:03:48
second book. And I would really, I think, you
00:03:51
know, obviously we're chugging along with our second series and
00:03:55
Scott are bath, which were loving.
00:03:57
But I would love to now dive since we were kind of caught up,
00:04:00
you know, we have a couple new releases.
00:04:02
We're going to want to touch in the over the next couple months.
00:04:04
But I would love to continue doing this series will have, you
00:04:07
know, a solid Good for book Arc, we don't go into and see that
00:04:11
first book to second book progression, but it's always
00:04:15
interesting to me that the first book, like what is the author
00:04:18
going to do? How much, are they going to jam
00:04:20
pack into this? And I really think we're going
00:04:22
to get into, like there's a lot in this novel and I'm starting
00:04:27
to understand why, you know, like you want to tell a story,
00:04:32
you don't know. When you're writing these
00:04:35
probably like are you are you ever going to get a chance you
00:04:38
know, to do this again? We saw this with Connor, right?
00:04:41
Like we even brought it up like terms of putting different
00:04:43
things, little tidbits. And, you know, it's like I don't
00:04:47
know if I'm ever going to get a chance to write something else.
00:04:49
And I wanted to say this thing. So I wanted to put this scene in
00:04:53
my novel, so I did it. This definitely had those things
00:04:56
but and I do think I'm now, I'm a little bit more.
00:05:01
I rest assured. Yes, that Don is taking over
00:05:04
like a little bit worried because I hadn't I didn't know
00:05:07
who he was. I didn't had read a book yet,
00:05:09
but now that I've read this first novel I'm I feel better
00:05:12
about myself and and the state of the mid trap.
00:05:15
Universe. Yeah, 100% with you.
00:05:18
I can't agree more. I don't think I was ever.
00:05:20
Ambivalent, I wasn't worried in any way, but in the back of my
00:05:24
mind, she, I was like, I don't know who this is.
00:05:26
I-i've heard. All the news, I've read the
00:05:28
BIOS, I've heard interviews, but I've not read his written work
00:05:31
yet. So this was a big opportunity
00:05:32
for me to kind of come into it. Actually, I had two mindsets.
00:05:37
One was I want to let this book stand on its own and read it as
00:05:41
it is. I want to look for these
00:05:42
connections. But another thing is it's it's
00:05:46
rather simple and I say that in a good way because I feel like
00:05:51
Kyle he swung for the fences as we've said, many times and he
00:05:54
let his imagination run wild. And man, that was just a whole
00:05:59
lot of fun, like everything we did.
00:06:04
With Mitch going to these, you know countries, you've never
00:06:08
been to before dealing with these threats.
00:06:10
He's never dealt with before and we just had him in new
00:06:14
situations. I feel like Don really
00:06:17
streamlined this book. It was a very almost
00:06:19
straightforward story. It didn't get overly complex.
00:06:25
You didn't lose the reader in Mindless rabbit holes and
00:06:29
sidequest it kept to the story. It had a tight plot really
00:06:33
tight. Outpacing, great, action,
00:06:35
sequence, pacing. And so not, not that.
00:06:38
I don't like what Kyle did in the series because we're over
00:06:41
the moon about it but I do think there's a chance for Simplicity
00:06:44
here to tell a tight concise. Mitch rap story in the Mitre,
00:06:48
Pune verse that doesn't necessarily go into this wild
00:06:51
imagination and I really thought Dawn's book here was very
00:06:54
grounded. It's essentially one Ranger
00:06:56
dealing with his personal demons but also feeling the pressure to
00:07:00
save another fellow Ranger because no one will be left
00:07:03
behind. And that's a very simple story.
00:07:07
Yet the way he fleshed it out was just knock out.
00:07:10
And so I just, I like the tight simplistic storytelling and I
00:07:15
say simplistic in a very good way Yeah, no.
00:07:19
And I think you know this book was pretty well received, it's
00:07:21
got a four point two on Goodreads 4.4 on Amazon, you
00:07:26
know, on the cover we get a quote from Lee Child
00:07:30
sensationally good, you know, like you said, I think it's very
00:07:34
tight. It's it tells an interest, you
00:07:36
know, we I and I guess I shouldn't claim to be an expert.
00:07:40
You know, I've you're more of an expert in this genre than me.
00:07:45
But we haven't had many that have You know, Dia as the focus
00:07:49
I'm so that's that's something new to me in Army Ranger.
00:07:53
Oftentimes we've dealt a lot with Navy SEALS or CIA
00:07:57
operatives this. You can tell that, you know, Don
00:08:02
hailing from the Army has great respect for, you know, these
00:08:07
these players these operatives I think during the once we got
00:08:12
into Syria and we're getting into mission mission,
00:08:15
preparation Mission action scenes.
00:08:19
It was, it was freaking home and that's, that's where it took
00:08:21
off. It was it was so crisp to so
00:08:24
clean. I'm reading it and I wanted to
00:08:27
text you but I didn't want to like save it for the Pod to just
00:08:30
like this is frickin awesome. You know, that the whole
00:08:34
Heigh-Ho Heigh-Ho jump sequence and going into that description
00:08:38
and the pre-flight check. I've never been more intrigued
00:08:43
or like, you know, enthused about everything that was going
00:08:47
on. Yeah.
00:08:49
The minutiae you know, that that was exactly.
00:08:51
You know, I cared about it, I appreciate it.
00:08:54
And it was that that attention to detail that really really
00:08:57
song that Don done. Put here, I'll be honest, I
00:09:01
don't think the book really started for me until that, hey,
00:09:05
ho jump and him embedded in Syria.
00:09:08
The minute that happened to me, it became a different book and I
00:09:12
became a different reader I unfortunately, and I'll admit to
00:09:15
the people. I started the book in the first
00:09:17
third or so. I would say down on it but I
00:09:20
was, I was okay. I see what he's doing with the
00:09:22
PTSD. I kind of like that angle.
00:09:25
Not sure. I'm down with the writing just
00:09:27
yet. I liked what he was doing in the
00:09:29
white house. We're going to talk about some
00:09:31
of the characters and the chief of staff.
00:09:33
Peter Redmond. I'm like, yeah, I could see
00:09:36
where you're going with. This guy's conflicted interest
00:09:38
and his need to get his presidential candidate elected.
00:09:42
That's going to Trump, everything.
00:09:44
And I was even questioning the whole first person perspective,
00:09:47
I think that's an elephant in the room.
00:09:49
Room. We got to talk about at first.
00:09:52
I wasn't sure how I felt jumping back from Matt Drake were in his
00:09:56
shoes in his mind. First person story telling, then
00:10:00
we go to the White House and its third person.
00:10:03
But with a bias we're clearly in like Peter shoes, it's not first
00:10:07
person, but we're being led to believe that Beverly the, the
00:10:11
DCI the CIA director. She's like she's the bad actor.
00:10:15
And I don't know if I can, truly believe everything being said
00:10:18
about. Because it's coming from this
00:10:20
Peter character and I still don't know if I'm supposed to
00:10:22
like him. So I just thought all those
00:10:25
different strains were so different, from what I was used
00:10:28
to, I didn't feel settled in, I didn't feel comfortable reading
00:10:32
this book, like I pick up a breadth or novel.
00:10:35
I know what I'm getting, I'm all in this one.
00:10:38
I, I would say it was a, it was a rocky road, you know, kind of
00:10:41
mirroring what metrics going through with his recovery.
00:10:44
I'm kind of like, I don't know how I feel about this, I have
00:10:46
questions. I'm uncertain about it.
00:10:49
Well anxious, because now I'm starting to say Don doing Mitch
00:10:52
rap I'm like I hope he saves it for me and then boom!
00:10:55
You embed. That man!
00:10:57
Matt Drake in Syria. I'm all for the first
00:10:59
perspective. The first person narrative the
00:11:02
second, he's on the ground. Operating trying to link up with
00:11:05
his asset. Einstein being driven by this
00:11:08
local Isis, recruit an American kid, turned extremists.
00:11:12
The second, I'm seeing all that through an operator's eyes.
00:11:15
It's the coolest reading experience, ever.
00:11:19
And for some reason that made me like the White House stuff,
00:11:21
better. I started liking the political
00:11:23
maneuvering scenes even more than I was, I felt more
00:11:27
comfortable going through what mattrick was going through with
00:11:31
the the regrets that he has in his mind.
00:11:34
I don't know why something switched halfway through this
00:11:36
book when he was in operation mode that I was fully clicked in
00:11:40
and to me that's when the book got started. yeah, no, I think
00:11:45
it just You're right. I think it took a little bit of
00:11:49
adjustment. We've we haven't currently on
00:11:52
this pod covered a book that does first person, but this is
00:11:56
like almost like mixed first person, right?
00:11:57
And you're saying because he writes clearly as first person,
00:12:01
when we're anytime with Drake, but the only other time we're
00:12:06
not with Drake as one more with Peter, pretty much like, II
00:12:10
another, you're saying it. I don't think we're ever if
00:12:13
we're not with Matt, we're never not with Peter.
00:12:17
And that's what I meant by simplistic.
00:12:19
It's only those two storytelling devices side by side.
00:12:23
Yeah, exactly. We don't we don't see you.
00:12:25
Don't deviate a seamless Frodo. Exactly.
00:12:28
We don't we don't we don't see a scene with, you know, with
00:12:32
Beverly alone, right exist. So the fact the fact that we
00:12:37
don't go first person, you know, thinking the way he writes it,
00:12:42
it's third person with Peter but first person Matt it I feel like
00:12:48
it's kind of jarring a little bit, you know.
00:12:50
And I think just took a little bit of time to get used to
00:12:54
because the only other time that I've read in this genre a
00:12:58
first-person novel is Lee Child actually he he just switches
00:13:04
I've read probably like 15 of his reach her novels I've
00:13:09
skipped around and it'll just be like our this one.
00:13:12
I'm going to do first person and this one I'm going to know.
00:13:15
He'll do a run of a couple that are third.
00:13:17
Person. But when it's first person it's
00:13:19
truly first person. So like you're not going to get
00:13:21
any sort of cutscene to where, you know the reader finds out
00:13:24
who the actual killer is. But you know, Rieger doesn't
00:13:27
know. You are literally, you know, as
00:13:29
much as read your nose as the reader, which is kind of cool.
00:13:33
But but here I guess like the jumping back and forth was kind
00:13:35
of throwing me off a little bit until Syria.
00:13:39
Yeah. And I think that's because we
00:13:40
spent so many chapters and such a long amount of time with me.
00:13:47
And you know, it we're used to these novels where it's like,
00:13:51
cut back and forth back and forth, you know, like what's
00:13:53
going on in Washington, what's going on in Syria, right?
00:13:55
And we just like dug in with Syria and it just became its own
00:14:00
thing. It was almost theatrical in a
00:14:02
sense like I was visualizing these things as a movie and how
00:14:05
it would actually be told ya on like a screen and it may be more
00:14:10
engaged. Yeah.
00:14:12
Like you said like the book started for me once we roots on
00:14:16
the Ground in Syria. And I think that was the main
00:14:19
like reason why I wasn't like a locked in and the beginning
00:14:23
agreed. And it was like a switch being
00:14:25
flipped thinking of a movie though.
00:14:27
This just came to me, not to jump ahead in the plot because
00:14:30
we were going to get there. When that Russian helicopter
00:14:33
comes down on him. He's like hiding in that Shack
00:14:36
and eventually gets the tractor, right.
00:14:38
Right. You think a top gun Maverick
00:14:40
when that Chopper Justice Essence and turns and is looking
00:14:43
right at you. I mean we're not in the woods
00:14:45
right where it was. Biron Woods or whatever where
00:14:48
the we're in the deserts of Syria.
00:14:50
But man I just I was picturing a scene just like that with this
00:14:55
dude who just para jumped was knocked out broke.
00:14:58
His ankle is hobbling around and gets captured by ISIS.
00:15:02
Like oh, man, once all that was going down this book just took
00:15:07
off. All right.
00:15:07
I mean, you want to give us a plot summary.
00:15:09
We can jump right into this thing.
00:15:11
Yeah. So on Goodridge, get app after
00:15:15
surviving A clandestine operation that went tragically
00:15:19
wrong. Matt drape Escape Syria with his
00:15:22
life but little less else. Now to save the life of another.
00:15:28
He must return to Syria. Confront his biggest failure in
00:15:31
a stunning Thriller from The New York Times bestselling author,
00:15:34
of Tom, Clancy's, acquired Target and hostile intent.
00:15:38
Don Bentley. Defense intelligence agents
00:15:41
operative. Matt Drake.
00:15:42
I broke a promise, a promise that cost three people, their
00:15:45
lives and crippled his best friend.
00:15:47
Three months later, he's paralyzed by a survivor's guilt.
00:15:51
And haunted, by memories of the Fallen, Matt may have left Syria
00:15:56
but Syria hasn't left him in the midst of his self-imposed Exile.
00:16:02
Matt is dragged back into the world of Espionage and assets
00:16:05
that he tried to forget a Pakistani scientist working for
00:16:09
I suspend your cell has created a terrifying weapon of mass
00:16:13
destruction. The scientist offers to defect
00:16:15
with the weapon but he trusts just one man to bring him out of
00:16:19
Syria alive. Matt Drake, it's a suicide
00:16:23
mission. One man against an army of
00:16:25
terrorists, still with the stakes.
00:16:27
This High Matt has no choice but to try he's going in on high
00:16:32
alert, but he's blind to his greatest vulnerabilities.
00:16:35
His most dangerous. Enemy is closer to home, not on
00:16:39
the battlefield. Old but in the Oval Office, you
00:16:42
know, I like that dramatic Flair.
00:16:45
Because Peter is definitely a nemesis here, but I think his
00:16:49
biggest enemy is himself and his own, ya know, to me that's
00:16:56
that's a through line of the book.
00:16:57
That's really done. Well to jump to the ending.
00:17:00
He finds strength to basically fight back and to not let his
00:17:05
hope died. And his only strength is in
00:17:07
forgiven himself for this op. Gone wrong in the past.
00:17:09
Past one that truly wasn't even his fault, but he failed to come
00:17:13
through on a promise due to the political hierarchy and Military
00:17:18
hierarchy. And I feel like he had to fight
00:17:20
himself to let that go. It affected his family, his
00:17:23
relationships, and to prove that I captured a lot of it in my
00:17:28
limerick. Did you know?
00:17:32
There once was a man named Drake, saving a fellow Ranger,
00:17:37
his stake to Syria. He will go with a damaged ego
00:17:43
forgiving past regrets. He must Shake Damn, I gue you
00:17:49
are good. You came up with that empty pot.
00:17:52
I was like do you have a limerick?
00:17:53
He's like nope. Like I gotta have one.
00:17:56
Yeah, that's so good. To come up with that quickly,
00:17:58
dude. I was like, I'm not doing Don
00:18:00
dirty here, hit our first coverage of his book.
00:18:02
I'm giving him a limerick. I'm proud of and that's a
00:18:05
30-second Banger right there. Let me tell you, that's a good
00:18:08
one. That's a good one now.
00:18:10
So I think it's this book is interesting in the sense that
00:18:15
Not only was I sort of jolted by the first person the beginning
00:18:20
is very confusing, right? We're sort of like a foot in
00:18:23
media res with mad Drake, you know, in going through some PTSD
00:18:29
things which we find out later are not PTSD things.
00:18:31
But actually like, you know, the effects of attack which, you
00:18:35
know, freaking crazy when you think about it in an airport
00:18:39
seeing dead people. And you know, this op gone wrong
00:18:43
that we don't actually find out until You know, it's all about
00:18:46
5th through the novel where all of a sudden boom, we get a very
00:18:50
long flashback chapter and we see that, you know, the entire,
00:18:55
I didn't think we were actually going to get that.
00:18:57
I thought I didn't he was going to be told out in in bits and
00:18:59
pieces. Yeah.
00:19:00
But then all of a sudden he just literally Cuts.
00:19:04
I guess that's when he's traveling to Syria, right?
00:19:07
They he does like a whole flashback and reminiscences of
00:19:10
of this op gone wrong. But I was sort of, like,
00:19:13
confused about, like, who is this guy?
00:19:14
Why, why is he seeing these dead people?
00:19:17
Where is he running away from his wife, who are these FBI
00:19:20
agents here to, you know, to recruit him, you know, it's
00:19:23
just, it was very interesting to be placed as you know, in the
00:19:28
middle of this thing I guess. Because also the first chapter
00:19:30
right is his asset, you know, the whole clicking, you know,
00:19:35
pulling that trigger. So we see the very beginning of
00:19:37
the op gone wrong. Great, seeing what the ultimate
00:19:40
flashback will be? Yes.
00:19:42
And some of this writing is very good.
00:19:44
So like I'm, I'm like, I'm intrigued because a lot of
00:19:47
leastly analyzing this guy is going to be writing my my
00:19:49
favorite series ever. And then I'll try to pull all
00:19:53
these parallels. And then I'm also like confused
00:19:56
but like who's this guy? I gotta I gotta figure out who
00:19:58
metric is but then once, once I understood who he was, you know,
00:20:04
the picture is starting to get a little bit clearer.
00:20:06
Yeah, you know, I liked I liked this figure metric, I thought he
00:20:10
was Interesting. He had a lot of you know,
00:20:15
baggage a lot of interesting tidbits, you know being a full
00:20:21
character on a what did you think of metric as a
00:20:24
protagonist? I agree with your take 100%, I
00:20:28
wasn't entirely sure how I feel about him, you know, right off
00:20:31
the bat. I identify these going through
00:20:34
these struggles, but I'm a little confused when he sees the
00:20:36
Dead faces instead of his wife's face, and how he's running from
00:20:39
all that. I do like these little nuggets
00:20:42
like you said of, you know, playing the music, right?
00:20:44
He strumming. The guitar is how he gets out of
00:20:48
all this and overcomes it and can write and of store it away
00:20:51
and how in music is important to him.
00:20:54
And even the opening conversation with that old
00:20:56
veteran, Jeremiah the shoe Shiner at the airport, I love
00:21:00
some of the dialogue and I really like it but I'm still in
00:21:02
my mind like who is he? Kenny operate.
00:21:06
How do I trust that? He's going to do some badass
00:21:08
things, you know. Like I need to see that before I
00:21:10
can't. Totally buy into who he is.
00:21:13
And again, it comes out in the planning for the Serie op.
00:21:16
Once we get the back story, filled in that connects to that
00:21:20
opening chapter. Because I really, really like
00:21:22
the opening chapter of that Syrian family, trying to
00:21:27
activate the beacon, and it's in the coffee pot in the cabinet,
00:21:29
he activates, at the last second and so I'm kind of like okay,
00:21:32
cool, Matt Drake's gonna come save this dude.
00:21:35
Like that's how Matrix going to prove to me, you know, he's
00:21:38
going to send in the Cavalry. He's going to be that guy.
00:21:40
We need them to be. B.
00:21:42
Yet he wasn't, you know, that didn't come through his, his
00:21:46
team, the qrf team that was on standby that he hoped would be
00:21:50
sent in to save his asset and he promised him, you know, you put
00:21:54
that beacon on will be there in a matter of minutes.
00:21:56
I promise you this yet the political powers that be pulled
00:22:01
the op didn't want to get us more embedded in the region,
00:22:04
didn't want to risk our people and that left is acid high and
00:22:07
dry. And you know, he lost his family
00:22:09
for and lost a little girl, a beer that he loves As those
00:22:13
things got filled in, I had such a better picture of whom at
00:22:16
Drake was and what he was going through, then I was bought in to
00:22:22
him, not only having to go back into the game, you know, when he
00:22:25
gets that call from James glass, and when he talks to Frodo, you
00:22:29
know, all those things meant so much more to me, knowing how
00:22:34
that op went wrong. Then I identified with Drake,
00:22:37
and his journey to overcome that and just listen to a couple of
00:22:40
these quotes. I think these quotes They're
00:22:43
very quick, very quick pee. There's a lot of good writing
00:22:45
here that's packed into very small passages.
00:22:48
For example quote everyone paid a staggering price for my
00:22:51
failure everyone but me and things like that are through
00:22:56
lines through the story that this is what the man's dealing
00:22:58
with even though he's getting pulled back into the game.
00:23:01
Then on top of that if we know he's a badass operator because
00:23:05
he's dropping lines like this quote death and I were old
00:23:08
friends or one time when he's in a shootout and he eventually
00:23:13
gets to Einstein and he extracts Einstein there in the car.
00:23:17
And Einstein goes. Are you threatening me goes?
00:23:18
I don't threaten, I inform, you know, like, little nuggets like
00:23:22
that or telling me, Matt Drake is the operator.
00:23:24
I need him to be his personal demons are kind of holding him
00:23:28
back from being fully the operator.
00:23:30
He needs to be and I'm so glad the book came to a place where
00:23:33
he was a ver able to overcome those things and you know like a
00:23:36
any Ranger just accomplish the mission, get the job done.
00:23:41
Right. Yeah, what did you think about,
00:23:45
you know, this sort of Often times we see these dueling
00:23:49
storylines. How did you feel about de
00:23:53
juxtapose, the beginning introduction of mad Drake to the
00:23:57
beginning introduction of I guess are quote unquote,
00:24:01
political foes You know we can we eventually we're going to get
00:24:05
into who the bad guys are. But would you classify a Peter
00:24:09
and president the president as the bad guys of the story?
00:24:15
I think we have to put parse this apart and I think maybe
00:24:18
this is the kind of flynny in here because you know good old
00:24:21
flynny in either situation is very very funny, right?
00:24:24
White House counsel or even on the Capitol Hill not every
00:24:28
person. There is black and white good
00:24:30
and bad. Everyone's got some Gray Zone,
00:24:32
everyone's got some demons. Has & Wraps got to you know put
00:24:36
them front and center wraps, got a call you out, cut the
00:24:38
bullshit, and make people answer questions.
00:24:40
So I don't think we've seen a reckoning yet for the president
00:24:44
to know truly, which side he's on.
00:24:46
But I said I suspect president Jorge Gonzales is going to be a
00:24:51
really good guy and I feel like it's just his Reliance on Peter
00:24:56
as chief of staff. And then the farias things
00:24:59
Peter's doing, I mean, he essentially calls in the
00:25:02
Russians, like, literally he calls his asset and in Russia to
00:25:06
kill and threaten our military personnel on the ground from
00:25:09
rescuing Ranger, right? And he does it purely a crazy,
00:25:13
right? He doesn't want the enter, the
00:25:16
election, the interference of the election with an OP gone
00:25:19
wrong in Syria, even wants to cover up.
00:25:21
You know, CIA service members deaths and this tragedy You
00:25:26
know, anything to not put us deeper into the Syrian conflict,
00:25:29
even if going deeper and means saving our people.
00:25:31
And saving, you know, innocent life.
00:25:34
Peter doesn't want to do it because he wants his candidate
00:25:36
re-elected. So, I think he's the Bad Apple
00:25:38
in the bunch. I don't think it got to the core
00:25:41
of everybody yet. I don't think it's totally
00:25:43
rotted out, Jorge Gonzalez and his administration.
00:25:47
And to be honest, every bad thing.
00:25:48
We were told to believe about Beverly in charge of the CIA.
00:25:52
I don't think I trust at all because it was coming from
00:25:54
Peter. No.
00:25:55
I Either and so I actually I think she could have an Irene
00:25:58
Kennedy moment or at least a she's genuine and actually
00:26:03
really good at her job. It's just, we've only been shown
00:26:05
the bad things. So I think there's a Redemption
00:26:09
Arc for her. And I'll turn the question on
00:26:13
you and hear from you but I do want your response to this and
00:26:15
this is the final piece of evidence.
00:26:17
Why? I think president Jorge will be
00:26:20
on the right side of History here because here's how he's
00:26:23
described. Quote, the son of Mexican
00:26:25
immigrants. The president did not have an
00:26:27
impressive political pedigree that was tied to generations of
00:26:30
family wealth. But what he did have was
00:26:32
Charisma, a work ethic second to none and a general Sunny
00:26:36
disposition, a rare quality among professional politicians.
00:26:41
I mean, he was even described as like, a Reagan able to reach out
00:26:44
across the aisle, but also a no-nonsense kind of guy.
00:26:48
So, I think as it says an anemic economy, troubles in Iraq, a
00:26:53
spiraling conflict in Syria. And now a traitorous Chief of
00:26:56
Staff. I think the deck was kind of
00:26:58
stacked against the president here, but the president standing
00:27:02
on his own, I think eventually will come to love Yeah, and I
00:27:07
saw that lets you. And I think What's interesting
00:27:11
is like we said at the beginning, even though we're in
00:27:14
like a third person, we're almost like colored by Peters as
00:27:20
we're seeing in not as their person but more as like a
00:27:22
first-person through Peters eyes and we're getting some narrative
00:27:25
bias through Peter Ackerman is, he's the one who was describing,
00:27:30
you know, in the in between dialogue he's describing the
00:27:34
present, he's the one describing Beverly.
00:27:38
We never get into their head, so we're only getting his
00:27:42
disposition, and, you know, when it came time to it, she made the
00:27:46
right call. She said, I think you should go
00:27:49
in. Yeah.
00:27:50
So there's obviously some political movement maneuvering
00:27:53
and I like, I like this aspect. I, this is something that's in
00:27:57
every metric novel and I could see how he's going to play up on
00:28:02
these characters and you bring it in.
00:28:05
I was also intrigued by the the Charles character, the the Rogue
00:28:09
CIA station Chief operative at him, and we didn't get very much
00:28:14
clarification on him. I thought that was an
00:28:16
interesting twist. Most of the time with these
00:28:18
novels were not left with so many loose ends with.
00:28:22
I felt like there was a lot of Cliffhangers normally there's
00:28:25
like one Cliffhanger you know. Agreed yeah think of Spymaster,
00:28:30
you know, Scott loses literally his entire family, right?
00:28:34
His mentor, his wife and he gets captured like, all right, that's
00:28:38
it. But here we're not only left
00:28:41
with what the hell was Charles doing with the Syrian commander
00:28:47
who claim to have been you know knew about him knew about Frodo
00:28:52
like was sent to essentially kill mad Drake, right?
00:28:56
You know, was Peter involved with this.
00:28:59
How was Beverly involved with the somehow?
00:29:01
Like there's just a lot of little mini trails that are
00:29:05
registered or Belgian dude or whatever embedded with Rusty.
00:29:08
Oh yeah. Who is he?
00:29:11
The mr. Suave who is mr.
00:29:13
Sloppy I. How did how did he know?
00:29:15
Matt Drake's name right? You know, there's bigger fish
00:29:18
here. Exactly, exactly.
00:29:21
So I thought that was I was kind of like oh this is cool.
00:29:24
Like you know, when you watch like a movie or you know there's
00:29:28
there's a lot of little things. Things.
00:29:29
We're like it. None of them.
00:29:30
Maybe not necessarily movie, but, like a season of TV,
00:29:34
there's no more like multiple threads that they can then pull
00:29:37
on on the next season and I felt like this book left me with more
00:29:41
of those than traditional books. In the genre have have left me
00:29:44
with so 100% agree with that. Yeah, this book really made me
00:29:48
want the second one and I'll be honest for a book that I really
00:29:51
enjoyed. I really, really liked It did
00:29:54
enough to want me to continue and finish the series but those
00:29:58
Cliffhangers are definitely like, the closer it not only
00:30:01
didn't, uh, Fisher, really made me want the second one, you
00:30:03
know, some books are so good. You absolutely.
00:30:06
Have to get the second one. This one was so good and
00:30:10
Intrigue the hell out of you. And the last chapter, you know,
00:30:13
in the final Pages needing to know what's going on here.
00:30:16
So it, yeah, I really like that take as well.
00:30:21
We talked a bit about the bad guys.
00:30:22
Let me ask you what you think about two really awesome
00:30:25
characters candidates for our winner section on the scorecard
00:30:30
later. James glass and Frodo.
00:30:33
What did you think about the good guys?
00:30:35
I'm at Drake's team. Dude.
00:30:39
So Frodo is awesome. Probably my favorite character
00:30:43
on the book, so very sad. He is this fictional character
00:30:47
but still very sad that he, you know, targeted in that attack.
00:30:51
Lost his ability. Lost his arm, obviously.
00:30:54
His legs are messed up, but just, you know, reminded me, it
00:30:58
kind of, again, to parallel this, with, with me trap but It
00:31:02
was like, as if Marcus Du Monde ride wasn't just a brainiac guy,
00:31:06
but if Marcus Du Monde, what was about Holden that woman to
00:31:10
Marcus exactly. Yeah, if you merge those two
00:31:13
together, that is Frodo. God if you don't throw in like a
00:31:17
missing you know like a battlefield you know seeing gone
00:31:21
wrong and you have your person so that was cool.
00:31:24
It's incredible and glass while we didn't get a lot of him, we
00:31:28
got like the seating of him more like I want more glass.
00:31:32
I think. Is going to be an intricate.
00:31:34
I could see him being at least, I hope him being an intricate
00:31:37
character, going all along in this series, kind of like, your
00:31:42
Stan Hurley's. Exactly.
00:31:43
Or Gary lolling, your Gary Lawler.
00:31:47
Yeah. Like that, that kind of Mentor
00:31:49
figure for it. He does say that he only knew
00:31:51
metric for five years. But still, he, he had that he
00:31:55
reminded me of like, JK Simmons, like the character that like JK
00:31:58
Simmons plays and like, all these novel, all these movies,
00:32:01
you know? Like, That guy 100% that.
00:32:04
Yeah, Adele of these guys definitely Frodo is if he's not
00:32:10
your winner. He's, you know, he's got to be a
00:32:11
winner. Oh yeah.
00:32:13
And then that also compounded the personal demons Drake is
00:32:18
dealing with because while not directly responsible for Frodo.
00:32:21
He felt responsible and now right?
00:32:24
Having to go through this being in the field without your backup
00:32:27
without your wingman. You know, without that OverWatch
00:32:31
from your A buddy who always had your back and you guys are
00:32:35
operating thousands of miles apart and you know, the comms
00:32:39
are shaky in and out here and there he when he can talk to him
00:32:43
you just see that Bond come through.
00:32:44
I absolutely love the dialogue between the two of them and we
00:32:49
are in metrics head a lot in the first is so I think that's one
00:32:52
benefit of first-person. Another one I'm going to talk
00:32:54
about in a little bit but one of the main benefits is every time
00:32:58
he talks to Frodo, That conversation is so much deeper
00:33:02
because you're not only getting to hear what he says about his
00:33:05
friend, but you get to see and hear what he's thinking about
00:33:09
his friend, write the dialogue isn't the only way to access
00:33:13
their relationship, and that's brilliant.
00:33:16
Absolutely brilliant there. That's, that's the benefit of
00:33:20
first-person. Yeah.
00:33:22
You know, because a lot of times, we'll get the dialogue
00:33:25
and, you know, maybe the narrator or the in-betweens can
00:33:29
give like a little bit of Interest.
00:33:30
Effective, right? But here, we're getting, like
00:33:35
you said those conversation with met with Matt and Frodo.
00:33:38
You know, he's saying, what? What is almost sometimes
00:33:41
Unwritten and I like that a lot. And yeah, no, perfect.
00:33:46
That is what at the beginning that I wasn't a huge fan of
00:33:50
first person, but I think I am, like, I think I still prefer
00:33:54
third. But there are some benefits to
00:33:57
Versa and and I got another big one will talk about towards the
00:34:00
end. And it's perhaps my favorite.
00:34:02
Not my favorite scene of the book mutt but my favorite
00:34:05
written excerpt passage from the book.
00:34:08
And it's a soliloquy totally and Matt Drake said.
00:34:11
And and it's just first person is the vehicle to let that kind
00:34:14
of writing be as good as it is. One missing on glass, actually,
00:34:19
two last things on glass the little details, just make this
00:34:23
book pure entertainment through, and through the coasters in his
00:34:27
office. You know, this dude is just like
00:34:32
He's like he's like the Stan Hurley III.
00:34:35
There's no other way to put it. He's got coasters of exactly all
00:34:39
the bad guys that he's been involved in Ops on to kill and
00:34:43
they're all pictures of these guys post-op.
00:34:45
So it's like it's Hussein after his hanging or it's like Osama
00:34:50
Bin Laden after getting popped in the face and he puts them on
00:34:53
coasters because and I quote necklace is made from ears.
00:34:58
Were not in Vogue, so he settled for coasters.
00:35:04
That's awesome. That that makes me think of that
00:35:07
bar, that Brad Thoreau wrote about, which had all the
00:35:09
mementos by all the seals, from all their kills.
00:35:12
They were like, you know, right. Oh, and Virginia Beach.
00:35:14
Yeah. Yeah.
00:35:16
Don writes that it's so like strange and weird.
00:35:21
It has to be true, right? The fact that there's someone
00:35:24
out there that has these coasters, you know it's like you
00:35:28
know something that you put in there.
00:35:29
But yeah and one other tidbit on glass I mean just again.
00:35:34
So many gems, you know, when I'm pulling all these quotes it's
00:35:37
because they were so many, he's just dropping dimes.
00:35:39
There's so many of them. This one's quote, to say James
00:35:42
glass is an intimidating. Figure is a bit like saying,
00:35:45
Bill Clinton liked women sometimes words just learned
00:35:48
enough. Talk about Mitch wrap and the
00:35:54
humor like that. Just proves to me, Don Bentley's
00:35:57
gonna bring it. The Kyle Mills, Mitch wrap dark
00:36:00
humor. He's gonna bring it.
00:36:02
No, that there was definitely some, some humor in here, you
00:36:05
know, like not only with Matt's like quippy.
00:36:09
Some of his quips that he says, to people Frodo, or even like
00:36:13
some of the terrorists. But just, you know, some of the
00:36:15
things that the dawn puts in other characters, which just was
00:36:18
just funny. So yeah, I'm looking forward to
00:36:20
that. God, you want you want to stop
00:36:23
in scorecard and talk about some of the stuff?
00:36:26
Yeah, I'm gonna score. No, I like that.
00:36:28
I think that's a good way to do. It will also allow us to get
00:36:31
into the action because we haven't really talked action
00:36:33
writing too much yet, but we aren't characters, right?
00:36:36
So, just right before we depart from Good Guys, bad guys talk
00:36:41
What did you think about some of the side characters,
00:36:43
particularly the locals. There's Zane, who was a weapons
00:36:48
dealer, who picks him up at the airport as they're escaping, you
00:36:52
know, that shoot out from, you know, that the plane landing.
00:36:57
And then there's another one that Isis kid the American from
00:36:59
Chicago turned extremist abandoned everything.
00:37:03
Abandoned his mom went to go fight for Isis, but is now
00:37:06
questioning things. And the reason I want to ask you
00:37:08
about these two and bring them up.
00:37:11
I feel like the topic of extremism and Islamic
00:37:16
fundamentalism and any sort of fundamentalism is handled real
00:37:20
well. And the Embrace of culture is
00:37:23
handled real well, and it was so refreshing.
00:37:26
NG because after some some criticisms we've had of breadth
00:37:29
or yeah, we don't hold our punches here.
00:37:31
If we say something, it's got to be said, it's how we feel.
00:37:35
I really appreciated Don's, respect for the cultural
00:37:39
attitudes of the people in places where the stories
00:37:42
happening, and the motivations of the individuals, not the
00:37:46
motivations of the group, like Isis, obviously, he nails that
00:37:49
and, you know, they're all scumbags.
00:37:52
But he gets into that personal level to say, but they all
00:37:55
didn't choose this life, or they all some of them might regret,
00:37:59
though, that life, and it doesn't Define the culture of
00:38:02
the entire country. Even if those veins of extremism
00:38:07
are currently ruling the area, it doesn't Define the cultural
00:38:10
attitudes of the people in those areas and I thought he did that
00:38:14
really well with a lot of Side characters.
00:38:16
And particularly with the very end, which is Drake goes to see
00:38:20
the mom of this kid and says, I wanted to come home to you like
00:38:23
I just wanted to tell you ma'am, I'm not here to interrogate you
00:38:26
or anything. I want to tell you your son
00:38:28
regretted what he did, he was going to come home and I was
00:38:30
there with him at the very end and he he wanted to come back to
00:38:33
you. Like I feel like that was so
00:38:35
personable and we haven't seen that in a couple of novels we've
00:38:37
read I feel like Vince did it sometimes with his side
00:38:40
characters and I'm really glad to see Don doing that with his
00:38:43
side characters here. Yeah, I think there's just a
00:38:46
breach appreciation across the board to try to tell, you know,
00:38:50
the whole story of what Syria is we even get?
00:38:52
And I forget if it's done or Matt, or if it's just whoever
00:38:57
describing, you know, just laying out the facts of what's
00:39:01
going on over there. And I found it interesting
00:39:04
because we haven't really dealt with a novel in this theater.
00:39:08
You know, trying to understand how you have all these multiple
00:39:11
proxy wars going on. You have the Assad government
00:39:15
that, you know, may or may not want the Insurgency to happen
00:39:21
because it allows them to continue you know to to attack
00:39:25
and assert his power. You know if you had peace what
00:39:28
would he still be in power? That was a you know, there's a
00:39:31
lot of interesting things to think about like in terms of
00:39:34
like introspection on like the whole Civil War that it's going
00:39:39
on there that Don sort of places in there without like being too
00:39:42
overly overt. In your face about what his
00:39:47
opinion is more. So like this is what this is
00:39:50
what it is and you can think of it either way.
00:39:52
But yeah, I liked his attention to detail of these Side
00:39:54
characters in it. Particularly forget his name,
00:39:58
you said it, Zane the guy who helps Matt Zane, there's a point
00:40:02
where Matt says, you know, I'm going to need your, you know,
00:40:06
something might not happen or something, we don't got no we're
00:40:10
not going to have this. And I understand if you don't
00:40:11
want to do it, insane just slams.
00:40:14
The brakes. And he says, who the fuck do you
00:40:17
think? I am?
00:40:18
Essentially like I'm going to run at the first sense of, you
00:40:21
know, I'm not only am I your asset, I am your friend and I,
00:40:26
you know, there are people out there who are, you know, this is
00:40:30
their life. They're dated every day.
00:40:32
Yep. But they're so loyal.
00:40:34
They still have a moral compass, you know, like there but I liked
00:40:37
how he also paralleled this with Einstein.
00:40:40
Right piece of shit scumbag. Right?
00:40:42
Absolutely who you know. Also quote, unquote asset, but,
00:40:48
you know, just calls to the highest bidder.
00:40:51
The exactly has no problem and experimenting on women children
00:40:55
and the elderly. So, you get a lot of parallels
00:40:59
in this, in this novel, you really do, and the, the mr.
00:41:04
Suave he isn't not a Jihadi, he calls himself a business
00:41:10
businessman, right? Whatever is good for business.
00:41:14
What he's there for. So you know whether it be
00:41:17
selling chemical weapons, selling drugs, selling military,
00:41:22
power War feeds that. So he's going to be there to
00:41:26
sell it. He's an auxiliary interesting.
00:41:28
These these different you know, characters we get not only the
00:41:32
political guys, but in Syria natives It's like Lord of War
00:41:38
was that the Nicolas Cage movie, you know, he's an awfully asked.
00:41:41
Yeah, that was good. Yeah you're right it's not just
00:41:44
the natives, not just the locals who are playing both sides or
00:41:47
being manipulative. It's this unique European guy
00:41:50
and we don't even know what his deal is but it could be anybody.
00:41:54
It's actually it's the rush is going to come up later, right?
00:41:57
Right. Yes.
00:41:57
It's the Russians to its everybody.
00:41:59
I mean, so yeah, you started with just saying that Don has
00:42:03
such a great grip on The political landscape that is
00:42:07
Syria and what a smart play to put this book there.
00:42:10
You know, you could have made this Afghanistan, you could have
00:42:13
made it Iraq. And it would have just seemed
00:42:14
like, shouldn't of this, have been published 10 years earlier,
00:42:17
you know, like, why didn't this come out in 2007-2008 if that's
00:42:21
what you're going to do. And so, for 2020 made sense this
00:42:25
country in disarray and here's how well Don understands this.
00:42:28
He writes quote, the Legion of policy analyst and think-tank
00:42:31
fellows, who had tried to understand serious religious
00:42:34
fault lines. It's and tribal intricacies had
00:42:37
completely missed the point at their core people, crave
00:42:41
stability, and safety and Isis offered both in Spades provided.
00:42:45
Of course that you subscribe to their malignant form of
00:42:48
apocalyptic Islam. Nobody's perfect.
00:42:51
I feel like he's recognizing, you know, it's like the drug
00:42:53
gangs in like Brazil or Colombia or something, you got to
00:42:57
recognize. There's a community that's in
00:42:59
need and as soon as a strong mans going to offer stability
00:43:03
and safety. As Don says, The community may
00:43:06
actually want them, or need them.
00:43:08
It's not because they agree with their views, it's not.
00:43:11
Because long-term they think this is, what's best for the
00:43:13
country in the world. They don't want to bring Sharia
00:43:15
law to everybody and Destroy America.
00:43:17
The evil Satan. No just like the drug lowers and
00:43:21
Lords in The Gangs. They're going to bring some
00:43:23
stability and they're gonna, they're gonna watch out for the
00:43:24
kids on the street. If they know your family,
00:43:27
they're going to be the only ones, bringing them gifts, you
00:43:28
know, at Christmas time, you know, whatever it is right
00:43:31
there. Going to be the only ones on
00:43:32
call if you are getting attacked They're their aims might not be
00:43:37
good. Their worldview may not be good,
00:43:38
what they're doing, may not be good.
00:43:41
What they could do for you and your community.
00:43:42
You might need them in that moment in time and place.
00:43:44
And I think separating that out from everybody's just a bad guy
00:43:49
who agrees with Isis vs. Some people under Isis is
00:43:52
protection or getting more stability, than they had.
00:43:54
Under the government forces, is a reality to be reckoned with
00:43:58
and Don's able to call it out, put a name to it, and put it in
00:44:03
his books and I really appreciate that.
00:44:04
Take, Yeah, no, I agree. Scorecard.
00:44:09
We could talk some action. Yeah, I was going to say, I
00:44:14
thought the action was some of the best.
00:44:17
I've read just the writing of it and you can tell you can tell
00:44:22
he's been in like these sort of theaters.
00:44:23
Like maybe not necessarily the DIA case officer, the special
00:44:28
operators, the Army Rangers, but he's experienced or he's at
00:44:32
least he's done. Super extensive research,
00:44:34
talking to his buddies about these very things, and he has
00:44:38
the respect for it. I think one of my favorite It
00:44:42
might not even call it an action scene.
00:44:44
But the, the whole, hey, ho jump.
00:44:47
Yes. From starting from pre-mission,
00:44:50
you know, checks to execution to, you know, ultimately having
00:44:55
to escape a Russian helicopter, like that whole scene was so
00:45:00
gripping to me. Yes.
00:45:01
Like, that was my favorite part of the entire novel.
00:45:05
It was a near-perfect action sequence.
00:45:07
I mean, that reminds me of like Vince Flynn's.
00:45:11
Um limits helicopter scene on the Potomac or right?
00:45:15
You know, some of Brad Thor's like iconic action, sequences
00:45:19
skiing down the slopes it had that same from Lions.
00:45:24
It had that same level of buy-in from me that was not forced in
00:45:28
any way. I was just absolutely gripped.
00:45:30
It's like that Pinnacle in a movie, like a Bond movie.
00:45:33
When it hits that stride of, you can't look away.
00:45:36
The book hit that stride at the exact right time when it needed
00:45:39
that. And to be honest, that also kept
00:45:42
up from from that scene forward, you were on your toes the whole
00:45:46
time, you know? Because soon thereafter he he
00:45:48
gets captured eventually right. He's in prison with Shaw a whole
00:45:52
lot happens there. So it's almost as if that scene
00:45:56
was awesome on its own but it was awesome.
00:45:58
In terms of how it led to the entire final action sequence of
00:46:02
the book that sustained for what 200 Pages or something.
00:46:06
It was awesome right now. And then there was also a really
00:46:11
cool action sequence we didn't which didn't have to do with
00:46:14
Matt Drake, but it definitely gave weight to what Peter, the
00:46:19
chief of staff did by tipping off the Russians, and was a
00:46:22
recall to that Russian helicopter, you know, brought it
00:46:25
full circle. When there was that Showdown,
00:46:28
the qrf team that Frodo and glass got to be authorized to
00:46:34
save Shaw because the beacon was embedded and we knew roughly
00:46:39
where these guys were we were going to send in the Cavalry but
00:46:42
then that Russian fighter pilot you know he fires a warning shot
00:46:46
as like turn around. Honestly you could fault that
00:46:50
captain or that pilot whoever. He was 44 turning it around.
00:46:54
You could say he succumbed to the Russian aggression, by think
00:46:57
he was playing the long game. He's like if we get shot down
00:46:59
here, We're going to have Unleashed a whole sequence of
00:47:03
events that we have no way of winning.
00:47:05
You know, we were shot down by a Russian that looks bad.
00:47:08
We were the ones, the aggressor going into their airspace, they
00:47:11
had the right to do it, there's no way.
00:47:12
We went on top of this and we'd have to have a retaliatory
00:47:15
strike. So I think him turning around
00:47:17
was, as disappointing. As it was, it was the right play
00:47:21
because it was no good answer in that situation.
00:47:23
And the only good answer is think long-term and come up with
00:47:26
your next move and then the counter move was even better.
00:47:29
That we would bomb the shit out of of their runways.
00:47:31
So they can't even launch anything anymore that they'd be
00:47:34
entirely crippled and so we put the you know we put the trigger
00:47:39
back on them. I thought was really brilliant
00:47:41
scene almost like that felt very Clancy.
00:47:44
Ask that? Yes War Games, the war games
00:47:47
back and forth, you know, whether it's planes or
00:47:49
helicopters, it felt very, very Clancy.
00:47:53
Yeah, and you brought it up earlier this, this whole idea of
00:47:57
like Top Gun nests of those scenes.
00:48:00
Was freaking awesome. Yeah, just the attention to
00:48:03
detail of describing, you know, not only the Russian warplanes
00:48:07
and American helicopters. But, you know, once we get
00:48:11
involved with the Raptors and, you know, getting a little bit
00:48:15
of introspection of not only the Russian pilot, but the American
00:48:18
pilot and what briefly, what they stand for?
00:48:21
Yeah, I was just here for it and like, you know, the little
00:48:23
descriptions, you can tell he did his research about the
00:48:27
little, like the blip of radar when the weapons Tim opens up
00:48:31
and that's the only thing he was a pilot, you know.
00:48:34
He's Apache pilot. Yeah.
00:48:35
Those kind of things were cool and like they weren't overly
00:48:38
technical like some of the things we've read, right?
00:48:41
They added to the story. It was, you know, sort of woven
00:48:44
in a little bit. I like that.
00:48:46
The last, I don't know freaking two-thirds of this book is
00:48:50
pretty much just jam-packed action, so I don't know.
00:48:55
It gets a pretty high action score for me.
00:48:57
I think I'm gonna I'm going to do a 9.
00:49:02
Yeah, that's what I was going to do two.
00:49:04
I mean, I could maybe do eight for the first couple of
00:49:06
chapters, not having that initial got you action scene,
00:49:10
that captures your attention but it more than makes up for it.
00:49:13
So I think I'm going on. Yeah I was thinking about that
00:49:16
like we get the like a little bit of action at that airport,
00:49:19
where he's being taken down. That's true.
00:49:21
Bit of like the opening scene is like, you know, his asset is
00:49:25
sort of Trying to figure out, you know, send the signal that
00:49:29
kind of grid Point your app. So I'll agree know what about
00:49:34
the overall plot that We haven't wanted to be positive about
00:49:40
this, but there are a little things as I was getting towards
00:49:43
the end of the novel. And this is what I said.
00:49:44
Like, first novels sometimes can be jam-packed and the author
00:49:50
just tries to jam in everything there, because who knows when
00:49:53
they're going to get to ride again, but there was a couple
00:49:57
coincidences that I'm going to ding the plot on a little bit.
00:50:01
The whole idea that the only reason like, did you buy?
00:50:06
The only reason that Einstein Peter was trying to walk?
00:50:12
I'm going to give you that but like the Peter aspect of it,
00:50:14
like do you really think there's someone out there that would
00:50:16
stop this? Just to save to win all and
00:50:19
election? Is that is that true?
00:50:21
I think that was a little more buyable.
00:50:23
Yeah, for me for me that wasn't that wasn't the big faux pas.
00:50:27
I think for me, that that was almost like a buy into that that
00:50:30
was very much like Like a Vince Flynn, what's his now cigars
00:50:34
Hank, Hank, Clark, or House of Cards move?
00:50:36
Hey Clark. Yeah, I actually think there are
00:50:39
some people who want to play politics and just say, look, if
00:50:42
we can cover up some service members, deaths, if we can get
00:50:46
an opt to go wrong, if you know, even Jack car, right?
00:50:49
That's terminal is stuff. They're trying to cover up the
00:50:51
experimental drug by essentially walking or guys into a trap.
00:50:56
Yeah, I think it works as a literary device and I also do
00:51:00
buy it. I'm sure Some level maybe not
00:51:02
this Stark but on some level the election supersedes everything
00:51:06
and Public Image, you know, supersedes everything even
00:51:09
commitment to the troop. So I bought that about that.
00:51:12
You had a gripe with that a little bit.
00:51:15
Wouldn't that was like the beginning but you said it that
00:51:18
the whole it didn't need the chemical weapon right?
00:51:21
Story at all. It really is.
00:51:24
Yeah. Yeah.
00:51:26
What was supposed to be the sort of weed in there?
00:51:29
Yeah, the big reveal that the The weapon was used on Drake and
00:51:33
that was why he's having the Tremors.
00:51:35
And and this PTSD is because his brain is slowly being kind of
00:51:39
manipulated by this chemical agent.
00:51:42
But it didn't quite take hold in him.
00:51:44
It was a, it was a failure on Einsteins part in the early
00:51:47
research is why? Matt Drake is still alive.
00:51:50
Okay. And then, that ended up being
00:51:52
the reason because I was, I was wondering why Einstein only
00:51:56
wanted to see metric. I thought that was very true.
00:51:59
I was wondering that, right? And I and I was willing to brush
00:52:03
it off as I believe the relationship between a Handler
00:52:06
and an asset is sacred. And like, if that's the face
00:52:09
that first reach out to you, that's the Only person you're
00:52:12
not going to trust a single person and even handoffs right
00:52:16
you here in a lot of these Cold War error times, a Handler would
00:52:19
have to pass off their agent to a new Handler and it'd be really
00:52:22
Rocky, you know, like to get them to get them, bought into
00:52:25
that new Handler. Even if they're validating it
00:52:28
for you, it was very hesitant. The agent would often not.
00:52:32
They'd only want to deal with that person.
00:52:34
So I kind of was willing to forgive that, but then when it's
00:52:37
revealed at the end, that Einstein only wanted to talk to
00:52:40
Drake because he wanted to Get progress on his failed
00:52:43
experiment and try to find out what went wrong and he was still
00:52:47
kind of actually running Drake right by wanting to analyze them
00:52:51
and experiment on him. Still I'm like, Yeah the may be
00:52:57
the weakest link of this book now that you're right.
00:53:00
It's the weakest link of the book but it didn't bring it down
00:53:05
for me too much like it. I kind of just like all right I
00:53:09
didn't like that so I just I brushed it aside and moved on
00:53:12
it's not egregious. Yeah.
00:53:14
Like I said, I don't even think you needed.
00:53:16
Einstein necessarily be a chemical, you know, a chemist,
00:53:22
like you could have just had him be an asset that Only want to
00:53:26
talk to Drake and he turned, you know like the that kind of
00:53:29
situation. Yeah.
00:53:31
You know I think that was and then what did you think of the
00:53:36
en scene where Frodo goes into the president and essentially
00:53:42
blackmails them? Yeah, and the president even
00:53:45
like gets mad at him and says like, yeah I'm I'm sorry.
00:53:49
You think that you would have to eat your dead to Blackmail this
00:53:51
Administration? That was like a lot like Do you
00:53:56
think like that would actually ever happen like glass and photo
00:53:58
being able to allow get audience in the situation room and
00:54:01
demands blackmail? The president oh a little forced
00:54:05
I think I'll agree with you again first book.
00:54:09
I'm glad we're jumping right into a White House, you know,
00:54:12
Situation Room Oval Office, kind of discussions, but I think to
00:54:18
get that, right, your research, your dialogue has to be so
00:54:23
OnPoint and I think he played a little Hard and fast a little
00:54:26
loosey-goosey here. You know, who can say, what,
00:54:29
who's running their mouth? How's the president?
00:54:31
Going to respond? I think that's again.
00:54:33
Another part of the book that I would like to see tightened up.
00:54:36
I mean, you could learn a lot from Reading Vince, Flynn's
00:54:39
White House scenes or Capitol Hill scene, right?
00:54:41
And I think Don as his as an early writer here could
00:54:47
definitely benefit from tweaking that dialogue a little bit and
00:54:50
the access to the president a little more, maybe like one more
00:54:53
character like the For Terry, who's right outside the Oval
00:54:57
Office door who you know, tries to stop them but James glass
00:55:00
busts in any way, you know, instead of them just showing up
00:55:04
happenstance, you know, I'm here surprised.
00:55:06
Right? You know, you flesh it out a
00:55:08
little bit. Ya know that there was like,
00:55:12
little little things, you know, we have to have to be give the
00:55:15
full picture, you know, give a little bit of nitty-gritty, even
00:55:18
though, you know, really like this.
00:55:20
But so for all that I probably give the plot.
00:55:26
I don't know 88.5. Yeah.
00:55:28
Like it's still very good. Yeah I was hovering between a
00:55:32
seven and an eight like you deserves that eight.
00:55:35
I really do. Smash that eight.
00:55:40
I think by in we've already said it again, we've said this many
00:55:43
times if we're talking action in that second half of the novel, 5
00:55:48
out of 5, all day long, buying on a couple of these other
00:55:52
storylines that aren't woven in. So well maybe a little lower by
00:55:56
in in the beginning where I'm trying to figure out, who's
00:55:58
Layla his wife, why can't he see her face and whose Jeremiah the
00:56:02
shoe Shiner? And what are they talking about?
00:56:04
Yeah, just the opening didn't totally get me the way I'd want
00:56:08
so I can Tween, a three and a four.
00:56:11
I think it's three is disingenuous.
00:56:13
I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt with a 4.
00:56:16
For the action, I'm into this time just for the action.
00:56:19
Yeah. For the, the buy-in of the act
00:56:21
like the believability of the action, just elevates it.
00:56:25
Now, the believability of the bad guys, not so much.
00:56:28
I mean, the whole Charles character, knowing Peter and
00:56:31
then them having a contact with the Russians.
00:56:33
Okay. I didn't buy the Peter all that
00:56:38
much. So I am going to go to three on
00:56:40
the bad guys. That's going to be my slightly
00:56:41
lower one. Okay.
00:56:43
Okay. Kind of like this.
00:56:45
Like Einstein character in terms of I like the duplicity of him
00:56:49
even though, like he didn't really need to be a chemist.
00:56:51
But like this idea that there are these guys who are willing
00:56:55
to scumbags willing to play either game and then you
00:56:57
juxtaposed against that with his other, his other asset that he
00:57:00
had. I like that, you know, sort of
00:57:02
comparison, you know, both of them.
00:57:05
In this theater of operation. I was intrigued by the, the
00:57:10
Suave, man. We're calling him, mr.
00:57:13
Suave Rico Suave he's Rico Suave.
00:57:16
He's kind of a bad guy, but we didn't get like too much of him
00:57:19
to like really understand his motives.
00:57:21
And I do think that Charles and Peter, it's at least setting up
00:57:27
for them to be like, the big bads on the political side going
00:57:31
forward. It's way more so than what we
00:57:33
saw in this novels. So for that, you know, imma give
00:57:37
it like a 3.5 little higher, you know.
00:57:39
Yeah. I think that's fair.
00:57:42
Good Guys. Frodo glass Drake right there.
00:57:45
That's the tag team that's the trio.
00:57:47
I want to see you throw in these Side characters, 5 out of 5 on
00:57:50
the good guys. Yeah, I mean you join me said it
00:57:55
joining me. I'm doing with the five like I
00:57:58
love Matt Drake. I think he's an awesome
00:58:00
protagonist and the side characters that we got Frodo,
00:58:04
even like even some like the little operators, like The Night
00:58:06
Stalker pilot, General fritz or Colonel Fritz the rent.
00:58:11
Yeah, the the range of that helps him out.
00:58:13
Yep. The these little attention to
00:58:15
detail with those, melons our operatives was really nice.
00:58:19
Yep. Setting Syria was cool man.
00:58:25
It really was, I was in that prison.
00:58:29
I was in that little Hut trying to jumpstart that tractor or
00:58:32
that car the flat tire and getting fired upon by the
00:58:36
helicopter. I was in the cockpit of the
00:58:37
fighter pilots. I don't think I have any other
00:58:40
choice but to go five, I mean, maybe a four and a half but I'm
00:58:46
going to like, I like round numbers today.
00:58:47
So I'm going five on the setting.
00:58:50
All right, I'm gonna go for it mainly because we, I would like
00:58:57
to like a little bit more description of like, the the
00:59:00
theater of Syria, like in like, what's going on around that.
00:59:03
But like, the individual setting description of where we were at,
00:59:08
you know, in that Hut in the airplane, on the way to Syria,
00:59:13
was really good. And I think the way he describes
00:59:16
his surroundings within the novel is very good, but I would
00:59:19
have liked a little bit. More retrospection of I guess we
00:59:24
got a little bit but, you know, almost like the Apostle.
00:59:28
Yeah, it's very. It's yeah, the Apostle.
00:59:31
I feel like we were so hardcore on those Ops you're feeling
00:59:36
every bump, you know, in the Jeep, in the Convoy, I felt
00:59:38
Afghanistan more than I did. Then I felt Syrian this, but I,
00:59:42
yeah, I liked it. How it was a new, a new aspect
00:59:46
to it. Yeah, well, new thing, a new, a
00:59:49
new theater of operation. So it may be on the ground in
00:59:52
Syria while I was there generally or vaguely maybe the
00:59:56
nitty gritty. The site the smell of the touch,
01:00:00
you know, wasn't fully there, and then you know what?
01:00:04
I might backtrack here, if I like the White House wasn't done
01:00:08
all that. Well I don't really know what
01:00:12
Jorge Gonzales white house looks and feels like we were in a
01:00:16
couple of meetings. Sure.
01:00:18
But there wasn't much about what portraits are on the wall.
01:00:21
What do they indicate about Jorge's presidency in the
01:00:23
administration? What changes were made to the
01:00:25
building, the way Kyle man, when he had The Cook's come in he
01:00:30
made it all modern using glass, removing a lot of the marble
01:00:34
white like traditional stuff. I feel like the White House
01:00:37
wasn't done Justice. I'm gonna guess those attention
01:00:41
to details that. Yeah, you know, sort of rounds
01:00:46
out who the, you know, it's signals like without saying it
01:00:49
who the president is and like that the fact that he's that
01:00:51
kind of person that would do that, you know, we Now
01:00:53
understand that character better.
01:00:55
So, yeah, I I agree like there's room for a proven, but very good
01:01:01
start. Yeah, yeah, I agree with you.
01:01:03
I'm going to a four on setting. Cover Chris.
01:01:07
Tell me what you think of the mattrick and this call.
01:01:11
And this series keeps up through all four of the metric books.
01:01:15
What does about the design it does?
01:01:17
Dude, I'm I'm going like a solid for like it's a you know we get
01:01:22
one cover that's either black or you know there's a reddish with
01:01:28
with that like a broken-down building in the background there
01:01:30
or something as secondary not cover I guess I'll be the paper
01:01:35
bag. Maybe I, you know, normally
01:01:39
typically I don't like a man he demands face on my cover for
01:01:44
some reason. I don't mind this.
01:01:45
Maybe it's because I just don't have that because I don't have
01:01:48
that much of a stake in in this series yet so I haven't
01:01:54
envisioned like who magic is so I'm okay with them telling me
01:01:58
our this is what they think mattrick is like but I like the
01:02:01
attention I like the without sanction that the sort of angled
01:02:05
lettering. NG and and how it's placed just
01:02:09
and this guy looks super beaten and and madri goes through the
01:02:12
frickin ringer, the tracks, through the course of this
01:02:14
novel. So I like that aspect of it.
01:02:17
So yeah, I'm with you I love the text, the diagonal is very
01:02:23
unique, it puts a stamp on, you know, the trademarks this is
01:02:27
going to be its own series. I'm I agree.
01:02:31
I'm gonna say I give my stamp of approval to the face here and
01:02:35
the man the body traditionally, our listeners will know we don't
01:02:39
like seeing the main character as an actual embodied person on
01:02:43
the cover, particularly seeing their face.
01:02:45
But I think it's so artistically done here with the Shadows.
01:02:49
I love the lighting on it and the fact that you don't have
01:02:54
anything else. I think my problem with faces
01:02:56
and bodies is when they're dropped into what's a really
01:02:59
cool or dramatic? Seen in terms of the props the
01:03:02
landscape, then you just tack this body on and it becomes
01:03:05
super tacky. But here that's all there is.
01:03:07
It's honestly just a black backdrop.
01:03:10
So I'm okay. I you can forgive the whole face
01:03:13
thing. Instead of you just blending it
01:03:15
in or putting it in the corner. Having a little guy standing
01:03:18
here. No, you're just going Whole Hog
01:03:21
filling the blank black space with this rough-and-tumble, torn
01:03:26
and battered, dude. And I think it's screams metric
01:03:29
to me. So sometimes I look at a
01:03:30
picture, like, the Jack car stuff and like that, don't
01:03:33
scream James Reese to me, like who's this guy in the cover?
01:03:36
But right here that screaming metric to me, and I'm for it.
01:03:40
I love the Simplicity of it. I think it matches the
01:03:42
Simplicity of the storytelling. I'm going five out of.
01:03:45
Yeah, very true. I think it's bold.
01:03:50
All right. Give me your winner, Mike.
01:03:52
So I actually want to hear your winter first because I have a
01:03:56
slightly unique one, and I'm hoping there's someone or
01:03:59
something that gets said in the winter section since I'm going
01:04:01
to pick something slightly different to round us out here.
01:04:04
I'm curious to hear yours first. You know, I was going to pick
01:04:09
Don Bentley. Is my winter, okay?
01:04:10
Like I think this is a pretty awesome.
01:04:14
First novel coming out in the pandemic, like the fact that
01:04:19
you're able to, you know, this is one of the better first
01:04:23
novels we've read and now he's going to be given the task of
01:04:28
taking over this Hefty weight of the series.
01:04:31
Like that's all I'm gonna say. He did a good job here and he,
01:04:35
you know, deserves it. So I'm going to give Give Don my
01:04:38
free space this week, you know I love that and my free space is
01:04:42
going to play right into that with Don's writing is so
01:04:46
powerful and he proves that in one of the last chapters and I
01:04:50
wanted to read the Soliloquy inside of metrics head because
01:04:54
it's the moment. He builds up the courage to
01:04:57
smash sides face and then bite his ear off and you know take
01:05:00
him down right before the final rescue scene.
01:05:03
It's when he exercises his demons and more importantly,
01:05:06
it's when he forgives himself, And the writing is so deep and
01:05:10
pulls everything together and the fact that he chose to do
01:05:12
first person this passage proves it absolutely proves why that
01:05:18
can work why it should work and why it's his stamp on the thrill
01:05:23
of verse. So I want to read this amazing
01:05:25
monologue Passage Sean and I were going to die and there was
01:05:30
nothing I could do about it. The sobering thought brought
01:05:34
with it, memories of the last time I face death, then Frodo
01:05:38
had been by my side, one arm gone, a leg mangled, and nearly
01:05:42
Delirious with pain like most in My Chosen profession.
01:05:45
I didn't dwell on death but it was never far from my thoughts.
01:05:48
I'd been to too many funerals. Seen the flag folded and handed
01:05:52
to too many grieving spouse has to think.
01:05:54
I was invincible scores of men who were better operators than
01:05:58
I'd ever be. Now, slept with Arlington,
01:06:00
National Cemetery is eternal Embrace.
01:06:02
I didn't live a Charmed Life but I'd imagine that.
01:06:05
When death finally came for me, I'd be facing it with Frodo at
01:06:08
my side. For the briefest of moments.
01:06:10
I thought about Laila. How seeing her across the room?
01:06:13
Still made my heart. Skip how her skin smells like
01:06:16
lilacs the snorting noise. She made when she laughs left
01:06:19
and the way her nose wrinkled and her green eyes flashed when
01:06:21
she was angry. She deserved better than this
01:06:24
better than me. She deserves someone to grow old
01:06:26
with someone to rock her babies to sleep at night, someone to
01:06:29
coach their little league teams, she deserves someone safe, maybe
01:06:33
a high school teacher, or an engineer or a lawyer, someone
01:06:36
who wasn't me, I wasn't safe normal, or even completely
01:06:39
whole, I wasn't the man she'd grow old with.
01:06:41
I never hold her hand tightly in mine as she brought our children
01:06:44
into the world. No, I never be or do any of
01:06:46
those things, but I was still Ranger even in my darkest hour.
01:06:51
I was bound by something bigger than myself, the Ranger Creed.
01:06:58
Chris. That's it was awesome.
01:07:00
That's was awesome, writing. You novel.
01:07:02
That's a debut novel, and he's writing like that.
01:07:05
Yeah, no, that's all right. So I Gotta Give it to give it a
01:07:08
dime, like some of the writing in this novel is just, it's a
01:07:11
plus, plus it's top-class, it's so good, it's top-class its best
01:07:16
of the best in the genre. Like that's up there with some
01:07:18
of my favorite Vince Flynn passages, the epilogue to
01:07:21
consent to kill some of the amazing Jack car, things like
01:07:24
when James Reese is in Siberia, As the ghost, you know, in the
01:07:27
woods and down Bentley's, doing that right here to close out his
01:07:31
first metric book, ever, absolutely brilliant.
01:07:34
Hats off to you, glad to have you taken over the Mitch rap
01:07:37
series. My friend Yep.
01:07:40
Yeah, I so that leaves me with a 42 .5 and you with a 43, that's
01:07:47
too pretty good scores. A good scores, very good scores.
01:07:52
Good scores. Yeah, dude, I'm excited.
01:07:55
I really think we should read the next couple books in this
01:07:58
finish, the four books before we get least, before we get his his
01:08:04
first one, which we have some time, considering we haven't
01:08:07
even gotten Kyle's last book. Want to give that one.
01:08:09
Do justice do appreciation before really you know fully
01:08:14
switched to Don. But yeah, I think you know, in
01:08:16
the months to come, we're going to be doing more of these
01:08:18
novels. I want to, I want more metric in
01:08:20
my life. So Absolutely with writing like
01:08:23
that. I want more down Bentley my life
01:08:24
to. Yeah.
01:08:28
All right, so you know, on this feed, not quite sure what what's
01:08:33
coming next to you. We need to work on our schedule
01:08:35
but still going to be active, go over and check out the
01:08:40
Metropolitan cast where we're going to do a little bit more on
01:08:44
this book. I think there's, we try to
01:08:45
contain ourselves. There was a lot of comparisons
01:08:48
that I both me and my could have brought up in terms of, you
01:08:52
know, where we see where we think we see Don go could go.
01:08:57
With the measure a universe. I mean he could decide to go in
01:09:02
a completely opposite direction but I think there are some
01:09:04
pretty obvious things that we could he could pull from this
01:09:07
novel and so we want to we want to get those down in a pod so go
01:09:11
check that out. That will be on the mid trap
01:09:13
podcast and limits feed in the next week or two.
01:09:17
And of course, we are still chugging along and our season 2
01:09:21
of my tripod on the Scott Horvath podcast.
01:09:25
Our next Scott out Harvest novel is Is the Athena project.
01:09:30
Yeah, Athena project and then full black.
01:09:33
Yeah, so it's actually the one time one year when Brad released
01:09:39
two books in one year. Could you imagine getting to
01:09:41
breath or novels and the same here.
01:09:43
That be awesome, man. Yeah, so we get the little Side
01:09:48
Story with the Athena girls Xena women and full black.
01:09:54
You know, what else? We might have to do a You might
01:09:58
have to cover the excerpt from Deadfall.
01:10:01
Don't forget, we got us got Horvath novel in Ukraine, coming
01:10:04
out and I think of little bit of it was released earlier today so
01:10:08
we got a jump on that too. Did you read it?
01:10:10
I didn't get to read it so I was going to bring it up.
01:10:12
But yeah I meant to mention that to you that we probably should
01:10:15
do a little preview pod talking about a little the excerpt from
01:10:18
Deadfall so yep because that is coming out in July so pretty
01:10:21
soon. So soon and I think in June, do
01:10:26
we get in our next Jack? Horner No, I think only the dead
01:10:29
is June and then we got September with code red, dude.
01:10:33
And we also, we also have we already have it.
01:10:37
I have already examined. So busy, but the the next Chris
01:10:39
howdy novel which comes out in May, we have that one as well to
01:10:43
read. So that's right.
01:10:44
That's right, Haley, chill back on our life.
01:10:47
Oh, so that's probably the next one here, on Thriller podcast.
01:10:51
Is the next Chris Audi book. Oh that's exciting.
01:10:54
Appreciate you reminding me of that.
01:10:56
Oh, and we have a signed copy of the Athena project.
01:10:59
So next month when we cover that on Scott Horvath podcast, got a
01:11:04
breath or signed Athena project and eventually a full black,
01:11:08
signed copy and a spymaster side copy.
01:11:11
So I don't know about you, but those are three of the top
01:11:13
books, I would want signed by Brad Thor, and we're going to be
01:11:17
giving them away to our patrons. So, if you haven't heard about
01:11:21
our patreon, we have the best group of supporters who for the
01:11:24
price of less than a novel. A Help support this podcast and
01:11:29
they're the reasons we are able to make more podcast.
01:11:32
So just head to Thriller pod.com.
01:11:34
Click the patreon tab to learn more, you can get access to our
01:11:37
group chat where Chris and I are always chatting it up with our
01:11:40
patrons talking about what we're reading, life events or even
01:11:43
sporting events, Chris and I were just talking both EPL and
01:11:48
NHL playoff. So you can have access to Chris
01:11:51
and I anytime you want on the group chat and tell us what
01:11:54
you're reading. So Thriller pod.com.
01:11:56
Click. On patreon to join us over
01:11:58
there. Yep, yep.
01:12:01
And you're right. So the next next time you hear
01:12:03
us on the No Limits Thriller podcast, we will be covering the
01:12:07
W Now by Chris howdy book. Number 5.
01:12:10
Well, Four and a half, I guess. Because Insurrection days like I
01:12:15
have now, right, right. Great, novella All right, so
01:12:21
with that we need to thank our patrons are special operator.
01:12:27
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01:12:29
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or on Twitter and Instagram at Pillar podcast.
01:12:46
And you know, there was so many good novels like you know, I
01:12:49
could do just let Drake the Drake, just let Matt be Matt
01:12:54
Ritter. What is what's the Ranger 1
01:12:56
Rangers lead the way you could have done.
01:12:59
You could have done a multitude of a little quips little quotes
01:13:02
from this novel is amazing. So I don't know which one should
01:13:04
I choose Mike. Don, Bentley leads, the way.
01:13:09
This is the way Don dentling is way.
01:13:12
Just let down be done.