Richard Phillips (1) (1956–)

This review first appeared on on scifiandscary.com

‘Once Dead’ manages to be a horror novel, a sci fi novel and at the same time neither of those things. It’s a weird twist on the kind of ‘moody special forces guy growls and kicks butt’ books that proliferate on Kindle Unlimited where the twist is completely pointless.
It starts with moody special forces guy Jack (of course it’s Jack, they’re always called Jack) Gregory) getting killed in Calcutta whilst trying to avenge his show more brother’s death. As Jack slips into the afterlife he meets a being who is initially described as a demon, but later as an inter-dimensional mind worm, who offers Jack a second chance at life if he agrees to act as a human host for it.
The book is in some way related to another series by the same author which I haven’t read. I’m assuming the other series gives some kind of explanation of the origins of the inter-dimensional mind worm, as ‘Once Dead’ gives no explanation at all. Jack comes back to life, although his former CIA bosses think he is dead, and becomes a gun for hire. Now that he’s got an inter-dimensional mind worm on board he’s slightly moodier and more inclined to kick butts than he was before. But only slightly. With that set up out of the way, Jack’s companion hardly any further appearances in the book, and has absolutely no bearing on the plot.
That plot is your standard evil European billionaire trying to blow up the world affair, with a side order of Russian mafia enforcers and corrupt US intelligence officials. It has plenty of the standard action thriller tropes- lots of descriptions of guns, people doing clever things with computers, beautiful female operatives who fall for the hero despite how moody he is, intense rivalry between the different US intelligence agencies, etc, etc
It does also have some neat ideas - like the NSA-developed Big John, a data mining solution that is built into the kernel of every piece of anti virus software and uses the different devices it runs on as nodes in a global neural net. Any inventiveness gets drowned out by all the running around and shooting though.
It’s not a terrible book, some of the action sequences are really tense, but it just all feels a bit pointless. This is made even more the case by the fact that the horror/sci fi elements that are hinted at the start are completely lost as the book progressed. I can’t entirely hate a book that deliver lines like
“This would be his one-way ticket to hell. And on this train, Jacob Knox would be the conductor.”
With a straight face, but I won’t be rushing out to read more my Richard Phillips’ work. show less

The three books got better towards the end, but it felt like the author was still trying to find his feet. The first book was too Young Adult, and the second overcompensated with adult material. The third had a Tom Clancy slant with the amount of technical detail. The saving factor is the sci-fi, which remained quite interesting throughout...

Exceptional first book in the Rho Agenda series! I was grabbed in the Prologue and wasn't let go. Great reading for young people, sci fi buffs and UFO fans, amazing yet made plausible, some perhaps even probable, BUT you do not have to be a fan of sci-fi to thoroughly enjoy this book, it covers so many genres. Richard Phillips is an author to be reckoned with, absolutely incredible. He knows exactly what he is saying and knows how to say it.

For those readers who are UFOnauts, it all begins show more in Groom Lake, Nevada, site of the infamous Area 51. Book One of the Rho Agenda, takes place in and around Los Alamos, New Mexico. I am old enough to recall hearing of the "Roswell Incident" when it happened, so the book is of particular interest to me. However, don't be led astray by that personal fact, this is not about Roswell. This is The Second Ship. A model plane is the method through which this ship will be discovered; not just a model plane but one carrying a camera as an experiment. This model plane just happens to crash in some difficult terrain and must be retrieved.

Three high school students, while retrieving their plane, have stumbled across a cave which hides the back entrance, or rather entry point, where an alien ship buried itself when crashing. A highly sophisticated camouflaging device almost thwarts them, but no, they can actually walk right through it, disappearing as they go in and completely out of sight once they are in. As they turn around, they see the back of the ship which they feel must have been able to generate the cloaking devise at the mouth of the cave. There is a gaping hole where it appears the ship was shot down, perhaps by the Rho ship.

The Rho ship crashed in the next year after the Roswell event, and has been undergoing tests in either another cavern or another part of the same cave. This ship was also damaged but whether from the crash or a collision or shot down is unknown. The authorities, from several different areas of security, presumably only know of the Rho ship, a cigar-shaped monster. This second ship the teens have just discovered is round, has a mind of its own and is only too ready to give portions of it to the newcomers. The problem with being a high school student though, is that there are certain restrictions on your free time, which makes it difficult for them to spend much time with the ship, but when they do, miraculous things happen.

Each student already excels in specific areas: Heather in mathematics, her next-door neighbours the twins Jennifer, excelling in technology, and Mark, into sports. Now, having investigated a number of areas in the ship and done some tests, they have found these skills amplified by multiples. They must now play down their skills so they won't draw attention to themselves and raise suspicion. Soon, Heather realizes that she is being 'stalked' by a skinny tattered man who appears homeless and possibly dangerous. Somehow he knows that they have been to the Second Ship.

This book has it all; humour, terror, alien ships, corruption, love, kidnapping, good, evil, secret agents, exciting, conspiracy, greed, thrills and chills, intrigue, deep dark secrets, action, adventure, and great cliff-hangers, especially the last one. The writing style keeps the reader in a constant race against time, running several parts of the story in chapters of their own. This is not as difficult as it sounds, I found it easier to keep track of the parts that make up the whole this way. Other styles would have left me floundering. The book is extremely readable, technical terms seem easy to grasp for the novice, and the action never stops, very fast paced. "The Second Ship" leads into a "must have" feeling for the second book of the series, "Immune". This series definitely promises to carry on like lightning. show less

For once, I get to go with the majority: this book is noticeably better than book 1. The supernatural aspects from book one are better explained here - in fact, they are now identified as coming from a sci-fi source. It makes much more sense to think of Jack as hosting an alien life-form, than as being possessed by a demon-like spirit. (Well, it does for me since I like action-sci-fi and don't like supernatural-ghost based writing).

The story seems to start off a bit sluggish... but if you show more make it through the first 1/4, it really picks up into a decent action novel. Lots of non-graphic violence and bad guys bite the biscuit on a regular basis. There is no romantic component to this novel - maybe a quick mention that Jack and Janet had a previous relationship, but no sappiness or sex goes on in here...

The story is independent of the first book, and it is fully wrapped up here too. The next book in the series might have the same characters, but it will have to be a completely different 'mission' since all the bad guys got their just desserts here.

I'll read the next in the series. show less