Brainrush

Amazing, heart-racing book

I’ve just finished re-reading this for the second or third time, and am re-reading the whole series, to bring it all fresh to my mind before starting the final book. The quality of the writing and the depth of characterisation have put Richard Bard into my top handful of favourite authors.

This is a book that makes you get deeply invested in the main characters; and there are no ‘throwaway’ characters - even the minor ones are fully-fleshed individuals.

Highly recommended

Every now and then, a book comes along that you just can’t put down. I tell my students that if they find a book that takes them on a visual trip as well as an emotional rollercoaster, then they have truly found an awesome book. That pretty much describes this book. This is one of those books that once you start reading you can forget about obligations to your family because you won’t be able to put it down. It has a bit of science fiction tied into a military thriller, along with just a touch of romance to make this a well-rounded book.

Jake Bronson only has a few weeks to live. He is having an MRI done when an earthquake happens. To me this was terrifying. The last MRI that I had needed to be done in two stages. After the first show more stage, they went looking for me afraid I had left. I have claustrophobia and felt as if I could not breathe. I was able to relate to this character a little too much in this instance. When they are finally able to get Jake out of the machine he discovers he has enhanced powers. He is determined to use these powers; in whatever time he has left to stop a terrorist attack. Throw into all of this the rescue of Francesca, a psychologist who works with autistic children and to whom Jake is romantically attached and you can see the plot thickening. The characters are very believable. The descriptions as you travel with Jack from California to Italy and other destinations are so vivid that you feel as if you are right there with him. I’ve not traveled out of the country yet I feel I have traveled to these destinations. It is obvious that the author has done major research on weaponry, maybe drawing on his own background experiences. I didn’t feel like I was in over my head in that area. I actually enjoyed it.

For me if you are going to have a wonderfully fleshed out protagonist then you must have an equally wonderful antagonist. Luciano Battista is that person. To me his name even made me feel like he was evil. His character was a great opposite to Jake’s character. It kept the pace going. There were areas where the imagination had to be stretched a little. I am one of those rare people that says bring it on. I grew up stretching my imagination, as a child so there is no reason not to continue that.

I would definitely recommend this book to everyone I know. I believe it has something for everyone. This is an author to watch for. His second book in the series comes out in December so just take a deep breath and tell yourself that you can wait for it, because after all you don’t really have a choice. show less

Similar to Mark Greaney's the Gray Man (series) in tone, pacing and plot. I think I'd have to say that Greaney's is a bit better written. It feels like Bard "wanted" to be Jake in this book - to the point where it felt like the author was fantasizing about being a super hero. Of course, this book has a "fantasy" component that isn't in Greaney's.

The romantic component is weak and I think the book would have been better without it. Jake's superpowers seemed to develop (i.e. appear out of nowhere) just as he needed that specific superpower. Then this superpower didn't appear again... but a new one would appear just in time to save him from the next pinch. This also happened with characters - when Jake needed X, a character with X show more appeared in the story, just long enough to provide his service then disappeared. (Yes, I meant "his" service - there are women characters but, at best, they are cutouts based on stereotypes, at worst, they are just cutouts.

As an action packed pseudo-miliitary type story (it doesn't start off like this but after the events in Italy, it becomes almost exclusively pseudo-military) it was not that bad. Lots of gun descriptions, lots of fighting and lots of stuff getting blown up. Perhaps some of the fighting was a bit overdone, perhaps some of the characters were a bit too melodramatic (Carlos, for example), and perhaps the story was a bit too long for its content... but overall I kinda enjoyed it.

Some people have commented on the shift to "aliens" near the end of the story. I didn't find this any less believable than Jake's sudden onset superheroism. In fact, I think it actually fit the storyline.

There is no sex and I don't think there was much foul language. There is lots of violence, but mostly non-gory. show less

In reading the quick synopsis of Brainrush, you're made aware that you're in for a different kind of thriller novel. Indeed, the story is an international, millitary-esque thriller but it expands into other genres as well ranging from sci-fi to paranormal and filled with bits of romantic and buddy comedy. To a large extent, this is a cinematic novel filled with lots of action and quick takes but it also slows down and plods through a lot of detail and information.

The premise involves a terminally ill man named Jake. During an MRI, an earthquake shakes the machine and rattles his body and mind and apparently unlocks some amazing mental and physical abilities. Before long, these abilities get Jake caught up in a global adventure with high show more stakes. The story continues to get more and more intricate with new threats and revelations showing up every few chapters. Many sections read like something caught between James Bond and Jason Bourne. As you reach the climax of the book and work through the final few chapters, you get a bit of X-files or Indiana Jones (and the Crystal Skull).

In terms of believability, the story stretches things as paper thin as many adventure movies. As such, the general character and plot development is a little weak, but an entertained reader can employ their suspension of disbelief to ride alongside Jake and his friends. As more and more outrageous plot elements showed up, I found my willing to suspend disbelief to be waning but I continued on and generally enjoyed the story.

More than the plausibility of the story, the thing I had the most trouble with was some of the writing. I felt that many stretches of the book suffered from the "tell don't show" mistake of storytelling. Descriptions were often ponderously heavy handed. And while they really made a scene vibrant, it absolutely slowed down the pacing of an action scene to have lengthy sentences going into significant detail of the weapons or the scenery.

I also felt like the writing spent too much time trying to tell me how I should react or interpret a scene rather than presenting me actions or conversation and letting me shape my own logical conclusions. A lot of these flaws would likely be covered up in a movie since large descriptions or narrative statements would be removed. They might even disappear in an abridged audiobook reading. But in the print book, I feel like you could probably trim 50-100 pages worth of content (my copy clocked in at just over 400 pages) and not only maintain the story but improve the pacing and readability. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy "long books" with detailed description and narrative. But I don't feel that lengthy diatribes need this much play in an otherwise fast-paced adventure story.

Overall this is a fun thriller. It's a novel of escapism that's so outrageously over the top that you can (mostly) cruise through it without having to give it much thought. This is both a plus and a minus. It follows many stereotypical tropes of the thriller. With all of these common concepts, the story is almost predictable in spots. Fortunately, the author keeps the reader on their toes by twisting the tropes in new ways and adding wholly unexpected elements to an otherwise standard adventure.

If you're in the mood for something light and adventurous, give it a try. There is some gunplay and romance but I suspect it would pull off a PG-13 rating. The action and story are fun and keep you jumping. And if you want to keep going, Jake and friends have continued their adventures through another 6 books so you'll have plenty to keep you occupied for a while.

***
2.5 out of 5 stars show less

The trouble with the first part of most series is that you spend an awful lot of time on establishing the situation, the major players and the general set-up. Then just when things get really interesting… wham, bang, thank you and please buy the sequel.

That’s pretty much Brainrush all over. It’s a slightly sci-fi military thriller, set sometime around now, which gives ‘an ordinary joe’ extraordinary mental abilities and throws him into a global terrorist conspiracy.

The ordinary Joe ain’t so ordinary, either, as it turns out he can whistle up an entire special forces black ops team at 24 hours’ notice while evading major national security forces. Plus he’s a dab hand at combat skills and is now endowed with show more super-brain-stuff.

The rest is an entertaining romp, one which hops around the globe at a blinding pace, tipping its hat to James Bond and every other superspy along the way. But only in the final assault upon Bad Guy Central does the real series plot reveal itself – and it’s far more interesting than the superficial Islamist threat which most of the book concentrates on.

This opening episode could’ve cut through the chase a lot quicker for me. I got a little tired with the ‘no way out’ action sequences after which there was inevitably a way out… and the fact that someone getting shot / stabbed barely slows them down.

A bit less rushing around and a bit more plot development would’ve worked better for me. But if you like non-stop galloping (and not entirely logical) action, then there’s plenty of it here. An entertaining interlude – if you can download it for very little expense.
6/10

There's more thoughts on this over at https://murdermayhemandmore.wordpress.com/2015/09/09/brainrush-much-rushing-not-... show less

****Spoiler Alert****

Brain Rush I by Richard Bard is an action-packed thriller. The writing is good, however some readers may find the action scenes over technical. The plot, which involves Terrorists using brain implants, is very inventive and kept my attention. I liked the international settings which included Venice and Afghanistan.

I enjoyed the first half of the book best. The injection of aliens to the plotline at the 85% point, while hinted at beforehand, was somewhat unwelcome.

That being said, I had already purchased the sequel and will go ahead and read it, if only for the heart-pounding suspense.

This book had been sitting on my TBR list for a long time and I finally got an opening to read it. The plot is a really good idea, the characters are interesting, the dialogue is fun and realistic and the book seems to flow quickly. There seems to be something missing though. The start seemed a little slow but it did pick up as it went along. I liked the relationship between the characters. The second half of the book was much better, maybe because the pace of the plot had picked up, the characters were more familiar to me as a reader- I'm not sure. The book was good and by the end I did want to know what the next book would bring, and it is sitting in my list of TBR books, so I will be diving into it shortly to see what is next in line show more for our cast of characters on their mission to save the world. So basically a good book that's slow to take off, picks up as it goes along and ends with a cliffhanger. Okay beginning to the series. show less