American Assassin

Hoo boy. First things first: If you're interested in reading this because of the upcoming film, you'll likely be disappointed. The plot of this book and the plot of the movie seem completely different, with the only similarity being the presence of the main character.

Now the book itself is pretty much a handbook on toxic masculinity. It starts out pretty spectacularly, with the author likening a lack of honor to "emasculat[ion]" and "questioning the size of [one's] balls for as long as [one] lived" in the prologue. From there, it's basically a fever dream of wish fulfillment. Rapp goes from living with his mother to an "efficient, badass killing machine" in six months, without any prior military training. He becomes an expert marksman, show more learns several languages, and becomes an expert at hand-to-hand combat after a few months in - I'm not even kidding - a strip mall dojo. He understands that a civilized society is weak, the media is working against the country's safety, and emotions are bad.

Well, except when they're not. Rapp's transition into a lethal operative is built on the grief resulting from his girlfriend's death. His love for her is portrayed as something incredibly meaningful, given that his life revolves around killing people to avenge her death. That is, until a stereotypical blonde beauty appears in the narrative, at which point he can't wait to get her into bed and move on from his girlfriend. Grief and vengeance seem to be the only acceptable emotions in this world, as his mentor's grief own grief causes him to "go running off half-cocked killing whomever he wanted." And that's another weakness in the plot: this team of elite, highly-trained, infallible super soldiers do some epically stupid things that would surely get them killed by their own superiors if this world had any internal consistency.

And, of course, there's your smattering of casual misogyny: calling men ladies and pussies as motivational insults and the good guys sleeping with sex-trafficked prostitutes. And my favorite gem: "You piss and moan like some miserable woman who's mad at her husband because she's no longer young and beautiful."

Plus, there are issues of repetitive writing and poor pacing. All in all, I'm going to take my "PC bullshit" and read other authors whose writing doesn't make me roll me eyes so hard I feel like I'm going to break something. show less

I really enjoyed American Assassin quite a bit. It goes back 20 years to the early 1990's, and follows a 23 year old Mitch Rapp. The story begins post-recruitment, as he begins his specialized training, and follows through his first two missions. Granted, I'm a sucker for anything Flynn writes - I've read and loved ALL of his books. I thought it was neat to see Mitch at the beginning of his CIA career, when he hadn't yet earned his reputation as the guy Jack Bauer would call "Sir". While I love the Mitch Rapp character, the real treat of American Assassin (at least, for me) was Stan Hurley. He's about 58 during the events of American Assassin, and while he's not at the top of his game, the dude is still good for field ops. In [b:Pursuit show more of Honor|6339304|Pursuit of Honor (Mitch Rapp #10)|Vince Flynn|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255575400s/6339304.jpg|6525245] Flynn alludes to the training Rapp received from Stan Hurley, but in American Assassin the reader gets to experience it through Mitch firsthand.

I'm looking forward to the next book, [b:Kill Shot|10816297|Kill Shot (Mitch Rapp, #12)|Vince Flynn|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51T6h2F8xZL._SL75_.jpg|15729967], which comes out in November, but I'm a little torn about the direction Flynn is taking. Kill Shot is a continuation of American Assassin, still following the young Rapp & Hurley. Part of me is excited about more of Mitch's early exploits, but there's part of me still that is anxious to get back to the "here & now" Mitch.

Although this is the most recent novel published, in chronological order it is the first book about Mitch Rapp, so even if you have never read any of Flynn's Mitch Rapp series you could easily start with American Assassin & then move on to [b:Transfer of Power|184655|Transfer of Power (Mitch Rapp, #1)|Vince Flynn|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Taahsk5qL._SL75_.jpg|2127844] next. show less

There’s a reason that other thriller writers compare themselves to and are compared to Vince Flynn. It’s because he’s as good as it gets. American Assassin is a great example as tension seeps in from the very beginning and the action scenes crackle.

American Assassin goes back to a young Mitch Rapp at the very beginning of his career. Even before he has the experience and the reputation, it’s clear that he has nearly unparalleled skills. The death of his girlfriend in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing a year before the events in this book bring him the focus and desire to take the battle to the terrorists.

Assassin takes us back to Rapp’s recruitment and training at an off-book site by the irascible Stan Hurley. Their distrust of show more each other fuels the early part of the book and the accommodations they each must make to work together pay off as the story unfolds. America has backed off its approach to terrorists in the Middle East and Rapp and Hurley, along with their CIA handlers aim to take the fight back to them. When Rapp’s fellow operatives are taken hostage, he must put to use all his training and all his skills to get them out. With Russian and Syria also wading into the fray, it is a tightrope that only Rapp can walk.

This is a quick enjoyable read with tight pacing, great action and wonderful characters. The intensity and charisma of Rapp leaps off the page, or audio depending on how you encounter it.

The audio version read by George Guidall is outstanding. He seamlessly navigates many different characters, including American, Middle Eastern and Russian ones. The gruff Stan Hurley is a favorite and particularly enjoyable to listen to. Guidall brings the action to life and is a great complement to the story.

If you’re a long-time fan or a newcomer to Vince Flynn and Mitch Rapp, American Assassin is a great book. The audio version is a nice way to experience the story. Highly recommended.

I was provided a copy of the audiobook by the publisher. show less

*sigh* Another fail in my quest to find fiction about spies/secret agents/assassins that isn't full of macho explosions and stereotypical antagonists. Seriously, are male and female brains wired so differently? There isn't an ounce of personality in this book, just guns, fights, torture and testosterone. Mitch Rapp is supposed to be driven by the death of his girlfriend in the Lockerbie bombing, but really he's just a James Bond jock who quickly forgets his all-consuming grief when a hot blonde offers him a quickie. The Russian and Arab caricatures are painful to read, and then when the author introduced a character named Max Powers, I gave up and started skimming. Come on, Vince Flynn and co - secret agents are people too!

Action thrillers for me fall into two categories:

- Action stories with hero/antihero caught in the middle of events that are either out of their control or are results of our heroes actions from the past. They are usually set in criminal underground or behind the scenes spy world - but always a world that is shade of grey, no clear way to figure who is bad and who is good. Using special set of skills (could not resist :) ) our hero manages to find the way out or give his life for a good thing. In this category we have Matt Helm, Frederick Forsyth (older works), David Morell, Kevin Wignall, Richard Stark, Ollen Steinhauer (Tourist novels), Daniel Silva (earlier books on Gabriel Allon and English Assassin), Tom Clancy (also early novels show more like Without Remorse, Rainbow Six), Greg Rucka (fabuolous Queen and Country), Barry Eisler (everything you can find is excellent imho), Lee Child to name just the few I can remember now.
- Patriotism-infused books that become rather preachy on social political issues and can be summed up as we-good-they-bad-boom-boom-hooray. In this group we can put later Tom Clancy books, later Gabriel Allon's books (this gets so preachy about Europe and politics .... its so yucky, man), Frederick Forsyth's latest works (Fox was .... still the saddest I felt after reading a book, what a disappointment for me) to name the few.

While I can understand patriotism-inspired books I am always vary of books of such content because after a while they start to read like political pamphlets interspersed with catalogue depictions of guns and ammo. After reading few books that reviewers voted like very similar to Vince Flynn's works I was very hesitant about starting the book. So after a couple of months of postponing it I decided to give it a shot.

And was I surprised. This is fast paced story with very interesting characters. Is there that political aura breaking through - yes, indeed. Author has certain views of Middle East that are not something I encountered before. Good guys are of course proud red, white and blue and Russkies are eternal bad guys but yet it does not get that preachy (or I got old and manage to filter this out :)) Even bad bad guys have some depth and motivations. Our heroes' team is not invulnerable and needs to constantly look behind his back (that hint that he needs to have reserve plan always to avoid being destroyed by his own team due to the nature of job). Movie based on this book was good action flick but it does not do justice to the book. Introduction of Mitch Rapp and him entering the shadowy top secret team was handled very well - Rapp comes around as John Wick of sorts - very dedicated, strong willed individual who dedicated his life to a single goal, avenging death of his dearest. Actions and plans executed by all parties involved, although maybe flashy a bit, sound and feel realistic - characters are tired, stressed, make mistakes, and this what make it a good read.

Is this pinnacle of the literature? No. But again no good thriller is imo. Sometimes they come near (and these are pure gold nuggets) but action thrillers are what makes reading books great - escapades from reality with great characters and action, action, action. And this is where American Assassin shines - this is one of exquisite read that will grip you from page one to the very end. It surely got me hooked to read follow up novels. I hope they get better and better.

So in short, if you are fan of action thrillers and you were vary of the possible political sub-context for this novel give it a shot. It is actually quite a good read and genre fans will undoubtedly enjoy it. show less

I've probably said this before, but Vince Flynn was one of the few male thriller writers out there whose lead character is written both well and realistically, with little of none of the bulletproof or superhuman or Bond-ish stuff that seems to be far too common from the guys writing in the genre. Flynn is much like Daniel Silva in that regard, although Rapp *is* a bit more likely than Silva's Allon to have the occasional red "S" on his chest. Still, Rapp is a great character, and in this one we get some filler for his backstory. Fans of the series have known all along that Rapp lost the love of his life when a certain Pan Am airliner went down in Scotland, but here we learn more about his recruitment and early days in the C.I.A., along show more with how some people were a bit too quick to write off the college boy as being too wimpy and inadequate for the role that he was being offered. Instead, those folks learn what we readers have known all along: that Mitch Rapp is one focused and committed and motivated and deadly individual, and a good guy to have on your side when things go pear-shaped. show less

In a word, superb.

This is why I love reading thrillers - every now and again, you discover a new series, read the first one and make a decision halfway through that you're going to devour the rest of the author's work as fast as possible.

I'd been hearing things about this series for a couple of years but other commitments kept me away. I'm kicking myself - hard.

Flynn's writing is fluid, he keeps the words simple while providing enough information that lets the reader's imagination to fly. I'd compare the international tone of these to Robert Ludlum's novels, but that would be doing Flynn an injustice as he stands tall in his own right as an author in this particular sub-genre.

The 'do not disturb' sign will be well and truly on display show more in our household for the foreseeable future as I read the rest of the Mitch Rapp series! show less