Hard Target. by Chris Ryan [ハードカバー]

Extreme Hard Target has an unlikeable "hero" named Joe Gardner who is an ex-SAS member that is thrown out of the service due to losing his arm in combat. Chris Ryan attempts to make the character a smart, cunning and strong hero, but it turns out that Gardner is quite dumb. Are we supposed to believe that a trained SAS guy doesn't know that he is supposed to suck out the venom of a snake bite? If Gardner is so great, why does he get beaten up by everyone he meets. In fact, in a one week period of time he gets beaten up about 6 times, survives a fire, jumps out of a building from a 50-foot window without a scratch, survives a nuclear blast, survives a conventional bomb, endures electric torture, gets shot and gets hit by a car. Lucky he continues to get his second wind all the time. In addition, during this time, he did not sleep at all and ate very little. He reminds me a bit of Wile E Coyote of the Road Runner cartoons.

Mr. Ryan not only fails to close any loose ends, he makes multiple mistakes in the book. My favorite is when Gardner drinks a diet coke and the caffeine and sugar makes him feel better. Sorry Chris, diet coke has no sugar. Another favorite part is when Gardner has to diffuse a bomb since he is the only one with training. The expert tells him to cut two wires. Wow! My grandmother could have diffused that bomb. Of course, the bomb was then detonated remotely. How come our hero didn't realize this and diffuse the remote detonation device?

I am sure that Ryan thinks its cool to use curse words ever sentence or two, but his descriptions of people getting shot (and there are a lot of people that get shot) usually involve a hole the size of some fruit or drinking vessel. In fact, if you take out the gun descriptions, curse words and endless annoying metaphors and similes, you would end up with about 50 pages of a sad excuse for a story. Also, Chris is so creative that all of his characters have one syllable names - Land, Shaw, Hand and Bald - and these are not the only four letter words he uses. Mr. Ryan teaches us a lot about what he thinks of women. Every sexual encounter ends with a dead woman - except of course for our hero who whenever he is with his new found love, he thinks of "jumping her bones". These is no attempt at love-making in this book.

The book finally comes to a close without solving any issues and without an ending. What ever happened to Shaw? Will Land get what he deserves? Will Gardner ever take a shower or sleep? What happened to the diamonds? Does Ryan think that anyone will really read a sequel?

Do us a favor and kill off Gardner in the first sentence of your next book. Or better yet, don't write another book. However, my biggest complaint is that because my actuarial training causes me to finish everything that I start, I had to finish the book. Actually, I finished the book, but it seems that Chris Ryan forgot to. Save your money!

I have read most of Chris Ryan books and have found them great entertainment, this is about an ex SAS brit who has lost a hand and has been let go from the life he loved in the SAS elite army, he lives on the street drinks to much yet keeps fit, the only thing he keeps on him is his mobile. Then he gets a call from a mate telling he needs help and to get himself to Brazil fast, then the action takes over very detailed as if you were looking through the window watching, drugs and money a bad combination in between is a serial killer who is out there in the shadows killing in a different way and getting closer.,
Be prepared for a sleepless night I could not get enough anyone that likes this will love all his stories.

Sadly, this book was rubbish. I seriously can't believe that Chris Ryan wrote it. His previous novels have been much more realistic and entertaining but the 'super hero' in this one - Joe Gardner - was totally unbelievable and extraordinary in the extreme. Furthermore the gratuitous violence in this unpleasant read was beyond acceptance and contributed absolutely nothing. Many threads were opened in the narrative but were left dangling and went nowhere - not cleverly, mind, just irritatingly. The book has no end other than to say that it has ended my interest in reading any other edition of the 'Extreme' genre.