The Breach

This was a totally fun but also ludicrous book. The story has so many twists and turns, especially at the end, that after I finished I tried to puzzle out the loopiness. <br /><br />Then I gave up trying to understand because the plot required so much suspension of disbelief that I might as well have been walking on air.<br /><br />Let's go back to the fun part! Travis Chase goes on what he thought would be a peaceful hike in the Alaskan wilderness. One day he finds an airplane that had crashed in the woods. He goes to try and help the victims, but he finds a strange scene inside the plane: It looks like some kind of government or military operation, and there was a high-ranking politician on board. <br /><br />What did Travis just find? And why wasn't there a rescue operation under way?<br /><br />Thus begins a thrilling, action-packed adventure that continues until the last page. Seriously, this book was non-stop action all the way to the end. I've never said this before, but I needed a little more denouement.<br /><br />This was Patrick Lee's first novel, and I picked it up because I had really enjoyed his 2014 thriller <i>Runner</i>. His craft has improved since <i>The Breach</i>. Aside from the loopy plot, Lee has a writing tic that bugs me: he overuses the word hell. It seemed that every other page, sometimes twice in the same paragraph, had a variation of "dangerous as hell," "sure as hell," "what the hell," "why the hell," and "exaggerated all to hell." It's a lazy and cliched form of writing, and once I noticed it, it irritated me as hell. (Ha! See what I did there?)<br /><br />But this was still an enjoyable read, and just like <i>Runner</i>, I gobbled it up in less than a day. I plan on reading more Patrick Lee books, especially when I want a novel that's fun as hell.

Entertaining hyperinflation of time travel Cekhovs´ and MacGuffins´, packed into a sci-fi technothriller device with a badass character and some meta world problems lurking in the series.<br /><br />Old ideas in new clothes<br />The extra goodness comes for sci-fi prone readers, who have seen many of these physics manipulations, kind of magic abilities, in different settings. But condensing them in one such mysterious machine makes it a tour de force of sci-fi tropes. It´s often amazing how just reusing or reinterpreting well known, often stereotypical elements, or just using massive amounts of them in well written fiction, can make it a fresh experience for readers who are already a bit fed up and don´t expect this astonishing new use, interpretation, or how it´s instrumentalized to achieve new effects.<br /><br />Clever genre element mix<br />The clever switching between the protagonist, the portal, and the meta actions around, some backstory here and there too, and a clever premise over to the second part, make it a somewhat else hybrid, one of the interesting new novels, such as Sakeys´, Suarez´, and Howeys´work, that give a seemingly dead horse tropes a new life, something especially easy to manage with the endless space of sci-fi options. <br /><br />By far not as famous as it should be<br />I don´t get why Lee hasn´t had that much success, it may be because of some of the, not really, hard sci fi elements or because of the quick, interwoven plot, but there is no real reason why this author isn´t as big as other new sci fi writers. It´s the meta edition of the protagonist ridden Blake Crouch hits that are more dealing with the protagonist´s personal temporal paradoxes, and one of the prime examples that readers often prefer characters in a small setting with some tropes instead of the big picture with more superficial characters.<br />

Just finished <i>The Breach</i>, and the only thing I can say is that it was simply AWESOME! A very quick and easy-to-follow read which I didn't exactly expect as I thought it'd be more labyrinthine with too many hard to understand techno/scifi jurgons. And though there were never any shortage of <i>"scifi talk"</i>, it was just as much to give reader a perfect headway of things, and never went over the head. First and foremost, it is an action-suspense novel, and in that criteria it delivered in spades. The story never lost its suspense-steam and the pages were just flying themselves! <br /><br />There were plenty of action too, and the one thing that struck me most with the action sequences (and the overall story) was the shear <i>UNPREDICTABILITY</i> of it. Yeah, I know from the looks at the beginning where a tough ex-con who was also an ex-cop just happened to be there in the Alaskan wilderness when a plane crashed and was just the right man at the right time to save the day sounds pretty cliched and unoriginal, but trust me, nothing in this book just "happened" and everything had a reason. The twists and turning of the situations are totally unpredictable that keeps you guessing literally till the very end. It's hard to believe that this is Patrick Lee's very first novel, as he never once faltered telling the story and drew the settings and situations so well that you could just visualize the whole thing in front of your eyes. In my opinion, he has everything it takes to make not just as a good author, but a great one, for whom I suspect I'll be waiting impatiently to read the next books in the future. <br /><br />Alright, another thing I'd say that in the end the whole story feels like only the introduction of a much bigger arc, but on its own its still a very entertaining read and stands alone quite well. I have to caution that while the story itself had a proper ending with necessary resolutions, this is the first part of a trilogy, as the story continued almost directly to the next. So if anyone wants to start it, be prepared for a 3-book read. As I quite enjoyed The Breach, I'm off to the next one <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/8479092.Ghost_Country__Travis_Chase___2_" title="Ghost Country (Travis Chase, #2) by Patrick Lee" rel="noopener">Ghost Country</a>, and after that, the finale <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/12135086.Deep_Sky__Travis_Chase___3_" title="Deep Sky (Travis Chase, #3) by Patrick Lee" rel="noopener">Deep Sky</a>.

After several false starts, I got into this book. I read most of it on the way to Illinois for Thanksgiving. This is one of those books that takes a while to get started, but once you're in, you're in. The concept is so crazy, it takes a while to figure out what's going on. I think the closest comparison I could make is the TV show "Fringe". It's that kind of crazy. Also it's the kind of thing that people who have tons of conspiracy theories and deep distrust for the establishment, corporations and the government will read and say, "I told you so." The ending is a bit of a mindblower. I am still trying to decide how I felt about it.<br /><br />I am no physics genius, but I love the concept of time travel. I like the ethics and philosophical aspects. You know, the whole grandfather complex thing and the "if you could go forward or back, would you?" kind of thing. Also, there's the whole what happens when we open doors to places we don't know anything about. Should some doors stay closed? <br /><br />As a scientist, I have asked myself that many times. I tend to be a big fan of scientific ethics and I think that you can't throw that out just in the search of knowledge. Seek it, but seek it carefully and cautiously. Some of the inventions in this book, I can't even. I mean, they should be buried in a very deep hole somewhere. I pray some of this will never exist in real life.<br /><br />So anyway, my opinions of science and time travel aside, this trippy book really grabbed me and didn't let me go. There is a high body count and I asked myself what the hell is wrong with some people. They abandon right and wrong for power and ugly stuff happens. That's a big part of this book. Also, on the good side, there are people who will put their lives on the line to do the right thing. That takes a lot of moral courage and I feel that even from fiction, we can draw courage to face those tough ethical decisions in our own lives.<br /><br />This one has some blood and guts, but nothing gratuitous. I would advise readers to plan to pick up the next book. I have it, and I will try to get to it in the nearish future.<br /><br />This is my second book by Patrick Lee. I read <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/17934463.Runner__Sam_Dryden___1_" title="Runner (Sam Dryden, #1) by Patrick Lee" rel="noopener">Runner</a> first, and I like his style. He's not afraid to go there and put the reader through their paces. He doesn't give them a cut and dried book. He makes them think about what they are reading. I like that in an author.

I read this book because David Goyer is adapting it to film. Reading this book reminded me of The Onion's accusations that Fast &amp; Furious was written by a 5-year-old child, because that's the only logical explanation for the illogical sequences and stupendously trite tropes in that film, just as it is the only logical explanation for what happens in this book.<br /><br />It has a main character who is a nobody with a troubled past, thrust into a huge government cover-up when he finds the President's wife, dead (WOW!!!!!). The character later receives a chapter-ending-cliffhanger private call from the President himself (WOW!!!!!!!!!!). The chapter literally ends with, "[who was on the phone?] Richard Garner. The President of the United States." This is how a chapter ends in a real book for adults.<br /><br />Then there is a mysterious rip in space-time that is described as looking exactly as a rip in space-time has looked since the SciFi channel got a CGI department, all the way through those seen in Valve's Portal 2. <br /><br />There are some mysterious devices whose purposes are so generic and uninteresting, and whose applications can be seen miles away (this gun heals! IT ISNT KNOWN TO REVIVE THE DYING - Will they use it on someone who is dying??? This thing duplicates matter! WE WILL NEVER USE IT ON A HUMAN BEING - Will they use it on a human being?????), that they really ought not have bothered. <br /><br />There is a setpiece in the beginning of the third act that is so monumentally insane, that the zero repercussions that follow it are more disconcerting than the terrifying violence it invokes seemingly for the sake of thrilling the readers. <br /><br />The characters seem to lack any deductive capabilities, finally coming to conclusions after dozens (and, in some cases, tens of thousands) of people die; conclusions that the reader reached as soon as the subject was broached, making the reader feel smarter than the all-knowing Whisper device the characters so desperately seek. One character retrieves a healing device while hemorrhaging blood from an escape attempt, only to hold the device and wonder what he'll do about the trail of blood he's about to leave. He then leaves a profuse blood trail and heals himself later.<br /><br />I am glad I wrote this review. It was the best part of reading this book. Watch the movie. Maybe they'll cast Markie Mark in it and everyone is pissed at first but then they see it anyway and who cares. It can't be worse than this.

Picking up and putting down this book, I'm left with a huge impression that this was designed to be a video game.<br /><br />Action, shootem-up, video game. Along the way you can pretend you're the MC of "24" and you go from one bloody step to the next bloody step as the otherwise fairly high-concept SF trope driving it gets revealed.<br /><br />Like I said, a video game.<br /><br />Unfortunately for me, I like role-playing video games much more than the straightforward shootem-ups. I want to feel the consequences of my actions, not just move on from one horrific scene to the next in a glorified homage to bullets and guns and explosions.<br /><br />But hey! This is what Western Civilization is known for, right? This is the epitome of what we're good at! Building beautiful things to provide a backdrop to kill lots of people. Oh, and explode it.<br /><br />Like I said -- there are a lot of people who would probably love the hell out of this. A part of me has spent years watching similar movies or playing similar video games, so I guess I used to be one of them. Maybe I'm a bit over it, now.

You know...I like this book more than I expected to. I'm hoping that this leads into a good series that holds up. Our protagonist here is one who's got a <i>past</i> or maybe I should say a <i>Past</i> that's with a capital P. He was a dirty cop and we learn real quick (so it's not a spoiler) that something he did cost the life of the woman he loved. <br /><br />He's spent the last years in prison and is looking at re-starting his life at 40. <br /><br />Then fate intervenes.... Or is it fate? Humm....<br /><br />The way the story unfolds, the characters and the plot all wind together to lay out a story that leads us down a rough road that sometimes seems to be a dark path where you can't see at all and then seems to double back on itself and maybe even vanish a few times.<br /><br />I can recommend this one, and I plan to follow it up. I think it will very likely draw you in. It did me. Enjoy.

I admit I'm a bit of a lit snob and typically don't like these action thrillers too much, but the sheer audacity of this plot managed to overcome all my objections and by the end I was hooked. Even though I muttered a few "this is so stupid" statements, they were always followed by "but I can't stop reading". In the end, I would even say I liked it. The story is utterly implausible and ridiculous, but you have to admit it's a pretty cool idea. Imagine a unicorn with a machine gun instead of a horn that rides a polar bear made of fire, and you get the drift. <br /><br />I don't want to reveal anything about the plot--that's how it was when I read it and I wouldn't want to spoil that experience. Let me just say if you asked a 13 year-old version of yourself to come up with the most awesome story ever, it might look like this book. <br /><br />It's not great writing, but it's good enough. Lee really keeps things moving and manages to put in enough twists to keep you off balance. By the end, I just had to smile and I would have given Lee a pat on the back if he was in the room. Well done, sir. Well done.

4.5 Sterne - spannender Technik-Science-Fiction Thriller ...<br /><br />Die ersten Seiten waren noch sehr beschaulich: Travis Chace, der nach langer Haftstrafe in der abgeschiedenen Landschaft von Alaska eine neue Zukunft für sich sucht - und dort aber unverhofft auf ein Flugzeugwrack voller Leichen stößt. <br />Dann geht es Knall auf Fall weiter und direkt auch ziemlich brutal, denn das Geheimnis, das sich Travis eröffnet, offenbart ein unglaubliches Phänomen mit spektakulären Möglichkeiten. Eine davon leider auch die verhängnisvolle Zukunft für die Erde. <br /><br />Der Autor hat es geschafft mich komplett in den Bann zu ziehen und mich auch mit den technischen Details nicht zu überfordern, sondern sie auch für Laien verständlich zu erklären, ohne in langatmige Ausführungen abzudriften. <br />Es ist etwas schwierig, näher darauf einzugehen, ohne zuviel zu verraten, aber die Ideen sind wirklich originell und die Zusammenhänge logisch dargelegt - sogar das Zeitparadoxon wird kurz angeschnitten und einfach und schlüssig erklärt. Das ist ja oft beim Thema Zeitreisen eine schwierige Sache, wobei hier die Zeitreisen (noch) keine Rolle spielen, aber zu Mutmaßungen anregen, was hier vielleicht auch möglich sein könnte.<br /><br />Vor allem hält die Geschichte viele Wendungen parat und technische Innovationen die spannend eingesetzt werden und auf mehreren Ebenen verblüffen und für Überraschungen sorgen. An manchen Stellen hätte ich mir noch mehr Tempo gewünscht, obwohl es eh schon recht rasant vorwärts geht, was aber meiner eigenen Ungeduld geschuldet ist, weil ich nicht erwarten konnte zu wissen wie es weitergeht. <br /><br />Travis Vergangenheit wird übrigens in kleinen Rückblicken Stück für Stück aufgedeckt und überrascht ebenfalls mit einem brillanten Schachzug, der alles wieder in einem neuen Licht erscheinen lässt.<br /><br />Auch am Ende, in der die Situation mehr oder weniger aufgelöst wird, gibt es ein neues Rätsel, das mich mega neugierig auf die Fortsetzung macht und ich mich dadurch schon sehr auf den zweiten Band freue!<br /><br />Ein gut zu lesender, innovativer Thriller mit steigender Spannung und interessanten Figuren, deren Rolle in dem ganzen Szenario noch einige versteckte Möglichkeiten bereit hält. <br /><br /><a href="https://blog4aleshanee.blogspot.com/2020/05/die-pforte.html" rel="nofollow noopener">Weltenwanderer</a>

<b>Please note</b>: I read and reviewed this in 2010 from a copy I received from Amazon Vine.<br /><br /><b>My Story outline</b>: <i>The Breach</i> starts out like a thriller - the main character, Travis Chase, just released from prison, stumbles upon the wreck of a 747 that contains, among other things, the dead body of the First Lady and a cryptic note alluding to "Tangent." There is no sign of a rescue operation - in fact, there is no sign that anyone else heard the crash.<br /><br />From there, things start to get weird, and slowly but surely veer off into science fiction. Before Chase knows it, he is involved with Tangent, a top-secret agency that is literally underground and maintains control of a breach in space-time through which strange and wonderful (and occasionally VERY deadly dangerous) things periodically arrive.<br /><br /><b>My Recommendation</b>: I don't wish to spoil the story by providing too much information on the plot, so I'll leave things there. But this is definitely a book that fans of thrillers, suspense, conspiracy nuts and sci-fi won't want to miss.