WWII

Audiobook Reviews 3.5/5: In Pursuit of Platinum by Vic Robbie

Julie Gilbert Action Adventure, Audiobooks, historical, thriller , , , , , , , , , ,

Narrated by Curt Bonnem
*Mild spoilers possible in the discussion*

Summary:

Ben Peters is called upon to undertake two big missions at once, escort a woman and her son out of France and smuggle the French supply of platinum away from Germany’s grubby hands. WWII is about to sweep over Paris and down the French countryside. Peters, Elena, Freddy, and the platinum keep barely a step ahead of destruction.

Additional Comments:

– Narration 4/5: A work like this demands a fair number of accents. The performance was overall very strong. Occasionally, it was difficult to distinguish French and German, but that didn’t happen often and didn’t really detract from enjoyment of the story.
– Characters 3/5: For the most part, they’re either likable or pure evil. Seems like the easiest way to portray somebody as evil here was to turn him into a torturer or a rapist. While I’m sure both were rampant during WWII, characterization probably would have benefitted from being a tad subtler.
– Plot 3.5/5: The initial premise – get the woman, her son, and the platinum out of France – was intriguing. Several storylines are interwoven well, but good guys and bad guys blur a bit. There are several down to the second coincidences that are hard to believe, but understandable in a thriller of this nature. There’s also one section at the end of the book that’s like 5 minutes of straight info dumping in case you missed something up to that point.
– Pacing 2.5/5: The actual execution of that plot floundered.
– Ending 2.5/5: The MC pulls through as expected for book 1 of a series, but the other part of the ending was highly contrived. The shocking secret alluded to all book was kind of anti-climatic.
– Content Warnings: Along with a smattering of normal curse words, there are 4 f-bombs and 1-2 very short but explicit adult scenes.

Conclusion:

If you’re suspension of disbelief is good, and you enjoy chase sort of thrillers, you’ll probably enjoy this.

Associate links to follow…

This Book…

Amazon Prime

 

Audible – If you’d like some free codes, please email me at [email protected] with requests for any of my works.

Try The Dark Side of Science.

 


OR


Movie Review: 4/5 Dunkirk

Julie Gilbert Movie Reviews , , , ,

Note: I don’t own the rights to the picture. Pretty sure it’s just one of a dozen different versions of the movie’s promo posters.

Summary:

You know what happens. It’s kind of like watching Titantic in that you have a general gist of the story. The taglines are pretty cool. There are a few very sentimental and moving parts, but by and large, I think they missed several opportunities to humanize the film.

Additional Comments:

  • It’s visually stunning and as gorgeous as a war movie can get. Lots of explosions, but nothing gory.
  • While on the short side, the movie is like watching one giant, long battle scene.
  • The way they chose to edit it made certain parts choppy. Nighttime, daytime, nighttime, and so forth.
  • I really wish I knew all of the character’s names. In the beginning, they did little lettered parts telling you the obvious like you’re now watching the air battle or the sea battle. How hard would it have been to add like 8 letters telling us some of the guys’ names?
  • I’m okay with there being little dialogue. The middle of a firefight is hardly the getting to know you time, but even a well-placed flashback would have sufficed to give the viewer more of a reason to care about these people and their fate.

Aside: Hearing British accents again was kind of fun for me since I’d just gotten back from a 10-day trip.

If you want to check out that series, go here.

Conclusion:

It’s a beautiful movie that’s well-worth seeing at least once in your life. I’m not sure if it’s a buy the blue ray and play repeatedly sort of good, but it’s definitely good. Certain elements would have made it better, but overall, it’s a solid war film.

Check out the Soundtrack