{"id":8752,"date":"2021-09-20T17:10:42","date_gmt":"2021-09-20T21:10:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=8752"},"modified":"2021-09-20T17:10:42","modified_gmt":"2021-09-20T21:10:42","slug":"book-review-synchronicity-by-michaelbrent-collings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/book-review-synchronicity-by-michaelbrent-collings\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Synchronicity by Michaelbrent Collings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cover<\/a><\/p>\n

Synchronicity <\/em>by Michaelbrent Collings<\/p>\n

Written Insomnia Press, 2021<\/p>\n

ISBN: 38744369R00197<\/p>\n

Availability: paperback, Kindle edition\u00a0(\u00a0Amazon.com<\/a> )<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Synchronicity, <\/em>the newest thriller from Michaelbrent Collings, succeeds in most areas, while missing in a few.\u00a0 His trademark skill of writing action sequences and maintaining a fast pace is on full display, but the story does skimp a little on fleshing out the plot for the reader.\u00a0 It’s a decent read, just not quite to the level of excellence of his most recent novels.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Book” Malcolm is a small-time pickpocket and thief who drifts through life, taking what he can.\u00a0 One day, unknown people try to kill him on a subway platform.\u00a0 With their light-speed method of fighting, abnormal healing powers, and the ability to shift consciousness from one body to another, they resemble the characters in The Matrix.\u00a0 <\/em>Then, Book is on the run, pursued by some and aided by others, as he struggles to answer the question: “why me?”\u00a0 Later, Book becomes aware of his own powers, and tries to stop the villains from using the consciousness-shifting device to achieve world domination.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Collings has always been good at making a story move quickly and providing plenty of action along the way, and Synchronicity<\/em> continues the trend.\u00a0 As always, it starts off fast; the destruction on the subway platform happens in the first few pages, and the pace never lets up until the end of the story.\u00a0 The numerous action sequences (and there are a LOT) are well detailed and thought out, and show the author’s usual flair for bone-crushing intensity, as well as violent gunfights.\u00a0 In terms of a straight thrill ride of a story, Synchronicity<\/em> hits the target dead-on.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

However, it takes more than just breakneck speed to engross some readers start to finish, and that’s where Synchronicity <\/em>falls a bit short.\u00a0 It’s almost too<\/em> fast, and doesn’t allow the plot enough time to breathe, in terms of explanation.\u00a0 It’s written so the reader never knows more than Book himself throughout the story, and that’s good for character development, but frustrating for the reader.\u00a0 There is little backstory or dialogue between other characters to give readers some explanation prior to the big reveal at the end.\u00a0 This makes it harder to get interested in the characters, since you don’t know much about why<\/em> they are acting like they are.\u00a0 It’s a shame, because the reason behind the consciousness-jumping technology is quite clever, but it doesn’t get much page time.\u00a0 More breaks from the hyper-speed of the narrative to detail the plot would have gone a long way.\u00a0 It’s a good action book, just a little more one-dimensional than Collings’s usual writing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Synchronicity <\/em>will probably keep his legions of fans entertained, but first-timers might want to start with Scavenger Hunt<\/em> or the Stranger<\/em> series instead, to get a better perspective on his writing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Synchronicity by Michaelbrent Collings Written Insomnia Press, 2021 ISBN: 38744369R00197 Availability: paperback, Kindle edition\u00a0(\u00a0Amazon.com )   Synchronicity, the newest thriller from Michaelbrent Collings, succeeds in most areas, while missing in a few.\u00a0 His trademark skill of writing action sequences and maintaining a fast pace is on full display, but the story does skimp a little<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2474,2243,4872,4972,3502],"class_list":["post-8752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-book-review","tag-michaelbrent-collings","tag-science-fiction-horror","tag-synchronicity","tag-thriller-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8752"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8838,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8752\/revisions\/8838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}