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Tuesday, September 3, 2013

The Smoke Jumper


Yes, I’ve gotten somewhat away from my usual diet of history and biography lately. But what the heck it was summer and time for some novels with exotic locales, daring adventures, and romance. Take my latest The Smoke Jumper by Nicholas Evans .

Positive: Descriptive, informative background , unconventional love story.

Negative: Predictable. Ending was a little far fetched.

The Bottom Line is  I enjoyed this book for its entertainment  value. It had  lots of action and really interesting settings.    I recommend it. 

The Smoke Jumper was written basically in three Parts,  The first part sets the scene of a platonic love triangle who protagonist are two young “smoke jumpers" and a beautiful girl. The fact that their interactions were initially set in Western Montana won me over right away. Unfortunately the smoke jumping part, which I find quite fascinating is limited  to the opening chapters.  

Part Two focuses on the tangled a tangled web of love and duty following deaths and injury from a major forest fire. It’s interesting but a little stilted and while the background is believable the events seem a little too pat.  Romance its not.  Its denial and moral dilemmas.

Part Three has lot of action in a civil war in  Uganda but to fit the plot  together   the story line stretches credulity.
I really did enjoy  the book. With only a few,  but really interesting characters,  it didn’t take too long to become involved in their fate.  A fun book to take along to the beach!


6 comments:

Montanagirl said...

Hmmmm.....have not read this book either. But I have the read The Horse Whisperer, and I've also seen the movie from that book.

Anvilcloud said...

I still like The Time Traveler's Wife. lol

Primitive Stars said...

A good read indeed, Francine.

Sally Wessely said...

It does sound interesting.

NCmountainwoman said...

Yes, summer is the time to move from "serious" reading. I always read lighter materials in summer and save the others for winter by the fire.

Sarah Laurence said...

That sounds like the book tried to cover too much ground. Too bad it didn't stick with the smoke jumping part as that sounds interesting. Great review - short and to the point!