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The
Hijack
Weird
World NICK POPE
… The Hijack, apart from being an exciti
ng read, covers the subject
of remote viewing. Alternatively known as psychic spying, this technique
has been tried by various governments, to see if they can use it to locate
submarines, drugs caches and other items of interest. When I ran the UK
UFO project I had a steady stream of people volunteering to psychic spy
for their county, simply because my office became the focal point for
anything weird and wonderful. It is interesting to see the concept worked
into a novel, especially one so gripping as this.
Rennie Petersen
The
climax of "The Hijack" occurs when one of the good guys attacks
a nuclear "suitcase bomb" with a brass crucifix and a stone,
in an attempt to prevent it from exploding. (I am not making this up.)
"The Hijack" is not your typical action thriller. Many
of the usual ingredients are present, including an Arab terrorist attack,
a nuclear device, the threat of WW III, the tough guys from the British
and Russian Special Forces and the cynical manipulators in the intelligence
a
gencies. But the characters are not stereotyped, and come across as real
people. The hero, John Stratton of the British SBS, is a complex person
filled with conflicting desires and doubts. There's an Arab terrorist
with a very unusual background with whom we find ourselves sympathizing.
Even the "bad guy" who prepares for the detonation of the nuclear
device in the hopes of starting WW III is presented as a very interesting
and understandable person. There are other unusual aspects to the story
too, for example a clairvoyant who works for the CIA. And there are occasional
bits of humor, like when one of Stratton's colleagues speculates about
whether an especially long nose hair was actually an ingrown eyebrow hair.
But Duncan Falconer doesn't follow the writing style of Andy McNab, former
British SAS member, whose novels describe the nitty-gritty of Special
Forces skills and procedures in excruciating detail. Instead, Mr. Falconer's
writing style is closer to that of Frederick Forsyth, with a plot that
works on several levels, from the fights between the individual good guys
and bad guys to the high-level decision-making in the various intelligence
agencies. There's also a touch of Matthew Reilly in Duncan Falconer's
story telling, especially the description of
how three SBS teams led by
Stratton stage an assault on a hijacked supertanker. Here the action is
definitely over the top, but quite entertaining. My only real criticism
is that the whole story is rather farfetched. But this is a standard problem
with action thrillers - it's very difficult to write an exciting story
that passes the test of being completely believable. "The Hijack"
is definitely a much better than average action thriller, and highly recommended
if you're in the mood for a hard-hitting story in the style of Frederick
Forsyth, with touches of Andy McNab and Matthew Reilly.
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