Review by sohollywood07 -- The Expansion
Posted: 05 Sep 2017, 15:42
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Expansion" by Christoph Martin.]
3 out of 4 stars
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The Expansion by Christoph Martin is a geopolitical thriller set in Panama, Washington, and London. The story follows British Geomatics Engineer Max as he works with an old high-school friend and a small team of engineers to create a winning design for the expansion of the Panama Canal. As work begins on the expansion, Max learns that the stakes are higher than he ever imagined.
At the beginning of the novel, I really enjoyed the scene development in both London and Panama. The author did an excellent job describing the locales and capturing the overall atmosphere of each place. I also enjoyed getting a glimpse into the childhood bond between Max and his high school best friend in the prologue.
The main story begins 15 years after the prologue. I was grateful for this huge time gap. The story jumps right to the day that Max first learns about the expansion project, and we see the immediate effect it has on his life.
No previous knowledge of the history of the Panama Canal is necessary to understand the ideas for the expansion. The history included in the story helps to educate the reader about the international power struggle and puts the scale of the project into perspective. It appears a lot of research and thought was put into the potential real-life consequences of the expansion. We also get some insight into the different viewpoints of the scientists, government agencies, environmentalists, etc. They each have a different opinion and way of thinking about the expansion project and I’m glad the author took the time to acknowledge those differences and include dialogue between scientists and non-scientists.
I wasn’t expecting the entire first half of the book to be about the bidding process for the expansion project and was wary about how the rest of the story would fit into the last half.
As the story progresses, little mysteries are thrown in periodically that keep the reader intrigued (secret phone calls, lies, etc.) I found myself questioning everything and everyone at some point in the story, which was interesting and thrilling at first. As the story went on, the questions and mysteries continued to pile up and became confusing. It was hard to keep track of what was going on with all the different story lines and conspiracies.
As the politics of the story started to become more prevalent, I found myself even more confused about what was going on and wanting to know more about the actual expansion project and its progress instead. The complex mysteries and conspiracies seemed to take precedence, and there were still no answers to the questions raised at the beginning of the book.
The thrill increased a notch toward the end of the book, but by the time I was finished, I found myself still very confused about what happened and what all the twists and turns were leading up to.
Ultimately, I give this book a rating of 3 out of 4 stars. I found a few typos throughout the book; a few words were the wrong tense (have instead of has, contact instead of contacted, etc.), and a couple words were typos (the instead of that, but instead of by). The pace of the story was steady in the beginning, but the last half of the book was too fast-paced and months went by between chapters. I did enjoy the character and scene development. The characters were easy to relate to, and the author did a great job giving us just enough background to get to know them. I was able to imagine myself traveling with them to the various locales and would be interested to see if the author expands on some of the side stories he started in this book.
The story seems to fit better in the political genre than the thriller genre in my opinion. There was a bit of action/thrill toward the end, but most of the story centered around the geopolitics of the project, which was not interesting to me. I would recommend the book to anyone interested in exotic locales, political corruption, or history, but would caution thrill seekers to look elsewhere for a heart-pounding story.
******
The Expansion
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
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3 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
The Expansion by Christoph Martin is a geopolitical thriller set in Panama, Washington, and London. The story follows British Geomatics Engineer Max as he works with an old high-school friend and a small team of engineers to create a winning design for the expansion of the Panama Canal. As work begins on the expansion, Max learns that the stakes are higher than he ever imagined.
At the beginning of the novel, I really enjoyed the scene development in both London and Panama. The author did an excellent job describing the locales and capturing the overall atmosphere of each place. I also enjoyed getting a glimpse into the childhood bond between Max and his high school best friend in the prologue.
The main story begins 15 years after the prologue. I was grateful for this huge time gap. The story jumps right to the day that Max first learns about the expansion project, and we see the immediate effect it has on his life.
No previous knowledge of the history of the Panama Canal is necessary to understand the ideas for the expansion. The history included in the story helps to educate the reader about the international power struggle and puts the scale of the project into perspective. It appears a lot of research and thought was put into the potential real-life consequences of the expansion. We also get some insight into the different viewpoints of the scientists, government agencies, environmentalists, etc. They each have a different opinion and way of thinking about the expansion project and I’m glad the author took the time to acknowledge those differences and include dialogue between scientists and non-scientists.
I wasn’t expecting the entire first half of the book to be about the bidding process for the expansion project and was wary about how the rest of the story would fit into the last half.
As the story progresses, little mysteries are thrown in periodically that keep the reader intrigued (secret phone calls, lies, etc.) I found myself questioning everything and everyone at some point in the story, which was interesting and thrilling at first. As the story went on, the questions and mysteries continued to pile up and became confusing. It was hard to keep track of what was going on with all the different story lines and conspiracies.
As the politics of the story started to become more prevalent, I found myself even more confused about what was going on and wanting to know more about the actual expansion project and its progress instead. The complex mysteries and conspiracies seemed to take precedence, and there were still no answers to the questions raised at the beginning of the book.
The thrill increased a notch toward the end of the book, but by the time I was finished, I found myself still very confused about what happened and what all the twists and turns were leading up to.
Ultimately, I give this book a rating of 3 out of 4 stars. I found a few typos throughout the book; a few words were the wrong tense (have instead of has, contact instead of contacted, etc.), and a couple words were typos (the instead of that, but instead of by). The pace of the story was steady in the beginning, but the last half of the book was too fast-paced and months went by between chapters. I did enjoy the character and scene development. The characters were easy to relate to, and the author did a great job giving us just enough background to get to know them. I was able to imagine myself traveling with them to the various locales and would be interested to see if the author expands on some of the side stories he started in this book.
The story seems to fit better in the political genre than the thriller genre in my opinion. There was a bit of action/thrill toward the end, but most of the story centered around the geopolitics of the project, which was not interesting to me. I would recommend the book to anyone interested in exotic locales, political corruption, or history, but would caution thrill seekers to look elsewhere for a heart-pounding story.
******
The Expansion
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
Like sohollywood07's review? Post a comment saying so!
