For more than a hundred million years, the Dark Continent has kept a savage secret. While on the trail of a stolen tactical nuclear weapon, Jack Sigler, callsign: King, and his black ops Chess Team, answer a cry for help. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is on the verge of exploding into another bloody civil war that will engulf all of Africa and put millions at risk, a crisis too politically volatile for any outside nation to touch. As the team, unfettered by political constraints, deploys across the globe, the threats spin out of control. A search for the Congo’s missing president becomes a quest to solve a century old mystery, and uncover a secret that powerful men will kill to protect. A mission to rescue a team of scientists from violent revolutionaries devolves into a desperate run through the jungle, pursued by both modern man and ancient beast. And the effort to stop a revolution becomes a brutal contest, pitting King against the most cunning and sadistic foe he has ever faced—a deadly mercenary known as the Red Queen. King has traveled around the globe and across time to protect the people he loves. Now, he must face a harsh truth: he cannot save everyone. Jeremy Robinson and Sean Ellis, the bestselling team of The Brainstorm Trilogy and Prime return with an action-packed tale rivaling the best of Matthew Reilly and James Rollins. Savage is a fresh re-launch for Jack Sigler and the Chess Team, so if you’ve never tried a Jack Sigler thriller, this is the perfect point to jump in and enjoy the chaos. And if you’re a long time fan, welcome back, and prepare yourself...
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This is the first Chess Team book to occur post-Ridley Saga, and is designed to be much more stand alone. As such, it makes a good entry point into the series for new fans – and they will be fans by the end of the book, mark my words on that one.
The back story here starts with Henry Morton Stanley trying to find the money to get back to Africa. It seems that Dr. Livingstone had told him a fantastical tale that he just had to go see for himself…
Flash forward nearly a century, and a man running from the constant wars of mid 20th century Africa finds a mysterious cave that two of his friends quickly die in.
And then we come to the modern era, where we are quickly introduced to a bunch of tourists in Egypt. One is Chinese, two appears to be a German couple, and two more appear to be tourists from some other Arab country. Of course they are none other than Shin Dae-jung, call sign KNIGHT, Stan Tremblay, call sign ROOK, Zelda Baker, call sign QUEEN, Erik Sommers, call sign BISHOP, and the man who has now lived through millenia, Jack Sigler – call sign KING. Yes, all of these tourists are our Chess Team, and they are on yet another mission to set up yet another book.
The tale this time mostly centers in Africa, but with a couple of side trips – QUEEN and ROOK only – to Europe to save a President and kill some bad guys, CHESS TEAM style. Along the way, we get a spin on the Team that is becoming somewhat the norm in these later books with the story splitting the team up in different objectives before bringing them all back together for the final battle. Along the way, we encounter at least a couple of people who are holdovers from the Ridley Saga, we get some great action, some funny humor… and a gut punch about mid way through.
But that midpoint gut punch is NOTHING like the haymaker that lands in the final 12% of the book. To the tune that I actually sent Jeremy this message via Facebook:
NO. I’m 89% in. If you do what it looks like you’re about to do, there *will* be cursing involved. A lot of it.
Hence the title of this review. But I have to admit, it is *because* of this haymaker that this story stands head and shoulders above any CHESS TEAM book before it. Because of this haymaker, I recommend reading at least a few of the previous books first, just to get the full weight of what is happening, though it isn’t strictly necessary. (But seriously, who starts reading a series with Book 6?? Seriously – you’ll have a LOT more fun if you start off with PRIME or PULSE, then skip ahead and read this one if you must. Hell, go ahead and buy all three!
This haymaker will change the course of the team forever… Or will it? As with Marvel’s Avenger Series movies, make sure you stay through the end credits. Or in this case, the “Coda” after the Epilogue…
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