David Klass's book, Firestorm, thrilled me with edge-of-your-seat action scenes throughout the whole book. Once I picked it up, I did not want to put it down. In fact, I read about half the book the first day I checked it out from the library.
One main reason I really enjoyed the book was the style of writing. The book is written in a high school senior's point of view, an 18 year old teenager. The book is full of sarcasm and witty one-liners, which really gives you the feeling of being there with the main character. The writing style adds depth, and also gives you a feeling of connection, as I myself am a teenager, and I feel like I would react about the same if I was in his shoes.
The characters are very in depth, each having their own personality. Klass makes a very big distinction between the characters he has and one he is introducing, while Jack might be a strong, witty teenager, his companion is a smart, critical thinker that gets them out of some tough spots. This adds a variety to the book, which is refreshing as some I have read have almost cut-out characters, hardly varying on the writing and persona of the characters. This adds a realism, making the characters seem more real instead of just fiction heroes.
This book really relates with the current issues on the economy. The book makes points on wildlife, and how important it is to preserve what we have now before it is too late, adding detail on commercial fishing, which reduces not only the fish population, but the very ecosystem they live in, destroying giant reefs that are a very large part of ocean life, without reefs there would not be as many different species as there are today. The book almost has a doomsday quality on the preservation, believing that if we humans keep doing what we are doing to the planet, we are going to ruin it to the point of no return, to where we cannot fix the problems we have caused, making life on Earth very hard on us.
If I would recommend this book to anyone, I would choose Phoenix, a close friend of mine who would most likely enjoy the book. The pace is fast, there is a lot of action and some very steamy parts, which adds some relief to all the fingernail biting. Overall, the book was a great one, and I currently am reading the second in this trilogy.
