Book Review: Threshold by Jeremy Robinson

Thanks to the quick action of Jack Sigler and the other members of a highly specialized group of soldiers known as the Chess Team, Fiona Lane manages to escape a ruthless terrorist attack on her family's reservation in Oregon, leaving her as the last speaker of her tribe's ancestral language. The team moves her to Fort Bragg in North Carolina, and, to better protect her, Jack becomes her foster parent. When the Chess Team learns of similar attacks wiping out the last speakers of ancient languages across the globe, they set off trying to piece together why someone would want to destroy the last traces of the old languages, leaving Fiona in good hands. Yet even the base isn't safe from the mysterious threat as strange, gigantic creatures of living stone reduce much of the base to rubble, and the team discovers that Fiona has disappeared. Jack and his team begin the frantic search to uncover the truth behind the mass killings and mysterious creatures before Fiona winds up like the rest of her tribe.

The action in Threshold comes at you like a machine gun, almost non-stop, not allowing the reader any chance for a breather which works great for the story, adding to the sense of urgency both to find Fiona and to stop whatever is happening to the last speakers of the languages. I found myself staying up well past midnight to get through just one more chapter before grudgingly turning in for the night. I also enjoyed the story's take on the Tower of Babel, what happened when the one language changed to many, and the potential for what could happen if the languages were reunited.

As for the characters, I found Fiona, Jack and the Chess Team very likable. They were no nonsense when it came to work and getting the job done, but also allowed themselves a chance to act like a family, joking and talking with the ease of people who had been through so much together that they are comfortable with one another. I liked the "friend" of the team Alexander Diotrephes and the villain Richard Ridley, but felt that something was lacking. They are both incredible and very original characters, but with constant references to a battle or conflict in what may be an earlier book, I sensed that I was missing important parts of both their histories with regards to Jack and the Chess Team.

Not to worry, though, as I plan to read the earlier Jack Sigler stories. If the fast-paced action of Threshold is any indication, those early books should be just as good.

Threshold
by Jeremy Robinson
Thomas Dunne Books
ISBN: 978-0-312-54030-2
hardcover, 336 pgs.

book received from publisher

Image from Jeremy Robinson - Official Site.