Patriot Acts

Genre action Author Greg Rucka Publisher Bantam Dell Pub Group External Links Bantam Dell Pub Group

It's been six years Critical Space, six years since Atticus Kodiak's life came to paper. Now, with Patriot Acts that wait is over. Kodiak is back.

Once, Atticus Kodiak worked as a bodyguard. He defended his clients against the world's premier assassins—a group called the Ten. Now things are different. Atticus is working with a former member of the Ten, Alena Cizkova, a.k.a. Drama. And with a group of Drama's friends, he now hunts Oxford, another one of the Ten. When things go south, however, and Atticus is himself labeled as one of the Ten, Atticus Kodiak finds he has become the hunted.

Greg Rucka, author of Patriot Acts, is known for his thrillers and his award-winning graphic novels. Patriot Acts continues within the same vein. The novel begins in the heat of the action and continues with a driving pace.

Patriot Acts is a thriller. And that means pretty much what you'd expect. High-octane action, shootouts, death-defying acrobatics on rain-slick buildings, conspiracies—all the staples are there. Unfortunately, so too are the genre's expected shortcomings.

Almost without exception, the characters in Patriot Acts are flat, two-dimensional. They go through trials, face obstacles, but their plight does not garner empathy. They seem about as real as James Bond. Bullets fly past our heroes' heads. But we're not worried. We know no one's getting hit.

Though the novel begins with fast-paced action, things cool off quick. Gunfights can't cover weakly constructed sentences and a style that utterly fails to convince. Patriot Acts is fine when the characters are shooting at each other. Things just don't go so well when they sit down and try to talk.

Fans of previous Kodiak novels will love this book. And thriller fans won't be wasting their money. For the rest of us, though, Patriot Acts doesn't offer anything we couldn't just as easily find in any number of espionage films.