Publication Date: February 4th, 2010
Publisher: Doubleday Childrens
Genre(s): Action, Thriller, Young Adult
Series Status: Drop Zone #1
Pages: 288
Format and Source: Hardback, Owned
Rating: 5 out of 5
Synopsis from Goodreads:
Ethan Blake is seventeen and desperate to escape from his dead-end life. When he sees someone B.A.S.E. jump from the top of his block of flats, it changes the way he sees the world for ever.
Soon, Ethan is caught up in the adrenaline-fuelled world of skydiving. He’s a natural, so it’s no surprise when he’s invited to join an elite skydive team, but is he signing up for more than just jumping out of planes?
The team’s involved in covert military operations – missions that require a special kind of guts, missions so secret even MI5 denies all knowledge.
Now this book is a completely different genre of fictional book to what I have reviewed before, but, like have said at least twice, I like all genres. Now this book I read years ago and I still go back to it when I am in need of a book filled with action and adrenaline.
I must tell you this: I have always loved the idea of skydiving. Not that I will definitely ever do it as I think my anxiety would kick in way before I could step onto the plane. But I just think the idea of seeing the world from 12000 feet up before free falling through the air at 120mph seems so freeing. It’s almost seems like shouting, “SCREW YOU GRAVITY AND INSTINCTS! I’M GOING TO JUMP OUT OF THIS PLANE AND ACTUALLY SURVIVE UNLIKE WHAT THE LAWS OF NATURE SUGGESTS!” This is one of the reasons I love this book.
Another reason I love this book is that is seems so real. Maybe it’s because Andy McNab actually new what he was going on about and had actually experienced these things. Or because he wrote it in a very blunt manner stating the obvious and not trying to make simple things flowery with unnecessary metaphors (not that I don’t like them). This made the actual action scenes so much better as they are fast paced but so specific you know exactly what is going on.
Ethan as a character I like. He doesn’t come from the best of backgrounds, nor is sure of where he is going. This meant that when he found skydiving it gave him purpose and an escape from a life he wasn’t entirely happy living. He is also nice, generally average at everything, with morals he doesn’t want to change; this makes him relatable which helps you connect emotionally to him.
Overall I do love this book and there is a sequel which I have read and will probably review too.
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