Welcome

Welcome to my ever-evolving blog. It started out as a blog on Beachbody workouts and products, mainly when I was a Beachbody coach. I no longer coach, not because I don't believe in Beachbody's programs (I subscribe to Beachbody on Demand and use their workouts every day), I am just not a salesperson and hated that aspect of it. I am more than willing to answer questions about my experiences with their products and the various workouts, and I feel freer to do so without the appearance of giving a biased review of something.

I have also started adding reviews for various things I have purchased like movies, books, CDs, and other products. This was brought about by a fight with Amazon in which all of my reviews were removed over a completely bullshit allegation that I posted a review that violated their terms of service. After going back and forth with the morons in the community-reviews department (even after they admitted that my posts did not violate their guidelines) they restored my account (which took them six months to do), but I have been posting my reviews on my blog to have them preserved in case something like that happens again. And here, I will post uncensored reviews so I will swear from time to time and post reviews that may be longer than Amazon's character limit. Everything I post here on any topic or product is my personal opinion, and I take no compensation for any product reviews I post. I am a member of Amazon's vine program and because I get those products for free, I keep those reviews on Amazon only, but everything I have purchased with my own money, whether from Amazon or some other store/website/outlet, I will post here.  

I also plan to do some longer blog posts on various topics, such as how to learn physics, how to get through calculus, and longer reviews of workout programs as I do them. Basically, whatever strikes me as interesting at the time.  As you can see if you navigate around the blog, I had many years in between postings. During that time I was going back to school to get an engineering degree, and learning material that I avoided my first time through college was a different experience and one that gave me a lot of insight into how to do well in those classes, which I will try to impart here for those who are looking to get a science or engineering degree. 

Sunday, October 20, 2024

Book Review: Foreign Agent (Scot Harvath Series # 15)

 


Foreign Agent, published in 2016, is the 15th novel in Brad Thor's series of action-thrillers centered around Scot Harvath. The plotline involves a series of attacks against Americans in the Middle East who were planning to move against the social media director of ISIS. It is discovered that the attacks were planned and bankrolled by the Russians, and Harvath is sent to Syria to take out those responsible. The secondary plotline involves a mole inside the US government working for the Russians, who fed them the information that led to the attacks. 

The hardcover version of the book is moderately long, coming in at just over 330 pages. It reads like the other books in the series, so it will read as quickly or as slowly as the others have. You do not need to have read the prior books to understand the plot of this one. While Thor does refer to events in the prior novels occasionally, the series' books mostly have standalone storylines. The thing you lose by not reading the previous books is the character development of the established characters. Thor relies on the earlier novels to provide the backstories of the established characters and only fleshes out the backgrounds of new characters. There are a handful of new characters in this book, some of who may appear in later novels and others who probably will not. Ultimately, the book is a well-written action thriller. This one is worth reading if you are a fan of the genre (and the spy novel genre) and/or Thor's prior novels.

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