Fire with Fire

Caine Riordan, Book 1

By: Charles E. Gannon

Narrated by: Kevin Pariseau

Length: 18 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's Summary

2105, September: Intelligence Analyst Caine Riordan uncovers a conspiracy on Earth's Moon - a history-making clandestine project - and ends up involuntarily cryocelled for his troubles. Twelve years later, Riordan awakens to a changed world. Humanity has achieved faster-than-light travel and is pioneering nearby star systems. And now, Riordan is compelled to become an inadvertent agent of conspiracy himself. Riordan's mission: travel to a newly settled world and investigate whether a primitive local species was once sentient - enough so to have built a lost civilization.

However, arriving on site in the Delta Pavonis system, Caine discovers that the job he's been given is anything but secret or safe. With assassins and saboteurs dogging his every step, it's clear that someone doesn't want his mission to succeed. In the end, it takes the keen insights of an intelligence analyst and a matching instinct for intrigue to ferret out the truth: that humanity is neither alone in the cosmos nor safe. Earth is revealed to be the lynchpin planet in an impending struggle for interstellar dominance, a struggle into which it is being irresistibly dragged. Discovering new dangers at every turn, Riordan must now convince the powers-that-be that the only way for humanity to survive as a free species is to face the perils directly - and to fight fire with fire.

©2013 Charles E. Gannon (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Would have been good as 1950s SF

Has Fire with Fire turned you off from other books in this genre?

I do not think the author adds anything to the genre. I feel he took the Star Trek premise of a federation but does not tell it as well.

Any additional comments?

I just couldn't care about any of the characters in this books. I find it amazing that the female character in the book was put in cryo in 2066 and she is amazed that you can give a car voice commands and they can drive themselves. It is like the author wrote this book in 1955 and didn't update any of the technology.

cant even think up a witty title.

i couldnt finish it. character so perfect can instantly figure out anything instantly. spoilers.

the main character is able to instantly identify a random person as an assassin, and figure out his convoluted plan to assassinate him by suicide using antimatter drive of a ship he rigged to explode, which would have killed some 8000 people. because a company tried to cover up alien life.

the guy is the gariest and sueiest of gary stus. he is a ploymath, which evidently means he is perfect at everything. think sherlock holmes meets house without the attitude/personallity problems as he is just so charming.

some attempt to make him seem more human with overblown ptsd issues and other tot.

the narrator doesnt help much, using a bad accent for all the foreign characters, and the 1940s radio/dudly doright voice for the main character.

this is one i REALLY wish i could return.

Misleading Cover

So the cover of this book is really misleading. It is not a military scifi with lots of action where Caine Riordan rains fire down upon his enemies from his combat drop ship. It is a thriller and a spy novel more than anything else. Think journalist Jack Ryan in space. It is a bit slow at times and Caine is almost always the smartest person in whatever room he happens to step into, but I liked it regardless.

The characters, even the ones I happened to strongly dislike, were believable, with real motivation and the story was intriguing enough that by the end of book two I found myself quickly searching for when book three would come out.

Better than expected.

I liked this book. It is reminiscent of the old-school Sci-Fi of Edmond Hamilton and Andre Norton. I was back and forth with it for awhile, wavering from liking it, to not. It's a bit unfocused, jumping around between known characters and not so known ones. Even though it was confusing from time to time, in the end I believe the author pulled it out. The characters took too long to develop, but by the end they were, and now I really want to see what happens to them. I will be getting the next book

Someone said "Jack Ryan in Outer Space"

If you could sum up Fire with Fire in three words, what would they be?

Jack Ryan Meets Aliens, I know it's 4 but that is as close as you can get.

What did you like best about this story?

It did have a Tom Clancyesque framework, you cans ee the story starting early in, but the twists and plots make it worthwhile. Although you do have to wonder how such a super spy organization can't figure out someone outside is messing with them.

Have you listened to any of Kevin Pariseau’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Not sure, I have a few hundred books, but the guy does a really good job.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Nope, just like to listen to a good story as I drive my 1.5 hour commute.

Any additional comments?

Good book, good story, well presented.

Poor start but it grows on you.

Any additional comments?

I almost put the book down several times in the first half but experience tells me the first book in a series is often difficult at first so it's usually worth sticking with it. The narrator was mediocre at best in the beginning but seems to have found his "voice" by mid way. The second half made up for everything. Action sequences and interesting conceptual twists helped the story along while the communications between characters gradually became more natural and the narrator improved. By the end, I was caught up in the story enough that I will be getting the second book.

Reads like several film/book tie-ins, in one.

Fire with Fire has several cinematic set pieces and intriguing genre tropes: Aliens, corporate greed, cryo-sleep induced social alienation, espionage, action, assassination. But it all adds up to an unenjoyable grab bag of a film in book form, trotting from planet to planet for no other purpose than the author's desire to relive classic Bond film nostalgia. A major discovery is made in the first third, but we are then taken on a spy movie detour through U.N. politics and intelligence service intrigue. When this fails to engage, we get several more characters introduced for some adventure on Mars. Dialogue with villains is cartoonish. The female protagonist is a sexpot combat-trained bodyguard who is assigned to sleep with the hero. At one point a character says "makes less than no sense." This brought me back from chores I was performing to distract me from how bad this construction is. When nothing seems to pay off in this book, expect another complication. I was lost and confused for no other reason than there is just nothing to care about in this mess. I quit 3/5 in.

Epic doesn’t begin to describe it.

Gannon delivers an epic performance. It is the Game of Thrones on a galactic scale.

I cannot finish this. I think I must have mis-

-heard the author recommendation. I went back to the reviews and know that I am not the only one. it reads like a B-grade Star Trek. I loved S/T when I was 12 years old.
I cannot finish this. I think I must have mis--heard the author recommendation.

Clever

Very clever, and insightful, with ties to past literature. Very entertaining with a great mix of reading human body language and behavior which I do professionally.

Loved it!

Its not great literature, but I wasn't after that! It was a good read not to complicated but good story, will definitely read the next book!!!