Cover Image: Brownout - 666

Brownout - 666

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Member Reviews

When an author doesn't do enough research on the correct spelling of some important landmarks in a country he is writing about, it is not a good start to be honest. I don't find the characters in this book sympathetic at all and the style of writing is not my cup of tea. I won't recommend this book.

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This book challenged my determination to complete every book I start reading. It has a very pretentious style of writing and is sprinkled with fancy words, often not meaning what the author thought. It could be used as an example for teaching how to write as it is full of pathetic fallacies and malaprops. I wanted the story to be enjoyable, but the author is apparently willing to sacrifice reality to make political points.. While I completely agree with much of the author's viewpoints, the clumsy presentation turned me off.

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Possibly one of the most ridiculous and offensive books I've ever read. It's racist,misogynist and it's "hero" ,Rick Daly is unlikable,selfish and totally immoral .Daly, an Australian living in the Philippines, is a frequenter of Girly bars and openly admits to having sex with and lusting after bar girls as young as 15. During the rest of the time in the Philippines he continues this behaviour despite being in a relationship with a woman he basically forces himself onto more than once when she is reluctant to have intercourse and sexually assaults an errant maid by way of punishment before kicking her out. Author John Richard Spencer's male characters,including Daly,also seem to share a penchant for schoolgirls,that's not "erotic" Mr Spencer it's perverse and distasteful. I've visited the country a lot and can assure Mr Spencer,and his readers,that Filipinas are not all whores and not all Filipnos are crooks as he seems to suggest and while there is some dislike of foreigners it's mainly due to too many going there who believe the kind of guff in his book .Possibly the most ludicrous part of a book that has more than it's fair share of "you can't be serious" moments is when Daly is offered help by a member of the Abu Sayef Muslim terror group to help kidnap his daughter from his ex-wife's family in Mindanao,not only that but within a few hours of meeting a female member of the group is demanding anal sex from our Rick and even provides a condom. I'd suggest that as Abu Sayef are Muslim fundamentalist's this would be a tad unlikely. Spencer tries to tell us that this was before Abu Sayef started their kidnapping of foreigners and blowing things up,a bit of a change from helping Westerners kidnap local kids as they do in his book.
Just as unlikely is the rest of the sorry tale which gets more and more ridiculous as it goes on and I found myself grimly compelled to plough on to see what further depths it could mine..and trust me it goes deep.
As if this wasn't bad enough there are bizarre,rambling,political discussions with side characters about Nazism, Israel, the "war on terror" and a whole lot more which add nothing to a story that desperately needs something adding.
I read this book as it promised to be an erotic thriller set in the Philippines that showed the differences between the Australian and Filipino cultures. If you find rape,sexual assault and under-aged girls erotic then maybe it is. Thriller? Not even close. As for the cultural aspect,it trashes a whole country as a shithole full of corrupt people for sale and Daly represents the worst kind of sex tourists,not Australia.
I was tempted to just not leave a review but then it wouldn't warn others as to what offensive dross this is. If it gets me kicked from Netgalley it's a price worth paying. Not only is it garbage ,it's offensive and unpleasant garbage.

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This book seemed interesting when I read the synopsis. I just couldn't get into it. The chapters seemed choppy. I will admit that this genre is outside of my comfort zone but it just wan't for me. If I am completely honest I ended up skimming most of the book since I wasn't invested in any of the characters. I felt like there was no plot development and the formatting was hard to follow. Every 5 sentences was a new paragraph with a space in between. I realize it was an ARC so hopefully that would change.

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Not like the typical books I read, I wasn't sure what to expect. For me, the beginning was a little hard to get through and it took me longer than usual to finish it but it wasn't bad if this is the type of book you enjoy.

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At first, the premise seems promising, but it executed poorly.
It just feel that the novel has no meaningful plot and not enticing at all. I've tried to look for positive things from this book, whether its plot, character or the writing style but sadly I think this book is not for me.

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I was not a fan of this book. It felt like the author was just filling pages in some spots. I also felt it was disconnected in many ways between the Philippine’s and the character. It mostly was about his sexual transgressions in the Philippine’s. I finished the book hoping it would get better however he then ends up in the US with more ridiculous problems.

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Expertly written and moving with characters I felt I knew, The Brownout -666 is a stunning novel that kept me guessing right until the final, unexpected end .

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Uhhhhh, not what I thought but I stayed with it even though the 'intimate' scenes were unnecessary at times. The writer is spot on though in the clash of the two countries as I had visited them both several times during my military service. Lets' call this "an adventure and geography". I think it will be well received.

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Its very rare that I absolutely pan a book but unfortunately its this one that get panned. The synopsis sounded like it would be an exciting storyline I found it anything but and found myself more skim reading the book to see if it got better... it didn't!

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