McFadden and Banks Complete Series Omnibus, Michael Anderle, 2022.
An Assassin’s Accord Nov 2020, 288p
Diplomatic Immunity Dec 2020, 352p
Hostile Negotiations Jan 2021, 364p
One Threat Too Real Mar 2021, 374p
No Time For Fear Apr 2021, 301p
This is 2380 pages of roller-coaster. Set in the Zoo universe, this series covers the adventures of former Fed Niki Banks and mercenary bad-boy Taylor McFadden, principals of the firm of the same name. The theme running through the books is humanity’s willingness to take insane risks for short-term profits from products coming from the alien intelligence called “the Zoo” -- and the great lengths to which McFadden, Banks and various associates, allies and sometimes competitors will go to fix the problems these risks inevitably cause.
An Assassin’s Accord is the M+B origin story, with our heroes returned from the alien infection known as the Zoo and from the government, respectively. The quiet doesn’t last long, though, as they’re pulled into a devious plot involving companies pushing the Zoo’s deadly “goop” a little too far. Fortunately, it’s nothing that can’t be fixed by some judicious shooting.
Diplomatic Immunity sees the duo and their supporting cast take on a very bent “diplomat” who’s shipping narcotics laced with alien serum. While diplomatic immunity doesn’t mean what Anderle uses it to mean, there’s still some high-energy intrigue, adventure and (of course) shooting. Lots of that.
The follow-on story, Hostile Negotiations, brings M+B into the anti-poaching business--when the illegal hunt deals with aliens in the Zoo, we’re past Fish & Wildlife’s purview and heavier firepower is required, and promptly brought to bear.
One Threat Too Real sees the team chasing their stolen AI, while eco-extremists brilliantly decide to hijack a Zoo creature to make a point, but find they’re not the only trigger-happy bozos on the case. Fixing this requires, you guessed it, McFadden, Banks, considerable firepower, and lots of damage.
The series culminates with No Time For Fear, in which various fears are faced and found to be...actually pretty rational. Human inability to think long-term about the danger the Zoo poses comes to a head, and fixing it requires, well, you probably get the picture.
One note of (surprising?) sophistication: you can read the plot line to be an allegory to the environmental/climate change crisis. An event upsets the status quo in a way that’s small and slow at first, but loaded with the promise of future, planet-wrecking menace as it accelerates. The various baddies find reasons to ignore the increasingly obvious threats emanating from the Zoo for various short-term reasons... And no, we’re not going to shoot our way out of dealing with the climate, so the analogy breaks down. But it’s a good one while it lasts.
Overall, this is a good mix of violence, PG-13 innuendo, and...a ton of shooting and more violence. Along the way we also get conspiracies spicing up various stupid things done by individuals, companies and governments. And shooting.
The characters are always interesting and sometimes even do things that are plausible. Not a lot of time goes into making them deep or believable, but this isn’t that kind of series anyway. There are some almost laughable ‘derp’ moments — Vicki, the petulant nepo baby hacker nearly gets the team killed through negligence, but that’s largely shrugged off. And at a critical moment confronting a monster threatening to eat northern Germany, McFadden gets all obsessed about…calling a crew to patch some damage to the local roads because…I don’t know, but I guess it made sense when Anderle wrote it?
“The fact that he was seriously considering whether a jungle was able to engage in statistical analyses was absurd, but such was the world they lived in at the moment.”
The plots of the individual books are laid out well enough to keep the reader’s interest. They’re different enough from book to book but they all do follow the same basic, well-trodden rhythm. The writing is the equivalent of inexpensive bulk wine: churned out in massive volumes, it gets it done but don’t expect it to age well.
Solidly entertaining.
Smirk factor: Overdone: 0 pts (154 smirks/smirked/smirking, etc -- ratio of 1:15.45 pages.)
Immersion factor: Chest-high: 1.5pts (Except for book 1, there was more here than I expected.)
Writing quality: Average: 1 pt (Fit for use, fit for purpose, no frills.)
Character/plot development: High: 2 pts
Innovative/interesting: Above-average: 1.5pts (Much more interesting than I expected.)
Total: 6/10 (3 stars, meritorious promotion to 4 because it’s somehow more than the sum of its parts.)