Book Review: Red Sky Mourning

You think you know James Reece. Think again.

A storm is on the horizon. America’s days are numbered. A Chinese submarine has gone rogue and is navigating towards the continental United States, putting its nuclear missiles within striking distance of the West Coast.

A rising Silicon Valley tech mogul with unknown allegiances is at the forefront of a revolution in quantum computing and Artificial Intelligence.

A politician controlled by a foreign power is a breath away from the Oval Office.

Three seemingly disconnected events are on a collision course to ignite a power grab unlike anything the world has ever seen.

The country’s only hope is a quantum computer that has gone dark, retreating to the deepest levels of the internet, learning at a rate inconceivable at her inception. But during her time in hiding, she has done more than learn. She has become a weapon. She is now positioned to act as either the country’s greatest savior or its worst enemy. She is known as “Alice” and her only connection to the outside world is to a former Navy SEAL sniper named James Reece who has left the violence of his past life behind.

Will there be blood?

Count on it!

Will the forces that threaten to destroy the United States be enough to light the fuse of Reece’s resurrection?

-Goodreads

Book Information

• Title: Red Sky Mourning
• Series: Terminal List #7
• Author: Jack Carr
• Page Count: 448
• Genre: Thriller
• Rating: 5.0/5.0
• Date Read: June 25th, 2024

Opening Thoughts

If you haven’t been following along, I started reading the Terminal List series by Jack Carr in June of 2023 based on a recommendation from a coworker who is a rather large fan of the books. I’ve been hooked on them from the start and though it took me almost a year exactly, I got caught up right in time for the 7th book Red Sky Mourning to come out in June of 2024 here. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to get to it this month with a rather full monthly TBR but due to also squeezing in a vacation which allowed me to get a lot of extra reading in, I was able to enjoy this one only a few days after release.

Pacing

The pacing was exactly what I come to expect from this series. I don’t know how I’d feel if that changed with book seven in a series. This is still fast paced intense action. There are amazing fight scenes which I’ll get to shortly, though even when there isn’t action going on like that even the dialogue and story just seem to have me sitting on the edge of my seating wondering what is going to happen next. If I had to make a film comparison to this book and series, I’d have to go with the Jason Bourne series. They give me that similar edge of my seat feeling when watching them.

Even though I do own physical copies of these books, I continue to opt for the audiobook versions narrated by Ray Porter who just does an excellent job in bringing these fantastic stories to life. If you have been enjoying this series with visual reads and don’t mind or enjoy audiobooks, you’ve got to give Ray’s performance a try.

World Building

The world building continues to surprise me. I’ve always been drawn to more science fiction and fantasy worlds to give me that feeling of escapism. I never really thought I’d enjoy fictional reads based in the real world. This is even more so with The Terminal List series as Jack Carr continues to weave in current events into his stories. These stories always seem to stretch across the globe in each book and this one is no different. I also love the fact that the author continues to pull the current back a bit and let us know there are some parts of the story based on real life events, some that are twisted a bit to make them their own and others just a bit of pure speculation for enjoyment purposes of the story.

I want to touch on the level of detail that Jack Carr writes in this book and really in the series. I know this can actually be a polarizing subject at times. I had this discussion with my friend whom was also reading Red Sky Mourning upon release and I talked about a scene that I just loved. Carr gets very detailed in explaining what goes through Reece’s mind thinking step by step what he is doing and then performing it. It makes me feel like I am right there. It also gives me the vibes of the scene entering slow motion or bullet-time from video games. This just works very well for me in this series. I can see if not being for everyone though.

Character Development

The character development was great in Red Sky Mourning. We see some of our biggest growth moments for James Reece to date in this one. I can’t help to also love so many of the supporting characters in this book and series as well. The Hastings family is amazing! Ox might have become one of my favorite characters in this book. And the ending was spot on! I won’t share any spoiler speculation here but I’m happy the way this book ended for sure.

Roundup & Recommendation

As I begin to wrap this review up, I want to say that the timing for this one couldn’t have been better for me. As I mentioned I wasn’t sure if I’d get this one in by the end of the month or not. I actually started it on the last day of my vacation. A complete coincidence was, we woke up early to get our last hike and visit to Presque Isle State Park and when we arrived, there was actually a red sun rising over Lake Erie. I thought I’d share a picture of the view with my trail buddy and side-kick Indy. I started up the audiobook for this hike as well as the drive home as well and Jack Carr had me hooked once again.

I really only had one small bit of confusion as this book wrapped up which I ended up discussing with a friend who was also reading it at the same time. Once he finished he reminded me of something that happened in the previous book which then made that entire chapter make much more sense. I had completely forgotten about that moment. It’s always good to have friends reading books that can share thoughts or shed light on things like this.

All in all I am still new to Jack Carr spending just the last year getting through this series and I don’t know what the future holds. I’d love to see more books released in this series but if not, I have enjoyed this ride! I also know the author has his first non-fiction writing releasing later this year and since I do enjoy military history and try to sprinkle those reads in each year, I will keep my eyes out for this.

If you’ve already started your journey through The Terminal List series, keep going with this one, you will not be disappointed. If you haven’t checked the series out but enjoy Thrillers with a heavy dose of action, espionage and military aspects, you deserve to give this a chance.

Scoring

World Building 5/5
Pacing 5/5
Character Development 5/5