Pandora's Clock

by John J. Nance

Quick. An airplane has just declared an emergency. Who do you turn to for answers? John J. Nance of course. You probably don't know the name but when you see his face on TV talking about aviation you would recognize him. Well I didn't know until a month ago that he was also an author who writes aviation themed action/thriller novels.

I bought a lot of 7 of his books on ebay. I finished Pandora's Clock in just under 2 days. Wow! What a story. It has action, suspense, aviation, drama, cliffhanger chapter endings, conspiracies. Did I mention that the book accurately portrays flying and all things aviation. I know. It's hard to find that in novels. But not when they are written by an author who is also a pilot.

My only complaint with the book is that not enough people died. I guess I forgot to mention what the book was about. A man boards a 747 bound from Europe to the USA after being exposed to an Omega class germ. One that has at least an 80% kill rate. The governments of the world find out about his possible illness and ban the airplane from landing in any European country. The plane becomes a pariah. The crew is forced to fly from country to country trying to find a place to land before they run out of fuel. They do land at a few different airports to refuel but each time they are forced to leave. Believe me it's more interesting and suspenseful then I make it sound. The plane makes a stop in Ascension Island, which in my opinion is one of the more interesting islands in the world, along with the Tristan da Cunha group of Islands.

The book was made into a TV miniseries starting Richard Dean Anderson, aka MacGyver. I would be interested in seeing the show. *Update* I found a copy of the TV Miniseries! It clocks in at just under 3 hours so it might be a while before I'm able to make time to watch it.

As I said earlier not to many people die is this book. I kind of think that John Nance was a little bit scared to kill everyone off. But you know who wasn't? J.C. Hutchins.

I finally finished listening to the 7th Son novels. I had reviewed the 1st one last year. Well let me say; before, my only complaint was that there was too much chatter before and after the stories. Well now you can download the stories without the chatter. Or with. Your choice. Though after listening to the 3rd book which had no chatter, I started to miss the friendly voice on J.C.

J.C. had no qualms when it came to killing off main characters. Or mass swaths of the world's population. It made for both an exciting story and one that was maddeningly irritating, as you grow to have a favorite character only to see him offed by the bad guys. I highly recommend listening. I used the drive to and from work to listen to the podiobooks. Though I must warn you. Be careful when you listen and drive to 7th Son. I mean it. The story is very engrossing. I went through a whole range of emotions listening to the story. It was suspenseful, funny, and sad. Books 2 and 3 follow the clones as they try and decipher John Alpha's puzzles left for them. They race across the United States trying to stop his plot to takeover the world. Unlike your typical James Bond story, in 7th Son the villains have a well thought out plan to rule the world. I warn you not to listen to the last chapter in public. Why? Well you might look strange crying in front of strangers. Yeah it's that good of a story.

I look forward to reading more novels by John Nance throughout the year. By now you really should know who Mr. Nance is, as he has been all over ABC news reporting on the recent US Airways plane that landed in the Hudson River.

I also look forward to listening to 7th Son: Obsidian, an anthology of short stories set in the 7th Son world, written by other authors, that follows events that happened during the blackout in the 7th Son world.