Siege by Simon Kernick - Book Review

           In reading the Book, Siege, by Simon Kernick, one can’t help but think of Rodereck Thorp’s book Nothing Lasts Forever, which became the hit movie Die Hard with Bruce Willis where terrorists seized the Nakatomi Hotel in Los Angeles and Bruce Willis took care of things by knocking out the terrorists. 
Yes, in Siege, terrorists are going to take over the Stanhope Hotel in England. The question is what will Kernick do in this book that will be different in this movie as well as other movies like Die Hard where one man fights off the terrorists. 

             Actually, Kernick has in fact created a book that is creative and at the same time filled with action and suspense that is unpredictable until the very end. The question is how does he do it? 
Well, he constantly changes point of view throughout the story, going to the actions of the terrorists and then in other chapters, switching over to the victims and heroes in the story. At times, I admit that it was tough to keep up with all the characters because of the changing of the point of view but it was okay in this case because Kernick was able to continue to build suspense throughout each chapter, keeping me on the edge of my seat. 

              Part of that suspense meant at times reading about how brutal the terrorists were. I was happy with the fact that Kernick was able to control this and did not go for overly excessively violence and gore in the book. Yes, the terrorists were brutal not to the point where you would cringe and turn away from violence like you may see in a TV show like The Following. 

               The book moved well for me as I got used to a lot of characters in the book who managed to play different parts in The Siege. That was the creative part that Kernick worked at so well his book would not have to be compared to movies like Die Hard or Thorp’s book. 

                 Considering the fact that there have been movies like White House Down and Olympus has fallen, this book was a refreshing take that showed a lot of creativity by Kernick as he weaved his way through the story, building the right amount of action and suspense while switching point of views many times in the story. 

              For me, the book had memorable characters, lots of action and suspense, making this book worthy of five stars. Looking forward to reading more books by Simon Kernick. 

Ron Hummer