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Avg. Rating: 3.52
DISAPPOINTED AND ANGRY
I was disappointed in this latest novel by Nicholas Evans because it was nowhere as good a story as his two previous novels, The Horse Whisperer and The Loop. I am angry because this had the makings of a "great" book and ended up being nothing more than a longer version of a Nicholas Sparks' novel. And, don't get me wrong - I enjoy a good Nicholas Sparks' book but not when I'm supposed to be reading a Nicholas Evans' book. Set in Missoula, Montana and inspired by real life smoke jumpers, this book follows the lives of its three main characters Ed Tully, Connor Ford and Julia Bishop over a period of about ten years. Ed and Connor are best friends brought together by their love of life and interest in "smoke jumping." Ed is exuberant in nature while Connor is reserved yet they both complement each other. Julia is Ed's girlfriend and she will become another thing in which the two men share an interest. This will become a book about choices with loyalty and friendship being at its core. Prior to this reading, I had no idea what a smoke jumper was and found out that there are only 400 of them in America. This is one of the reasons I always gravitate towards Evans' books - I always learn something from them. In The Horse Whisperer, I learned that people COULD talk to horses. In The Loop, I learned that the wolf is an endangered species and people invent elaborate traps in which to catch them. In The Smoke Jumper, I learned that these jumpers parachute out of planes into "fire areas" and have devised incredible ways of fighting and starving fires. For the first 100 pages, I loved this book until it became a predictable love triangle. Girl meets boy, girl meets boy's friend, girl is attracted to friend, girl feels obligated to boy, tragedy strikes boy and girl until it becomes like every other book of this type that I've read. I enjoyed the beginning, which had to do with the fires, and the wilderness and the program for which Julia worked whereby they brought troubled teens into the open country and helped them find themselves. Once tragedy struck on the mountain, the whole emphasis of the book shifted to the point where some portions were not even plausible. If only the storyline would have continued in the smoke jumper direction, I would have been happy but, in the off-season, Connor is a photographer and spends his time taking pictures of atrocities in third world countries such as Bosnia and Uganda. This book then becomes a convoluted tapestry of puzzle pieces that the reader should be putting together along the way as the main characters strive to find some kind of happiness in their lives. Once the setting shifted from Montana to Africa, I lost interest and found everything from that point on just plain boring and unbelievable to say the least. There are very few heroes in the world and this book had the ability to create a fictional one yet it failed, in my opinion, because so many of the choices made by the main characters were downright "stupid". Since the fires that the smoke jumpers put out are very damaging, they are also cleansing in that new growth will eventually appear. I'm sure this was probably the moral of the story but Connor's stint in Africa left me begging to get back on U.S. soil so this new growth could begin. While the characters in the end might have finally found self-fulfillment, this reader certainly didn't.
A JOURNEY INTO THE COMPLEXITY OF LOVE!!!
Nicholas Evans is perhaps the one male author of adult romance novels who best conveys the essence what love between a man and a woman can be like when it reaches an almost mystical level of awareness, interaction, and commitment. In Mr. Evan's newest novel, THE SMOKE JUMPER, he continues the same theme that resonated throughout his first bestseller, THE HORSE WHISPERER, which centers on an extremely passionate and unrelenting love between two people who, for reasons beyond their control, are unable to fulfill this potential for a life-long relationship with each other. Connor Ford is a Montana cowboy who has a passion for two things: photography and smoke jumping. During the summer months of each year in the state of Montana, Connor joins an elite group of fire fighters known as "smoke jumpers." They are the ones who are dropped in by parachute to fight the raging forest fires that pop up throughout the state. When Connor finally meets the new girlfriend, Julia Bishop, of his closet buddy and fellow smoke jumper, Ed Tully, it's love at first sight. Julia, of course, feels the same way about Connor. This is the conflict that they will have to wrestle with throughout the rest of the book because Ed is a great guy whom they both love dearly, and neither one of them wants to hurt him. This becomes more evident when Ed is seriously injured during a rescue attempt to save Julia and a group of teenagers during a forest fire. Julia later marries Ed out of a sense of obligation, and Connor takes his camera and heads overseas to the war-torn countries of Bosnia and Uganda to learn his craft as a photojournalist. After many years have passed, a time comes when Connor learns that the lives of Julia and her young daughter are in grave danger and that he's the only one who can save them. He will don a parachute once again and put his life on the line as he jumps alone into a raging inferno of fire and bullets to save the two people who mean the most to him. THE SMOKE JUMPER is a powerful novel of love, adventure, sacrifice, and heroism in its most pure form. Written from the heart by an author who understands that the process of love is never easy and will often lead its recipient on a quest of historic proportions, this novel is one that will definitely appeal to both men and women, allowing them to catch a glimpse into the nature of what it truly means to love another human being. I especially enoyed the author's poem, "Walk Within You," and its poignant message about the transcendence of love after death. Also, the scene near the end of the novel, when Connor Ford goes to the rescue of Julia and Amy gave me goose bumps and caused a big, silly grin to erupt across my face. I'm a sucker for these kinds of heroic moments in any novel, but more so when love and the heart are involved. I found THE SMOKE JUMPER to be a fantastic reading experience, equal to that of THE HORSE WHISPERER, and my only wish is that Nicholas Evans was more of a prolific writer, publishing a novel every twelve-to-eighteen months, instead of every three years.
No spoilers included in this review!
First, I have to say that I was very disappointed to see that several reviews here have spoilers for this book! I always come here first to read reviews BEFORE reading a book...if you're doing so, be warned because several reviewers gave most of the story away!So...on to the book. After reading both of Nicholas Evan's other novels, this one was a bit disappointing. However, I did enjoy it, it was written beautifully, it just didn't move or inspire me like The Loop or The Horse Whisperer. Without giving too much away, this story is about Ed, Connor and Julia. Ed and Connor are best friends and smoke jumpers in Montana together each summer. One summer Ed brings his new girlfriend Julia along, as she's a counselor for troubled teens in a near-by camp. What ensues is much adventure, as they all have jobs that lean towards the dangerous side. After the summer fades, their lives all take very unpredictable turns, leading them each in their own direction. Will they all stay friends, down these roads life leads them? What I enjoyed most about this book was that the story was so unpredictable. Evans did a good job of taking us down a path that was amazing as it was surprising. Again, it's not my favorite of his, but he took a chance with something slightly different and did a pretty good job of it.
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