The God Complex: A Thriller

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Yes, it requires the suspension of disbelief, but it's FICTION, for entertainment purposes, so that's not a problem - and it definitely scores 100% for entertainment.I saw some reviews saying it was disjointed and that the characters were not developed, but I'm so glad that I didn't let those reviews put me off. It has quite a large cast of characters, but the main ones are well fleshed out and easy to empathise with. The others don't have to be - that's not their role in the story.The plot is complex, and consists of a number of different storylines that happen simultaneously, and ultimately converge. The author switches between these storylines, and, just like the characters themselves, the reader is not supposed to know exactly what's going on at first - only that it is fascinating, and we want to find out more. Honestly, though, the different threads are not hard to keep track of, and should not be a problem for the average reader.I gave this book 4 stars, not 5, for two reasons. Firstly, it's not as polished as it could be - although McDonald more than makes up for it with raw story telling ability - and secondly, because a certain conversation, right near the end, on which the entire plot hinges, was not shared with the reader. Instead, we are given a brief summary of what was said, which falls short for such a pivotal epiphany, and in my opinion, the author let himself down in this regard. However, overall this is a great, action packed book, and is also an absorbing and thought-provoking read. I have recommended it to my friends and family, and will be reading more by this author.

I really wanted to give this book only 3 stars, but it kept me up all night finishing it, so I have to give McDonald credit for that. A lot of novels include an all-powerful evil character who secretly controls governments, corporations, armies, etc., but the guy in this story - actually his whole family - is off the charts. Hard to believe in. Lots of other novels claim that the Pyramids and other ancient stone structures couldn't have been built by the Egyptians or Mayans or whoever because it would have been impossibly difficult for them to do it without modern-day equipment; hence, they must have been built by aliens to be used as transmitters to contact their home planets. Ho-hum. But, put these disparate elements together in the hands of a good writer and you can get a heckuva global chase tale. And McDonald delivers in that regard. Hence, my all-night experience.But, I had a lot of other minor problems with the story as a whole. I still haven't figured out why the Hubble telescope had to be blown up at the outset. And galaxies don't approach and recede from each other on a 25,000-year cycle - they're millions of light years apart! And how did a nuclear explosion occur at the end when all the atom bombs had been jettisoned from the plane hours earlier? And other little things that I pushed through in order to keep up with the chase. So, 3 stars became 4 stars, and I recommend this book to all thriller lovers.

had a lot of potential, but the author wasted it.the story line has a world wide conspiracy, old money, and embedded aliens trying to kill off most of humanity. can't hardly beat that as a basis for a story. the story even drags in pyramids and other old ruins.the problem is that it is just a collection of things happening that alone are not bad, but don't make as much sense when strung together. lots of huge leaps in logic at various points along the way had me wondering how the characters figured that out.too many super soldiers, who are really super, duper soldiers since they kill the super soldiers sent to kill them.just not real plausible and I really want that. the author has to sell that what is being depicted in the book can actually happen. that was not the case in this book. it was ok, and as a free Kindle download I don't feel cheated. but, on the whole it was just an average book. could have been a lot better if a good editor had cleaned up some of the jumps in logic and helped make it more believable.as self published works go, it was pretty good in the spelling, grammar, and punctuation areas. I did notice a few words here and there that might have been spelling errors corrected to the wrong word by spell check.I am not sure why but some of the weapons stuff just seemed a bit "off" to me. maybe because of the curious choices of weapons the super duper soldiers had. some of them are not especially common and not something I would have expected US based operatives to be using.

This is my second McDonald novel. My first was America's Trust. Both of these novels remind me of a thrilling amusement park ride. Full of exciting twists and fast paced action. And they have a 'ripped from the headlines' feel. Both stories feel entirely plausible.

The story and the characters were great. I wanted to give it a 5, but did not because of its use of curse words. The curse words were not needed because the story was excellent.I wish the writer would had gone more into what happened to Cash, Rigs and family.,

Generally a good read and very entertaining in the main. I found the two characters shared some traits with Harlan Coben's 'Myron Bolitar series in that the lead protagonist was the capable thinker and the other was the brooding yet deadly partner. I greatly enjoyed the "Chariots of the Gods" references (if you remember the 70s you know what I am talking about here) and connections, making history fun but not getting too tangled in explaining it all, just leaving it up to the reader to join the dots.If I did have any criticism of the book at all I thought the final chapter was a little rushed and a little far reaching in places. Almost as if the author had reached his word count quota for the book and really could not spare any further effort on wrapping it all up, I could go on but that would involve spoilers. A good weekend read if you can find the time.

I don't often write reviews but I bought this on a Facebook recommendation and, because it was only 99p, I decided to give it a punt. I didn't start reading it for some weeks - it just went in to my folder of books to read at some stage. I started it a couple of days ago and really enjoyed it. It was fast paced and easy to read. I churned through it over the course of a couple of long flights. At no stage did I contemplate abandoning this book in favour of another and I read it right through to the end. I enjoyed it enough to look at the authors other books and I have now purchased thse and put them in my books to read at some stage folder. I usually read a range of authors from Tom Clancy to Wilbur Smith, from Jeffrey Archer to Matthew Reilly. If you enjoy any of those then you will enjoy this. I have tried out a number of new (to me) authors over the last two or three years since I got my first Kindle. I have found some brilliant new authors whom I now consider as my mainstream favourites but also a fair number of duffs! This author, based on this book, goes in to the former. Thanks to Chris Kuzneski for the recommendation.

Enjoyable sci-fi / thriller / mystery with plenty of action. The two main characters (Cash and sidekick Rigs - or occasionally Riggs!) were quite well drawn with passable if unlikely back stories.The plot was something of a roller-coaster ride and rather complex, with lots of travel to exotic locations (for largely unexplained purposes which involved taking measurements from ancient monuments) but it did mostly hang together by the end. There were several occasions when I thought "he / she wouldn't do that!" especially towards the end with a sudden change of heart by one character. The author really should have gone back and inserted some 'seeds of doubt' for that particular character earlier in the book, so that it didn't come off as quite so unrealistic and out-of-character.The epilogue, which gave the much bigger 'galactic' picture was a bit of genius and actually made me laugh out loud!Only 4 stars because the writing, although rather good compared with many books I've read recently, left something to be desired. The author frequently used commas where a new sentence was needed, making sentence structure sometimes convoluted. Also, description was minimal, for the people if not the locations.All in all, a good read and I'd certainly give his other books a try.

"Captains Log, stardate 12345" Sorry that was the wrong captains log - I am not a follower of Star Trek, nor of Science fiction. When I got to the part of this book where there was a captains log my heart took a dive. I have read 8 of this authors books and never been disappointed, And he did not let me down. I will not give away any spoilers this plot is involved enough. It skirts along the edge of reality in the global political landscape - but keeps on driving never getting bogged down in politics. There is more action than you can shake a stick at, and you will definitely need a seatbelt. Murray has done it again!

After loving my first Murray McDonald book (American's Trust) I did a search for another by the same author and came by the God Complex. And yet again I wasn't disappointed. This is another page-turner which will keep you on the edge of your seat right to the very end. As with any good thriller it has it's twists and turns and each twist and each turn pulls you in further and further to the story so you hate to see it come to an end. I judge how good a book was by whether I want to look for another by the same author....this is my 2nd Murray McDonald and I'm sure I'll be reviewing a third very soon. Great author, great book.

I'm now used to picking up self-published thrillers only to find the writing sadly lacking in quality. This, however, was different. I've no idea who Murray McDonald is, but I'll be surprised if he doesn't gain a solid reputation for himself - if he hasn't already got one.It's taut, fast-paced and keeps your attention - all the things you'd hope for in a book that you're supposed to find exciting. Good characterisation and well-planned sequencing in a story that isn't obvious and won't be anticipated from the beginning.The only criticism I'd make is that it loses focus a little towards the end - I think maybe Murray painted himself into a corner by being so good for the first three-quarters that he perhaps found it difficult to sustain right to the end.I'd recommend this to anyone who's looking for a good read with a sci-fi bent.