I read suspense novels for their tight, well-conceived plot lines, but it isn’t my favorite genre because the characters are flat and don’t change much. Well, author John C. Brewer has blown that out of the water with his new novel, The Silla Project. This science thriller grips the reader from the outset with the despair of Mitch Weatherby, a Los Alamos scientist who has been wrongfully stripped by our government of everything he thought gave his life meaning. The reader will understand why he attempts a wholesale rejection of every value and belief he has held, and why he fails. Even the secondary character, a beautiful but fanatical North Korean scientist, becomes not only understandable but sympathetic as the novel progresses.

But don’t be misled. The Silla Project is still a suspense novel, entwining the encumbrances of bureaucracy, machinations of political climbers, and blindness of ideological zealots into a thoroughly researched plot that will leave the reader cheering for the freedoms of our society and shocked at the plight of the North Korean people. Most readers will like The Silla Project. Fans of military or political suspense or of science thrillers will love it!

The Silla Project is very different from Mr. Brewer’s prior novel, Multiplayer, but the same strength for story-telling and character still shines through. Well done.