Milkshake product reviews

An interesting tale of conspiracy set in the very contemporary political climate between the USA and New Zealand, Milkshake was a fast-paced and fairly easy read. I enjoyed the premise - that New Zealand had been chosen by the US as an off-shore bio-fuel production plant and all that was left was to take it over subtly (using such techniques as buying the ground from under us and influencing immigration and emigration). Given that I had no knowledge of the science behind their plans, I accepted all of that with the same suspension of disbelief I grant fantasy and science fiction.

The characters (almost entirely male) were fairly good, though could have done with a little more depth. My favourite by far was the handsome and brilliant Maori SIS dude who unfortunately only turned up in the final quarter of the novel. By the end of the book, I felt most of my questions had been answered and the conclusion was certainly satisfactory.

Being a self-published author myself, I know how hard it can be to eliminate all those pesky grammatical errors, and I was impressed for the most part by the smooth, readability of Matt's writing. He kept me interested right up to the last page (though I skimmed a few parts which were essentially 're-telling' the situation just in case you had forgotten what was going on).

I do recommend giving this one a go, especially if you are interested to read a story where you get to see New Zealand through the eyes of someone who has never been here before. I think that was actually my favourite thing about this book in the end - just the wonderful descriptions and insights of someone seeing the place I have always taken for granted with new eyes.