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Cover of Point and shoot
Book details

Point and shoot

by Duane Swierczynski

Published 2013255 pagesISBN 978-0-3161-3330-2

Taking a non-optional tour of duty aboard a satellite housing the world's most dangerous secrets with a year's supply of food, air, and water, but no communication back home, Charlie Hardie plots his escape using the secrets as leverage. Charlie Hardie finds himself in a steel box, tubes and wires attached to his body, trapped inside a satellite parked in orbit 500 miles above the Earth. He's got a year's supply of food, air, water, and no communication back to Earth, and must complete his 12 months' duty or his wife and son will have an "accident." Someone all-too-familiar docks on the satellite, informs Hardie he's sitting in a veritable zero-G vault containing the world's most dangerous secrets, and forces a crash-landing in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Now Hardie must decide whether he's come face-to-face with the partner he needs to save his family-- or with his nemesis.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Fiction, Science Fiction, Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.

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Full BookenDeX details

What the reading experience may hold

A fuller profile for choosing with more confidence—not just another copy of the preview.

Themes to notice

Fiction · Science Fiction · Nonfiction

Use these as starting points rather than limits; the most memorable books often stretch beyond their catalog labels.

Content notes

No specific content concerns can be confirmed from the available English catalog information. Consult a publisher or reader-supplied guide when detailed warnings matter.

These notes are inferred from available catalog information and may not be complete. Check a publisher or reader-supplied guide if you need comprehensive warnings.

Reading experience

Balanced tone · Steady pace

A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.

Who it may suit

A good fit if…

Readers who want a thoughtful experience and enjoy noticing the connections beneath a book’s surface story.

At a glance

This book's DNA

A visual estimate based on this edition's categories, description, and length. Select a star to explore the signals.

ToneBalanced
LuminousDark

This signal is descriptive, not a rating. It helps compare the kind of reading experience this edition may offer.

No plot details

Spoiler-Free Emotional Arc

A broad estimate of the book’s emotional rhythm, shown without story events or outcomes.

Spoiler-free
12345
PeakRelative emotional intensity
Point and shootDuane Swierczynski
Heightened4.2/5

This visualization is an interpretive estimate based on catalog description, categories, tone, pace, and content signals. It does not describe specific scenes.

Before you choose

A quick reading snapshot

Edition facts and catalog signals to help you decide whether this book fits what you want to read next.

Reading lengthA standard-length read255 pages in this edition
Publication eraModernFirst published or edition dated 2013
Primary categoryFictionAlso cataloged under Science Fiction and Nonfiction
ISBN-13
978-0-3161-3330-2
Language
English
Edition record
OL26282214M
BookenDeX editorial lens

A more thoughtful way into this book

This guide uses the edition details and category signals above to help you choose deliberately. It does not replace the author's work or a full review.

Good to know

A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.

Begin with its place in Fiction, then notice where the book resists that label.

Try this reading approach

Read for connection, not completion.

Mark one passage that sharpens the book's central concern and one that complicates it. That tension often reveals more than a quick summary.

Three questions to carry with you

  1. What does the central character want, and what do they misunderstand about that desire?
  2. Which detail or relationship changes how you interpret the story?
  3. What feeling or question does the book leave with you after the plot moves on?

Editorial framework by Wesley Bryan, BookenDeX Founder and Editor.