Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue Books - Page 12

Prey

Michael Crichton

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 823 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Must have been enduring a divorce when he wrote this one! 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

While the science and the 'this could happen' ethos is a lot of fun, the book's start is astoundingly mysogynystic. His protagonist goes on AT LENGTH describing the normal day hundreds of millions of mothers world wide endure as if it's something novel. His male character whines about taking care of kids, how his wife doesn't call home when she's late, how it's hard to run into former pals who still make a paycheck. Honestly, no female author could ever have gotten such tripe published, but because our protagonist is a male, this is fodder for narrative. My husband and I howled at the beginning, and simply skipped entire chapters to get to the part he's good at: telling a scary story using potentially real science. But the guy sure was ticked off at some woman when he wrote this thing.

Editorial Review:

In the Nevada desert, an experiment has gone horribly wrong. A cloud of nanoparticles—micro-robots—has escaped from the laboratory. This cloud is self-sustaining and self-reproducing. It is intelligent and learns from experience. For all practical purposes, it is alive.

It has been programmed as a predator. It is evolving swiftly, becoming more deadly with each passing hour.

Every attempt to destroy it has failed.

And we are the prey.

Without Remorse

Tom Clancy

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 302 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

John "Hannibal" Kelly 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

For this review let me first start off by thanking the positive reviewers of Without Remorse here on Amazon! This was quite a find. I am usually more prone to enjoy science fiction and some of the classics in my reading habits, but decided to branch out and try some of the more popular mainstream authors I've seen on the bestseller lists over the years. Knowing what a force Clancy is through movies and video games, plus seeing all the positive accolades here on Amazon, led me to find this book and it really hit the mark. Very engaging and entertaining read from start to finish. This one is personal and will put you into the shoes of someone facing some of the most horrific scenarios a human could ever imagine on multiple levels. From the tragic deaths of loved ones to Vietnam P.O.W.s and Cold War espionage, this book has a lot to offer. I liked that it showed how a good man confronts the harsh realities of the seedier, dare I say evil, elements of society and world events that most average people won't ever have to (or want to) face head-on. Clancy creates a sympathetic hero in John Kelly that I think most people would like to be like if faced with the same situations where corrupt, crime-infiltrated law enforcement won't cut it. It is truly sad that the situations presented in this book exist but it is good to know there are people like John Kelly out there willing to do something about them, if not as individuals then as the organizations and other institutions that protect our country and communities. Thomas Harris' book Hannibal Rising is quite similar in many ways. In real life justifying murder out of revenge isn't something I want to attempt, but it makes for great entertainment and catharsis. It's just like watching or reading about the good Jedis chopping the enemy down with lightsabers; symbolic of what most people would want to do to the evil or injustice in themselves or the outside world. Can't wait for the movie and won't forget reading the compression chamber scene in my tent while camping on a rainy surf trip to Baja last winter. My book is still bloated from soaking up the rain!

Editorial Review:

In a harrowing tour de force, Tom Clancy shows how an ordinary man named John Kelly crossed the lines of justice and morality--to become the CIA legend Mr. Clark.

Pattern Recognition

William Gibson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 276 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Couldn't put it down 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

In the midst of other deadlines, I read this book in a little over 24 hours. Gibson shows such great sensitivity to contemporary cultures and technologies, and the implications for personality and human consciousness. I've spent several years in Tokyo, and quite a bit of time in London and NY, and now I want to go to Moscow, so I can verify that his picture of that city is as illuminating as of the cities I know. And all the stuff about fashion, and its great power, and viral phenomena on the Net (Rick Astley, anyone?). It's not exactly realistic, but extremely authentic.

Well written and engrossing, but left me disappointed at the end 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Gibson has a sharp eye for hipster culture; that gets a through work out in Pattern Recognition. His penchant for vivid descriptions of the places were the latest opinion makers hang out is a key part of this book too. Cayce Pollard, the main character has an allergy to brands, or at least fashion brands, it is referenced frequently. It is key to the particular talent that the main character has. She is a "cool-hunter" or trend spotter, so her sensitivity to brands is important. Gibson devotes a lot of time to brands and Cayce's reactions to them. In the end the story does not revolve around products but a mysterious movie being released on the Internet in fragments, with out any attribution.

The story is how Cayce hunts down the origin of those fragments. We learn who was behind the mysterious movies and we learn why they were released. However the effort put into the distribution and the convoluted way Cayce was brought into it does not really add up. I still don't know why anyone cares about the movie fragments. Much of the story is left unresolved, or if it was resolved I could not follow it.

The business that hires Cayce to find the fragments is a sort of mysterious distributed business. Though what their real role is, and the role of the Russian mafia who appear at the end is not really cleared up.

In the end Cayce makes peace with family, but that is hardly related to the story. Gibson provides vivid descriptions of brands and styles and their role as tribal markings. In the end I was left disappointed, I am not sure what Gibson was getting at.

Editorial Review:

The accolades and acclaim are endless for William Gibson's coast-to-coast bestseller. Set in the post-9/11 present, Pattern Recognition is the story of one woman's never-ending search for the now.

RAISE THE TITANIC

Clive Cussler

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 96 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Good if read during the Cold War. 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

For the most part not much really happens. It was written in the 70's when people were still terrified about Communism. I could of seen this book a good read if I was older and actually lived during those times but since I didn't I found it hard to connect with the book. This is the 16th Clive Cussler book I have read and still think he is a great author and find it interesting to read how much Dirk Pitt has changed. In the more recent books (mid 80s and on) Pitt has more of a solid typical hero vibe. In the older books he is more arrogant and kind of a jerk. Just interesting to see the character development there.

Editorial Review:

The President's secret task force has developed an unprecedented defensive weapon that relies on an extremely rare radioactive element--and Dirk Pitt has followed a twisted trail to a secret cache of the substance. Now, racing against brutal storms, Soviet spies, and a ticking clock, Pitt begins his most thrilling mission--to raise from its watery grave the shipwreck of the century...

The Partner

John Grisham

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 889 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Worst Grisham I've Read So Far 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Continuing with my John Grisham binge (which I'm so not proud of, but I continue on with it anyway), I read this book, just randomly selected among many Grisham books at the local library.

I would have to say that this was my least favorite Grisham book so far. I found the characters uninteresting, the story uninteresting, the storytelling uninteresting. Just not one of his best, in my opinion - seemed like this one he cranked out just to meet some obligation to the book company. The minor twist at the end was enjoyable, but not enough to save the book. I just didn't like the style, tone or storytelling. For example, I figured after chapter 1 (when Patrick gets caught) they'd go back in time to give some details, rather than only progressing forward. But it wasn't meant to be. Really didn't enjoy this one much, just slogged through it.

Editorial Review:

They watched Danilo Silva for days before they finally grabbed him. He was living alone, a quiet life on a shady street in Brazil; a simple life in a modest home, certainly not one of luxury. Certainly no evidence of the fortune they thought he had stolen. He was much thinner and his face had been altered. He spoke a different language, and spoke it very well.But Danilo had a past with many chapters. Four years earlier he had been Patrick Lanigan, a young partner in a prominent Biloxi law firm. He had a pretty wife, a new daughter, and a bright future. Then one cold winter night Patrick was trapped in a burning car and died a horrible death. When he was buried his casket held nothing more than his ashes.From a short distance away, Patrick watched his own burial. Then he fled. Six weeks later, a fortune was stolen from his ex-law firm's offshore account. And Patrick fled some more.But they found him.


From the Hardcover edition.

The Hunt for Red October

Tom Clancy

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 305 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Why do people like this? 1 out of 5 stars.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I have no idea why anyone would buy or read this book. I read the book and fell asleep many times while reading it in the middle of the day. Tom Clancy sure does not make it easy for people to understand what is going on and his technical wording and deep descriptions make this book one of the worst I have ever read. I would recommend watching the movie if you really want to know this story.

Truly a Great Wrok from a Great Writer 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

A rare look at the first major novel written by one of the greatest writers of all time. Truly worth the money and you certainly will not be able to put it down once you begin this masterpiece.

Easily one of the best 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

The Hunt for Red October is easily one of the best novels I have ever read. Clancy is a master at putting the pieces in place for the current story while dropping anchors for future plotlines that come before and after the current narrative. I am sure I will read this one again, once I finish all the other books in the Ryanverse.

Editorial Review:

Gripping military thriller about the chase after a top-secret Russian missile submarine.

Night Soldiers

Alan Furst

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 58 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Furst at his best 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I've read and own quite a lot of Furst books and this one was my favorite. I was truly captivated by the story and had a hard time putting the book down. A good story coupled with real history make this book a winner.

Can one man's integrity amount to more than a hill of beans? 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

As dry as the best of John Le Carre, Furst's spy and adventure tale focuses on the swelter of southeastern European borders whose twisted distant pasts and not so distant outbursts of violence have shaped the history of the world. Modern superpowers of the West have marginalized this region to their peril, and Furst does an excellent job capturing the spirits of ethnicity and nationality that arise from land and drive its spirit and soul.

Bulgarian Khristo Stoianev is recruited into the Russian spy service in 1934, grieving for a dead brother and leaving a family he would never see or communicate with again. Furst places Stoianev at the center of the hotspots of Europe in this volatile period between the two world conflicts of the 20th century--Spain during its internal test run for the alliances and military technologies that would shape the 2nd world conflict to come, Paris in the frantically vibrant and violent days before the outbreak of the war and the German occupation, at the founding of the American spy network in Europe as the fledgling CIA (then the OSS) was openly combating its German enemy but struggling with the rules and rightness of targeting its Russian allies, and finally back in the Balkans where the Germans were being pushed back toward their homeland while the distant Russian Soviet leadership was forging the iron bonds that would contain the region for the next half-century. This writer's conceit both propels the dramatic story (stories about stay-at-home Bulgarian World War II freedom fighters being pretty much a non-starter on bookstore and library shelves) and enables Furst to use his dramatic skills to draw these grand historical conflicts and characters into reader's hands in a highly-readable story.

Furst's stoic style and skill at compact descriptive writing keeps the story moving and the reader engaged. In the end, however, while Stoianev remains a hero of character and stays true to his character, I was left with the thought that in light of subsequent history his sacrifices and (ultimately his story) amounted to little. Perhaps in Furst's mind (as in, for example Le Carre's The Spy Who Came In from the Cold) this is the message of what is left of the horror shows of the 20th century--while the problems of one little person (or three) don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world, one can only do what one can with personal integrity and diligent effort and leave the results to history.

An interesting study in comparison and contrast might be William T. Vollman's Europe Central, where the abilities and actions of the leaders and elites also seem to amount to nothing against the collapse of civilization in Germany and Russia in those turbulent times.

Editorial Review:

Often compared to Graham Greene and Eric Ambler, Alan Furst is a master of the spy thriller and one of the finest war novelists of our time. Published to outstanding acclaim, his novels brilliantly recreate the atmosphere and tension of the worlds of espionage and resistance in the Europe of the 1930s and the Second World War. After many years living in France and traveling as a journalist in Russia and Eastern Europe, Furst now resides in Sag Harbor, New York.

Rules of Prey

John Sandford

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 93 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Poorly written in parts, gets good when story picks up 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book shows that, in his years as a journalist, John Sandford learned a lot about the relationship between police and the media. Unfortunately, the story is lacking at times, and the reader has to slog through lengthy portions of procedure talk - the book ends up with a lot of dialogue-heavy scenes that may sound impressive and official, but the story stands still. That said, at times when the plot picks up, it's much more enjoyable. Didn't get much out of the computer game subplot. Unnecessary character over-development. Really liked the ending. Clever writing.

Excellent book! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Very good book, the start of the Prey series. Once you start you can't put it down. You'll want to read all the Prey books after this one!

Great start 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I got started on this series by reading a couple volumes that have been released in the last three years or so. I decided to go back to the beginning and see how Davenport started out.

It was nice to see where the money came from and that he began as a tough guy. As with the other books I've read, I'm not wild about his main girlfriend/wife. The game development detail adds a lot to the character and how he works.

The hunt for the maddog kept me hooked. There's nothing quite like the take-down of an obnoxious jerk, for a satisfying read.

Editorial Review:

This is the breakthrough bestseller that introduced Minneapolis cop Lucas Davenport-and John Sandford's deft touch for heartstopping suspense.

Sleek and nasty...A big scary, suspenseful read, and I loved every minute of it." (Stephen King)

Pirate: A Thriller (Hawke)

Ted Bell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 62 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Great Book 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Ted writes a fine thriller dealing in some of todays most compelling topics. I read all of his books and will continue to. If you like Tom Clancy and the other writers in this genre you'll love Ted's books!

Hawke Rocks! 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

It took a little while to get through the 600+ pages of the paperback. Not that it was hard reading, it wasn't, just the sheer number of pages.

It was worth the effort.

Pirate opens with a spy, caught by the Chinese, on a slow boat back to China. The spy, however, has knowledge of a Chinese conspiracy to directly get oil from a Middle Eastern country with the assistance of France. He is the only person privy to this information. The CIA sends in Alex Hawke to rescue him, and thus begins an excellent novel. The novel takes you from Cannes, to Taiwan, Paris, New York, and England. Along the way, you meet a very unsavory cross-dressing Chinese agent/assassin, very deadly, twin female assassins, and a megalomaniacal French politician (a direct descendent of Napoleon Bonaparte). Pirate brings all of these characters together for a very believable plot concerning Red China pulling the strings of France to get direct access to oil, access to Taiwan, and subplots concerning super tankers doubling as atomic bombs and a 30-year old murder. The whole point is to crush America's standing as an economic powerhouse. And to sever their ties with Middle Eastern oil.

The heroes of the novel, including the main character, Alex Hawke, are well drawn and believable. Bell does a great job of not making the secondary characters two dimensional. He also is able to tie all of the subplots together in a fashion that doesn't seem rushed or contrived. But you have to know that Alex Hawke gets himself out of some jams that will remind you of a Cussler novel. But not as quickly (hey, it is 600 pages - and it was a paperback!)

This is the fourth novel in the Alex Hawke series, and I will have to go back and read the others, before reading his latest novel, Spy. This is one of those times when you are glad to have picked up a novel, without knowing that it was a series, and are happy to find that you have additional books to fill in some of the backstory.

Another highly recommended series.

Editorial Review:

With unrelenting excitement and in spectacular style, counterterrorist operative Alexander Hawke returns in this electrifying New York Times bestseller from Ted Bell, "the new Clive Cussler" (James Patterson).

Aboard a ship in the south of France, an American spy faces certain torture and death for the vital, explosive intelligence he possesses. In Paris, a ruthless and powerful descendant of Napoleon has forged an unholy alliance with China for its growing nuclear arsenal, poised to send America and the world to the brink of a gut-wrenching showdown. Now, in a maelstrom of razor's-edge danger, Alex Hawke must enter the nightmare visions of madmen to defuse an axis of evil no historian could have predicted -- and no living soul would survive.

River God: A Novel of Ancient Egypt

Wilbur Smith

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 241 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great book 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I don't usually read fiction but every once in awhile it is good to try something different. After having this book recommended to me by several Wilbur Smith fans I found the time to read it. I am glad I did. It is a long book but Wilbur can sure transport you back in time to another world. Well worth reading.

Editorial Review:

Tanus is the fair-haired young lion of a warrior whom the gods have decreed will lead Egypt's army in a bold attempt to reunite the Kingdom's shattered halves. But Tanus will have to defy the same gods to attain the reward they have forbidden him, an object more prized than battle's glory: possession of the Lady Lostris, a rare beauty with skin the color of oiled cedar--destined for the adoration of a nation, and the love of one extraordinary man.

International bestselling author Wilbur Smith, creator of over two dozen highly acclaimed novels, draws readers into a magnificent, richly imagined saga. Exploding with all the drama, mystery, and rage of a bygone time, River God is a masterpiece from a storyteller at the height of his powers.