Rating: 
Summary: Topic ahead of it's time---now is the time to read
Review: It has been awhile since I read a Ludlum thriller. However, the reader of 2003 might very well pick up this book looking for a typical thriller from Ludlum and some modern day world events. When the book first released, many readers would likely think the plot and scenarios of a bio-terror threat to the world to be a stretch. Not today! With the threat of terrorists, willing to do anything to obtain biological germs, be interesting today...you bet!So if a smallpox scare and a space shuttle thriller is on your mind...take a few hours and fly through this one. I recommend it the time to be worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Topic ahead of it's time---now is the time to read
Review: It has been awhile since I read a Ludlum thriller. However, the reader of 2003 might very well pick up this book looking for a typical thriller from Ludlum and some modern day world events. When the book first released, many readers would likely think the plot and scenarios of a bio-terror threat to the world to be a stretch. Not today! With the threat of terrorists, willing to do anything to obtain biological germs, be interesting today...you bet! So if a smallpox scare and a space shuttle thriller is on your mind...take a few hours and fly through this one. I recommend it the time to be worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Not his best one
Review: It is a good book to read, however it is not his best. The story somehow reminds me of the Bourne triology, but in a newer time-frame. So, i expect some more in this range
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad.
Review: Not having read a lot of Ludlum's work, I'm not susceptible to the disappointment that a lot of readers are clearly feeling in his Covert-One series, cowritten with other authors. I kind of like these books... though the first one, The Hades Factor, was better. That said, this is the reasonably entertaining story of how Jon Smith and his team of improbably talented and lucky allies (some who first appeared in "Hades") tackles the theft from the former USSR of the deadly smallpox virus. Who would engineer such a heist, and to what end? How far does the conspiracy go? The answers aren't quite credible enough to make this a really good story, but it's a fun ride as the tale moves along on all fronts. The audio cassette version is, for the most part, competently narrated by Paul Michael. His rendition of one of the villains, a NASA scientist, is oddly timed and distractingly strange, and his English accent is pretty bad. But neither of those things are deal-breakers, and it's nice to "read" these books in the car.
Rating: 
Summary: Soapy Core, Wrapped in some Delicious Product Placement
Review: Ok, I knew it was going to be a trashy novel. It's meant to be a mindless read, and in that respect it does a passable job. But the story isn't really compelling or well thought out; after the fifth "terrorist just barely escapes the closing net" scenario, credibility begins to suffer. The authors give a very lazy impression. Rather than coming up with a realistic way for someone to beat a trap, the character just does something superhuman and escapes only seconds before he or she would have been captured. I understand that this type of literature is basically a novelized comic book. But the writers could at least make the escapes plausible. Be inventive! Write one great one, not ten blah ones. The writing is at times rather juvenile. Every woman character is described as looking like a model. There are soap-opera bits about various women "sizing up Jon Smith" and "liking what she sees". It's like every ... show you've ever seen, particularly due to the blatant product placement found throughout the book. Characters eat Egg McMuffins, drink Pepsis, and buy DVDs conveniently on Amazon.com. Mentioning corporations or product names isn't a big deal, but it is rarely necessary for a story. Inserting them obviously to place a product or service is just crass behavior. It's a book. It's a cheap, trashy, dime-store novel, for which I paid $[amount]. I don't want commercials. I give it two stars because it was a better diversion than whatever was on TV that night. You know, between the commercials.
Rating:
Summary: A time-passer
Review: OOPS! REVIEW MODIFIED TO REFER TO THE FIRST BOOK IN THE COVERT-ONE SERIES, THE HADES FACTOR (NOT THE PROMETHEUS DECEPTION AS INDICATED IN THE FIRST REVIEW). I happened to really like the Hades Factor (HF), and therefore, fully expected to like this book too. Like the HF, you'll find action, suspense, and diabolical characters. However, unlike the HF, this book just didn't add up. It's more like a movie that you go to see that has so much action going on that you don't realize that there really is no compelling story until the end. The plot was a familiar one and decent, but the events that took place -- at times, seemed a little far-fetched. There wasn't a lot of character development, but what was done was sufficient. However, the inclusion of characters from the earlier book seemed to be just to show continuity -- which isn't a bad thing, but it didn't seem necessary since there was no in-depth interaction among them. Despite its "faults", the book is entertaining enough to pass the time with and it is a decent read. And, there were some pretty good suspenseful scenes in the book that kept me on pins and needles. If you read the book and don't expect the caliber of story you typically get from a Ludlum book, you'll be okay.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your time
Review: Robert Ludlum has spent years writing great thrillers, and now it seems he's decided to let others write a book, he'll say he co-authored it and cash in. Good for you, Robert, but maybe you should read the book BEFORE you agree to put your name on it. This was my first experience with the co-authored book. I've seen the Tom Clancy and Nelson DeMille co-authored series too, and I've always been a little wary. My suspicions have now been confirmed. This book was a quick read, predictable as anything, and could be grasped by your average 3rd grader. Philip Shelby kept the audience in complete suspense by waiting until the 4th chapter to identify the conspirators to us. About halfway through the book you knew what the evil plan was and you knew how it was going to end. My expectations for a Robert Ludlum book have been set way too high to try and pass this garbage off as his work.
Rating:
Summary: A quick, cool novel...
Review: Summary:
Jon Smith is a special agent for the president's top secret intelligence group Covert One, headed by Nathaniel Klein. When a former Russian KGB agent who now works in BioOperat (where the Russians store their biological weapons, etc.) decides he needs to get out of Russia to tell Klein something he has found out, it is Jon Smith who is sent to help him. Unbeknownst to Klein and Smith, this escape begins their involvement in a plot to steal a sample of smallpox and mutate it into a super virus that is virtually unstoppable. The plot is being perpetrated by the head of a major pharmaceutical company who is providing the scientific know-how and is working with several members of the US military who are providing cover, location, and muscle to get the job done. Apparently the Cassandra Compact was dreamed up by all involved in order to give the US a super powerful biological weapon and once again place it at the top of the world's superpowers. But the Compact didn't count on two things - Jon Smith and his ability to uncannily show up in the right place at the right time (lots of coincidences). As a result, Jon Smith slowly foils the Compact and in so doing saves most of the good guys. My Comments:
I have to admit that the book kept my attention up until it entered outer space. At that point there were two problems. First, the CD started skipping so I missed some of what happened and second I began to think this story was never going to end. Well, the CD skipping isn't the authors fault, but the incredibly unwieldy and rambling story is. Like any good spy novel, this one jumps from continent to continent as though they were rocks in a pond resulting in so many locations that you eventually just give up on keeping them straight. I always find it funny that money for travel is never an issue and Jon Smith, like so many other uber-spies, doesn't seem to ever need to sleep or go to the bathroom. Also, there are so many characters involved with the plot that it takes almost 1/3 of the book just to be able to keep them straight. Though the resolution of the plot is for the most part satisfactory, there are some problems. For instance, two of the major bad guys, a US military general and one of the leaders of the NSA die in a car crash, literally. Sure, they were trying to escape being caught, but they are so preoccupied that they forget how to drive. It's pretty silly actually. Also, there are so many things that have gone on behind the story (like the building of the top secret hangar for destroying the space shuttle) that have to have happened in order for this story to take place that the story has a remarkably contrived feeling. Of course, as an international spy thriller it's okay to be at least somewhat contrived, but this one really pushes the limits. My last problem with the novel was the main character. Though there were some attempts to develop Jon Smith as a character, by the time the novel ended I really had no idea who he was, just that he was super good at figuring things out, shooting people, and that he had lost his wife/girlfriend to a virus in a previous novel. There is almost no effort at backstory (though this could be because the version I listened to was abridged). The only person I really ended up liking was Smith's friend, Peter Howell, who actually seemed to be a well-trained spy and was witty to boot. Smith came across as more of a bumbling Mr. Magoo who slowly puts the pieces together but never actually seems to be a step ahead of the bad guys until the very end, and that is only by luck. Overall, though the story kind of starts to grab your attention at the beginning, with such a non-developed character as Jon Smith on the loose, you quickly begin to lose interest. Also, with the book ranging around the world and with so many other characters to try to remember, the scope of the novel is more what you would expect from a 1,000 page James Clavell treatise rather than a relatively short Ludlum novel. Because it's so short, it just doesn't work. Perhaps the actual novel is better, but the abridged CD version just didn't cut it for me. I don't recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Far-reaching spy novel that's too long
Review: Summary:
Jon Smith is a special agent for the president's top secret intelligence group Covert One, headed by Nathaniel Klein. When a former Russian KGB agent who now works in BioOperat (where the Russians store their biological weapons, etc.) decides he needs to get out of Russia to tell Klein something he has found out, it is Jon Smith who is sent to help him. Unbeknownst to Klein and Smith, this escape begins their involvement in a plot to steal a sample of smallpox and mutate it into a super virus that is virtually unstoppable. The plot is being perpetrated by the head of a major pharmaceutical company who is providing the scientific know-how and is working with several members of the US military who are providing cover, location, and muscle to get the job done. Apparently the Cassandra Compact was dreamed up by all involved in order to give the US a super powerful biological weapon and once again place it at the top of the world's superpowers. But the Compact didn't count on two things - Jon Smith and his ability to uncannily show up in the right place at the right time (lots of coincidences). As a result, Jon Smith slowly foils the Compact and in so doing saves most of the good guys. My Comments:
I have to admit that the book kept my attention up until it entered outer space. At that point there were two problems. First, the CD started skipping so I missed some of what happened and second I began to think this story was never going to end. Well, the CD skipping isn't the authors fault, but the incredibly unwieldy and rambling story is. Like any good spy novel, this one jumps from continent to continent as though they were rocks in a pond resulting in so many locations that you eventually just give up on keeping them straight. I always find it funny that money for travel is never an issue and Jon Smith, like so many other uber-spies, doesn't seem to ever need to sleep or go to the bathroom. Also, there are so many characters involved with the plot that it takes almost 1/3 of the book just to be able to keep them straight. Though the resolution of the plot is for the most part satisfactory, there are some problems. For instance, two of the major bad guys, a US military general and one of the leaders of the NSA die in a car crash, literally. Sure, they were trying to escape being caught, but they are so preoccupied that they forget how to drive. It's pretty silly actually. Also, there are so many things that have gone on behind the story (like the building of the top secret hangar for destroying the space shuttle) that have to have happened in order for this story to take place that the story has a remarkably contrived feeling. Of course, as an international spy thriller it's okay to be at least somewhat contrived, but this one really pushes the limits. My last problem with the novel was the main character. Though there were some attempts to develop Jon Smith as a character, by the time the novel ended I really had no idea who he was, just that he was super good at figuring things out, shooting people, and that he had lost his wife/girlfriend to a virus in a previous novel. There is almost no effort at backstory (though this could be because the version I listened to was abridged). The only person I really ended up liking was Smith's friend, Peter Howell, who actually seemed to be a well-trained spy and was witty to boot. Smith came across as more of a bumbling Mr. Magoo who slowly puts the pieces together but never actually seems to be a step ahead of the bad guys until the very end, and that is only by luck. Overall, though the story kind of starts to grab your attention at the beginning, with such a non-developed character as Jon Smith on the loose, you quickly begin to lose interest. Also, with the book ranging around the world and with so many other characters to try to remember, the scope of the novel is more what you would expect from a 1,000 page James Clavell treatise rather than a relatively short Ludlum novel. Because it's so short, it just doesn't work. Perhaps the actual novel is better, but the abridged CD version just didn't cut it for me. I don't recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Implausible
Review: The author(s) present a predictable yet highly implausible work. They obviously failed to do their research, at least with respect to the space shuttle program, and I can only imagine what other nonsense this story is based upon. Since when does NASA have antigravity chambers? If you want to read Ludlum, read something from the Bourne series. This is a waste of money.
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