Rating: 
Summary: Cassandra Compact read like a sub par James Bond flick.
Review: The Cassandra Compact was a fairly easy read even at 387 pages. It reminded me of beginners level Tom Clancy novel and the overall story seams to be nothing unique in the realm of global spanning espionage.I found the first few chapters to be quick and action packed, but somewhat 'bubblegum' in nature when it comes to spy/espionage type novels. After the reader settles into the meat of the novel, it actually does become better. There are small subplots that take place in Italy, Russia, and scattered America locals that are crafted well and move the story along. The reader can eventually make the ties and the cast is not so large where you forget all the main players. I also found the dialogue somewhat realistic and so these were all good points in my review. However, the ending was hokey and unbelievable with too many plot holes that were never resolved by the end of the novel. After a great build up to the climax, the authors seems to have hurried the ending into some sort of Hollywood action blockbuster that while fun, was unrealistic. A few vital characters who seemed to have great influence and motivation through the beginning of the book were suddenly dropped about two-thirds through which I found very disappointing. The plot more or less centers around a few militaristic Americans who decide they are above the law and using their power and stations in American government decide to 'steal' a portion of Small Pox from the Russian equivalent of the CDC. They must smuggle the virus back into America, and then secretly perform mutation experiments upon it during a space shuttle flight to create the ultimate bio-weapon, and bring it back to earth safely and use it to eradicate our enemies. Of course the plot is discovered by Dr. Jon Smith and his peers in Covert-One (a hush-hush black op group founded in America), and the novel at this point for Dr. Smith and company to foil the bad guys. Unfortunately there were too many cliché characters: the young male computer hacker, the female traitor, the rich banker, and the old wily military chief with secret designs. This is a good book if you are looking for light reading over a few day business trip or weekend relaxer, but for those that like the style of Larry Bond or Clancy this will probably fall short of your expectations.
Rating: 
Summary: A quick, cool novel...
Review: This excellent novel is fast-paced and interesting until the very end. With unrelenting action that keeps you wanting to turn to the next page, or read the next chapter.
I believe that this is the best Covert-one novel (although I haven't read the Altman Code just yet).
If the synopsis of the story at the back of the book makes you think this book is unoriginal, think again. I thought the same thing and in the end I loved it!
Rating:
Summary: Good book, but
Review: This was a good book, but I'm obviously not the only person who became increasingly frustrated by the close calls of the authorities trying to catch the bad guys and missing by fractions of a microsecond. These are shallow spoilers, so be warned:
1) Authorities realize that a train is set to arrive in 15 minutes. As such they're unable to have more than a half dozen agents in place. The small number of agents are overpowered. BTW, why didn't the general in charge here signal to police, in case they needed backup? The police could have stayed back out of the train station even.
2) Authorities see the key suspect with another person of interest in the airport. They figure that the KS is on one of three planes, and alert anti-terror units to intercept when the planes land. They are unable to find the KS on either filght, so they let all passengers go, _but are too freaking stupid to look for the other guy_. They didn't have a good picture of him, but since the smallpox had already been transferred once it doesn't take Newton to think that maybe this other fellow has it. How's about searching all passengers?
3) That fellow is finally identified TWO MINUTES after he goes through customs. A chase commences and he gets into a limo and speeds off, just as the person chasing him catches up to him. He was literally 10 seconds too slow.
4) A drag net is about to be put over the entire nation to intercept incoming people, but it's EIGHT MINUTES too late.
The first case here may not bother you. The second will interminably piss you off, and the third and fourth are just like WTF is going on here. CATCH THEM PLEASE.
That said, it was a good book and will tide you over on a plane ride.
Rating:
Summary: The key is not to stretch the credibility
Review: Too many thriller writers make the same mistakes:
1) Too many infiltrators spying on the heroes moves
2) Too much money flaunted by the bad guys
3) Too much of a superhero With the Cassandra Compact, I gave it a 4 stars because the
writers did not try to make the adversaries incredibly too
powerful, nor the heroes too heroic. The scientific technology was not too incredible either, which
is a pitfalls for writers like Clive Cussler. Cassandra Compact is a sequel to the Hades Factor. In the
latter's aftermath, the US President commissioned a secret
agency answerable to the Oval Office only, to provide the
flexibility required. This is the probably American's answer
to Group 4 of UK, created by Jack Higgins. The new agency,
known only as Covert-One, has only 2 perm staff who carried
out the management and admin, operatives are activated on ad-hoc
basis depending on their specialty. Jon Smith (from Hades Factor) was tasked with bringing out
Russian Yuri Danko. Yuri was no small fry in Russia but he
stumbled across something that scared him so much that he
requested to be evacuated. Before he could get to safety,
he was eliminated, leaving a little clue about Bioparat. The plot involved smallpox virus being smuggled out of Russia -
to destination unknown. Jon Smith and Covert One must follow
a bloody trail from the Bioparat lab where the virus was stolen.
They were just one step behind the thief, and at each stage,
the thieves managed to keep barely ahead to deliver the virus
to an unknown final destination, for a nightmarish purpose. The story is tightly woven, without the usual stumbling in the
dark by the heroes. Here, our heroes were given sufficient clues
and they did their fair amount of dirty work on the ground to
chase the virus. The resources of the adversaries were realisitically portrayed
here, without armies of never-ending goons waiting to shoot or
bomb the heroes at every turn. Nor was there a conspiracy so
high that the heroes had to flee from the authorities all the
time, something so unrealisitic in many of Ludlum's earlier
novels. The ending was more suited for movies rather than a book,
with some reminiscence of Moonraker. Enough said.
Rating: 
Summary: Mr. Ludlum Always Respected His Readers
Review: When Mr. Ludlum passed away recently the readers of his work lost one of the true originals in a genre that has becoming overcrowded with imitators. Not all of his books were as special as a given person's favorite, however he wrote with the knowledge that made his stories credible. This second book in, "The Covert One Series", is as bad and possibly worse than the initial volume in the series. The obituary that I read stated he was working on three additional books before he died that will be published. I hope someone has the integrity to publish the work if it was his or be candid with where the book was when he stopped working upon it. At the very least these Covert One amalgams that clearly had a minimal amount of his involvement should not be the final works to carry his name. That would be a travesty of this man's real books, and to his memory. Between the last of this series and this mess, we had, "The Prometheus Deception", a few minutes with that book proves the difference between a Robert Ludlum Book, and Robert Ludlum's Covert Collaboration. This book is bad from the cover. The word, "Cassandra", has a very specific meaning and it has absolutely nothing to do with this book's contents. In the first few dozen pages you will read the most ridiculous writing. A man is blown back by a shockwave and is unconscious; upon waking he not only can identify the explosive used but how it was detonated. His explanation is absurd, the material is absurd as it is the last thing that would have been used, and the reasons are much clearer than the preposterous statements. How about the fact that NASA has learned to defy one of the basic laws of nature? Great, explain it to me, don't just toss it in a sentence and expect me to take your word for Science Fiction that would challenge Star Wars. But this continues throughout the book, "military grade bullets", what was military about them? How do you hide behind a Grand Piano so that "expert assassins" shred the piano with these magic bullets and miss you? Probably the most offensive example of lazy writing, but by no means the only example was as follows. If you wish to demonize someone it's bad enough to drag up the most overused group of the 20th Century and tie the person/company to them. When you then state an absolute falsehood about a fact that anyone who has read about the Historical Period being used would identify as ridiculous, the writer goes beyond lazy, to something just above mentally inert. There are facts stated at the beginning that change by a factor of 600% later in the book, and other events that are too implausible to mention here. Mr. Ludlum was one of the best. Having read these Covert One pieces of trash, I am convinced he had little to do with them. Compare any 10 pages from one of his books to one of these 2 alleged collaborations and decide for yourself. My library of this man's work has come to an end as soon as I toss these two in the recycle bin.
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