Rating: 
Summary: not really a sequal to generals daughter
Review: this book is technically a sequal but it isn't really necisary to read the genreals daughter thoguh you should. this book tells the story of Paul Brenner and his trip to Vietnam to solve a 30 year old murder mystery that happened in the middle of the Vietnam War. This book explores Paul's emotions as he travels back through his memories while he also fights to figure out his true love all while doing his job. When Paul finds out the truth will he do the right thing? read this book and find outAlso this book has taught me a lot about Vietnam and I think Veterans of Vietnam should be honored and thanked for their bravery that many people denied them when they where my age.
Rating: 
Summary: An unexpected journey Up Country
Review: We last spent time with Paul Brenner in Nelson DeMille's best selling "The General's Daughter." He's since been forced into retirement and a long distance love affair with Cynthia, his former CID investigator partner. After the simple and cryptic message, "1600 hrs, tomorrow, the Wall," Paul meets his former commanding officer, Karl Hellmann at the Vietnam War Memorial - The Wall. Karl tells him that one of the name's on the wall is not of a soldier killed in battle, but a man murdered, and he wants Paul to return to Vietnam and find the only eye witness to the crime. It's to be a top secret mission, but a criminal investigation only. Get there, get up country and interrogate the witness, seeing if he can identify the murderer. Sounds cut and dried, but things in Paul Brenner's life are never that simple.
Paul goes reluctantly back to the cities and jungles of Vietnam, revisiting former battlefields, grappling with old ghosts and generally coming to terms with what he'd seen and done during his first two trips here. Along the way he meets the beautiful Susan Weber, a business woman from Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City and falls in love. But remember, nothing is simple in Paul Brenner's life and Susan may not be what she seems, her motivations are as secret as Paul's mission. Paul also crosses the path of a very nasty Colonel Nguyen Qui Mang, of the Ministry of Public Security, whose motivations are obvious as a fragmentation grenade - he wants to catch the spy, Paul Brenner, and make him an example, taking his freedom, or his life.
What ensues is a race to the truth that takes Paul from the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, through the battlefields of the A Shau Valley and Khe Sanh, into the very heart of his old enemy, Hanoi. It's a journey made all the more dangerous because the only person he can trust either in Vietnam or Washington, DC is Colonel Mang. He knows Mang wants to destroy him.
Nelson DeMille returns with his trademark wise-cracking hero in a tale that's less mystery and intrigue than a journey of the heart. It's the tale of a man coming to terms with the war his generation fought and lost, the country and people who resided in his gun sights years ago, and both the man he is was and the man he is. It is very obvious that this is Nelson DeMille's journey. This is a book more for anyone who lived during Vietnam and wants to better understand what it was like for the men in the field, as well as for those men. The mystery is predictable, the effect Paul Brenner's story has on the reader is not. Read this book.
Rating:
Summary: A MAN WHO WAS
Review: UP COUNTRY By Nelson Demille
I wasn't going to write a review on this book because it has enough reviews written now-some of them very good, but it does the best job of explaining the Vietnam War that I have ever read. Besides the plot is very good, with Paul Brenner back with us after THE GENERAL'S DAUGHTER, an excellent book it's own right. In this book he is the same fearless, wiseass with an excellent personal code of honor. Of course he's involved with the army's Criminal Investigation Division, the CIA, Secret Service and the FBI and if that wasn't enough he starts feuding with the a Colonel Mang of the Vietnam Secret Police, and almost ends up in jail or worse, as soon as he gets back to south Vietnam before he starts up country to the north. He met a very pretty young lady, Susan Weber by design as she was his contact, and she managed to stay with him from one end of Vietnam to the other. This was quite a trip; especially since Paul Brenner's CID mission was a very important 30-year-old murder and he know less about it than the CID or the CIA who monitored Paul for almost the almost the whole trip. This book is worth reading. In one of the reviews it was suggested that he wrote the UP COUNTRY as a catharsis for his tours it Vietnam War, this story could be easily be that. Mr. Nelson Demille writes a first-rate book with some first-class war history. Roger Lee
Rating:
Summary: Superbly entertaining and thought-provoking...
Review: I listened to the unabridged version of this book - At 20+ hours I thought it would take a couple of weeks - Big mistake! -
Character development, geographical descriptions, historical significance, kept me listening hour after hour, and I finished in less than 3 days - Please, Mr DeMille, let's have one more Paul Brenner novel, and don't forget Susan Weber, a worthwhile accomplice in almost any situation...
Rating:
Summary: Maybe not his best, but still better than the rest
Review: Okay, this was not Charm School, or Gold Coast or Plum Island, which I rate as the author's best books. But as usual, I was in heaven reading all 700 pages of this book and was disappointed when it was over. This is, in fact, a far superior read to the General's Daughter. I enjoyed the "travelogue" nature of the book and found myself hungry for more information about the war and Vietnam in general. Colonel Mang is one of DeMille's best villains, a guy you could hate and almost root for at the same time. And I didn't care if the plot was totally believable or the ending completely satisfying. It was all about a great road trip that I found myself happy to be along. The only annoying aspect of the book was the incessant love patter between Paul Brenner and Susan Weber. Just once, I would like to see DeMille write a thriller where the female character doesn't fall in love with the central protaganist 10 seconds after they meet.
Rating:
Summary: Way Up Country
Review: I have read many of Nelson DeMilles novels and have enjoyed them immensley for their intrigue, characters and settings. This one was different. I bought the paperback in Dusseldorf, Germany, to read on the flight home. Over 800 pages...bit of a tome. I have not read "The General's Daughter", where the central character, Paul Brenner, originated. I didn't need to. Brenner's character is well defined in this book. I understand why some people might think that the book bogs down in places. When you've been through a DeMille novel, like "Plum Island", or "Lion's Game", you develop a certain expectation for swiftly moving adventure and deft plot twists. A quick read, a great story, and possibly something to think about. That is not the case with "Up Country". It's a long read, a great story, and a lot to think about. I think that in this novel DeMille vetted his views on the political, cultural, economic and social impact of the war we fought in Vietnam. The detail of Brenner's trip back to Vietnam,
his insights about the places he'd been, the battles he'd fought, and the battles he's still wondering about, are richly described. Those descriptions are the meat of this fascinating novel. DeMille doesn't really need Susan or Colonel Mang to make this story interesting. In a way, they kind of both detract from the realism in his descriptions of Vietnam today. I was left with food for thought, and not caring so much about the characters. But I like food for thought in a novel. DeMille delivers bigtime in that category in this one. I was 9 in 1968, but, our war with the North Vietnamese affected me too. I still have my own questions. DeMille answers a lot of them in this book through the eyes of someone who was there. "Up Country" is quite a ride.
Rating: 
Summary: Unedited autobiographical novel that I couldn't finish
Review: What IS it with this author and me?? I couldn't finish Word of Honour (didn't care what happened to the main characters), couldn't finish Spencerville, after having read 80% of it (same problem), and now I've quit Up Country after getting over 700 pages through it. To be fair, I should state I finished, and enjoyed, Mayday and The General's Daughter. I was prepared to like Up Country. DeMille and I are in the same generation and although I wasn't in Vietnam, I was in the Navy for 5 years during the Vietnam War. It was my generation's war. Anyway, I was hopeful. But do we need 859 pages of DeMille's cathartic writing about the war? I don't. Yes, writing is cathartic, and of course writers can feel that a book is inside them and needs to get out. I understand all that. But barely-camouflaged autobiography is pushing it. I would have preferred DeMille to write a non-fiction account of his miltary experience in-country, and then an account of his return. There is just something about DeMille's writing, perhaps the glacial pace, that I can't abide. "Get on with it!", I keep thinking. And DeMille apparently has only one kind of male character, the smart-mouth type. This typical DeMillian guy disobeys my first rule of travel, and it's especially egregious because of his secret mission: DeMille gives a lot of grief to people who have power over him, in this case the local Vietnamese officials. Not very bright for a CID agent. And his sweet and sour relationship with the heart throb-de-tome isn't very convincing either. So...my advice would be to find DeMille books on ABRIDGED audio if you must read him.
Rating: 
Summary: DeMille is excellent - but not this time
Review: Nelson Demille is, by far, my favourite author and a writer of substantial quality. All of his books are of the highest quality and a pleasure to read and re-read. Up Country is however, the only exception. Being many many pages in length it is certainly an interesting insight into the '68 Tet Offensive however it is lacking any worthy plot. The novel unfortunately reads as more of a set of war memoirs although I am pleased that Nelson has 'got this off his chest'! I even flew to the Vero Beach book centre to meet Nelson and for him to sign my copy so it's a shame I'm unlikely to read this novel again. An interesting read, but not a classic.
Rating:
Summary: A
Review: I can understand Mr, DeMilles need to work with his own Vietnam traumas, but why share it with us?. Maybe other Vietnam veterans might like it, but as a Dane never been in Vietnam, I dont like it.
The story is not one of the best and the characters not really believable, the plot was not convincing at all. The book might be usefull as a tourist guide or history book, but as a novel it was a big disappointment. I like the other novels by DeMills, but really not this.
Rating:
Summary: A great audio book
Review: Nelson Demille has been an outstanding author for many years. Ken Howard does a great job in the abridged version of UP COUNTRY. He brings the characters to life and makes the story totally intriguing and brings Viet Nam today and during the war years to life.
Books are tape are a great alternative to regular radio when you do a lot of driving. UP COUNTRY is a real winner.
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