Rating: Summary: Typical Mass Produced Pulp Fiction: 2 1/2 Stars Review: As an avid fan of Clancy's original techno thriller literary style, his latest barrage of pump'em out as fast as you can ("Op-Center," "Politica" and now "Net Force") are mildly entertaining but by no means great. Net Force, an anti-cyberterrorism/Op-Center, set in the near future, is a governmental intervention force for policing the Internet. "Net Force" appears to have its roots from Clancy & Pieczenik's "Op-Center" series (obviously), with a sprinkling from Neal Stephenson's near future virtual reality in "Snow Crash," and William Lovejoy's cyberterrorism in "Backslash." For the TV miniseries Hollywood changed much of the book, the overall theme remains, however, most of the subplots have been altered. If you have seen the TV miniseries (2/1 & 2/4), the book provides a somewhat different story line. Most notably, the books's primary villain was a Russian cyberterrorist whereas the miniseries portrays a "Gates" Information
Rating: Summary: Not a classic Clancy Review: This books falls far short of the standard Clancy has set in the past. The plot seems disconnected and vague at times. The characters are not developed as in previous Clancy thrillers. In short, it seems that Clancy just threw some ideas at someone, and they wrote the book. Shame.
Rating: Summary: Tom, get a real internet technical consultant Review: The formula thriller is seriously disrupted by totally bogus internet "VR" virtual reality crap. If Tom's military technical realism (I'm no one to judge) is as BS as his computer realism, then I am VERY disappointed.
Rating: Summary: One of my new favorites Review: Having never read a Clancy novel, I cannot compare "Net Force" to any of his earlier works. However, in comparison to several of the other novels I have read in my lifetime, it rates up there. The writing keeps you on the edge, and I think is pretty easy to follow. One of the books to read if you are into either A) A not too distant future kind of thing, or B) An internet plot.
Rating: Summary: Net-Net...Net Force Crashes the System Review: After having been a loyal Clancy fan in his early days, I stopped picking up his seemingly un-ending flow of output until stumbling across Net Force while looking for some good plane reading. Unfortunately, this one won't bring me back to the Clancy fold. The book presents itself in a disjointed way with lots of characters scatterred about like a college freshman's laundry. Few of them are developed with any substance and even Net Force itself is a losely explained collection of Ivy League hackers who seem to get as much out of racing their cyber hot rods around the net as they do out of doing their job, whatever that is. The other disappointing aspect of this work is that it relies too heavily on invented and contrived cyber slang versus Clancy's tried and true technical detail. For the Net Force to recapture our loyalty, Clancy needs to sew up the holes in the Net. Until then, we're all getting away Tom.
Rating: Summary: Good Reading Review: I'm not a regular Tom Clancy reader, so I can't really compare this book against any of his others. But what I've read in this one is enough to say that it was "good reading". The various characters were introduced in a clear style, and the story itself was a well-balanced combination of today's "cyber talk" and tomorrow's dreams. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
Rating: Summary: Best Non-Clancy Clancy Yet Review: I enjoyed this book. The new net world is fresh and the characters engaging. I'd sworn off the Non-Clancy Clancy books after the last Op Force book, but this one is good enough to stand on its own merits.
Rating: Summary: Good but not one of their best! Review: I enjoyed this one even though it did lack the detail that one finds in Tom's full length novels. I am glad to have read it. I just hope ABC doesn't destroy it in the mini-series.
Rating: Summary: Rainbow Six and the Tired Wired Buzzword Compliant Bus Read Review: The premise is interesting, the writing is tedious, classic department specific Special Forces (not as good as the SEALs, but almost, as Mr. Clancy is quick to point out)team captures the mad programmer with the help of the young, eager programmers of Net Force. Problem is you never quite know what these programmers are doing other than accessing established law enforcement databases. The "Net" is an online autoracing game for Dodge Viper fans. At some points I thought I was reading the deleted chapters of Rainbow Six and a brochure for the Dodge Viper. Perhaps Mr. Clancy needs to spend a bit more time researching and speaking with real hackers, crackers and phreaks and less time with the buzzword compliant. If Mr. Clancy is able to develop the detail and understanding of the "Net" as well as his understanding of the military, the Net Force idea has promise. Overall, worth reading on the bus.
Rating: Summary: It's sort of futuristic...it's a thriller...just not good. Review: I found this book to be somewhat mediocre as it did lack in parts. I'm okay with the world not being that different in 2010 than it is today but I found the level of the Selkie's shooting skills and "observation and mimickry skills" to be a terrible excuse for weak writing. The cyberpunk, William Gibson-esque VR segments were extremely annoying and only served to detract from the story. Also, very little information is given about Net Force itself. Over all this book is okay, not as good as Clancy's earlier stuff, and I recommend you shop around and try to find it at a real low price if you still want to read it. You'll be glad you did.
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