Rating: 
Summary: Self-indulgent yawner
Review: This is Nelson DeMille's second straight book without a resolution or legitimate ending. Both The Lion's Game and Up Country leave the doors wide open for sequels, but frankly who cares?This book reads like a journal being kept for tax purposes. With the exception of a few incisive lines, this is a boring travelogue that follows Paul Brenner, the CWO CID investigator from The General's Daughter, through Viet Nam. Brenner has been asked to attempt one last mission, his "third tour" in Viet Nam to investigate a 30-year old murder. Great promise, wonderful premise...all for naught. Sophomoric writing and improbable plot twists mar a 700-page book that could have been far better at 250 pages.
Rating: 
Summary: Not his best
Review: Demille has proven over and over again that he's a fine writer in the thriller genre and this one has its moments. The dialog between Brenner and Susan Weber is incredibly funny and real, adding great depth to both characters; and his descriptions of the war-torn Vietnam and the current state of the country are equally good. The novel's failure (for me) rests on his inability to make this journey through Vietnam to a small village in the North, believable. Brenner is after the partially disclosed secret of a North Vietnamese soldier. His travels take him from Saigon, seemingly through the entire country before finally arriving in Hanoi; yet the small village where he finds his quarry is only a day or so away from Hanoi, in a location known well to the men who sent him. And he says at least twice that his masters assasinated over 25000 North Vietnamese during the war, yet Brenner is now the best they can come up with. A good thriller has to have a great ending, has to resolve something. This one is only about the journey. It's a worthwhile read, but not his best by a long shot.
Rating: 
Summary: Another great one from the master
Review: DeMille has done it again. Who has better diologue and character developement. A must read. Best since Plum Island. I bought Up Country because of an endorsement DeMille gave on another great book, DRIVEN, by W. G. Griffiths. He was right on. I highly recommend both. Keep them coming Mr. DeMIlle.
Rating:
Summary: Up Country
Review: Excellent and a must read. One of the best books Nelson Demille has written.
Rating: 
Summary: A Fine Journey Back
Review: I seem to like everything DeMille writes. As a miltary man myself, this was a special book. Drawing from his own personal experience this book is haunting and serious at times and funny at others as DeMille mixes his serious writing with his arid wit. His Paul Brenner character returns (General's daughter) and is a hero in the likes of Indiana Jones - but doing it more with his tongue than his fists. Our heroine, Susan Weber is quite the perfect compliment in this novel. And our Vilain, COL Mang is quite the foe. They're interaction keep the book moving. The humor is classic. The recollection of the war rivets you to your seat. While a bit dissappointed in how this one ends, I couldn't put it down until I got there.
Rating:
Summary: Return to Critical Success
Review: I thought Nelson DeMille's first novel, Word of Honor, was a critical success, a thoughtful exploration of a former army officer who is charged with a murder committed during his Viet Nam tour, years after his discharge. Since DeMille successfully published other novels, I have no doubt Word of Honor was also a commercial success. In my mind, although commercial successes, these other novels, failed critically. With Up Country, DeMille demonstrates he has not lost his critical touch. He melds his emotionally draining experience of a return trip to Viet Nam in 1997 with his successful commercial formula and produces a great novel. The story is simple. Paul Brenner, retired from the army's Criminal Investigation Division and a Viet Nam vet, is asked to return to Viet Nam and investigate an American army lieutenant's death, who authorities suspect may have been murdered three decades ago. DeMille's commercial formula remains the same. A strong, independent-minded, wise-cracking male falls in love with a self-assured female and together the overcome intrigue, action and adventure. Brenner's emotional journey as he unearths his own painful memories of Viet Nam makes the book worth reading and in my mind, vaults it to critical success. As the author concludes, a journey home is never direct, but somewhere along the way, we discover that it is more relevant than the destination and the people we meet along its path will be traveling companions in our minds for the rest of our lives. DeMille always relates a great story; this one is worth reading carefully.
Rating: 
Summary: A violation of trust
Review: I have read every one of DeMille's books, and had looked forward to this one. I just finished "Up Country" after 3 days of concentrated reading - not doing anything else. Sure, it held my interest, but the travelogue of Vietnam battlefields did indeed become tedious, and when I finally reached the long-awaited conclusion, I was VERY disappointed and let-down. What a violation of the reader's trust that the author didn't wind things up!
We never found out what happened to Paul, or if he even lived to get home. And what about Susan vs. Cynthia? Are we supposed to guess? Supply our own conclusion? Did I miss something? Hope this helped the author come to grips with his own demons...it sure wasn't worthy of three days of my time.
Rating:
Summary: Up Country
Review: I can't say enough good things about this book. The only "problem" with it is that it whetted my appitite to delve more deeply into the facts and history of Vietnam. At age 43 I had a passing knowlege of the Vietnam war (I was only in 2nd grade at the time). Up Country gives a good intro to present day Vietnam as well as times past in an extremely palatable fashion. Having spent some time in Southeast Asia (although not Vietnam or Indochina) many of the travel sequences ring very true and bring both a smile and a tear. Aside from the great "travelog" the story will intrigue and engross you from start to finish. I hope to see Paul Brenner once again! If you like your books on audio the UNABRIDGED version of Up Country, read by Scott Brick, is a double treat and gave me many hours of listening pleasure.
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: Not for Hearts and Flowers Fans
Review: Since I don't usually gravitate to Demille's work, I opened this on on a friend's suggestion; I was not disappointed. It might not be a true story, but it reads as if it could be. Paul Brenner is no-nonsense, but Demille shows him to us with all his flaws and foibles visible. That also holds true for all the book's other characters, including the country of Viet Nam. If readers are interested in a personal view of that nation, both as it was during our entanglement there, and now, this book will provide that view. It may not be the most lovely picture of either the past or the present, but readers will experience something real through the eyes of Paul Brenner. His journey from Saigon to Hanoi helps him exorcize old demons and fascinated this reader with its honesty. I look forward to Demille's next work, and will certainly investigate his previous works.
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