Rating: 
Summary: People finished this book???
Review: Sorry, I'm a BIG DeMille fan. However, I have tried
reading this book at least 3 times...I've read at least
5 novels in the meantime. I guess I will one day get beyond
the Viet Nam travelogue. Maybe not. This is way too
tiresome for me. I'd rather re-read my old letters from
an old boyfriend who fought in Viet Nam. Sorry, Nelson.
You used to be TOPS with me.
Rating: 
Summary: A "new novel of suspense?" Please!
Review: As said by a prior reviewer, this is more a Vietnam vet's memoirs, or a travelogue, than anything. Calling this a "sensational and poignant new novel of suspense," as the book jacket does, is comical. I watch the history channel to learn about Vietnam; I read suspense novels to be thrilled, and the thrills here are few.I also find Brenner's character very inconsistent this time around--a wise cracking cynic one minute, an apologetic gentleman the next. Another review noticed repetitive use of "he smiled," and "she smiled;" I got tired of "she didn't reply"--I can figure out she didn't reply if I don't see any dialogue coming from her lips. I can't judge Demille's writing here because I can't get over the fact I am supposed be reading suspense. To be fair, the publisher may be at fault for promoting it as suspense because they can hear the cash register ring. I am a finicky buyer, even of popular fiction, and I doubt I will be purchasing any more Demille. There's just too many authors (and publishers) who deliver what they promise, and do so consistently.
Rating: 
Summary: Demille Delivers
Review: Demille delivers another rich, finely tuned mixed thriller and haunting personal memoir in "Up Country". As in all his other books,I always find myself excited, pensive, smiling, and out right laughing at times. I also appreciate his exhaustive & accurate research. Learning something from a book is very important to me. For example, in this Vietnam flashback epic, I never knew there were actual words to Taps. As Demille ends one chapter...."day is done, gone the sun, from the lakes, from the hills, from the sky, all is well, safely rest, God is nigh". So what if the book is long? Demille knows how to tell a story. Slow down, relax, enjoy vivid descriptions, snappy dialogue, chilling action and memorable characters. Craving something shorter with non-stop action? Read Demille's "Mayday". A very graphic, fast-paced novel about a private citizen having to takeover a missle blasted jetliner.
Rating:
Summary: Up Country
Review: DeMille is known for through character development and a vivid use of your imagination. Obvioously a vet, DeMille crafts a story to relive the past as his charachter travels the road of the present. I found it very entertaining and thought provoking about the story and the times portrayed.
Rating:
Summary: First rate
Review: DeMille delivers again. It's the best thriller since Craig Furrnas' THE SHAPE. (Both DeMille and Furrnas have been published in TROIKA magazine, which is where I discovered them both. TROIKA has good writers!) UP COUNTRY was probably written because it has the same characters as THE GENERAL'S DAUGHTER, and the Travolta version of that movie was a hit. But I welcome the return of the character and you will, too.
Rating:
Summary: Simply the greatest
Review: Mr. de Mille just keeps getting better and better. I can barely wait for his next novel (oh please let there be one).
Rating:
Summary: Lost Soldiers
Review: I have just started to read this book there is an awfully close resemblance to a book released last year called "Lost Soldiers" by James Webb. Sounds like the same plot. A combat soldier and CIA operative returns to Vietnam at the request of the Pentagon to find the body of an American soldier who was killed by one of his own. I'm sure there are a lot of differences but the plot makes me suspicious.
Rating:
Summary: It's unfortunate....
Review: Yes, it's unfortunate that Western Society ( and I am a 50 year old veteran of that society) has become so fixated on instant gratification - because that's not what you get when you read Nelson Demille.
My bookshelf has every book - bar one - of Mr Demille's (since "By The Rivers of Babylon" anyway; I understand he wrote a couple of potboilers featuring a hard-bitten Noo York cop a million or two years ago ) and they are all well-thumbed, and re-read. The missing one is "Word of Honour" which has once again gone AWOL. This'll be the 7th copy I've loaned out. I will buy an 8th.
Nelson Demille has had only one minor hiccup in his career, and that was "Lion's Game." Which is not to say I didn't enjoy it; I did, and have, as I said, re-read it a number of times. It's simply a book that could have been written by someone else.
"Up Country" is, however, vintage Demille. It is dense with detail, with a richness of language that ably demonstrates that the author holds his audience in the highest esteem. Paul Brenner, the protagonist of the story, is affable, easy to like, unflappable, erudite, witty, charmingly sarcastic, and - at times - a royal pain in the [rear-end]. But, we knew that. We had met him before, in "A General's Daughter," the book which was turned into a half-decent movie, starring John Travolta.
Other reviewers have claimed or complained that this book is a travelogue. If it is, the terrain which is visited is not modern day Viet nam (surely an oxymoron0 but the mud, dust, and blood-stained canyons of Brenner's (read Demille's) mind. This is a haunting memoir, dressed up in the trappings of a murder mystery. And it is also a timely warning to us all that we in the free West must not take our freedom for granted; we must be ever vigilant against those to whom we have given power from abusing that power.
Unlike Tom Clancy's last turgid offering, a book which was at least 400 pages too long, "Up Country" is a splendid story, told alarmingly well. And, with Demille now taking his characters beyond the first book, I must admit that I am starting to wonder what ever happened to Keith Landry and Ann, or, indeed, Ben Tyson - although I suspect we have, in this book, also heard from Tyson.
Rating:
Summary: DeMille at His Best
Review: Yes, it is long, but he is always entertaining, and isn't that why we read? Not only did I learn about the history of the Vietnam War, but I felt the anguish, guilt and horror of it all, too. Best of all, DeMille's sense of humor is priceless! It is worth the lengthy read--sometimes those are the best, the ones you do not want to end.
Rating:
Summary: Weakest Demille Yet
Review: I have read all of Demille's books and eagerly await new arrivals. This one, however, did not live up to his past work. While I did read the 700+ pages, the gripping action was not there. If you are a Demille fan, you will read this book...just don't get your hopes up too high.
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