Psychic Warrior

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing story that's doomed by information overload
Review: First of all, let me state for the record that I generally love any and all of Robert Doherty's works. I've read all of the Area 51 books and found them to be imaginative and believable enough to appear to be somewhat based in fact.

Sadly, I didn't find much to make "Psychic Warrior" a book I would recommend to Doherty's fans.

While the style of writing was Doherty's usual clear and consise manner, "Psychic Warrior" was dragged down by TOO MUCH information and not enough story! Doherty decided to spend the bulk of his story decribing how the psychic warriors were chosen, trained, and deployed and not enough time developing the plot. Doherty did a good job researching and creating the concept (in this case, soldiers who can use their minds to wage war), but the plot borders too much on the fantastic.

Here's hoping that the sequel to "Psychic Warrior" takes off early with a great plot and saves this series!

Rating:
Summary: Not that many mistakes
Review: First, let's talk about the obvious mistakes in this book.
The author writes, page 79, about a burning cigarette producing a "bright red glow" in a night vision goggle. Another reviewer perpetuates this mistake by claiming that "many night vision goggles have an infrared setting, like the predator, which does show up as red and yellow and colors besides the monochrome green."
The fact is that the Predator, like any image enhancement night vision device, has a green monochrome viewing screen. Nothing shows up as red. Many IMAGE ENHANCEMENT devices, like the Predator, have infrared illuminators, which cast infrared light of .7 to 1.3 microns (invisible to our eyes), which is REFLECTED off subjects, picked up by the lens (along with ambient light), sent to the image-intensifier tube, and amplified for viewing on the monochrome screen.
There is a second, different, type of night vision device. THERMAL viewers reveal EMITTED (not reflected) thermal-IR radiation of 3 microns to 30 microns. Thermal viewer displays may be configured as either a multi-colored thermal image, or a one-color setting. (This is what you see from police helicopter viewers at night when the cars and suspects appear to "glow"). Thermal viewers are not the "goggles" Doherty is writing about.
Neither the Predator, nor any other image enhancement device, has a "setting" to view thermal radiation. An illuminator (infrared light source) used to increase reflected light is NOT a "setting" to view thermal radiation, any more than a flashlight is a thermometer. To view thermal radiation, a separate, dedicated, thermal radiation viewer is needed. Thermal viewers do not use illuminators since they reveal EMITTED light.
The linguistic coincidence that near infrared light is reflected to image enhancement viewers, and thermal-infrared light is emitted to thermal viewers, should not be confusing to either supposedly-experienced authors or deluded reviewers who claim that others "don't know anything."
Satellite phones don't, as the author claims on page 182, work indoors (except through a window). Author Doherty was not writing about the fanciful situation where the character had set up a "stationary unit" outside the building which relayed the satellite signal to the "portable headset." The character was dumbly, and impossibly, trying to get a direct satellite signal from inside a building.
Other mistakes in this hopeless book include, with reference to paperback page number, include --
* p. 59 - a secret military base would not be constructed where the only access is by military helicopters with "less than a foot" of rotor clearance.
* p. 60 - a CAT scan would (normally) not be used to see if there is brain activity.
* p. 74 - the Space Shuttle cannot service satellites (such as "Milstar 4") in geosynchronous orbit. Geosynchronous orbit is 22,223 miles up. The Space Shuttle's maximum possible altitude is 600 miles. See the difference?
I'm surprised that a book supposedly by an author with military experience would get so many positive reviews after being riddled with obvious mistakes, even _if_ you accept the virtual reality/ action part of the plot. Such obvious mistakes in the writing of a book scream out, "this author doesn't care to take the time to make the plot realistic."

Rating:
Summary: Want More of Psychic Warrior Books!
Review: I have really enjoyed reading this book and much as I have the Area 51 Series. Why aren't there more on the Psychic Warrior?
Please write more on this subject too!

Rating:
Summary: Psychic Warrior
Review: Psychic Warrior: Another GOOD book from Robert Doherty (a.k.a. Bob Mayer). Bob keeps true to his fast paced action packed stories. I have read all of his books and this is definitely one of his better ones with a very intriguing story line. With all of the hype of Remote Viewing these days and the 95% of the Original Stargate program still classified - it makes one wonder what the Government is REALLY capable of. After all, the Government pumps BILLIONS of dollars into programs like these every year. Anyway, I recommend all of Bob Mayers books under all of his Aliases; Joe Dalton, Bob McGuire, Greg Donegan, Robert Doherty and of course Bob Mayer.

Rating:
Summary: Excitin paanormal thriller
Review: Sergeant Major Jimmy Dalton has been with the military during the bad (Viet Nam War), the Good (Reagan and Bush I administrations), and the ugly (Carter). Over the years, he has fought heated battles and psychic wars. However, he has just faced his most difficult combat ever in the mountains of Colorado: saying goodbye to his now deceased beloved wife.

Dalton realizes he has no time to really mourn because his country needs him once again. The psychic warrior learns he must battle on a virtual plane the deadly Priory. This group of psychics has combined forces with their goal being a world oligopoly controlled by them. Only Dalton and his team stand in their way, but his side has a mole ready to sell them out to the enemy.

PSYCHIC WARRIOR: PROJECT AURA, the sequel to PSYCHIC WARRIOR, is an exciting military science fiction thriller that takes war onto a totally different plane. The story line is exciting as the virtual war heats up around the globe and governments are as criminal and cold as the cabal is. However, with the exception of Dalton and his memories of his wife, the rest of the cast, especially the Priory members, seems more like Manga cartoon characters so readers could not care less what happens to them. Fans who enjoy an in your face (mind) action packed thriller will welcome Robert Doherty's terrific tale.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Very, very good
Review: This book was as good as any other sci-fi, fantasy, or cyberpunk book currently on the market, such as "Childhood's End", "Foundation", "Ringworld", "Eragon", "Prey", "Neuromancer","Virtual Light", "Altered Carbon", "Darkeye: Cyber Hunter", and so forth. I highly recommend it, just as I would any of these other books or anything remotely related to sci-fi, fantasy, and cyberpunk.

Rating:
Summary: Very, very good
Review: This book was as good as any other sci-fi, fantasy, or cyberpunk book currently on the market, such as "Childhood's End", "Foundation", "Ringworld", "Eragon", "Prey", "Neuromancer","Virtual Light", "Altered Carbon", "Darkeye: Cyber Hunter", and so forth. I highly recommend it, just as I would any of these other books or anything remotely related to sci-fi, fantasy, and cyberpunk.

Rating:
Summary: Psychic Warrior
Review: This was an interesting book about psychic warfare where entities can literally jump just about anywhere and do just about anything. The Russians against the Americans is always a juicy read for me because I love action/adventure books, but this one left me a little flat for some reason. The storyline was good and the characters somewhat interesting, but something was lacking that I just can't put my finger on. The action scenes were o.k, but coming from a former Green Beret, I would have thought them better executed. No pun intended. Overall though it was a decent read.

Rating:
Summary: A DIFFERENT LOOK AT WARFARE
Review: This was an interesting book about psychic warfare where entities can literally jump just about anywhere and do just about anything. The Russians against the Americans is always a juicy read for me because I love action/adventure books, but this one left me a little flat for some reason. The storyline was good and the characters somewhat interesting, but something was lacking that I just can't put my finger on. The action scenes were o.k, but coming from a former Green Beret, I would have thought them better executed. No pun intended. Overall though it was a decent read.