Operation: Barracuda is the second in the Splinter Cell book series based on the popular Ubisoft video game series. This book takes up where the first one leaves off. Mr. Fisher is back home from the Middle East, when he’s soon sent to China. Many of the characters from the first book show back up in this one icluding Sam’s daughter, Sarah, and his Krav Maga instructer Katia Loenstern. In this book, the main foe is illegal arms dealers, The Shop.
The action is probably better in this book than the first. It just seemed to me to be a much easier read. The only downside to me was the pointless profanity. Not that the book is just full of it, I just tend to think that having a book based on a video game character would probably attract some younger readers. That aside, I liked the book and plan on getting the third one to complete the set. Again the book was written by Raymond Benson under the name “David Michaels”, despite having Tom Clancy’s name written on the cover in huge letters.
This book, or series of books rather, are based on the Splinter Cell video game character Sam Fisher. Sam is a Splinter Cell which is a secret government agent that is a very elite, stealth, espionage type of thing. The action in the book is quite interesting to read and there’s a lot of cool details about military equipment and Sam’s 007 type of equipment. The only downside to me was that there are almost too many details to keep up with. A large portion of the action takes place in the Middle East, and many of the names and places are hard for me to pronounce, much less read and remember. Despite this, I still enjoyed the book and went on to get the second in the series.
Monster is set in the Idaho wilderness with a couple hiking up to their camping spot to meet up with a group the following day. That first night the couple finds the cabin torn to shreds and they start hearing strange and loud noises during the night which leads to the capture of the young woman by a creature of some sort. The rest of the story consists of teams of people along with her sherriff’s deputy husband in search for her……… in hopes that she’s still alive. As they follow all the clues, they uncover a plot that consists of a university funding scientific experiments with mutations.
Velocity by Dean Koontz is full of surprises. A killer has chosen a simpleton bartender named Billy Wiles to be his puppet in a deadly game. Wiles finds a note on his windshield which gives him a choice of involving the police, in which a schoolteacher will die, or not involving the police, and an elderly charity worker will die. Wiles goes to his sheriff’s deputy friend who dismisses the whole thing as a cruel joke…….until the schoolteacher comes up strangled to death the following day.
Before I start, I know this book is almost 10 years old. The fact is, I haven’t been reading for enjoyment that long, and Vince Flynn came highly recommended for the type of books that I like. This is his first book, and I like to start at the beginning if possible. This book truly blew me away. I was a little skeptical when I started, because the book is a little over 600 pages and it started off kind of slow. Once the first few chapters familiarize’s the reader with needed details, the action kicks in, taking the reader in a whirlwind of government cover-ups, assasinations, and stealth action. After reading this book, it’ll be hard to ever look at politics the same again, even though this book is fiction. I imagine much of the insight in to Washington D.C. is pretty close to how things are. It’s truly sickening.
