Lie Down with Lions (Signet) Review

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(More customer reviews)It's unfortunate that one of the previous reviewers found so much to hate in "Lie Down With Lions," and I'm guessing it's because that reader was looking for the wrong things. No, Follett's not Faulkner, and you'll get no musings on the human condition. But that's not why one reads Follett; you read Follett for the tightly written, superbly constructed thriller, and, in "Lie Down With Lions," that's exactly what you get.
The action is intense, right from the outset, where American agent Ellis blows his cover in Paris, losing in the process his girlfriend Jane, who takes up with another guy and heads with him to Afghanistan, to offer medical assistance to a populace wearied by war against the invading Soviets (sort of a 1980s version of Médecins sans frontières). Ellis tails her there, under the auspices of the US government, to train the Afghan fighters. At which point, the plot thickens, and doesn't let up till the very end.
The dynamics of the Ellis/Jane relationship are great, very natural and well drawn in a way one doesn't usually find such relationships drawn in action novels. Their moments of greatest intimacy--including an amazingly and erotically written love scene that rivals anything in Miller or Joyce--help drive one of the novel's main tensions, a tension between the reader's responses to these two characters who are often at odds but both very sympathetic. This tension, though, merely underscores the real, action-based tension surrounding the military skirmishes taking place on the greater stage outside the Ellis/Jane relationship.
As some reviewers have pointed out, "Lie Down With Lions" isn't much use as a history primer on the war in Afghanistan, or as a probing meditation on the nature of existence. But that's really beside the point. We read Follett, like we read Clancy and Grisham, because they're amazingly talented story tellers with interesting stories to tell. I've read "Lie Down With Lions" three times and enjoyed it immensely each time.

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Nerve Center (Dreamland, No. 2) Review

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(More customer reviews)I am an avid Dale Brown fan. I was excited to read Dreamland Nerve center. I was quite disappointed. I am not sure how much input Mr. Brown had on this project but it would be better if he took his name off of it. It was stale, predicatble and very cheesy. I think the characters are good but the only person who would actually enjoy reading this is a female highschool wall flower. It should be displayed in the cheap romance novel catagory. The next book in the Dreamland series can be nothing but better than this one. I will give Dreamland another chance because I like Mr. Brown. But, that being said, I can only take so much cheap romance.

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Retreat, Hell: A corps Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)A major improvement over the mediocre Under Fire, Griffin returns to form with Retreat, Hell! He shows his usual impeccable attention to detail and histoical accuracy, which was sadly lacking in Under Fire.
This novel covers the peiod in the Korean War in which the situation turned around for the UN forces and the overextended North Koreans were chased back across the 38th Parallel with the US Army and its allies in full pursuit. The Pick Pickering-is-MIA situation is resolved in an imaginative way I didn't see coming; a couple of new characters are introduced who seem very interesting (and don't I just wish Griffin could rewrite the Brotherhood of War series to integrate them into it!); and a character is killed off in a way that is utterly consistent and tragic, with the potential for serious impact on others in the next book. Good writing.
I have to admit that I find what Griffin is doing with Ken McCoy a little disconcerting. He seems to think McCoy's name is Mac MacMillan and that he is running Task Force Able. However, as Griffin seem to have no intention of crossing any Brotherhood of War characters over to The Corps (given what he has his characters doing, I would have expected at least passing references to the activities of MacMillan and Mouse Felter, if not to Duke Lowell and his panzers), I suppose there are no grounds for complaint.
The timeline is heading into the final confrontation between Truman and MacArthur. The one thing that surprised and disappointed me, given El Supremo's frequent appearances and conversations with Brigadier General Pickering, is that there is no sign of the animosity that was building, not even at the Wake Island Conference (or 'summit') between Truman and MacArthur; at which he has Pickering present at Truman's orders. Both men commented extensively on it in their autobiographies, but their dislike for each other is absent here. Griffin usually has a better feel for interpersonal relations between major real people than that.
Griffin also, which earned him my respect, addresses the issue of medals for valor that are awarded for other than the type of actions for which they are supposed to be presented. The problem was epidemic in Vietnam, but I didn't realize its roots went back to Korea. This subplot, involving Ken McCoy, Billy Dunn, Pick Pickering and General Clyde Dawkins (and I wish we saw more of The Dawk), offers an informative look not merely at the process by which medals are awarded, but also at the warrior ethos which permits warriors to accept them - or not.
The bottom line: While I wish W.E.B. Griffin would go back and finish the World War II portion and the interbellum part of this series (in particular the sections dealing with McCoy's time at the Command & General Staff College, how and why he was reduced in grade from major to captain when by time in grade he would have been in the zone for promotion to lieutenant colonel, how on earth the cowardly, self-serving Macklin was promoted and why he wasn't run out of the service, and whatever happened to a number of characters I care about), this book is a page-turner I gulped down in one afternoon. The tempo is fast and the visual melody sharp and clear. It's well worth reading, and more than once.
The trouble is, now I have to wait impatiently for the next one!

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The Einstein Papers Review

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(More customer reviews)Clive Cussler has done it again...a masterpiece of fiction. I'm not refering to the Einstein Papers, or even the disappointing Atlantis Found, but rather to the review of this novel that adorns the front cover. I know it's fiction because the book is so godawful, his statement cannot be interpretted as factual.--- As a writer who aspires to be published in this genre, I can only hope to someday become Mr. Cussler's friend so that anything I write will be fasttracked into print without having to endure the tedious editorial process. It's pretty clear that no one actually read this one before it went to print. If you need more clarification, read any of the 2 star or less reviews...they're all right on the money.

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Defcon One Review

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(More customer reviews)Joe Weber's debut is a good military techno-thriller that is just a little too rough to be a real winner. Basically it's a World War III novel, with the Soviet Union against the United States. This plot has been attempted by many authors, including Tom Clancy, Harold Coyle, Eric L. Harry, and a few others. While the idea is not original, the storyline progresses smoothly and without the tremendous technical details that a lot of readers dislike in Clancy's novels. Weber's characters need some work, however. The leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States are the same stock politicians you find in all the other techno-thrillers. Of course the Soviet General Secretary is an insane dictator, and the American President is unsure about how to fight World War III. The only character who even resembled being dynamic was Steve, the Special Forces guy. Weber's sequel Shadow Flight, which is a little better than DefCon One, also features Steve as a main character. Both books are hard to find, so the library is your best bet if you want to get hold of copies to read. Weber gets better with every book, and his most recent release, Primary Target, was excellent. Your really can't go wrong with his books.

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