Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon

So bad SyFy wouldn't make a movie out of it...

...and I love bad SyFy channel movies. This book was worse than terrible. I am a Tom Clancy fan, and a member of my family bought me this travesty as a gift, thinking it was by Tom Clancy.

She could not have been more wrong.

This literary debacle was actually written by David Michaels, who for all intents and purposes may as well be a twelve-year-old video game fanatic who can recite the stats of various digital characters and weapons purely from memory. In fact, that seems to be exactly what he does when describing both. There is virtually no growth for any of the two-dimensional cast, whose interactions are as stilted and unnatural as could possibly be imagined. To continue, I suppose I shall just explain my ratings:

Characters - As I said earlier, they may as well be made from cardboard. There is no development and each one seems to be dictated by a single personality trait that makes all of their actions and reactions worse than predictable. The most compelling character was the nemesis' ancient family sword.
Plot - Left much to be desired. It seemed to be completely focused on putting the main characters into ridiculous situations where their only possible escape was a seemingly impossible yet non-altogether-unexpected stunt which involved the gridly deaths of an obscene number of emeny goons, each one in a different and equally gory manner.
Writing Style - May as well be nonexistant. Michaels writes with a slow, boring narrative that never diverges from its obvious path to explain either motivations or thought processes. He sticks to simply telling what happened, spending more time on describing suns than what the characters were doing and why.
Originality - The book was inspired by a video game. Need I say more? I will: though he does not simply re-hash a video game's background story, there is nothing either new or exciting in Michaels writing. Nothing makes you think or surprises you.
Book Cover - I gave this one 2 stars because it does actually make you think (at least for a second) that the book (which I cannot, for obvious reasons, dignify with the descriptor 'novel') was written by Tom Clancy. Poor Tom; he's having his reputation ruined by drivel. At least the deception is for a good cause: David Michaels doesn't seem to have any marketable skills.

The book is not offbeat. In fact, it's so on-beat that it's preposterous. Keep wishing that Michaels will throw you a curveball, but at the same time you are 100% certain that he won't. It's actually sad. The book is not dramatic. The descriptions are lackluster and a couple of times I found myself thinking "I'm pretty sure that word doesn't mean what Mr. Michaels thinks it means." But then, that's the editor's job, isn't it? The book is neither touching nor romantic; there are only 2 female characters who appear for all of about 3 scenes, and there is no emotion to be found anywhere. I was also never thrilled, in any sense of the word, by Ghost Recon.

Ghost Recon is not good for book clubs; it's boring. I would rather sleep away a rainy day or simply watch the rain fall - it's more interesting, you see. I could better escape by twiddling my thumbs and, having recieved the book as a gift, I would rather have the money. The only reason it's in my permanent library is because I don't throw books away. It gets 2 stars for topical conversation, however, because a good conversation could begin like this:
"Dude, have you re

8 out of 20 people found this review helpful.

Hi im cool

Im ten and i thout it was awesome.

4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

The game's manual is a better read.

Tom Clancy's reputation is being ruined by having his name on books written by other, less skilled writers. I was hoping for something a little more tactical along the lines of Rainbow Six or Without Remorse. What I got was a novel written by a fan of the video games.<BR/><BR/>The writing was choppy and extremely narrative. I imagine it can be hard to find an author with tactical experience, but it was clear that David Michaels only did cursory research. It's most likely that he relied upon knowledge gained from video games and movies.<BR/><BR/>The blatant product placement of Blackhawk tactical equipment (namely their MOD knives) made me wince. When Mr. Michaels talked about the equipment it was like the descriptions were pulled right from the catalog. Frankly, I was surprised not to find the price in there somewhere. <BR/><BR/>The phychology of the characters left a bit to be desired. Sure, it was neat to see the history of Scott Mitchell and some personality put to the other team members, but they didn't quite stack up to the reality of speial operations personnel that I know. Granted I don't know any US Army Special Forces members but I can't imagine their phycologically that diverse from Force Recon or SEALs. I imagine that David Michaels read Shooter (by Jack Coughlin), and this is about on par with that trash.<BR/><BR/>The cover did look cool though. That's why I bought it.

2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Ghost Recon

Good read, disliked the slow parts where there wasnt alot of action but overall really good and i would recommend this book

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great Book!!

I really enjoyed this book, a must read!!

One over the other

Book was good but the games old and complcated black ops 2 is way beter

??????????

Is this the first book?

Ghost Recon

Is this book good

It was a vudeo game first

Then a book. Both by Tom Clancy.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Slasher

Growls and kicks bird in the back,sending her hurtling into the space bridge. Gem jumps in after her sister,followed by slasher and lark.

0 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Brazier

Ish back at da base

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Good book so far

I am currently reading this book. So far it seems to be well constructed. I have read a number of Clancy's books and this looks to be another good one.

You already have my pen name.

Isnt thiw qvid ge

This is a video game book right?

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

N/A

I have not read this novel yet

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Got better in 2nd half

Lots of action after ch. 25. Like the ending, but VERY slow start. Maybe I will try second book...

Look amazing

I havent bought thus yet but it looks like a good book to read

0 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Awesome

If you love the game tjen you will love the book!!!!!

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A

Three words, Tom Clancy Book. That is all I need to describe this book

Interested into military

Somehow i do jot know how he got interested into military somehow. Does anyone know?

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Awsome read

I love all game book movie of Tom Clany i also like thisthis book ihope the auther wrote more books and all you people callin him (the auther) a "video game addict" are wrong he is not a video game addict cause if he was he wouldnt write this book. I got Tom Clany's Ghost Recon Avanced Warfighter for Xbox360 Tom Clancy Splinter Cell Conviction for Ipod touch 4 generation im workin on Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Avanced Warfighter 2 allbthe hawx games alkvsplinter cell games and Tom Clancy's newest game Tom Clancy's Future Soldier.

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.