Book Review - Stephen Coonts' Deep Black: Jihad
Category Book Reviews
It's that time of year where I'm spending a few more hours than normal on airplanes, so I ended up in an airport bookstore looking for some recreational reading material. I ended up with Stephen Coonts' Deep Black: Jihad by Stephen Coonts (of course) and Jim DeFelice. Generally, I like Coonts' books, but this one seems more like a "I'll lend you my name if I get a cut of the profits" effort. Didn't quite end up being a memorable read...
There's a high-tech spy group in the United States called Deep Black, and they end up pulling off jobs that are out of the ordinary. In this novel, they set up an "assassination attempt" of an Al Qaeda leader so that they can take him to a hospital for his injuries. While there, they implant a tracking and audio bug in his scalp so they can see where he goes and hear about the next terrorist attacks before they happen. The story revolves around trying to correlate his movements with other intel that they have, all in order to prevent a large attack to be carried out somewhere in the United States. What they don't count on is an internal rivalry within Al Qaeda that closes their best source of information before they know who all the plot players are. The story moves to an ending where it's a race to see if they can find the main operative before the attack is carried out.
There are apparently a few other Deep Black episodes prior to this book, and I think that's where my problem lies. I don't have the benefit of the prior character development, and there's literally none to be found here. All the players are thrust into the story right away, and I had no clue as to why they reacted and interacted as they did. Furthermore, they talked about a lot of the gadgetry as if it was common stuff. Perhaps if you've evolved with the series, but it's a little disconcerting if this is your first exposure to Deep Black. And at 438 pages for a paperback, I kept feeling as if we could have tightened up the story and gotten there a bit sooner.
This book probably falls somewhere between my "it's OK" and "I like it" range. If an earlier Deep Black novel ended up in my possession, I'd read it without hesitation. But I wouldn't go out of my way to look for them, nor would I buy a new one unless the older installments improved my outlook somewhat.
It's that time of year where I'm spending a few more hours than normal on airplanes, so I ended up in an airport bookstore looking for some recreational reading material. I ended up with Stephen Coonts' Deep Black: Jihad by Stephen Coonts (of course) and Jim DeFelice. Generally, I like Coonts' books, but this one seems more like a "I'll lend you my name if I get a cut of the profits" effort. Didn't quite end up being a memorable read...
There's a high-tech spy group in the United States called Deep Black, and they end up pulling off jobs that are out of the ordinary. In this novel, they set up an "assassination attempt" of an Al Qaeda leader so that they can take him to a hospital for his injuries. While there, they implant a tracking and audio bug in his scalp so they can see where he goes and hear about the next terrorist attacks before they happen. The story revolves around trying to correlate his movements with other intel that they have, all in order to prevent a large attack to be carried out somewhere in the United States. What they don't count on is an internal rivalry within Al Qaeda that closes their best source of information before they know who all the plot players are. The story moves to an ending where it's a race to see if they can find the main operative before the attack is carried out.
There are apparently a few other Deep Black episodes prior to this book, and I think that's where my problem lies. I don't have the benefit of the prior character development, and there's literally none to be found here. All the players are thrust into the story right away, and I had no clue as to why they reacted and interacted as they did. Furthermore, they talked about a lot of the gadgetry as if it was common stuff. Perhaps if you've evolved with the series, but it's a little disconcerting if this is your first exposure to Deep Black. And at 438 pages for a paperback, I kept feeling as if we could have tightened up the story and gotten there a bit sooner.
This book probably falls somewhere between my "it's OK" and "I like it" range. If an earlier Deep Black novel ended up in my possession, I'd read it without hesitation. But I wouldn't go out of my way to look for them, nor would I buy a new one unless the older installments improved my outlook somewhat.
| Permalink |
