Burnett Books

But he keeps me hooked once I've started reading one of his books. I can't explain it. Some of his writing seems amatuerish, but he keeps a brisk pace and does well at showing all sides of legal issues. This book is no exception.

It's been said that Tom Clancy's books would give future readers a view of what the world was like during the Cold War; this one will too, and those future readers will say "What were these people smoking back then!?"
This is just every single fever-induced OxyContin-fueled delusion that the right wing has dreamed up in the past three years wrapped up in one single book. The country finally gets around to sending an enemy combatant before those vaunted military tribunals we were promised back in 2002, and the first thing the "good guys" in here wail about is "Criminals get to break the law all the time; why can't we?" It never occurs to anyone that torture is impractical (even the CIA learned during Vietnam that it never got any good information because the subject will say what you want to hear and not what you want to know--including telling plausible-sounding lies--just to make the pain stop) but also illegal; you'd think a lawyer like Huston would've read United States Code at some point. And what's the big threat weapon the evildoers have concocted? Why, the dirty bomb, the so-called "poor man's nuke" which even Fox News has said is about as viable as a STAR TREK photon torpedo.

Whomever said that Huston is better than Clancy is hallucinating.

As a Tom Clancy, David Baldacci fan, I thought this book was a great read...fast paced, never bogged down in facts, but always giving all the information. You'll be pulling for Rat all the way...

If you are sick and tired of watching the news media portraying our armed forces as a failure, then this book is a welcome tidbit of entertainment! How refreshing to see the excellence of our special forces portrayed as honorable and victorious! It's a real page turner, and not only do the terrorists take it on the chin, so do the liberal morons who defend them under the premise of 'human rights'. This is the best espionage thriller I've read in a while. I loved every last page!

James W. Huston broke onto the scene with a pair of spectacular books: BALANCE OF POWER and THE PRICE OF POWER. Mr. Huston deftly combined weighty legal issues with exciting action.

SECRET JUSTICE proves that he still has the touch. Special Forces Soldeir Kent "Rat" Rathman gets the job done in capturing an OBL like terrorist. The messy business of fighting terrorism comes down to killing people and this is never clean or as simple as it looks on TV.

Rathman brings home his man, but a second terrorist dies and the attending doctor decides the man was tortured. He files a brief with the world court, turning the tables on Rathman where the hero becomes the goat.

This nightmare scenario is all too possible in the politically correct/internationalist foreign policy promulgated by short sighted politicians.

No spoilers in this excellent and important book.

Get your copy yesterday.

Louis L'Amour at his best....good fast action story, well developed characters, strong, principled men, a beautiful and honorable woman, a surprising but happy ending...just the way good Westerns are supposed to be...

The land is tamed, and in the end, peace or at least the hope of a better way comes to this part of the Old West.

And who gets the girl?

The Hero, of course!!

book was very good...I do like westerns very much and it kept your interest very good............

I enjoyed "To Tame a Land". I found this book, like I have found all other L'amour's that I have read, simply wonderful. Mr. L'amour has a way to draw the reader into the story, then keeps us there. It's so nice when you're reading a book, and actually forget that you are indeed, reading a book. L'amour puts us(the readers) into the scenes. This book is a winner! Happy reading!

I have to admit this is my first Louis L'Amour book I've read. I remember my dad used to read L'Amour, besides the sports page it's the only thing I ever saw him read. I loved it and read it in two sittings. I just couldn't put it down. It flows so smoothly, almost like he wrote it in one sitting. It's a coming of age story for Ryan Tyler orphaned at the age of twelve after an Indian raid as his family is stranded from the wagon train with a broken wheel. The story never loses your attention. I loved this book and look forward to reading more of L'Amour.

I have read almost all of L'Amour's books and to this day find them very enjoyable to re-read. I have passed these books onto my sons and they too have been spellbound by his great story telling. Some berate his style of writing, however I would much more enjoy this style than of the more current blood and gore of the modern writer.

This story of Rye Tyler is a classic, being on his own from a young age, learning about life the hard way, growing up in the wild country, falling in love and betrayal of a friend.

What more could you ask for!! READ THIS BOOK!!

Mark Burnett lists several rules for success in this book. I guess most of it is good advice, but this book is far from a thorough guide to success. There's also info about his business career since coming to America. I think the real reason Mark Burnett is successful is that he had a very loving and supportive mother who encouraged him to take lots of risks and explore the world. I think that just led naturally to everything else in his life.

I happened to pick up the audio cassette of this book from the library and although its an abridged version I really loved listening to it. The story of Burnett's trials and tribulations and also his rise from rags to riches is told in a very interesting manner. The Survivor/eco Challenge story is really thrilling and Burnett's talent and perseverance in creating these shows is inspiring. The book has some great anecdotes and is replete with memorizable pearls of wisdom for the ambitious soul. The things which stick out most is his courage and determination to succeed. However I feel that the words eco challenge and survivor has been over used in this book and becomes too banal after a point although overall this book should be a good buy.

Author Burnett is behind the "Survivor" television series and is a fine TV producer, but he has his own story to tell, and Alan Shearman narrates it in Dare To Succeed. The author's daring experiences and autobiography come alive under Shearman's hand.

Mr. Burnett is a true adventurer and someone to be admired. I am inspired not only by his ability to reinvent TV programming, but also by his drive to create and build the best expedition race in the world. This book is a great read for everyone, including adventure racers, producers, parents, corporate executives, college students and more.

This books is a great book. I don't like the fact that on EVERY page of the book it either says Eco-challenge or Survivor. This is also a biography of him as much as it is a self-help book. Very interesting reading. Hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Not exactly L'amour's best work, but this book is still a worthy part of the Sackett collection and deserves it place on the bookshelf of any L'amour fan. A typical Western with the 'good versus evil' theme, though it does attempt to go deeper and delves in topics like betrayal and what lies beneath a person's appearance. Also features a break-up between two central characters, rare for L'amour.

This product was unacceptable due to it being written in a foreign language (Spanish). Buyers should be told up front that it is not in English...if I was told, I missed it.

I returned the item.

One of my favorite childhood authors was Robert Louis Stevenson. The excitement/tension in his books is palpable. I get that same feeling w/Louis L'Amour.
It's a simple story simply told. I survived a 12 hr. marathon Xmas shopping trip by reading this book between stores. Great characters & great action... Consistent themes include education,family & honor. The Sacketts are a family for the ages. This uis a great place to start the Sackett Saga!

This happens to be the first Louis Lamour that I have read, but from discussing it with other Lamour fans I have found that this book is one of his best. I really enjoyed it and although I am relatively new to his books (only 7 so far) it is probably my favorite. Lamour has opened the Western genre to me and I am now an avid western reader. This is definitely a good one to start with.

I give this novel five stars, but with a sigh and a caveat. You can't compare L'Amour to anyone but authors in the Western genre, and he is head and shoulders above most of them. I have read many books in my day; some of them uplift me, some of them have changed me, some of them have made me a better person. Louis L'Amour's books will do none of these things...BUT! You will seldom find a more entertaining read. Open a L'Amour western and the action just thunders off the pages. You can almost smell the gunsmoke. His action scenes are well -written, and, in spite of what another reviewer said,
his characters are better drawn than those by most other western writers. Yes, they are fictional, and the things they do are largely fictional. L'Amour writes of a Wild West that should have been, full of bad guys but also full of plain-speaking, mountain-bred, six-shooter totin' Good Guys who are more than capable of taking care of themselves. The satisfying thing in these novels is that you just know the bad guys are going to run right up against Our Hero and boy, are they gonna pay for their misdeeds...! You can't wait for that to happen, and L'Amour delivers the goods in each and every book. This Sackett novel is probably the best of the series and is a great example of L'Amour's writing. Read this, enjoy it at the level at which it should be enjoyed, and get ready to ride the wild west with the Sackett boys!!

Loved it, as well as his second biotech novel: "The Third Pandemic." I came to Amazon today expressly to see see if he'd published a third. Drat. Both novels are written by a guy who really gets science - and how rare is that? The intellectual time bomb of this tale is told only once, and in passing, so be prepared to back up or you may miss it.

Aw heck here it is: Is it possible that human DNA was an intelligent design? Is it possible that the billion or so "bytes" of data in every strand of human DNA that we haven't decoded is the biological equivalent of a computer "Tape Worm" whose mission is to detect when someone is trying to decode it and destroy the person, persons and structures involved in that decoding.... regardless of collateral damage? This idea is near the climax, and you may get caught up in the momentum of the adventure and miss it, so again, be prepared to go back and read things twice or thrice.

The book was written in 1997/8 and set in 2005 in Beaverton Oregon's high tech corridors which is my turf too, it's kinda fun to go into the Chinese restaurant described in these pages as downstairs from the protagonists apartment and have a #4 combination dinner, which I did last month.

TERIFI C read..starts out very slow and just when you wonder if it is worthwhile to keep on reading it really takes off and grabs you. Why have I never heard of this author before? This should have been on the best-seller list. READ IT, you won't be sorry.

The prose in this book is wonderful and it is obviously the product of intense research. The pace is fast and the characters are interesting. The fact that this is Mr Ouellette's first novel is unbelievable. I highly recommend.

Pierre Ouelette's sobering sci-fi vision of the future "The Deus Machine" was written in 1993 and takes place in the area of Portland, Oregon in 2005. The "Downturn" has thrust the U.S. into a deep economic depression with rampant unemployment and civil unrest directed toward an ineffective government.

A brilliant computer systems analyst known as "The Architect" has created a form of self correcting and evolving artificial intelligence known as DEUS. This network nexus is able to think, emote and essentially functions as a living entity.

A shadowy group of high ranking paramiltary types by tying in the DEUS networks company called ParaVolve with a venture capital firm Vencap and with a Mexican Pharmaceutical firm is attempting to make huge profits by creating an arsenal of bioweaponry.

The Architect seeing the danger inherent in his creation has installed within it a bomb to destroy it. When the paramiltary group headed by a shady, murderous peodphile known as Counterpoint learn of this, they recruit another brilliant but unemployed computer technologist Michael Riley to disarm the bomb.

Little did they know but the DEUS network working in concert with other computer networks in the linking companies has designed and generated a mutant virus which escapes into the enivironment. The effect of this virus is the creation of frightening, predatorless alien life forms which give off toxic viruses lethal to all living things including humans. Soon the rampaging virus creates a vast biologically re-engineered tangled jungle of weird plants and animals known as the Mutant Zone which swallows up everything in it path.

Riley, his biologist girlfriend Jessica, an 8 year old neighbor Jimi and the humanlike represntation of the DEUS network known as "Mouthball" are all that are standing between the utter destruction of mankind by the spreading Mutant Zone.

Ouelette's imaginative novel displays an impressive scientific background but often bogs down into long sections of overly technical jargon which is boring. Overall the book postulates interesting concepts which might be part of our near future.

There's a reason why Hard Science Fiction is called Hard: it's hard to write a book that simultaneously contains plausible science, real people and an interesting, plausible plot. I'm afraid I found Deus Machine failed on the second and third counts. And that is a shame because there are some really wonderful ideas here. This is the first biotech novel I've ever read to capture the true potential (and horrible threat) that a total command of the genetic code would have. It contains an intriguing exploration of the creation of artificial sentience and a very believable look at near-future America. What we have here is a potentially engaging novel. But ultimately this potential is left unfulfilled.

To start with I found the writing style in Deus Machine dry to the point of being cold and alienating. Even the romantic scenes are flat and unemotional. This is a world populated by the dysfunctional, psychotic, dispossessed, depressed and drug dependant--a world where economic downturn, political ineptitude and the crumbling family structure have robbed Mankind of all joy and beauty. In particular I found the characters unsatisfying. Each character has one very specific event or condition that defines their motivations, actions and reactions. For the lead male it's having witnessed a violent shootout at a convenience store, the psychological effects of which destroy both his career and marriage. For the beautiful lead female it's having given birth to a terminally deformed child while she was a teenager. This leads her to become a workaholic biological engineer who's unable to make any emotional connection with other people (until the lead male comes into her life, etc.). The prime antagonist is a homosexual serial killer and power politics broker. His evil biotech henchman is obsessed with the human experiments performed by the Japanese during World War II. The genius computer scientist is an unashamed drug and alcohol addict with a severe authority complex. And on and on.

As far as structure goes, the author has a tendency to hop between disparate scenes that is quite frankly distracting. Yeah, we all know the different characters and scenes will eventually tie together but the author takes far too long in drawing these connections for my taste. And though the author refrains from overuse of fragmented sentences (a brutalization of English that has far too often been accepted by authors, editors and readers as a sign of Art), other structural problems were similarly annoying. The main character, for instance, has a flashback wherein he speaks with his then employer. This scene segues into another where the aforementioned employer meets with the prime antagonist, a meeting of which the main character is totally unaware. And then we are returned to the main character's flashback. Who's flashback is this anyway?

Even these flaws, however, pale when compared to the final discovery of what's-really-going-on. The idea is this (if you plan on reading the book and want to discover this yourself, please do not read the following paragraph): within our genetic code is programmed a safeguard against the building of devises that will allow the creation of custom-made life forms. In other words, when you try to build a biocompiler (a machine that will build a life form from the genes up), our genetic code will create new monsters to destroy the biocompiler or the computer designing such a devise. Where this idea came from, or why anyone would believe it is beyond me. With all the careful scientific extrapolation in this novel, such an implausible plot device is simply inexcusable. Yet precisely this postulation (without any hard proof whatsoever) is immediately accepted by all characters who are introduced to it. Furthermore, there is no explanation of how or why such a safeguard is encoded in our genes. And though obvious theological questions arise from such a postulation, no attempt is made to address them. No one asks, "Hey, does that mean God doesn't want us to create living beings?" How about, "You know, there's no way this code could have evolved by pure chance. Someone or some thing must have purposefully put it in our genes. Ergo, some greater power created all life on Earth!"

In the end, this novel is a complex exploration of emerging technologies that weaves its way to a very unsatisfying conclusion (the ultimate climax, a great build up to a feel-good ending, is disappointing and leaves one totally limp). It is a novel that pays great attention to cold fact and technical detail while turning a blind eye to the transparency of its characters and the implausible nature of its own ultimate premise. In a word: disappointing

Frances Hodgson Burnett is usually known for her two girls' stories (A Little Princess/Sara Crew and The Secret Garden), still popular, and her ostensible boys' story (Little Lord Fauntleroy), hopelessly saccherine. It is most unfortunate that The Lost Prince, a real 'boys' story' and excellent adventure, has been overlooked.

The plot is heroic, involving a pair of friends traveling through pre-WWI Europe and the complicated politics of a fictional central-European country, Samavia. Marco Loristan has been raised to be a polyglot soldier and a patriot by his exile father: obedience, duty, and attention to detail are his watchwords. 'The Rat' is a boy of the London streets; although physically handicapped, he has a brilliant mind and a fascination for politics and military history, insofar as he is able to piece them together. He is rather brighter than the fairly stolid Marco, although less perceptive and emotionally mature. When the time comes for a secret message to be sent across Europe to rouse the Samavian patriots, the Rat's ingenuity and Marco's disciplined knowledge make them the perfect pair.

There is much that is dated, of course, and the themes of militant patriotism, quasi-feudal obedience and loyalty, and savior-like kingship are not unproblematic in the modern world, although they are no more present here than in most fantasy novels. On the other hand, the spiritual center of the book, involving the revelations of Eastern Mysticism about peace, forgiveness, and non-violence, feels surprisingly 'up-to-date.' What is perhaps timeless is the boyish friendship and adventure, and the fantasy of a Europe mostly untouched by the horrors of the 20th century.

A fictional account of a boy's travels to the Balkans from exile in Europe published in 1914. Appears to be loosely based on the life of King Peter Karageorgevitch (1844-1921), who lived in exile in Europe (mostly Geneva) after his father, Alexander, was overthrown after ruling as King of Serbia (1842-1858). The story parallels the return of Peter to Serbia in 1903 following the assassination of King Alexander Obrenivitch. The story's main character Marco is perhaps based on Peter's son Alexander who became Regent in 1914 and ruled Serbia and later Yugoslavia until his assassination in 1934.

This is one of my very favorite books. The writing is excellent, as well as the content. There is both mystery and excitement through the whole story. I have never found a book I liked like this before.

This is one of my most beloved classics. Intriguing and captivating, it is a story of two boys: Marco Loristan, a boy trained from young to love his war-torn country Samavia, be discreet, follow orders and endure hardship, and his friend the Rat, a boy from the poor areas of London who was adopted by Marco's father after his own died in a fit, embark on a dangerous journey across Europe to save Samavia's political situation. There is never a dull moment in the book as the boys undergo rigid training for their journey and mature along the way.

Personally I love this book even more than Frances Hodgson Burnett's other more popular novels like A Little Princess and Secret Garden. Marco and the Rat are among my favourite literary characters and 'the Lost Prince' is both touching and engrossing. Highly recommended!

which is not, by the way, about drafting children into warfare. The boy at the heart of the story has a great personal responsibility to his country, which is torn by a civil war. Like Frodo heading into Mordor, or just about any children's fantasy, he does have to set off on a journey involving a great deal of personal danger--one only he, and his stalwart companion (his 'crippled' companion, in a book written long long ago I might add) could accomplish.

I borrowed this book from my sister--and had to buy her a new one. I've been through several copies myself and it is always a great read, one which never fails to engage the imagination.

Had great service. Recieved book fast and was in great shape. Would order from them again.

I got a great book at a great price and fast shipping.

'Night of the Hawk' was my second book I read on late 90s. Although it is a sequel strory from 'Flight of the Old Dog'. Brown has given me a view of cold-weather country in Balkans where I have never been there at all. I could feel the cold of the weather but the story even coldest and chilling! But also Brown's wrote a story about a new warfare in it...I really eager wanted to see the mysterious stealth plane. Brilliant Story and it's recommended for those who have a military aviation enthusiast.

Dave Luger was listed as KIA five years ago. Now in this gripping novel it has been discovered that he has survived and is being held by the KGB. In Night of the Hawk a rescue mission unfolds trying bring Luger back into U.S custody. Dale Brown puts readers right into the action by giving them a third person omniscient view so that they can see the plot unfold from different points of view. He uses his knowledge of military technology to explain everything so that the readers will be pulled even further into his novel. He also tells how spies are converted into to being double agents so that people will understand why some people break. In one of the best shows of military writing Brown makes you want to keep reading his excellent book He combines action, drama, and technology into a whirlwind of word that are matched by few. What Tom Clancy did for the nave, Dale Brown has done for special force. He explains the HAWC air force base in Nevada and how they test new technology to improve America's fighting force. Brown uses characters for the first time instead of using previous character as the center of focus. He sums it up by bring it to a close with the U.S, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States to the brink of a nuclear was as missiles fly and soldiers march in what could become World War three. The U.S marines are pitted against Byelorussians force along with a mixture of fixer and rotor wing aircraft, armored personal carriers and tanks. The U.S is trying to achieve without being detected and blamed for cause trouble in NW Asia. Excellent book for all military fiction lover

Another epic technothriller of redundant proportions. "Hawk" follows the adventures of Pat Maclanahan and the crew of the "Old Dog" in post-Soviet Europe. Brown's novels circulate through several geo-political hot-spots (China, Iran and former east-bloc states). Here, the accent is on the Baltic states, upon which former soviet Russia (not "former" enough for Brown's liking) seeks to reassert her power. Lithuanians trying to remake their country must stand alone against the might of the Russian military. Meanwhile, Russian hardliners inside of Lithuania hope to bring the former east-bloc state into the Russian fold - apparently by creating an extensive laboratory called Fisikous that designs and builds high-tech weapons, including a stealthy strike-fighter designed by the captured American Dave Lugar and patterned along the same technology as the EB-52. As Russian aggression becomes more overt, American forces bolster a coalition of Turkish and Lithuanian warplanes to turn back the tide.

This was a peculiarly messy Brown novel, adding to the problems you normally run up against in his books. For one thing - what's it even about? The specter of a powerful post-Soviet Russia using its military to rebuild its Soviet-era supremacy isn't a new idea for Brown (or one he'll abandon - witness "Warrior Class"). There is no central threat that must be eliminated by a certain deadline, so there's no tension or any sense that the story is building to a climax the way "Storming Heaven" did. We're supposed to root for the brave Lithuanians who quickly become the "Davids" in a high-tech David-and-Goliath story, but when their leader reveals that he's training an army of warriors patterned after Lithuania's medieval knights, you wonder how loopy "David" can be while remaining the favored underdog. The subplot about wicked ex-Soviets designing and building high-tech weaponry ready for battle is ludicrous. As a former air warrior himself, Brown must appreciate that you need more than fancy computers to actually turn out a prototype airplane - let alone one that can integrate a complex weapons and sensors suite and take the punishment of combat. Furthermore, with the Soviet position as unpopular in Lithuania as Brown can make it, it's impossible to reasonably imagine what good these Soviet wannabes can expect from their gleaming weaponry. (You figure that the pricetag of any one of Fiskous's aircraft, these Russian hardliners could arm thousands of Russian convicts with assault rifles and RPG's and airdrop them into Lithuania). Instead, as if on an episode of "Airwolf", the bad guys decide to cast caution to the wind, and duke it out against the heroes in the air. It's almost as if the researchers of Fisikous are in another book entirely - while Europe struggles to throw off the yoke of the new Russia, these guys sit around their labs arguing about aerodynamics and radar cross-section. Ofcourse, Brown doesn't let the plotting get too far along (when it does, he quickly summarizes everything) before fast-forwarding to the action - which in "Hawk" alternate between air warfare scenes and blatant Clinton bashing (whether you loved the Clinton years or loved to hate the Clintons themselves, and unless you're a rabid basher of Billary, you're likely to find Brown's barbs gratuitous at best and outright malicious at worst).

The story's biggest weakness is meant to be its surprise - Dave Lugar returns! Feared dead when left behind at the end of the original "Flight of the Old Dog", we now know that he was "rescued" by the Russians, who brainwashed him into turning over America's deepest military aviation secrets. Somehow passed to Fisikous, he's become the unwitting creative genius behind its stealthy fighter. Unfortunately, Lugar's story is only one of many details from other Brown books to make an appearance here. Brown obviously likes the idea that he's created a continuum of characters whose lives are wider than the covers of any one of his books. Unfortunately, the characters are so one-note (Brown prefers to summarize them in miniature dossiers rather than develop them as organic characters) that any attention paid to their adventures in other books seems out of place and distracting. This creates an odd paradox: you've had to have read any of the other books to appreciate the significance of the references Brown makes to them, but "Hawk" so follows the formula of those older books without bringing anything new to the reader, that Browns fans will have the least fun reading this one. We still have overly exhaustive explanations of how new weapons are based on what's tried and true of existing technology, Brown's pilots still exchange extended long dialog while flying their high-performance aircraft into battle, Brown's villains (liberals, Russians and US Naval officers) continue to annoy, and Brown himself treats his stories as an opportunity to demonstrate everything he knows about the military - even when the plot or the need to develop it in get in the way. Whether Brown's details are even correct is a subject I'll save for "true brothers". Grasp of details, however, is not the same thing as making those details flesh out the story or even the scenes in which all of that technology comes to bear. Though by the end of "Hawk" you'll know what a radar-warning receiver sounds like, or what an EW display looks like, the thrill of flying in combat is missing - Brown neglected to give his characters enough feeling to convey the rigors of being shot at while flying at 600 mph. This is one of Brown's weaker books - fans should opt instead for "Skymasters" or "Battle Born".

What have we got ourselves into? The privatization schemes of Milton Friedman have led us to a return to a feudal world of private armies. The U.S. militias are too similar to the militias that exist around the world. I am not sure how we are going to get out of this mess, but Hillhouse describes it well. Fits in with Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.

We couldn't listen to the reader of this audio book. We tried for five minutes or so and then gave the whole thing away to friends.
There are so many marvelous readers out there, I'm certainly sorry that this
book didn't have one.

Read "Outsourced" because R.J. Hillhouse demonstrates how the current practice of outsourcing intel and military ops to private business plays out. She demonstrates what it means that 70% of operations in Iraq are carried out by private corporations instead of the U.S. Armed Forces and the CIA.

Be patient because the author, a Political Scientist, is no novelist. Be patient because you will find neither rich and subtle characterization nor beautiful style. Let the rapid action and intrigue pull you into a world that most of us have never and will never experience.

Your patience will be rewarded because you will understand why the U.S. Government does not really control the military actions being carried out in its name. You will see how private ops corporations serve their own interests; how they take care of their own before considering the goals of the elected government. You will also see how easily competition for rich government contracts leads to corruption. You will also contemplate how outsourcing can undermine the concept of the public good.

I just finished reading "Outsourced". GREAT BOOK! I was impressed with the depth of knowledge and reserch R.J. Hillhouse put into this book. It gave me a lot to think about when it comes to our government and the freedom we take for granted. There are huge prices that are paid, with so many we will never know about. The story let you see a true possible senerio that real people can go through in the day to day situations that come in times of war. It is not a blanket story that is reported a lot of times by the media or by the government. It sparked a deeper interest in our government for me, and opened up a bounty of questions.
The lead character being a strong woman with brains is brilliant! I like to see that women can be portrayed as they truely can be.
I definately recommend this book. You won't be able to put it down. I will problably read it again. I can't say that for too many books I have read.
I have also read her first book, "Rift Zone". Totally different then this one but nonetheless a great book to read.

I keep recommending this book to people. I can't speak highly enough about it. Although it starts off a little rough (there are a lot of characters to keep track of), the book found its footing around page 60 and stayed good for the remainder. It's as fast-paced as "24," but with more realism. Interspersed throughout various chapters are media quotes that relate to the events being fictionally portrayed in the book, giving the reader an education in addition to entertainment. At the end, there is even a section called "The Facts Behind the Fiction."

"Outsourced" is a great story overall; plenty of action, espionage, location changes, and even a little romance here and there.

For those of us who are interested in reading about World War II, this is an excellent book (paperback) about some of the brave men and women who were involved in that epic struggle. The story takes place in the Pacific, about a year after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The main character is a submariner named Lieutenant Commander "Jack" Tremain. This novel is about the men of the "silent service" and it is very exciting and informative. Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down. The writer, R. Cameron Cooke, is a submariner himself and I enjoyed his first book so much, I am now reading his second one ("Sink The Shigure"). This second novel also takes place in the Pacific during World War II and it is a sequel to the first one.

New skipper takes over hard luck sub during WWII and goes out to kick butt. This book probably would have been a John Wayne movie a few decades ago. The action is taught, the plot moves along at a decent pace, and it is definatly a page turner.

R. Cameron Cooke has done an excellent, but not perfect, job of describing WWII in the Pacific submarine warfare. Much to his credit, he frames his story simply. The U.S.S. Mackerel, a submarine, comes back from its second successive unsuccessful patrol. It's captain is replaced and his successor, Lt. Cmdr. Tremaine, becomes responsible for shaping up the crew, keeping them alive and sinking enemy ships.

Cooke keeps the pressure on all through the book, perhaps a bit too much so as he has this particular sub seeing a lot of action. But Cooke wants to tell the stories of the unusually brave men who manned submarines in WWII, the risks they took against an equally determined enemy, the problems inherent to a chain of command that has some putting their lives at risk at the orders of others who sit in chairs behind desks and risk nothing more than drinking too much coffee.

Cooke tells his story well. We see military courage, a willingness to sacrifice life for country, the closeness of a military unit, the tension, even cowardice.

"Pride Runs Deep" is a quick read - and a rewarding one.

Jerry

Library bookshelves are crowded with WWII submarine tales. Do we really need another? What could a newcomer possibly do that hasn't been done before? I picked up Pride Runs Deep at a used book sale-a low-risk experiment. But after a totally satisfying reading experience I'll be first-in-line for R. Cameron Cooke's next effort, due in January 2006. Pride Runs Deep is one of the most enjoyable, well-crafted books I have read in years. Why? First, the story is well-conceived and maintained. It is not simply a passive retelling of a series of naval battles with staple characters wining in the end. I like how Cooke focuses on only a few believable characters, and uses them successfully to advance the story. Other books in this genre often change the point-of-view so often that chapter headings are needed to help the reader keep track of where he is in the narrative. For example, many action/adventure novels switch back and forth between the protagonist's and the enemy's perspective. But Cooke avoids this crutch, keeping his focus on a set of characters we come to care about. We identify with them; we join in the perilous search for elusive clues as to the enemy's whereabouts and intentions. In addition to a good story, credible characters, and a skillful narrative, perhaps Cooke's strongest suit is his technical knowledge about submarine warfare. It's obvious he knows how a WWII sub really operates, and shows how individual judgments and actions made in the stress of warfare could make life and death differences. I give this book an A+.

Briefly - this is a WW II tale of a Pacific Theater "hard luck" submarine, which is reassigned to be placed under the command of experienced and hard-nosed commander, Jack Tremain. Tremain "whips the crew into top-notch shape" and they "see a lot of heavy action". Pardon all of my quote marks, but there are too many such cliche's in the book, particularly in the early portion.

Possibly this book is better than the 3 stars I rated it at. It seems that there are almost two books here - as if author R. Cameron Cooke was learning how to write in the first half of the story, and in the second half he penned a very good submarine adventure yarn.

In that underachieving opening half, Cooke establishes his characters, which seem to be usually overstated. Example - hero Captain Jack Tremain, that steely-eyed lean-jawed killer of the deep. (On the cold war submarine that I spent five years on we would have simply called this guy a pr----. And the atmosphere would be more akin to The Caine Mutiny). The bar room dialogue was unbelievable (were the participants reading from a book?). Cooke rather neglects the enlisted crewmen. Except for performing tasks, they are mostly unaddressed. (A little attention is given to one that commits suicide).

Although the author earned his own gold (officer) dolphins, apparently engineering was not his forte'. For the mechanically minded, it shows through in the book and is occasionally distracting. For example, arguably the eleven bullet holes (and uh, who counted those?) in a main ballast tank is NOT minor damage to be lived with and remedied by only an occasional blow from the ship's air banks . . . because it's possible that THE AIR LOSS EXCEEDS THE CAPACITY OF THE SHIP'S AIR COMPRESSORS on this WW II boat, which are high pressure, LOW VOLUME units. The bullet holes through the pressure hull described in the book (not sure if feasible, but probably would be on a diesel boat) would easily and effectively be repaired by a ship's diver from the OUTSIDE, but not with shoring from the inside as is done in the novel. I believe we saw the "drain pump knocked off of its foundation" on two different battle occasions. Fix that weak link please. I was often distracted from a very engaging part of the story by one of these technical misdemeanors and sometimes felt like calling out, "Bravo Sierra, Mr. Cooke".

Concerning the technical aspect of the book related to weapons, I'm not a weapons expert, but that analysis of the book seemed OK. By the way - the "jam dive" scenario, as described in the book, would seem to have been been non-recoverable. I believe the author took it overly far for effect, but again, it creates an unrealistc distraction.

On the upside, the book is entertaining, and it does contain a wealth of realistic and accurate detail regarding submarine design and operation. Much more so than one usually sees in this genre'. It starts rather disappointingly, what with the cliche's and flaws that I've criticized - but it seems that once the author established his characters and setting, he warmed to his work and wrote a pretty good tale that ends up as rather a page turner in the last third of the book. The author remains true to the characters he created and they become somewhat "lovable" to the reader. The final battle story is a first-class, white-knuckle tale.

I read all of it, and overall, enjoyed the novel. It could have easily been better with a consulting editor to clean up the technical errors, occasional overcharacterizations, and awkward start.

If Mr. Cooke was indeed "learning as he wrote", I look forward to a superb second novel from him.

Abandoned children in the west is an old truth. Val Durant is left to freeze on a dreadful winter night, but his mother's man take him to a gambling man, Will Reilly. Reilly travels the west and soon notices a string of good luck at the tables that has now logical explanation. He shelters Val, hide him and teaches him to survive in a harsh land.
Along the way Val learns self-sufficiency and ekes out a living when Will is cut down in a gun fight.
Val's search for the killers covers years, but along the way he meets and makes many friends until he finds his true home in the West of his birth.
Read and enjoy.
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While I could accept much of what is in here for the west I must admit, like other reviewers, there were elements in this which really annoyed me. It was mostly a good read but I felt there were too many plot elements in it which made it more like a Barbara Taylor Bradford rather than a Louis L'amour. For a start Val Darrant always seemed to make money no matter what he did, including going to university back East - he just succeeded and there was little to explain what or why he was doing - it simply seemed like a plot filler. As did the falling in love with the girl, Boston. Who really appeared out of nowhere and disappeared back into nowhere, virtually.

The basic story is that Val Darrant is dumped by his mother's boyfriend - but instead of leaving him in the snow to freeze to death, he is given to a local gambler whom he trusts - Reilly, of Reilly's luck. Reilly likes him and teaches him everything he knows, but 11 years later Reilly is gunned down in a cowardly planned killing. Val gets out of town, but later kills two of the men responsible. Now Val's mother has found out who he is and plans to kill her son whom she hasn't seen for 20 years. She is now rich and powerful and Val probably knows secrets about her he shouldn't.

I read this in an afternoon and enjoyed it despite holes in the plot so big you could drive a thousand head of cattle through it - it was still an enjoyably good read.

Yes, these were the words that I uttered as I put down this hunk of trash after having wasted my time trying to read it.
First you are expected to sit still for a four year old boy becoming an expert card dealer; then you are expected to sit still for an eight year old boy reading Faust. In between there is a lot of filler to do with an indian raid that goes sour, a scene in which Reilly pins an antagonist's hand to a table with a knife and then reads Tennyson's Ulysses to him. This is not to torture the man, you understand, but to better him. This Reilly ought to have his pretentious head blown clean off. THEN you are supposed to sit still for Reilly and his adopted son touring europe, where Reilly keeps himself in shape by "fencing, shooting, wrestling, etc." I suppose this is historically accurate, since this would be some nineteenth century type's backward idea of how to stay in shape. You know, like "I warn you, my good man, I am in perfect physical condition. I play badminton every sunday." But the reader is supposed to think that fencing and shooting are actually ways to stay in shape. Forget going to the gym and lifting weights, just have at those clay pidgeons for a while. The pounds will just melt away!
But seriously folks, this is one of those books Louis L'Amour banged out while high on model glue. To be avoided.

This story starts off with a young boy, Val Darrant, being abandoned by his mother. Val ends up being cared for by Will Reilly who is a gambler and travels a lot. The first quarter of the book is about adventures that Will and Val have. They have to deal with outlaws, they fight off Indians, and they travel to Europe. All along the way Will is constantly teaching Val important lessons of life. Will starts teaching Val, at four years old, how to shuffle cards. Val is encouraged to study men and observe what is happening. It seems like on almost every page Will teaches Val about something, how to fight, how to think, how to be kind to people, but also the need to be careful about trusting people.

Unfortunately Will is ambushed by three men and killed while Val is still a teenager. But Val has learned many important lessons from Will. The next part of the book is about Val growing up. He has some money and is able to invest the money in a couple ventures. He has some adventures along the way. Val kills one of Will's murderers. He goes back East to get an education.

The story then jumps forward a couple years, and the last part of the book pulls together many of the threads. Val finally meets his mother, who is again trying to have him killed. Val kills the last two of Will's murderers. And Val financially destroys the man who hired the murderers.

This book has some many of the classic western themes, like gambling, fighting, love, and so on. There is lots of different types of fighting, for example with knifes, with fists, and with guns. There is both a tragic love interest, and a successful love interest.

One of the reasons this is such a powerful story is it is a story about Will's legacy. Up until Val, Will had just been drifting through life, but after raising Val for ten years, Will has made a difference. Will's contributions to the world last beyond his death.

This is one of Louis L'Amour's best. If you like a good western, this is good one to start with.

This story is titled for the secondary character. It is a little unusual for Louis L'Amour to give the title to someone other than the main character, but it works really well in this book. The real character is a young boy who was born into a terrible situation. Things looked hopeless for him when he was abandoned by his cold and heartless mother. Good fortune smiled upon him when he found his new care taker to be a gambling man with savvy and character. Will Reilly raised him right and taught him the secrets he would need to be a successful man. After a terrible killing, Val finds himself wanting revenge. Slowly and surely it will come in it's own time. When it does, it finds that a hopeless boy has grown into a good man who is well capable of settling all of the issues at hand. Facing a cold hearted mother after all those years would be enough to upset anyone, but you'll have to read the book to find out how he handles it.