Carrier Books

I just stumbled across this book in my brother's closet. I remember reading it. Whew! What a fast-paced, egde of your seat thriller with twists like no tomorrow. It's a perfect mental capture on how people, no matter who they are, believe in what they will accomplish. But then there's always that guy who wants to steal a discovery. But things aren't as simple as all that. Not only does Jack Collier, the hero of the story, go to great lengths to try and steal back his own discovery but the discovery, a new cure for cancer, becomes a deadly disease that Jack Collier is appaerntly imune to and the rest of the world isn't. In any case, this book holds sure-fire potential to become a movie. If I had the money I would direct it right now. Great work, Holden Scott. Enjoy!

After you read this book, you will probably never want to use a public toilet again! When Holden Scott first started writing as Ben Mezrich, there was an obvious talent there that somehow seemed to elude critical or public acclaim. However, since changing his name and writing "Skeptic," seems his fate is a little more promising.
"The Carrier" is a by the numbers chase thriller, which has some interesting scenarios, and some truly frightening scenes (reference to the above mentioned public toilet scene..yipes!). However, so many "coincidences" occur and agent Thomas Moon is so over the top that you have to grimace at some of the cliches Scott uses. However, this is an effectively creepy and involving book, one that flows nicely and gives us another one of Mezrich/Scott's typical young medical heroes who is caught up in the bureaucratic/evil world of modern science. You can't help but admire Jack and his quest to save his beloved Angie from cancer; and you can't help but hate Michael Dutton, who cruelly steals Jack's "miracle."
A nice, engaging read and one that I recommend; it's fun.

Heard the taped version of THE CARRIER by Holden Scott,
a medical thriller about a brilliant Ph.D. candidate at Harvard
who has an idea that will make medical history . . . he
has trained a type of bacteria that will attack tumors rather
than healthy flesh . . . but his mentor steals the idea from
him . . . very fast-paced story that kept my attention until
the very end . . . I really felt for Jack Colier, the main
character, and could empathize with his many trials and tribulations.

I can't believe I actually paid good money for this book.

I'm not normally a person who stops reading books in the middle, but I could not bring myself to finish this. The author's grasp of medical science was almost nonexistent. His characters and dialogue were stock. And his depiction of life at an Ivy league university was truly laughable. (My friends who are university professors would definitely like to know how to make as much money as Scott's faculty characters. In reality, academia pays quite poorly.)

Normally I like biotech thrillers, but not this one.

The hook: a young man, a genius, racing across the country to save his girlfriend from cancer. The problem: his cure has gone bad and he is now a carrier. A mere touch from him causes the flesh of people to dissolve in seconds. Hard to believe, but then the effects of HIV and Ebola were probably hard to believe a few years ago. The author maintains the suspense throughout the story and makes the unbelievable at least interesting if not believable. A fast paced read, good for a few hours of entertainment.

As always, Tom Clancy's research into a subject is beyond reproach. As a veteran of 28 years involved in Naval air (and the son of a Naval officer with the same tenure), it's good to be brought up to date by someone I respect in this arena. Clancy does a great job of getting one through the "An Officer and a Gentleman" Pensacola experience, and into the ready room.

Carrier, the sixth book in Tom Clancy's Guided Tour non-fiction series about America's armed forces, is a detailed look at the Navy's grande dame, the aircraft carrier and associated battle group (CVBG). Even 63 years after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor ended the reign of the big-gun battleship and despite the lethality of nuclear attack submarines, the carrier, with its 70+ plane air wing and assorted escorts, is still the most powerful, versatile, and visible symbol of American sea power.

Once again, Clancy and series collaborator John D. Gresham take the reader where no ordinary civilian can easily go. From the Pentagon office of Admiral Jay Johnson (who at the time was Chief of Naval Operations) to the bustling -- and dangerous -- flight deck of the Nimitz-class USS Harry S Truman, the authors explain the role of the modern carrier group in today's world, as well as describing each ship -- from carrier to guided missile escorts -- and aircraft that makes the CVBG the "big stick" of American foreign policy.

At the time of publication (2000), the Navy was still in the midst of the transition from large 90 aircraft carrier air wings (CAW), and strike pilots were completing the handover of air-to-ground attack missions from the venerable A-6 Intruder to the F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet. Other changes discussed by Clancy and Gresham are the eventual phasing out of the F-14 Tomcat, the long-range interceptor made famous by Tom Cruise's 1986 mega-hit Top Gun. Although still a formidable aircraft, the Tomcat -- which has never fired its prime long range missile, the Phoenix, in combat -- is now a 32-year-old design and due to be replaced by late generation F/A-18 Hornet variants and the new Joint Strike Fighter now in development.

As in all the Guided Tour books, there are chapters devoted to all the elements that make a CVBG such a valuable fleet asset. Much of the book focuses on the Nimitz-class carrier's design, construction, power plant (or at least as much as the Navy will allow the authors to divulge for security reasons), and the embarked air wing. However, Clancy emphasizes the human element and describes the training and daily lives of the sailors and airmen that operate the various ships and aircraft of the CVBG.

Clancy also continues the tradition of ending his Guided Tour books with a short but entertaining fictional account of a unit in action. In this case, the author looks forward at the world in 2016, pitting the United States in a short but fierce confrontation with India after "the world's largest democracy" has a nuclear exchange with its Muslim neighbor Pakistan and becomes erratic in its foreign policy.

Although Clancy is hardly objective when writing about the military -- he clearly loves the services -- he does provide the public valuable insights into what the Navy does and the tasks our men and women in uniform perform daily in times of war and peace. Carrier, therefore, is an informative and entertaining primer on today's Navy...and tells the reader exactly why every President since World War II has asked, in times of crisis, "where are the carriers?"

This is just a wonderful book on the topic. Clancy and co. have done a great job of taking the reader through the ships in question and really explaining the different types, parts, and jobs associated with an Aircraft Carrier. Clancy also does a good job in explaining what it is like to live and work on one of these ships. He also takes us through some of the training that takes place to get into the job. He also adds a good amount of detail of what the typical types of missions these ships and battle groups have today, what they did in the cold war and the possible missions upcoming.

I was surprised at the number of countries that also have aircraft carriers not to mention the different types the U.S has. Clancy takes us through a long inventory of all the different countries that have aircraft carriers today, what kind of ships they are and what are the strengths and weaknesses of the model. Another interesting part of the book was the description of all the countries currently making the aircraft carriers and how good / bad they are at it. I enjoyed the fact that the catapult technology really only comes the U.S. as no one else has mastered it.

Overall this was an interesting, easy to read and very informative book. If you are interested in aircraft carriers then this should be your first stopping point. A good book well worth the money.

This is one of Clancy's best. Not only is it interesting and fun to read, it is very informative and the information is accurate with a few exceptions. These include the misnaming of certain carriers.

As good as this book is, there are many things I simply didn't like about this book. First of all, the book was very idealistic and was more of a propoganda work rather than some kind of reference book. For example, when Clancy explains the air wing layouts, he claims that a certain air wing with less fighters but more striking ability can hit more targets on land and the older 90 plane air wing's land-attack capability was much more limited. He doesn't know that, does he? He never took into consideration that the carriers during the Cold War never actually fought, so it can't be safely said that such and such an air wing is more capable than the other. He also doesn't consider the amount of threats in the world today when talking about the less ships and planes, the more effective. He even says that the current naval aviation structure is much better and is less complicated, when he doesn't even know how effective the previous standings were and how bad things are getting in the world. Also, when talking about the new carriers, he doesn't consider the complications such a program would make and believes carriers are simple "help the needy" machines when they are actually powerful weapons of war. Nor does he ever mention anything about the serious costs that future programs will take and just goes rambling about how cool things will be and how much better things will get. All this, in a way, insults the Navy, because it shows them as a group that simply just buys expensive stuff and doesn't care about their task at hand.

Another thing that was seriously flawed was the explaination of missions and tactics and the fiction. The missions are well shown, but they are not fully explained. They are also described in a way as being"totally effective," which is not true. it takes more than just a carrier to win a war. The tactics are also shown as being 100% effective, also not true. Finally, as someone from India has stated, the fiction was not only short and screwed up, it totally defaces what India is really like. It shows them as ruthess, evil conquistadors, without ever really considering everything to the story. The news report showing the destruction of the Indian ship was totally unreal and propogandic. No such thing would take place, especially when sensitive information is present and would surely have been censored.

Overall, this book was pretty good, but there were many errors and was very biased, propgandic and based on the authors mind. next time, Clancy should write it like a real reference book, accurate to the last detail, unbiased, realistic, or never write non-fiction again. Maybe he jsut didn't know what he was talking about.

This is a most unusual book in that it goes into excruciating detail about the Navy, the Air Force and carriers. In fact, even though I found it fascinating reading, it's more than most people would want to know unless you're a real fanatic. At times I felt that a foreign power could learn how to duplicate our success by reading this book -- hopefully Clancy left some military secrets a secret!

The most enjoyable parts of the book for me were the descriptions of the pilot training (and the amazing prowess of Navy flyers who have to catch a "string" upon landing so they don't fly right off the deck), life aboard a carrier and the interview with the navy official. The chapters devoted to the layout and structure of the carriers were less interesting from my point of view.

A very detailed approach to carriers and their role in protecting our role in world affairs.

If you are a fan of gothic romance, as I am, "Gaywyck" is for you. Of course, it's a gothic romance with a twist, with the main romantic characters both being men. But, all the symbols of the genre are here and done well. Robert Whyte is both lovely and gentle. Donough Gaylord is kind and brooding with terrible secrets in his past. They are both shy and inclined to solitude, and from their very first meeting you can tell they are meant to be together. But, as in all gothic romances, there are secrets to be uncovered first before true love can prevail.

I do have a minor nitpick. Virga is sometimes too enamoured with the written word and quotes other works liberally. It makes sense in one way, since Robert Whyte is Gaywyck's librarian and he loves literature, but at times, it slows down the plot. That notwithstanding, "Gaywyck" is a lovely novel and truly deserving of a read. If you do decide to take a look, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

(...)The story is certainly timeless and such a plot is well known if you are a former reader of gothic romance novels like me: two people meet through an arrangement suppose to be business related but eventually and naturally they fall for each other over the course of the story. Subplots and other characters come into play keeping them apart for a time, but eventually everything comes together.

Overall a good idea, especially in the fact its same sex lovers in this gothic romance, yet the writing can be confusing at times so the reader is inclined to skip the tedious parts, plus you don't quite know what is going on, why, or with whom more often than not. Of course, gothic novels are suppose to be mysterious and revelational only at the end, yet even at the end I was left unsatisfied not knowing exactly why anything happened. No resolution except that the two lovers eventually do find love and make a life together. Supporting characters are more interesting. I found myself skipping to the parts where favorites were mentioned. Its an acceptable read if you wade into it knowing there is hard going at times, rather like reading Norah Lofts. I'd suggest reading it on a long airplane flight where you have nothing else to do at the time, or if you are a very patient person.

I was not impresed by this.It was one of the least apealing books I have read.I was just disapointed I guess.I did like a few scenes.I even liked the suporting characters better,but all in the whole.Not a great book.

This is a beautiful gothic romance. It is unique, captivating and beautiful. Rading some of the other reviewers, it seems the bigger problem is that they did not like or understand the genre.

I inly wish he would right additional things.

Maybe you would only keep this book as a collectible. The story itself bored me. It felt like Virga originally wrote this book with a man and a woman then just went back and touched up the main character, Robert Whyte, and made him a man so that he could make a gay gothic romance. Maybe he was originally Roberta Whyte. He was so feminine and so frail it made me want to puke at times. I got about 3/4's through the book and then I decided I had just had enough. Maybe if you are into extremely feminine men you'll like. I gave it 2 stars because the idea is original and it does take talent to write a book.

This not a book for someone who wants and "easy" read - you have to pay attention to what is going on! It is well written and keeps the suspense and action going at a sure pace. Definitely worth reading.

A great book that I couldn't put down. It makes you feel if you were there watching all those people with the virus die. It is a page turner, making you want more, but at the same time, it is terrifying.

What a waste of time; I am glad I checked this out at the library rather thasn buying it. The characters are cardboard...never feel that you know about them or care what happens to them. I like good science fiction and good medical suspense thrillers, but this wasn't one of them. A "human virus"....please!!

The best thing about the book is probably the cover. The story starts out ok but has the worst ending ever. Hogan has the two opposing doctors/scientists, after they get infected with the virus, turn into monsters (or whatever you want to call them) and basically fist-fight it out. Come on... that might be ok for a comic book, and is something I may have liked as a kid, but for a novel for adults, it's terrible.

Absolutely the worst book I have ever read.

Instead, read "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston. Much much better... and it's nonfiction!

Well, I wasn't sure at first I was going to like this novel. Hogan's use of first person during the first few chapters is not my favorite writing style but I stuck with it and VOILA!!! What a TERRIFYING, TOTALLY GROSS, CAN'T-PUT-IT-DOWN story this turned out to be. This makes you cringe at Humankind's defenselessness!

First there are Drs. Stephen Pearse and Peter Maryk, "The Blood Artists." Together, they are a whole person, acting with both commitment and conscience. When they separate and go their own way for a few years, neither can act as complete and dedicated (and honorable) scientists, one possessing the charm and goodness (Pearse), the other (Maryk), possessing the determination and devotion to the "virus".

Then there are the survivors of the devastagin "Plainville" virus that wiped out the entire town, except MILKMAID, LANCET and BLOSSOM. Though they survived, their lives are hopelessly and completely changed forever.

Finally, we meet Oren Ridgeway a.k.a. "Patient Zero". But really he is never Ridgeway in the story, only "Zero", as is totally and evily fitting.

In spite of the complicated story and the plethora of "Main Characters", author Hogan does a fine job of weaving the plot and the lives of the characters into a story that you can actually care about. In the end, I actually hoped for a sequel!!! Perhaps Hogan will grant us that someday for after all, "Plainville" isn't really dead....

This book was extremely detailed and researched. Consequently the writing was impressed with the research and wanted to include almost all of it. It is a fine historical read for detail oriented persons, but lacks the verve of a good read.

Everyone knows that four big Japanese aircraft carriers, the center of Japan's naval power, were sunk at the Battle of Midway in June 1942. Less often told is the story of the American carriers.
Japan and the U.S.A. started the war at Pearl Harbor with six fleet carriers apiece. Japan lost four in a single day, but in 1942, the Americans also had four sunk: Lexington, Yorktown, Wasp and eventually Hornet. And during the critical days when the future of Guadalcanal was in the balance, Saratoga and Enterprise were damaged and out of action.
For tense weeks, only Hornet was able to project American power in the Pacific.
Lisle Rose's history contains as much about life on a big flattop as it does about military action. In truth, Hornet's career contained only two big days.
In April 1942, Hornet launched Jimmy Doolittle's bombers on a pinprick raid that had astonishing consequences.
Hornet was at Midway but accomplished nothing.
Her torpedo squadron, Torpedo 8, was immortalized by being wiped out, but Rose says the legend that Torpedo's 8's sacrifice allowed the American dive bombers to drop in on the Japanese carriers without warning is not true. In a long, argumentative chapter, Rose contends it was Yorktown's torpedo planes, who also were slaughtered, though not as completely as Torpedo 8, that drew the attention of the Japanese to the sea's surface, thus allowing the Yorktown and Enterprise dive bombers to reverse the course of the war.
A few months later, the Solomon Islands became the scene of the most evenly matched slugfests between roughly equal fleets since the Anglo-Dutch wars of the 17th century; but Hornet contributed little and suffered nothing but boredom.
These chapters, however, are full of interest for the nuggets of information about real life at war. During the war, combat correspondents engaged in a kind of conspiracy to assure moms back home that their boys were at least being well fed.
They weren't. Growing boys worked 12- and 16-hour days on coffee, a sandwich and an apple, when they were lucky enough to get an apple. For weeks on end, Hornet's crew subsisted on 'block beef' (Spam), coffee and 'mashed potatoes' made of ground-up beans.
Without doing a lot of physical damage to Japanese forces, the Hornet did interfere enough to ruin Japan's plans during what Lisle calls 'the greatest moral and strategic crisis the United States would face in the Pacific war.'
On Oct. 26, 1942, Enterprise had rejoined the fleet, and at the Battle of Santa Cruz, the American carriers punished the Japanese heavily.
Late in the day, however, Hornet was hit by five bombs and three torpedoes. Rose's story of the struggle to save the ship is clear and scarifying.
Some men were blown to shreds. Others were drowned in lakes of flaming gasoline. A group of injured signalmen was brought to the bridge, because it was impossible to get them to a medical station. (And wouldn't have helped anyway, since almost all the medical stations were wiped out.)
'One of the worst off,' writes Rose, 'was a boy named Russell, who had been the butt of much teasing because he was too young to shave regularly. As (Capt. Charles) Mason bent over him, the boy looked up and asked, "Sir, am I being brave enough?" ' Yes, the captain assured him, he was. Russell died that night.'
It's well that we know these stories.

A excellent biography of the carrier U.S.S. Hornet and her one year life. What she lacked in longevity, she sure made up for in activity. Her airmen were a deciding factor in robbing the Japanese of their finest pilots. Once her first line pilots were gone, the Japanese had few replacements and at that point, America was producing its second generation of carriers and another crop of pilots. The Hornet was indeed the last gift of the pre war U.S. Navy. Indeed, this carrier at one point was the only active serving carrier in the Pacific. It was indeed a ship that held the line. After her loss, no more fleet carriers were lost in the war.
The author did a nice job of detailing the life of this carrier.
He pointed out her weaknesses and that of the planes she carried.
After perhaps the Enterprise, Lexington, and Yorktown, she was one of the famous ships of the war. A nice read about a famous ship.

I have to admit that I'm a sucker for this type of history, the story of a warship told through the eyes of the sailors who served on it.

The USS Hornet had a special place in WWII, being one of the precious few American carriers that had to mix it up with the more numerous, more experienced, and more disciplined Japanese carriers in the first year of the war or so. (Before the buildup of Essex class carriers could arrive on scene.) Although there were apparently multiple times when only one fully operational American carrier was in the war zones, and while the Hornet was "it" it didn't necessarily do anything the others didn't do, so the title might be a bit of an exaggeration.

Nonetheless this is an informative and enjoyable book, and the Hornet definitely did its fair share to turn the tide of the war. The reader is taken along with the Doolittle raid where the Hornet bravely dashed in close to the Japanese homeland to launch the B-25's stowed on deck, and made a mad scramble back to home. You certainly get an appreciation of the tension that must have filled the carrier, along with the pride and jubilation of being the first to really strike back at the Japanese after Pearl Harbor.

The Hornet's next big fleet action was Midway, where, unfortunately the performance of the air wing was a dud. The author clearly spent a large amount of time researching the men and tactics of the Hornet air wing and relays the fruits of his research to you before getting to the battle. There's a long and interesting chapter about Midway but alas the author doesn't seem to conclude as to why much of the Hornet air group never even found the Japanese. Perhaps this is just one of those instances in war where chance can lay waste to even the best laid plans of mice and men.

After Midway the Hornet is actively involved in the Solomons campaign. What is most interesting here is the intenstiy and ferocity of the fighting, with the Americans both on the attack in a strategic sense and often hanging on by a thread at the same time. Also fascinating was the organizational difficulty of combined land and sea operations under different commanders. This purely bureaucratic wrangling unfortunately leaves the U.S. carriers marshaling in a specific zone of sea due to the nature of which command had responsibility over which region, and the Japanese were able to exploit this fact by pouring in their submarines. This leads to the horrific destruction of the USS Wasp which the men of the Hornet see firsthand.

The Hornet fights in the battle of the Eastern Solomons and then finally, meeting her fate, at the battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. The writing of the battles is gripping, and a heavy counterweight to much of the fun and frivolity of leave in Hawaii and Espiritu Santo. Throughout, the author gives fair coverage to the entire spectrum of the crew's experiences as the ship evolved during the war into a real fighting machine.

The death of the ship is written in a particularly poignant and heartfelt manner. You really get to bond with the ship and her experiences throughout her short life and honestly feel the loss as she slips forever beneath the waves, devoid of all human life.

Definitely recommended for WWII history, Navy, or Carrier buffs.

With all due respect to the other reviewers, this atrocious book is so loaded with factual and technical errors that it's hard to know where to begin. I was fortunate to know three Hornet aviators, and the two who lived to read this turkey were appalled that any author would think that the arresting hook goes on the flight deck rather than the airplane! Furthermore, the title is wholly misleading since it refers to a brief period of little activity in the Guadalcanal campaign when the Hornet was the only carrier available. The embarrassing story of the Hornet at Midway still remains to be told objectively, but the bottom line is: the US Navy fought its most crucial battle with two useful carriers against four Japanese veterans.

ecspecialy with a program like Ableton where a new full update is released every year on the dot.
I've bought many of these teach yourself a program books and most of them become very outdated not too long after you receive them. For some programs it's not the biggest deal but for some there are major changes in a version upgrade so the info in the older version book would be false at that point.

hi .. this book is a good start if you want to do DJing, mixing or some music production using Ableton Live 5 (or 5x) software ...

Good points for the book:
- It covers a whole wide area of knowledge in a simple language.
- It is very positive and enthusiastic about the product.
- It does a great job discussing the different hardware that can be bought to work with Live.

Bad points for the book:
- The diagrams are very stagnant .. meaning, you see a scren shot, but its hard to know what the author is talking about!! The diagrams need a lot more work, like having arrows or text boxes explaining the different functionality being discussed.
- I wish that the book focus or explain a lot more on DJing, as not everyone is into production. The book does explain about djing but not in any depth ... things like warping, set points, effects .... can be explained in a lot more details.

Overall, the book does a decent job explaining Live to new comers (like myself hehe). If the author works a bit more on making those diagrams move "live", that would make the book a must-have, in my own opinion.

If you are in to music and video production. This is a great book to teach you ableton live.

The whole series of "Power!" is fantastic, but if you are not a person with lots of patience and basic music theory, technically and theoretically, this book will keep the whole Ableton thing above your head. Otherwise, this is all you will need to master Ableton...

Ableton Live is the most intuitive sequencer available to today. About half of the book covers information that I feel is obvious, or explained very clearly in the operations manual provided by the vendor. The other half is useful information that leaves you wanting more. This is the information on how to use the effects, proper technique with envelopes and quite a few tutorials on leveraging Live's time warping feature on audio clips.... This information is worth the price of the book, even if you aren't a fan of the Power! series (untill we get another book on Live anyway, as of this writing this is the only one available).

I wish there was more information on production technique with the effects (really outside the scope of this book I guess) I think a chapter devoted to Impulse would have been nice. Impulse is the underrated rhythm sampler that comes bundled with live, it's a very powerful virtual instrument that has completely replaced my use of external ryhthm programming devices. The vendors operations manual doesn't cover Impulse very well and neither does this book...

I am not able to rate this book because I have not received a copy yet. It was ordered back in Aug. 2-3 air delivered and I would take a used book but this is required reading material for me in the Navy. I have to have this book ASAP.
thanks

If you want a good detailed one volume book about the Aircraft Carriers then here you go. I really liked because it mentioned the part of the Royal Navy took in the Pacific war. You almost never hear about the that and its not really fair.

I generally agree with Ray Gronberg's review. I would have given this book 5 stars except for the polemic that Reynolds goes off on again and again regarding "traditionalist" vs. "meleeist" philosophies of naval warfare. He dumps on Adm. Spruance for being a traditionalist in the Mariannas operation. In so doing, Reynolds underplays how one-sided the American victory was in the Mariannas "turkey shoot" and in the invasion and occupation of the islands as well.

Also there is a parenthetical note regarding the F6F Hellcat that suggests that its design was influenced by the A6M Zero that was captured in the Aleutian Islands in June 1942. This zero wasn't completely evaluated until well into October 1942, and by that time, the Hellcat was already on the assembly lines.

This book is light on the details of the fast carriers from a hardware view,and heavy on the inside politics of the us navy.The events involving the carriers during the war were well covered.

This book is not a U.S. carrier development history in general. Although it touches some historical events before 1943, its focus really falls on the period of 1943 - 1945 when Essex class carriers became the backbone of U.S. Navy. The author provides a great mixure of internal politics and operation history to illustrate the emerging Air Navy's growing pains and delights. This is a well written book for history-oriented readers. Readers who are more into technical details should seek other books such as Norman Friedman's "U.S. Cruisers : An Illustrated Design History".

This Joseph O'Connor is an Irish novelist, NOT the NLP trainer and author of the same name.

This author is new for me. I found it to be a marvelous tale, keeping the people interesting, the places fascinating and the intrigue excellent.

One of the few Irish tellings not wallowing in self-pity, the "salesman" regales us with his life, his loves, and his hates (which turn out to not be so far from his loves). I enjoyed the meter of past memories and current events as they unfold, twisting in and around the central desire on the part of the "salesman" for retribution against one of the perpetrators who hospitalized his youngest daughter. Even that turns out differently than he plans.

Truly a great story!

There's a fine line between love and hate. There's also a fine line between friend and enemy in this book.
The author does a great job of conveying the emotions of his characters, from the anguish of a middle aged man who finds himself without his family to the rage of a young man who never really had a family at all.The evolving relationship between the two men forms the heart of the story but it is not like any relationship you've ever experienced before.The book explores the loneliness of all the characters but mainly the 2 men. The irony of these people befriending each other shows how deep the need for companionship can be.
Even so. I doubt I would have the change of heart that comes over Sweeney given his situation. Then again sometimes we find friendship and redemption where we least expect to. That's what maks this such a moving book

Tautly written, with the kind of wry, dark humor that brings you just to edge of acceptance and never lets you go. This is a smashing work, and one of the best "Irish novels" I've read in awhile. Highly recommended. (By the way, does everyone know that the author, Joseph O'Connor, is none other than the brother of the famous Sinead O'Connor Herself! )

After capturing relationships in a truly beautiful way, O'Connor had to go and spoil everything by going all Tarantino. What could have been a truly great book sacrificied to fashion.

I struggled to finish this book, but i did. The story was weak and not believable. It is not a good travelogue. it is not a good mystery. it is not a good drama. I couldnt find myself rooting for or against any of the charachters. That, in my humble opinion, is a problem in a novel.

It is hard to express the pleasure felt reading a novel written by an author who has actually lived what he is writing about. Too many new novelists these days are MFA babies who draw their material from books, from writers' workshops, and roundtabling with other MFAs. Here, with David Masiel, from the first page, you know you are riding with someone who knows whereof he speaks. He has invited me to enter an unknown and exotic world with the conviction that I am being exposed to the real deal. His use of symbolism gives his narrative depth. His characters are as far from my experience as I can imagine, and yet I feel a very real connection to the aging angst of Snow. Congratulations! I will look forward to your next, and next, books.

This book is kind of like his first one. You have a stolen ship, the first book had a stolen tug. You have the old guy, a girl, and a new young guy in a love triangle. You have various nuts, weirdos, and otherwise odd people. In the first book the people were generally likeable and they stole the tug to RESCUE someone. In this book the people range from odd to psychotic killers, they stole a tanker full of toxic chemicals, and people die in various ways in the pursuit of cash. The plot is also much harder to follow. It is never clear exactly how the busines end is supposed to work. The "hero" seems to have been kicked out of Washington State by the Elks Club for having sex with a retarded girl, but the details are not clear. The inland trip in Liberia is not well explained and it is not even remotely clear why anyone else would go with Snow on this dangerous diversion from the task at hand. I live on an island and chemical tankers anchor just offshore from my house. I don't think I will ever look at them the same again! Just a hint - vinyl chloride REALLY would rather be polyvinyl chloride.
READ HIS OTHER BOOK TOO. I gave 2182 KHz 5 stars.

Wow! This is one of the best books I've read in a long time. The writing is excellent, and it won't take long before you're immersed in the adventure that the main character, Harold Snow, and his shipmates have embarked on. From one locale to another, the mystery deepens and you're always left wondering what else could go wrong for Snow and his crew. The storyline is unpredictable--taking the reader on unexpected twists and turns from beginning to end.

The sometimes creepy and tormented Snow, is the perfect central character for this wild tale. You can't help but feel sorry for him--he is haunted by his past and obsessed with the present. He always wants to do the right thing, but somehow, continually comes up short.

Perhaps my favorite thing about the book is the dynamic relationship between the characters. While the author takes great care in developing the protagonist, there are a variety of well-developed (and colorful) supporting characters.

I highly recommend The Western Limit of the World.

"Homer...mapped out a River of Ocean that flowed all around he earth with Olympus at the center. At the western limit lay ... the gateway to the Underworld. Beyond that lay the land of the dead. Snow supposed that you'd cross the river Styx there and pay the ferryman and go right into the Elysian Fields or left into Hades, and that only the fates decided which way you'd go." (p.122)

The Western Limit of the World is the story of Harold Snow, 59, Merchant seaman since WW II (it's now 1979) who is rotting from without and within from a lifetime of shoreside debauches and domestic tragedies and who, beset by guilt and ghosts, is making his last voyage down the west coast of North America, through the Canal and to the west coast of Afica in the rotting hulk of a stolen chemical tanker (a "floating drugstore") where, on the sands of Walvis Bay in Namibia, he pays the ferryman and the fates make their decision. It's a geat sea story, a great adventure novel and a tragedy - in the classical sense of tragedy. It will make a great movie, but it's a lot more than than bait for Hollywood.

Masiel is a seious writer and this is serious literature. He's every bit as good as Conrad when he describes life at sea and better than Conrad at bringing pure evil to the page. Conrad has Kurtz up the river (Heart of Darkness) and Marlow must go up river to find him. Masiel has Kurtz (in the charcter of Braselin,his massive homicidal sociopathic first mate) on nearly every page from the start, and Snow is with evil all the way on this voyage - unrelieved, unmitigated evil. No up the river to find it.

Also Masiel is every bit as good as Melville on the philosophical front. Captain Ahab had his white whale (Moby Dick) and Snow is searching for something, but we're never sure exactly what. Melville is the writer Masiel quotes and Masiel, like Melville, leaves you thinking about things other than the story itself.

Not only does Masiel have an accurate ear for seaman's talk, but he has a talent for character as well - and there are several here whom you will not forget, none of whom you would want to take home to mother. The ship is crewed by misfits (I'll not describe them here, But I hope you will meet them when you read the book.) Two of them deserve mention - Beth, the half-African, half-English AB whom Snow befriends, and Maciel (the younger Masiel himself?) a young ex-seminarian whom comes aboard at San Fancisco bringing with him a whiff of Catholicism and basic decency to the violent atmosphere aboard the Elizbeth. Beth is the only female in the book, Maciel the only hope; and at the end - as with all real tragedy - you are left saddened but hopeful, hopeful that light will shine into the world of Beth and Maciel.

There are a couple of things I could have done without - the trip to Beth's father in Lagos for one and a lot of Snow's stream-of-consciousness. A little bit of that is okay, but Masiel takes it a bit too far. However, there are gems of adventure - a bag of diamonds, a revolt in Liberia, storms at sea, a mysterious man from Lloyds and others. You have to read all this for youself - and wait for the movie. It will be - or should be - a blockbuster!

If I taught English I would have my students write an essay on this novel just to see how many would notice the currents which lie beneath the black and white of the pages of this outstanding novel and which of them would see it as just an adventure story. For me it was the best novel I've read this year. I hope you like it too.

Mr. Douglass' Carrier series are very readable and serve their purpose; entertaining while not making you think too much. I would recommend this series to the reader who likes the military drama/thriller genre. Unlike Clancy or Robinson (two of my favorite authors) whose works encompass many more pages and challenge the reader to not only keep track of many more charactors and details; Douglass reads more like the "after action report" of an incident. Like everyone there are times I enjoy a longer story with tons more back story and detail, and there are times when I just want to know the "dirty details" of a story. Mr. Douglass and his carrier series fill this need for me and I would recommend the books to any fan of the genre with the caveat of not expecting the same exacting detail and sometimes long winded verbage you might find in a Clancy or Robinson work.

One of the best in Keith Douglass' acclaimed "Carrier" series! Some Chinese military leaders set in motion a devious plan centered in Hong Kong. The only thing in their way, the USS Thomas Jefferson and Carrier Battle Group 14. Douglass did a superb job keeping you guessing as to the Chicom's real motives until the last couple chapters. Loved the different ways they tried to pull off the plan. And on top of that, a super typhoon is brewing in the Pacific. Some awesome fighter combat scenes thrown in as well. Great drama! Good character development, especially among F-14 jocks Lobo and Bird Dog. Both trying to bury some nasty ghosts in their pasts and prove their are worthy to be top notch Tomcat drivers again. Admiral "Tombstone" Magruder was his usual cool self. There were a few inconsistancies with some scene transitions, but overall a very enjoyable book.

Typhoon Season is a good action packed book, with tensions rising between the Chinese and Americans, after a Chinese military chopper fires on an American Yacht owned by Tombstone's Uncle Phil. Story deserves 4 stars, but as the subject line refers to, too many editorial errors made in the book in regards to time, so try to ignore it and enjoy the story. Also, Mr. Douglass delves in meteorology which happens to be the field I'm in. Not bad, except Typhoons and Hurricanes are the same thing, just called different names in different parts of the world, although Typhoons tend to be stronger due to more warm water to stay over.

Back to the story. Mystery surronds each side as to why the Chinese would attack the Americans, then Americans attack the Chinese. Similar to a James Bond plot, where someone behind the scenes named Mr. Blossom is trying to get China and the U.S. into a war. Douglass provides good aerial fighting sequences, as well as, some life on the Carrier. The book finishes rather quick and seemed as if Douglass may have been rushed to end it.

I've been spoiled by Michael DiMercurio and David Poyer because I really didn't like this book at all. There are absolutely no interesting characters; it is just a "plot book" and the action is very predictable. The campy style is hindered by the use of pilot code names and cheap thrills. I'm going to go read Kilo Class again to cleanse myself of this nonsense.

This was the first I'd read in the CARRIER series, and I will be definitely ordering the rest as soon as I can! An easily understandable and technical so as to be enjoyed by even non-military readers, this action adventure is full of non stop military action. When a yacht carrying industrialists and an arms billionaire is attacked by Chinese naval forces outside Hong Kong, the USS Thomas Jefferson and escort vessels are sent in. Hmm, so that's where Patrick Robinson got the name from for NIMITZ CLASS! Ha ha. Anyway, as tensions escalate and Chinese and US fighter pilots do battle over the South Chnia Sea, there's more trouble brewing. Admiral McGruder is taken hostage by Chinese forces and discovers a horrifying secret behind a new aerial drone project. A typhoon is heading for the JEFFERSON, which is attacked by Chinese gunboats armed with a variety of weapons. WHo will win through? Read this exciting yarn and you'll be hooked.