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Summary: ** More intrigue than CLANCY, superior technology **
Review: A 10.5 in terms of beautifully complex plots and sub-plots. Impressive Mystery, Corporate Politics, Action-Thriller with nothing held back from the reader
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Summary: Joshua's Hammer
Review: After reading most of David Hagberg's Books I was hooked on this one. I usually read in bed at night but I could not put this book down. I didn't want it to end. 5 stars. What a great movie this book would be, unless someone didn't tell it like it was.
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Summary: Joshua's Hammer
Review: After reading most of David Hagberg's Books I was hooked on this one. I usually read in bed at night but I could not put this book down. I didn't want it to end. 5 stars. What a great movie this book would be, unless someone didn't tell it like it was.
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Summary: This Was A Letdown!
Review: After reading several David Hagberg books High Flight was a big letdown. Rrossfire,Countdown,White House and Joshua's Hammer were excellent thrillers that I enjoyed reading. This book took up too much space trying to be a techno thriller in the mode of Tom Clancy. This detracted from the heroics of the good guy Kirk McGarvey. The villains in the story were also shifted to the sideline by the techno gimmickery. This book was also way too long. Because of the subject matter it wore on your patience to finish the book. This was definitely not on of David Hagberg's better efforts. I am glad he got back on track with his later efforts. This was nearly bad.
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Summary: I normally enjoy Hagberg--but this was way too long...
Review: First off let me say that I am a true David Hagberg fan having read ALL of his books (except for Joshua's Hammer--haven't seen it at any local bookstores--YET) but it seemed to me that he was TRYING to specifically tackle a subject that was very ambitious and in so doing attempted to unseat the techno-thriller throne established by Clancy. And in the process wrote an otherwise entertaining novel that could have EASILY been done with 300 LESS pages. There was SO MUCH unnecessary everything that it nearly took a great story and made it absolutely dreadful. I HATE feeling this way, especially since I have enjoyed each and every Kirk McGarvey novel to date. All in all I enjoyed this one,too--but it definitely isn't without its faults. Contrived meetings between secondary characters which solve nothing, and ultimately move the plot BACKWARDS rather than FORWARDS. I also felt that Hagberg taking on the Japanese was a bit too coincidental that it came out not long after Clancy's 'Debt of Honor' which ALSO has the US being attacked by the Japanese, and before that it was Michael Chrichton's 'Rising Sun' where we got to read a LOT of anti-far East diatribes and even farther back to Clive Cussler's 'Dragon'. Sure all of these novels are unique but it almost seems as though there is a trend going on here that pits US against THEM (Asians--Japanese in particular). Maybe I am taking this a bit too far, but I always become disappointed in novels that in order to look more sophisticated than they really are add hundreds of useless pages of backwards-plotlines that take the story nowhere fast. Okay, off the soap box. If you are big Hagberg fan, read and decide for yourself, it WASN'T a BAD novel, just not what I felt it COULD have been if a lot hadn't been cut out first.
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Summary: The "War & Peace" of techno thrillers
Review: I don't really like long Tom Clancey-style techno thrillers, but David Haberg's "High Flight" hooked me from the very first page and didn't let me go for the five days it took to read it. This was my first reading experience with Hagberg, and after finishing it I couldn't wait to tackle some of his earlier novels. Unfortunately, they just didn't appeal to me in quite the same way. So I look forward to Hagberg's next adventure, because if "High Flight" is any indication, he's improving as a good story teller.
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Summary: A fast-paced enjoyable read.
Review: I really enjoyed this book. I thought it an excellent action adventure novel. The plot was original. I don't think his stories are like Clancy's at all. This latest novel especially had more detail than I have come to expect from Clancy. This was a well researched story, that rolled along at a great pace. If you want an international conspiracy this is the place to come!
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Summary: McGarvey as Free-lance muscle...still saving the world!
Review: It always pains me to see "Clancy and Bond better look over their shoulders . . ." as a review of a Hagberg/Flannery novel. Hagberg pre-dates both authors as an accomplished yarn spinner. And in High Flight he just keeps spinning and spinning and spinning (about 830 pages worth!). I have suggested in the past that MacGarvey was used up as a character for Hagberg. I mean, how many times can you save the world and get fired by the CIA for doing it. But the author does a fine job of resurrecting him as a free-lance trouble shooter with some special contacts all over the world in this tale. Before MacGarvey can save the world from the brink of war, lots of bodies have been strewn about, planes drop all over the place, and the reader has been raked over the coals of suspense. This book has plenty of high points. Some of its characters are truly diabolical in the old Fleming tradition (the ex-Stasi assassin is extremely resourceful - Hagberg developed him wonderfully - among his best villians). The techno aspect is written tersely and confidently. He stands up well compared to the other guys out there. And the plot is actually very good - as are some of the many sub-plots. Low points - the other villian in the novel, Yamagata, is never fully developed. Hagberg could have made him a bit more evil by dwelling on his treatment of Chance Kennedy (one of the novel's hundreds of minor characters). The love interest for the protagonist, Dominique Kilbourne, is a bit wooden - not much to her. And, yes, I'll bow to the novel's detractors: it might have been a tad too long. The primary plot devise - development of a triggering mechanism by rogue Americans to bring down American airplanes using Japanese equipment - is painfully tedious at times. But just when you're about to say "if they have to find another part to build the thing and waste another 20 pages I'm gonna loose it," Mueller, the ex-Stasi guy, offs somebody with some glib remark that makes you chuckle. Some folks have lamented that the novel jumps around too much; I had no problems following the action. The novel is a tightly woven tapestry with many sub-plots occuring at the same time. To keep the story moving in a linear fashion the author had to jump around a lot. Now, I'm an admitted Hagberg fan. I've only read one novel (written as Sean Flannery) that I truly did not enjoy. This one ranks at the top for out-and-out, over-the-top enjoyment. I think it is far superior to his previous work with a far Eastern flavor, Critical Mass. Highly recommend it. Eagerly await Whitehouse! Questions? email me . . .
Rating:
Summary: McGarvey as Free-lance muscle...still saving the world!
Review: It always pains me to see "Clancy and Bond better look over their shoulders . . ." as a review of a Hagberg/Flannery novel. Hagberg pre-dates both authors as an accomplished yarn spinner. And in High Flight he just keeps spinning and spinning and spinning (about 830 pages worth!). I have suggested in the past that MacGarvey was used up as a character for Hagberg. I mean, how many times can you save the world and get fired by the CIA for doing it. But the author does a fine job of resurrecting him as a free-lance trouble shooter with some special contacts all over the world in this tale. Before MacGarvey can save the world from the brink of war, lots of bodies have been strewn about, planes drop all over the place, and the reader has been raked over the coals of suspense. This book has plenty of high points. Some of its characters are truly diabolical in the old Fleming tradition (the ex-Stasi assassin is extremely resourceful - Hagberg developed him wonderfully - among his best villians). The techno aspect is written tersely and confidently. He stands up well compared to the other guys out there. And the plot is actually very good - as are some of the many sub-plots. Low points - the other villian in the novel, Yamagata, is never fully developed. Hagberg could have made him a bit more evil by dwelling on his treatment of Chance Kennedy (one of the novel's hundreds of minor characters). The love interest for the protagonist, Dominique Kilbourne, is a bit wooden - not much to her. And, yes, I'll bow to the novel's detractors: it might have been a tad too long. The primary plot devise - development of a triggering mechanism by rogue Americans to bring down American airplanes using Japanese equipment - is painfully tedious at times. But just when you're about to say "if they have to find another part to build the thing and waste another 20 pages I'm gonna loose it," Mueller, the ex-Stasi guy, offs somebody with some glib remark that makes you chuckle. Some folks have lamented that the novel jumps around too much; I had no problems following the action. The novel is a tightly woven tapestry with many sub-plots occuring at the same time. To keep the story moving in a linear fashion the author had to jump around a lot. Now, I'm an admitted Hagberg fan. I've only read one novel (written as Sean Flannery) that I truly did not enjoy. This one ranks at the top for out-and-out, over-the-top enjoyment. I think it is far superior to his previous work with a far Eastern flavor, Critical Mass. Highly recommend it. Eagerly await Whitehouse! Questions? email me . . .
Rating:
Summary: Too Long? I Don't Think So...
Review: It's pretty rare that I can say "After 600 or so pages, it really heats up" about a novel without sarcastically panning it, but in this case I can. I picked up this book on name recognition alone. To be honest, the description on the back of the book didn't do anything for me, and I shuddered at the size of the book, but I dove in anyway because Hagberg is, to, me, a proven product. I wasn't disappointed at all. The first few pages were enough to get me hooked, and I don't agree with criticisms about the length of the book because the vast majority of it is necessary to set up the action. I could see cutting 50 or 60 pages, but I don't agree with people saying that it should be 300 pages shorter. That sort of criticism is valid for a lot of Tom Clancy's work, but Hagberg makes better use of his pages than Clancy does. This is not the best novel I've ever read, but it's in the top five. It requires a lot of time invested, but you won't be disappointed.
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