Rating: 
Summary: Deep Black Big Yawn
Review: I have been reading Coonts for years and this is a real disappointment. The book crawls along and is very disjointed. This is not the level of work we have become accustomed from Mr. Coonts and hopefully it won't continue. Maybe he is teaching Mr. DeFelice the art of writing High Tech, if so it needs to be kept in the classroom not on bookshelves.The characters are flat, the dialogue is predictable and the pace is like watching paint dry. If you want to enjoy Coonts buy one of his earlier works written before he has a "helper".
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible
Review: I have read about 10 of Coonts' books and this was by far the worse! The storyline had no depth and the characters' dialogue was cheesy. Coonts was obviously out of touch with reality with this one. I only finished it b/c I was stuck in the middle of nowhere and this was my only book. Don't bother reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Look Closely before Purchasing!
Review: I read a lot of books and I read for pleasure, not for literary value. I haven't finished this book, and I'm not going to. That says a lot, because of all the books I've read in the last 10+ years, this is #2 that I've willfully not finished. I've had 3-4 starts with this book and each time it was easier to put it down and read something else than it was to try to finish it first so I could start another. I just can't seem to get into it. Someone else said, "the pace is like watching paint dry." I wish that I'd thought of that, but upon reflection, that's part of what bugs me about this book. This is not due to a shortage of action; there's plenty of that; it just doesn't move. I'm having trouble with some of their gadgets too, and the biz of the Art Room "guiding" the operatives through a building smacks more of micromanagement (like the REMFs who tried to run the Vietnam war from DC) than anything helpful. There's 4-5 books on my table waiting for me, and I'm going to start a new one rather than finish this one. I'm not sure why Coonts thought he needed a co-writer; he does just fine on his own. I like the Jake Grafton novels; that's why I picked up this one. Make no mistake, THIS IS NOT A JAKE GRAFTON NOVEL. I'm beginning to think that any book that is co-written such as this one deserves close scrutiny before purchase. I am now adding Stephen Coonts to the same list that I've now placed Tom Clancy on: Look Closely before Purchasing.
Rating: 
Summary: Passable
Review: I was looking forward to reading this book and it was a disappointment. It is passable, but that is about it. I did enjoy following the Charlie and Lia storyline. Coonts and DeFelice tried to hard to impress the reader with guns and airplane gadgets and forgot to engage the reader in the story.
Rating:
Summary: Boooooring
Review: If you want Jim DeFelice - fine, try it.
If you want/expect Stephen Coonts - forget it.
This guy is "teaming" on Coonts & Dale Brown books - both are disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: Boooooring
Review: If you want Jim DeFelice - fine, try it.
If you want/expect Stephen Coonts - forget it.
This guy is "teaming" on Coonts & Dale Brown books - both are disappointing.
Rating: 
Summary: Quick, light adventure
Review: Interesting collaboration by Coonts and DeFelice, seems to take Coonts' action and blend with DeFelice techno stuff (he works with Dale Brown). I thought they tried too hard in a couple of places to be snappy and ahead of the curve with their gadgets, but the read was entertaining. I wasn't looking for any big thoughts here, just a fun ride.
Rating:
Summary: Non-Grafton tale short on thrills & chills - why co-author??
Review: It's beginning to look like Stephen Coonts doesn't know where to take his career now that the Jake Grafton series has been pretty well tapped out. From his first book ("The Intruders") through "America", we've watched Grafton grow from a young naval fighter pilot to an Admiral, providing suspense and thrills certainly on a par with Clancy's Jack Ryan (except in much fewer words!), with possibly a little more spin on politics (e. g. "Cuba" and "Hong Kong") and a little less focus on the glamour of technology. In "Deep Black", in which Coonts collaborates with co-author Jim DeFelice (himself with a half dozen or so books to his credit), we find a tale about National Security/CIA intrigue fostered by a possible coup in Russia. Our leading characters, Charlie Dean, a ex-Marine sniper, and Lia DeFrancesca, a former Delta Force trooper, spend most of the book deep in Russia ferreting out various evidence of mischief by the bad guys. Activities there alternate with command and control vignettes back at the "Art Room", some sort of conglomerate spy oversight agency. [Perhaps we know now how the co-authors divided their assignments.] At any rate, all are out to control world politics before the Russian President becomes an assassination victim, with most of the suspense leading up to the moment of truth re that event. While the story was mildly entertaining at times, we thought the plot and writing skills on display were a departure from what we expect of Coonts. In particular the gender and sexual tension generated (or not) between the leads Charlie and Lea were barely beyond adolescent. Much of the technology used by the operatives, such as ear-embedded communications with an agency half-way 'round the globe, remote controlled drone fighters, and many other sensing and locating devices, were rather far-fetched, detracting from the credibility of the plot. It doesn't seem to us Coonts did his fan club any favor with this novel - perhaps it was just to keep his name out there while he gets ready to publish his next hardback? Our advice: wait!
Rating:
Summary: The Sum is Less Than the Total of Its Parts
Review: Let me start off by saying that both Coonts and DeFelice alone are terrific writers. However, put them together and it seems like they just tossed some nonsense together and called it a book. They fall for the trite "deus ex machina" ploy when their main characters are in trouble. The "art room" will be able to see all and fix all. Of course this wears thin after a very short while, so the authors have to have the super techno stuff fail at the worst possible moments. (Think first Star Trek series when the transporter would fail just when it is needed to beam up the crew and you get the picture.) The main characters are literally all over the map, with almost no explanation as to what they are doing wherever they happen to be. Poor plotting, extremely poor character development, and virtually no attempts at bringing all the disparite plot lines together leaves the reader with the feeling that they just wasted their money. The only upside is the teaser in the back of the book for the upcoming "Liars and Thieves" looks like a good read. However it also seems to be a Coonts novel. Maybe he should stick to solo writing. Don't bother. Don't waste your money. I wish I didn't.
Rating:
Summary: Impossible Sci-Fi Technology
Review: Others have written about how terrible this book but I wanted to add my own comments. This book is HORRIBLE, on of the worst I've read. One thing that really bothered me was the impossible technology Coonts/DeFelice describe. I found it insulting as they invented impossible gadgets on page after page. Let me give you some examples:
pg. 28-29 A USB device secreted away in a shoe is plugged in to a USB port and in a matter of seconds transfers the entire contents of multiple hard disks using a wireless link to a com system in an agents clothes and then on to a satellite in orbit OUTSIDE the building. In other words no clear view of the sky.
pg 49,54 You will love this, glasses with a speaker so our agent can hear his control center's transmissions via satellite even while underground, a microphone near the nose bridge and a microscopic camera located at the back of the glasses with a video feed in the lower part of the glasses. All of this transmits audio and video to an antenna in his belt back and then up to the satellite in the sky.
They tap into hotel and high security labs and govt installations security system video's in real time all around the world. In one case this was accomplished by attaching a small button to a video cable in a closet of a bookstore.
pg 70 The good guys field agents are tracked by radioactive isotopes embedded in their bodies that are undetectable by monitoring devices BUT CAN be detected by their satellite through 18 feet of earth.
Follks this satellite Coonts talks about, since it is always available, can't be in a low earth orbit or it would pass out of range for a period of time every so many hours. For it to be always available it has to be in geosynchronous orbit or nearly 22,000 miles up in the sky!!!
pg 106 folding opera glasses, with a video feed link to transmit to our ever-present sat in the sky, that sport 20X magnification along with an infrared sensor that is twice as powerful as the Generation 3 military units. So sensitive that it can detect and identify the heat signature of a cat through building walls.
pg 96 One item I forgot to mention, remember those fantastic glasses that had all sorts of gizmos. Well when the bad guys run a bug detector over it we are told that the total energy output of the device mimics the current inherent in the human body. Yet it can still transmit audio and video 22,000 miles away!
By now you get the idea. So.... besides having lousy character development and implausible story line, this foolish Sci-Fi technology keeps making you want to toss the book, roll over and go to sleep.
Brian
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