Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell
Sometimes after reading a couple of disappointing literary efforts back to back, it’s nice to read some pure escapist paperback crap. And TOM CLANCY’S SPLINTER CELL did the trick.
Not written by Clancy but by someone named David Michaels, it’s a straight-to-paperback novel based on the video game of which I have no knowledge. But the hero is Sam Fisher, a cool-costumed superspy for the National Security Agency. Terrorists. Kidnapping. Weapons. Explosions. Kung fu. Alright by me for a toilet read.
The inevitable sequel – TOM CLANCY’S SPLINTER CELL: BARRACUDA – streets in November. I’d hit it.
[...] • Finally, TOM CLANCY’S SPLINTER CELL: BARRACUDA is David Michaels’ sequel to last year’s TOM CLANCY’S SPLINTER CELL. That book was pure escapist fun, and from this I expect nothing less, nothing more. [...]
The writer “David Michaels” is Raymond Benson of 007-book fame.
[...] Perhaps I was a little too hard on the first SPLINTER CELL novel, which I termed “escapist paperback crap” when it came out last winter. At least I meant it affectionately. But OPERATION BARRACUDA is a marked improvement; Michaels has really elevated his game here. I had inklings I was loving the book; then, toward the end, when Michaels has Fisher pulling a Slim Pickens circa DR. STRANGELOVE, it was confirmed. [...]
[...] GETTING A WOODY FOR THIS ‘SPLINTER’ I’m not sure how it happened, but somewhere between the first and second book of TOM CLANCY’S SPLINTER CELL series by David Michaels, I became a huge fan of its James Bondian exploits in our terror-ridden age. First there was TOM CLANCY’S SPLINTER CELL, then TOM CLANCY’S SPLINTER CELL: OPERATION BARRACUDA, and now, come Nov. 7, we get TOM CLANCY’S SPLINTER CELL: CHECKMATE. And I can’t wait. Because for mass-market thrillers based on a video game and piggybacking off a big-name author who didn’t write them, the series can’t be beat! [...]