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1.0 out of 5 stars
Pieczenik needs to pay attention to what he writes, Aug 4 2001
Dr. Pieczenik has tossed off another techno-thriller that lacks a believeable plot. In addition it is often internally inconsistant. If you accept his premises and plot twists you are a better man than I. By the way, Dr. Piecznik knows that if you accept the basic premise of a paranoid personality, he makes perfectly good sense also. While we don't expect well-developed people in this genera, his fall below even such low expectations. Finally a 10th grade English teacher would not accept the gramatical errors which occur throughout the book. While I've enjoyed Dr. Pieczenic's collaborations with Tom Clancy, my first outing with him as sole author was a major disappointment.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting premise, but sloppily written, Jan 9 2000
The idea of four western states seceding from the Union is fascinating, but I was frequently distracted by poor writing. The most glaring error is that Pieczenik apparently thinks Lake Powell is below Glen Canyon Dam; either he doesn't understand how dams work, or he never did on-site research. In another geographic error, Al Carter and Cheri flee the secessionists by floating down the Snake River from Grand Teton to Yellowstone--a gravity-defying feat, since the Snake rises in Yellowstone and flows from there to Grand Teton before turning west into Idaho. Another major distraction was the very simple French-language dialogue between the between the French Prime Minister (or perhaps Foreign Minister--Pieczenik isn't clear on this point) and Al Carter. Pieczenik provides translations, and in at least one instance, I needed his translation, because the verb "se renconter" does not exist in French--I think the word Pieczenik was looking for was "se rendre compte". In any case, two people who are both presumably fluent in French would not be using such simple construction and vocabulary to speak to each other. Bottom line: I'm glad I borrowed this book from the library, rather than buying it.
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1.0 out of 5 stars
Badly written, highly racist, bigoted book with silly plot, Dec 19 1999
The is one of those reviews where it is difficult to know where to start. It is a very stupid story in which the governors of Arizona, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming try to secede from the union. The first plot problem is the people of these states would never go along with it. However, the author explains that since the population of these states is highly Christian, they'll just follow along like sheep. As a matter of fact at one point, the author goes so far as to say that since Christians believe Christ will return at the time of the final battle between good and evil, they actually would want a civil war. At another point, he lumps the Christian Coalition in with the neonazis and skinheads as hate groups who want a war. Excuse me, but if such terms were used against Jews or Moslems, the author would be considered to be bigoted against those religions; the same goes for his views against Christians(and I, for the record, am an agonistic). Secondly, a civil war between the US and these states would last about 5 minutes. Now I must go on to my second point. I don't care what race or sex characters have, as long as this is not used for an excuse for bigotry in the popular literature. This book, is, in my opinion, as bigoted against caucasians as "the Turner Diaries" is against blacks and Jews. All the "bad guys" in the book are caucasian(though at least they are both male and female), and the author goes out of his way to stress this. At one point, it mentions that the black secretary of state has had to "clean up" the errors of the unfeeling protestant white males who proceeded her in the job. It is stressed that the FBI group moving against the secessionists are 60% minority and gay and then stresses that this is not because of affirmative action. It stresses that England, France and Germany are pushing secession because they want to recreate their old worldwide empires iwht white domination of the world(wouldn't China or one of the Middle Eastern countries be a more probable enemy). I'm not nitpicking on this issue, race and religion are stressed throughout this book! To sum up: Christian and White are bad; minority and gay are good! It is fearful when such a hate filled book enters the popular literature. Bottom line:this book isn't fit to be used as toilet paper!
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