Troy’s Comments (group member since Aug 20, 2014)

Troy’s comments from the BDCHS Advanced Reading group.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist Aftermath (written by Peter Telep) is a continuation of the series that takes place after events of the video game Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Being a splinter cell book, the team - made up of Sam Fisher (main), Anna Grimsdottir (Intel analyst), Charlie Cole (Intel analyst), and Isaac Briggs (operator/Sam's backup) - travels all over the world. Their first stop is in Russia to look for the owner of one of the most powerful PC security companies in the world. They arrive too late and find that he has disappeared after starting a terrorist plot to undermine the American's economy. They also find the GRU, and an agent nicknamed "Snegurouchka" (Russian for 'Snow Maiden'). The GRU agent captures Kasparov's, the owner's, daughter and thus Fisher and his team (really an agency called 4th echelon) pursue the Snow Maiden to Sochi, Russia. They invade the hotel and end up in a car chase that ends in Fisher getting the daughter but having the Snow Maiden escape. They question the daughter and consult some of their contacts to find the location of Kasparov in a mining town in south america. They go there and chase a guard of Kasparov's and run into the Snow Maiden. They fight, defeat her, and get Kasparov to go with them to their modified C-47 plane dubbed 'Paladin'. They then uncover a plot to blow up some thorium shipments. This would have caused the equivalent of a nuclear bomb if successful. They keep watch over the shipments and have the drivers stop so they can be checked for c-4. Luckily they diffuse the c-4 and save the shipments. This leads to the discovery of a plot to send a suicide bomber with a nuke to one of the largest oil exports in Saudi Arabia. After discovering it is on an inbound train heading right through the oil facility, Sam and Briggs board the train during a sandstorm (called a 'haboob' in Arabic). They again (and for the final time) run into the Snow Maiden, who was unaware of the fact she was on a one way trip. After another battle and the train derailing, he captures her yet again and finds the trigger man for the bomb had been crushed by the bomb itself. The Navy sends a bomb squad and diffuses it, thus ending the terrorist plot once and for all. I think that this was a very good book and i enjoyed it a lot just like all the rest of the books in the series. I think that it should have given a tiny bit of explanation for the gap of time between the video game and this book but other than that it was a very good book. I give it a 5 out of 5.

Ultimate Spider-Man #6 by Michael Bendis is really fun to read, especially if you like Spider-Man comics. It takes place in New York (obviously) with you typical character; Peter Parker (Spider-Man) is a student by day and hero by night (and sometimes day). Mary Jane, Peter's love interest and eventual girlfriend. S.H.I.E.L.D (mainly Nick Fury) a government organization that deals with international threats by using mutants and heroes like the Avengers. Aunt May is Peter's mother figure and is his caretaker. The last main character is Eddie Brock (AKA Venom) who is an old childhood friend of Peter's and later in the book becomes one of Peter/Spider-Man's worst enemy. The comic is a mix of different events. The Rhino attacks the city and Iron-Man stops him before Spider-Man, Spider-man gets shot because someone else stole his identity in order to commit crimes, and Venom attacks the city. Spider-Man steps in and overcomes some sort of challenge, beats the bad guy, and saves the day. I this one he has to overcome the fact that he has to beat up his friend and tries other methods of ending the conflict with no success. Ultimately, he had to beat up his friend/enemy in order to bring him down.

I enjoyed this book and give it a 4 out of 5. Just like most comics you want to see more action, not pages filled with dialogue and scenes that are meant to explain everything in one fell swoop.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner is AWESOME. I finished it in two days because I could not put it down. But... What is it about? Why do people like it? I hear it is a ripoff of the Hunger Games, is that true? Well, The Maze Runner is about a boy named Thomas. He awakes in this lift and is greeted by about 50 other teenage boys ranging from 13 to 17. They live in the "Glade", a place in the middle of the maze that offers food, water, protection, etc. Thomas is mainly greeted by Newt, the second in command; Alby, the leader of the Glade; and later in the book forms a friendship with the "keeper" (a type of group leader) of the runners, Minho. Obviously, they have to find their way out of the maze before they all die. Eventually (like a day later) a girl comes up the lift. Usually they get one kid a month and some supplies once a week. When she arrives, she has a note that says she is the last person. Ever. Eventually the sky disappears and they find a way out of the maze. They escape only to find a world plagued by "The Flare", a disease that was caused by a very powerful sun flare that vaporized millions and brought about this new disease. The book ends with their rescuers saving them from WICKED (World In Catastrophe: Killzone Experiment Department; also the creators of the maze) and the remaining kids being brought to safety.

Overall, it does have elements from The Hunger Games and the TV show Lost, but it also is different in the way it is told and how it is written. I give this book a 4 out of 5 becuase I could not put it down and it was very good, but it did leave a massive cliffhanger at the end of the book which kind of feels like the author is forcing you to buy the other books. The theme of the book is never give up despite how hopeless something seems. I recommend this book to anyone who likes the Hunger Games or anything similar to it.

So, right off the bat I personally liked this book (An Ace of the Eighth by Norman "Bud" Fortier) because it is World War II and I love anything WWII. However, for most other people it may be kind of dull and not very exciting or griping. Should you read this? At least give it a try, it is about an United States Army Air Force (USAAF) pilot during the latter part of WWII. It is kind of an autobiography of his time in the war in Europe. He is stationed at an air base in Europe not too far from London and Germany. He recalls his missions and some of the shenanigans that he and his fellow pilots of the 354th squadron, part of VIII fighter command, do when the weather causes them to be grounded or forces command to scrub a mission. Overall, I enjoyed this book and the details he gives about the airplanes he flew like the P-40 "Kittyhawk", P-39 Airacobra, P-47 "Thunderbolt" (or "jug"), and the P-51b "Mustang".

Overall, it was a pretty good book (In my opinion) and I think it deserves a good 3 out of 5 because it may not be very appealing to most people, but for those who enjoy WWII nonfiction books like this would enjoy it.

So, American Sniper by Chris Kyle. Let me just say that THIS IS THE BEST BOOK I HAVE EVER READ! Chris Kyle is a U.S. Navy SEAL sniper who served 4 tours in Iraq. He is the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history with over 255 recorded but only 160 confirmed kills. He also made one of the longest shots at 2,100 yards, 21 football fields away. He has a wife, Taya, and a son and and daughter who live in Texas. Unfortunately, he was shot and killed at a shooting range in February of 2013.

The book is an autobiography of his time in Iraq and the details of some of his missions. He mixes comedy in with the book and adds some stories about the SEAL teams and some of the goofy things they did. Some of the places he talks about most is Fallujah, which had a VERY heavy insurgent presence. This is where he earned his nickname 'The Legend' and got a good portion of his kills. Another major place that he talks about is a city named Ramadi. He got the majority of his kills as a sniper here and the insurgents put a bounty on his head. They also named him the 'Devil of Ramadi' because of how many kills he got. There are many other stories and places he talks about throughout the book. He makes it interesting by adding humanity to the book. By this I mean that he talked about the hilarious things like hazing and some of the jokes that they would tell. One of the jokes was on a newer SEAL named Ryan Job (pronounced Jobe) where he ended with the nickname Biggles, a cross between big and giggles. One day someone found a purple hippo and then Ryan officially became Biggles the Desert Hippo and with Ryan being one of the comics of the team, he carried it around everywhere and embraced the name by calling himself 'Biggles the Desert Hippo, best 60 gunner of the planet!'. There were also the sad things like the deaths of close friends, comrades, and family troubles.

The story overall was VERY good and I found that he had a lot of comments that I found to be funny. My only problem with it is some of his views I thought might be offensive to some people. I give this book a five out of five and DEFINITELY recommend this book.

I just finished Politika by Tom Clancy and it was good... and bad. It was a roller coaster of me thinking "this is so boring! Make something happen!" and "Holy crap what's gonna happen? My heart is racing!".

The story takes place in a variety of places but the main places are Russia, New York City, and parts of California. The book follows Roger Gordian and his team of employees/operatives throughout both business and action conflicts. Roger Gordian is the creator of GAPSFREE, a super high tech recon system. He was also an F-4 Phantom pilot during the Vietnam war and was shot down and captured as a POW (prisoner of war) in the Hanoi Hilton due to bad info on the area. This lead him to create GAPSFREE.

The plot is mixed in the beginning. It begins with Russia's president found dead in his office and the country is in disarray. The farms are not producing wheat and the country is starving, and 2 of the temporary trio of leaders refuse American support. Also, attacks on the wheat and grain factories continue to diminish already scarce supplies. Meanwhile in America, a terrorist plot to blow up Times Square at the 1999/2000 new years party is in the works and becomes a success. The rest of the book is based around finding the terrorists and bringing them down, which is exactly how the book ends.

Overall, the story was interesting and captivating even though it had slower political portions. I give this book a 4 out of 5 because of that.

I just finished reading Monster by Walter Dean Myers. It is about a sixteen year old man named Steve Harmon, and he is on trial for the murder of the owner of a convenient store. It takes place in the New York City area. There is also James King, on trial for the same murder, Osvaldo Cruz, and 'Bobo' Evans, all accused of being involved in the murder. The theme of the story seemed to be that you shouldn't stereotype someone else just becuase of what they look like or where they live.

I rate this book a 4 out of 5 becuase it made me want to keep reading and find out whether Steve is found guilty. However, the way the story is formatted is kind of confusing becuase there are no chapters and the movie script style writing was odd. All in all, This is a good book that has a great plot and characters even though the writing style is a little weird.