Customer Reviews

24 Declassified: Chaos Theory

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I'm a big fan of Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer character on the television show 24. I like the way Bauer is driven to get the job done no matter what, no matter who gets hurt. It sets him up as great flawed hero among his family and peers, but all of us who love the character know the price he's paying to stop the bad guys.

I also have to admit that I can't stand waiting from week to week for episodes of the new season. I have to make a deal with myself. I don't watch the first-run showing of the seasons. After they're finished, I wait until the DVD sets come out and buy those. I watch those straight through, more or less. It's easier on me than having to wait every week. I know there are some people who enjoy getting together to watch the episodes and then rehashing the twists and turns of the plot as well as making predictions about what's going to happen. I tried that it first, and it drove me crazy.

When I first found out Harper Collins paperbacks was going to be releasing new books set in the series, I was excited and dismayed at the same time. I was glad to get the extra Bauer adventures, but I didn't know how the books were going to pull off the immediacy of the television episodes.

Nor did I want anyone to try to sandwich books between the ongoing series seasons. Bauer's life changes from season to season and I prefer that that be shown within the television world.

Fortunately, with the tight driving plot lines of the series, publishers weren't willing to risk trying to elaborate on stories set between the seasons. They elected to go back to earlier in Jack's career and call the series 24 Declassified. This way we get to see the first season CTU (Counter Terrorist Unit) team in action all over again. From time to time, though, a few mishaps with canon will occur, or the characterization will not quite seem right.

One of the biggest problems in the book series is the fact that all of the television fans who read them know what Nina is really like. We know that she was not a good person, yet the authors of these books have to portray her as decent and professional. But no attempt can be made to evoke a lot of sympathy for character because we won't buy it.

John Whitman and Marc Cerasini together have written six books in the 24 Declassified novel series so far. CHAOS THEORY is the latest in the successful run.

The book opens with Bauer interrupting a poker game and shooting one of the man dead. This prologue is set a few weeks prior to the opening hour of the next 24-hour run. It sets the plot into motion and raises questions. Two pages later, we learn that Bauer is in prison awaiting trial for murder of a man he shot in the prologue. Questions arise immediately, but they take back seat to the action that begins with a bang. Within minutes, Bauer is attacked by an Hispanic street gang in the shower. He has no idea why he's been targeted, but he knows something has gone drastically wrong.

It isn't long before the reader understands that Bauer is in jail because he wants to be. He has a mission on the inside. However, his cover has been blown because someone has taken out all three people that know he's innocent. Bauer has no choice, as usual, but to take matters into his own hands and move events directly toward critical mass. This is typical, great Bauer action.

The plot is convoluted and multi-layered. The CTU team all have parts to play. Whitman does an excellent job of "seeding" events that lead up to betrayals and double-crosses that play out in the television series. This foreshadowing works well and doubles down on the pleasure the reader receives because not only is a new mission unfolding, the fans get to see some of the other pieces of the television series' twists and turns fall into place.

The title, CHAOS THEORY, relates to the action in the book and a lot of ways. Everybody seems to take some part in the chaos that eventually unravels. Nobody's plans, not Bauer's or the villain's, go as intended. Some of the twists and turns can be predicted, and some of the action is a little over the top, but there are some surprises.

I read the book on the plane on the way to San Diego Con this past weekend. With three hours of flight time ahead of me, I wanted something familiar to read that would easily grasp my attention and immerse me in a world other than the airplane. By the time I reached San Diego, I was totally engaged in the book. After arriving at my hotel, I settled in, put my feet up, and finished the read rather than going exploring. For me, that's a sign of a good book.

Now I know there are five other Jack Bauer adventures awaiting me that I'll probably be able to cram into my schedule before Season Six arrives on DVD. If you're a 24 fan, and like to read, these books are for you. If you don't like to read but love the show, I'd recommend giving these books a try. If the others are like this one, they are lean and mean and move with the same blistering bullet speed as the television series. You may find the book interface seems to disappear completely as Bauer's adventures come to life inside your mind.

If the rest of the books are like this one, they're just sheer good fun.

Don't let the cover to this book scare you. Not the front cover, not the back cover. This book is much better than the covers would suggest! The front photo shows an anguished-looking Kiefer Sutherland crouching on a dirt road, hand-brushing his hair against his reflection in a puddle of mud. What's up with that? You can imagine how the photo shoot must have gone. "Excuse me, Mr. Sutherland, but we need you to pout some more. Make sure you push the bangs into your eyes. Also, could you dangle the gun directly in front of your groin so it looks as if it were your, um, you-know? Thanks, darling."

As for the back cover, it's a photo of the Season 5 cast. This novel is set before Season 1. There are nine cast members on the back cover and yet you're only going to read about Tony and Jack in this book. Who picked that photo. To be fair, Season 5 bad-guy Christopher Henderson features heavily in this book (set before he left CTU), but he's not in that cast photo.

The book itself is a fun, fast read. The author has a nifty character in mind: a gangbanger turned computer whiz turned anarchist. In the best "24" tradition, our bad guy has about eleven different plots going on at once. Even if Jack corners him in the middle of one disaster, he can escape on a vehicle he's stored just for that exact contingency, and then pick up a rocket launcher he stored somewhere else for another contingency, all in ten minutes. The bad guy's very much in keeping with the "24" TV tradition.

CTU is well used in the book as always, although it's alarming to realize that every staffer in this book, with the exception, has already been killed on the TV show. The author performs less psychoanalysis of Jack than he did in his earlier book I read ("Veto Power"), although he ends with a shockingly cold-blooded act that definitely warranted an epilogue.

Finally, I know the book editors are probably very limited in terms of what they can do with TV characters -- these books are written for a flat fee and the author doesn't get copyright, so I can imagine how little room there is for embellishment -- but you can't keep writing Nina into your books as a good guy without explaining more about her past and just how she came to be the way she was in "24" Seasons 2 and 3. More, please.

I have read all of the novels in the 24 Declassified series. Most of the time they are okay. Their not great but they are entertaining for a 24 fan. But Vanishing Point is more than just okay. It is a fantastic read. A combination of intense action and smart writing make this book stand out from the others in the series. I highly recommend this novel for ALL "24" fans!

I loved the book. It is almost as good as the show.
My need for 24 is somewhat satisfied between the
long season breaks!

still the best 24 novel ,, waiting for new comming novels :)

I do enjoy reading these books. They are a little more detailed and graphic than the series was allowed to be.

Another 24 Thriller but sometimes harder to follow. I have found all of the 24 Declassified books GREAT but this one was somewhat harder to follow at times. It was still a great book and kept me interested the entire time. Jack has everyone at CTU questioning what is going on in this one so it keeps the reader in doubt at all times too. It is another great book by Whitman. I recommend all of the 24 Declassified books.

Of all the 24 books, I think this one has the best beginning. Right from the start we are thrown back into Jack Bauers world as he is in a place not quite expected with only a few who know the truth of his situation. What happens within the first few hours of the book makes you think of the movie Face-Off and Nicholas Cages character...without the actual face off thing. Loyalties are tested and some broken. The action is good but the final confrontation wasn't as strong as I would have liked. One thing I really enjoyed was the twist at the end that starts to set up events in Season 5. I hope Mr. Whitman continues that angle in his next book due out this Spring.

This is not only the best--by far--of the 24 series of novels, it is also better than Day 6 of the television series.

I was really disenchanted by the other books in the series, and almost didn't pick this up from the library, but I needed some light reading and I figured it would serve its purpose. However, I actually enjoyed the story. The author had a solid grasp of the characters and created a solid, twisting plot line (even if you could see one of the ending twists coming a mile away). He also introduced some background elements that would play out in Days 1 and 5 of the television series, although I'm not sure that I like what came out of that.

I didn't think that much of Whitman's other 24 novels (although they were better than Cerasini's) but this one I can recommend to fans of the show and action novel readers in general.

Of the two writers of this series of books, it is obvious that John Whitman is more interested in telling a good story. Yes there are typos galore (who do they have proofreading these things?) and minor "24 Universe" errors but this is good story telling. My guess is that these two authors are paid a flat fee and told to crank these things out ASAP, without regard to content with no time for changes. I hope that changes because the 24 universe if filled with possibilities, but Whitman is the only one that understands that Jack should be at the center of the story... and he is in this book.

At first I was nervous because it starts with Jack escaping from a prison after causing a riot (similar to Day 3, episode 5), but it cleverly got beyond that. Overall, it was a great story that had me guessing for most of the book. Just what I was looking to find in a 24 book.

These books, when done right, like this one, add a great deal of background information to the series. Hopefully they will start create better books from the other author, Marc Cerasini. I like the scope that he is trying to bring to these books, but he doesn't understand the 24 universe and needs to just tell us a good story, like this book does.