Customer Reviews

Clearwater

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4 star:		(1)
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This book was amazing from begining to end.But dont take my word for it, read it yourself.

I agree with the first reader/reviewer of this book that it's bad, but for a wholly different set of reasons. The portrayal of women-in-arms in the story may indeed be oversimplified and inaccurate, but the main shortcoming of this book is the author's over-reliance on techno-babble and paying too little attention to good ol' fashioned storytelling. It's one thing to describe how the micro-electronic brain of a missile guides it towards its inevitable target, but it's something else altogether to drone on in seemingly endless detail about computer network technology, protocols, security audits, etc., that would make even the most jaded MCSE cry out for mercy. Talk about BORING! Also, though the basic premise of the story is believable, the characters are underdeveloped caricatures that border on the laughable. With people like "Scotty" ("the engines can't take anymore, captain!") and Eion, it's as if the author is trying to make the "warrior nerds" in our armed forces into poster-boys. Just imagine recruiting posters featuring not lean, mean Marines toting M-16's but computer geeks wearing taped glasses hacking into computer networks with a laptop. All in all, this is a story that has a sound premise but lacks the smoothness and fluidity that are essential in a good read. You might call it all substance but no style.

This book is highly entertaining with lots of military action and suspense. Nearing the end of the book, I played hooky from work just to finish the story!

As an avid reader of military and navy fiction and history, I find Bill Buchanan`s book "Clearwater" to be all techno without much attention to character development. The most egregious mischaracterization of an individual is a female Air Force Captain who is brought aboard one of the submarines. The Commanding Officer (CO) assigns the Chief of the Boat to guard her and restricts her to a cabin. His reasoning is his men have been at sea for three months and he won't be liable for their actions. The CO's rationalization is that the Air Force Captain, by her mere presence on the submarine is bad for his marriage and the marriages of the crew. Mr. Buchanan's stereotypical representation that women cannot serve aboard ships is outdated and, in my opinion, continues to reinforce a pattern discrimination of women in the military. While women cannot serve aboard submarines today, soon this too will change. In his book, Mr. Buchanan fails to consider that command and leadership are not gender specific and further embodies that sailors will not follow orders related to women.