Customer Reviews

Deep Black: Sea of Terror (NSA Series)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The first six of the Deep Black series with coauthor Jim DeFilce were great: full of action and the repeating zaney characters. With coauthor William Keith the beautiful but ill-tempered Lia DeFrancesca has all but disappeared. Charlie Dean mostly shows up at the end to shoot a few people. Rubin does have a small part, but not a particularly interesting one. And horror of horrors Coonts and Keith have killed off the loveable jokester Tommy Karr in their first collaboration Artic Gold--also a disappointment.

My advice is stick with the first six with Jim DeFilce who has injected energy and entertaining character development with other authors including Richard Marchinko, Larry Bond, and Dale Brown. He is also good on his own, for example Warbreaker.

I am not buying another Coonts/Keith collaboration.

I love stories of how hi-tech gizmos solve crimes and this one, as well as all of Stephen Coonts' Deep Black series, does that. But, I've become attached to Deep Black's key characters, Lia and Charlie. They show up at the beginning wrapping up other jobs they're on, sporadically throughout for reasons almost unrelated to the main plot, and then Charlie arrives at the end to save the day. As a result, the brilliance of the plot suffers. It is Charlie and Lia who usually come up with creative solutions to impossible problems and in Sea of Terror, the bad guys win too often. I'm quite sure if Coonts had allowed Lia and Charlie to be more involved, the cruise ship would have been rescued much sooner.

The other issue that bothered me was that Coonts spent too much time on political machinations. I don't like political thrillers (with the exception of Advise and Consent). We have enough in the real world.

Despite all of this, I still gave it a 4 out of 5. A big reason is that there aren't that many good techno-thrillers on the market, so I saver each one. But my recommendation to Coonts is, stick with the characters you've developed in this series. They are why we buy the book.

the main characters from the other books had been in this one.

I have enjoyed reading about Charlie and Lia's exploits around the world, the high tech gear they use, and the people who support them. All the way from the first book of the series have I followed them. I was excited for a new "chapter" in their story.

Unfortunately for me, the main characters I know and love are largely absent from this book's pages. More time is spent setting up the story, and then bolstering the story than is spent following Charlie trying to end the crisis. Lia seems to only be in as an afterthought.

There just seemed to be little to no real imagination in the writing. Plot lines were obvious, and it didn't have the feel of a techno-thriller.

There were a few great moments, but that was about it. It just wasn't worth my time in the final analysis.

Deep Black books should be about the team. I think this book was altered to include a few deep black characters so it could be marketed as a deep black novel. The deep black members are hardly recognizable, and they are why I follow this series. Mr. Keith has sadly ruined a good series.

This was a very disappointing read. All previous Deep Black novels have been full of action. It was a struggle to get through the first three quarters of this tale. It ended well with Charlie finally getting into some action. This one suffers from TMI and not enough action.

Bit slow to start due to setting the different participants but after the first 60-70 pages like falling off a cliff. Very good.

This could have been a completely different series with almost no alterations. The main characters that we've come to enjoy were barely present in this one. Lots of wording that didn't seem pertinent to the plot. This book felt cranked out to capitalize on the series.

If you are new to the series, don't start here. Go back to the beginning and read them in sequence. This one is not a strong representation of the series, to put it mildly.

Being this was my first Coonts novel, I'm confused by all the low ratings. I didn't think it that bad. Possibly the characters haven't come together as they have in the past?
I found the story & the techno thriller part of the book pretty good. I did find it a bit long winded in some spots here & there, especially the end game. It does get a little political in spots, but that's the world we live in.
It left me open to trying Coonts again in the future. Particularly to see how strong the characters of Lia & Charlie really are

If you like Stephen Coonts, you will like this book. Dont hesitate to buy it. Jon, Randi and the whole gang are here, this series is just as good as the Jake Grafton series by Coonts.

Stephen Coonts' DEEP BLACK: SEA OF TERROR comes to life under the seasoned, professional voice of Phil Gigante, who spices the story of two massive ships on a dual path to destruction. Japanese eco-terrorists and Middle East extremists have joined forces to infiltrate the ships in this fine thriller.