Customer Reviews

The Delta Decision (Signet)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Read the book when it first came out. It was one of those thrillers that grabs you on page one and never lets go. I've recommended it to friends for over 10 years but recently have not been able to find it in book stores. It turned me into a big Wilber Smith fan but this was his best. The intrigue and excitment of his plot has stayed with me for over 15 years and it's one of the few books I could read again.

The hero works as a soldier for a global counter-terrorism hostage-rescue unit. In the course of the novel, he kills several hostage-takers and in retribution, his daughter is taken hostage.

The hostage situations are thought to be the handiwork of a Carlos the Jackal-like terrorist mastermind who has pefect information and seeks to control world events.

It turns out (spoiler) that the head of the counter-terrorism organization is planning all of the terrorist incidents that the organization defends against.

The hero kills the evil organization head and then is offered, and accepts, the job of the man he kills, assuming (without authorial irony), that he will do a better job and that in consequence the organization will no longer be ill-conceived.

Along the way to this illogical conclusion, many glasses of pink champagne are consumed in floridly described locations like English castles, Swiss ski resorts and Tahitian hideaways, and the physiques of many adolescent women are appreciated. Strong-willed thin adult brunettes with small breasts and large nipples are also praised and coveted in detail. Violence towards the hero's daughter is described in detail, and a long, bruising brawl between the hero and his girlfriend consumes several pages.

If you don't gag on the prose, the pacing is good, and the action and detailed travelogue are good. The author's politics burn through the page at various moments, such as when one of his characters laments the declining support of the neutron bomb and the trouble with striking coalminers. If you can get past that, it's actually a pretty good read.

First picked this up years ago based on a comparison to Ludlum. Actually found it better than most Ludlum books. Fantastic writing, plot twists that are truly suprising and great action!

This book is proof that Wilbur Smith is a gifted writer. Like several of his other books, he came up with a whole new set of characters and wrote about issues and geopolitics outside of his native Africa. I just read this book in the year 2000. This book was written a long time ago but still feels like it could happen today. As much as things change, they stay the same. I hope Wilbur gives us another gem soon. I couldn't put this one down.

I am a big Wilbur Smith fan.
This book and the other 20+ books that Wilbur Smith has written are incredible. I have a website dedicated to Smith at www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/wilbur.html If you are a big fan also please visit, and make sure you e-mail me. Use capital A's in the web address please

I would rank this book in my top five of all time. I am not a huge wilbur fan, but this book was awesome. It is easily as good as Ludlums best effort and Ive read a lot of them.

i have never read Wilbur Smith before but this is the kind of story that leaves you thinking how much of it is fiction and if it could hipotetically become a fact. Hummmmmm!

A LIFE OF EVERYDAY PEOPLE THROUGH THE BLURRED EYES OF MR SMITH. HE SEES LIFE FROM A SMALL TIME ZAMBIAN POINT OF VIEW COUPLED WITH THE SENSE OF HUMOUR OF A TYPICAL NATALIAN.

Having read all of Smith's books I would have to rank The Delta Decision among the top 5. The action is non-stop, the characters utterly believable, and the pace thrilling. This is definitely one book you really won't be able to put down. Make sure your calendar is cleared for a couple of days before you even turn to page 1.

I read this book ten years ago and still can't forget the character magda altman! that is the kind of effect this book had on me. Its one of the best thrillers I have ever read and was the first one for me by Wilbur Smith.

Its the ultimate page turner and I read it again few days back, same copy I've had for a decade :)

Don't miss out on this one. Its unfortunate though that the other novels by Wilbur I read weren't as thrilling, maybe coz they are more about adventure whcih is not my piece of cake.