Customer Reviews

Endgame (Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell #6)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

In Splinter Cell:Conviction, Third Echelon's Grimsdottir launches Sam Fisher on his final mission.

Splinter Cell:Endgame introduces newbie Ben Hansen and his Delta Sly group as Grimsdottir, closely watched by a traitor in the NSA hierarchy, secretly directs and delivers Hansen's ragtag team to Fisher in support of his final mission.

Interestingly for us, some creative folks stepped outside the box here (author, publisher, game developer, come quickly to mind), and gave us two independent books about the same mission as carried out by different characters. The clear distinction between the two books is the actions of a loner versus the dynamics of a team with all their conflicting shenanigans. I catch the old versus new message - call it an attitudinal variation on the old glass half empty-half full metephor.

A weary Fisher contemplating the settlings in his glass. The young and energetic Hansen eager to fill his to overflowing. In the middle, Grimsdottir, a realist, who knows that, either way, somebody in Third Echelon will be there to wash it.

Endgame works for me... big time.

I saw some of the review's weren't great when I briefly looked at purchasing it once before. I thought, "oh how can it be that bad". Well, it is. It's the same damn story, not a continuation like I and probably everyone else had expected. There are a few good moments here and there, but otherwise it's just a big letdown. I read it in two days because I could barely focus enough to do anything but skim paragraphs here and there.

This book covers a "counter point of view" from the agents chasing Sam Fisher from the previous book "Conviction". If you read conviction, don't bother to buy this - same dang story. I am very disappointed that I purchased it. I like all the other Splinter Cell series books.

This book is written as the oppositions view from Splinter Cell Conviction. If you are a rabid Splinter Cell fan it may be for you. For the average reading just wanting to enjoy some tactical espionage this book falls flat. There are a lot better options out there for this genre and this books feels rather cheap and under done even compared to the other Splinter Cell book in the series.

As the previous guy wrote, this is the exact same story as Conviction. In fact, when I first started reading it I thought that I had ordered the same book again by mistake. I have read all of the Splinter Cell series and this is the only one I didn't like. It's like the author was under contract to write so many of these books and ran out of ideas. It was lazy and disappointing.

I would have probably been fine if I had started reading knowing that I was reading a different point-of-view of Conviction. I would have still bought the book and even if I didn't enjoy it, I wouldn't have felt quite as duped as I do. Everything on the back of the book (and even the front of the book for that matter) and in synopsis online led me to believe I was reading a continuation of Conviction. That is not the case. If you really liked the two-dimensional characterization of Hansen in Conviction then you will love Hansen on every page of Endgame. This is lazy writing. I am a big fan of Splinter Cell but I am going to wait for reviews on the next one. If it is told from Grim's point-of-view then the shark has truly been jumped and I am done with the series.

Compared with Conviction, Endgame was a breath of fresh air. Granted, they both tell the same story from different points of view (which is a bit of a ripoff for those of us who bought both books), but this viewpoint took the time to flesh out the new characters and give us more development of the elements that will likely be continuing the series, not just a rush from point to point while Sam gets in, gets the intel, and gets out. Unfortunately, you will have to wade through the poor showing that was Conviction if you want the full story as you only get one side of it here. The book follows the POV of Ben Hansen and his 3E team (saddled with the weak codename of "Delta Sly") as they get thrown into the middle of Grimsdottir's plan to use them to take down some corrupt elements that have wormed their way into 3E. If I had read this one before Conviction, my rating for Conviction would have been two stars (or possibly one) rather than the three stars I gave it. If you have to pick one of the two, read this one. If you want the whole story, go ahead and get them both, just be prepared to be disappointed in Conviction.

I don't understand why people keep on complaining about this book, it's the best thing to ever happen to me. Generally i don't read books but once conviction sucked ass i felt like picking up another splinter cell book and i found this one. I like how the author introduced 14 characters in the first 18 pages, that warmed my heart :)

The last 150 pages (of 468) were interesting. I think in the first 18 pages he introduced about 14 characters. I should have put it down then. It became obvious early on that the team was not on a real mission. The whole middle two thirds of the book was a lot of chasing, almost catching, getting away. It really did read like someone sat down to watch a kid play a video game and wrote the action down as if it were a story. Not worth the time overall.

You have to read "Conviction" if you're to understand this one. I wish Michaels could have used another device to keep the series alive.