First Daughter [Paperback]

Eric Van Lustbader (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Forge (2008)
• ASIN: B001H84OF6
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (77 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,183,225 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Eric Van Lustbader is the author of more than twenty-five best-selling novels, including The Ninja, a New York Times bestseller for 24 weeks, in which he introduced Nicholas Linnear, one of modern fictions most beloved and enduring heroes. His New York Times bestselling novel, "The Testament," was published in September, 2006 and in paperback in August, 2007.
His novels have been translated into over twenty languages; his books are best-sellers worldwide and are so popular whole sections of bookstores from Bangkok to Dublin are devoted to them. The Ninja was sold to 20th Century-Fox. It is now in pre-production.
Mr. Lustbader is a graduate of Columbia College, with a degree in Sociology. Before turning to writing full time, he enjoyed highly successful careers in the New York City public school system, where he holds licenses in both elementary and early childhood education, and in the music business. He is a second-level Reiki master.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Potentially Good Story Overshadowed By The Author's Personal Agenda, September 4, 2008

By 

S. Peek (Rocky Mountains, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: First Daughter (Hardcover)

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This story had a lot of potential. Unfortunately, it was never realized.

Although the author could have made this a great novel, he failed to deliver. Instead of focusing on the main plot, Van Lustbader pursued an agenda of anti-religious bigotry. Much of the action is implausible. Some of these are not just the run of the mill farfetched events in a novel, they are too over the top to have any credibility. The editing is also substandard.

The main idea of the story is that ATF agent Jack McClure is recruited by the president-elect to find his recently kidnapped daughter. The McClure character could have been a great one, but was not well developed. Also, the author tried to turn McClure's dyslexia into some sort of mystical super gift that gives him the ability to 'see' things that no one else can in multiple dimensions. This silly plot device was never expanded to the point that it would make any sense.

Mr. Van Lustbader did his best to portray any people of faith as moronic and phony. One example is this: 'But Father Larrigan wasn't full of grace, nor was any priest.' This is just one example of many.

The errors included ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms) listed as AFT in at least two places.

There are a lot better action novels out there. I'd suggest anything by Brad Thor, Vince Flynn, or many others before this. I'd recommend skipping this one.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A great plot wasted, September 15, 2008

By 

K. Nettles (US) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: First Daughter (Hardcover)

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The opening pages have all the indications of a great mass market thriller -- the the President-elect's daughter is about to make a terrorist attack at the inauguration. Just as she's about to open a vial of anthrax, the book flashes back two months to her kidnapping and the selection of Jack McClure, an ATF with dyslexia, to rescue her. Cool.

The book quickly falls flat though, a victim of stilted dialogue, inaccuracies of forensic science, a complete lack of understanding about the ways that DHS, the White House, and the Secret Service work, and a completely weird and unbelievable plot about a war between religious fundamentalists and secular reformer/protest/terroists....something or the other. Frankly, the sections of the book that discuss relgion and secularism are babbling nonsense.

This book should never have made it past the first level of editing, much less the final publishing process. In my experience, if I enjoy a book by an author, I can find something new by looking for other books by the same publisher -- good editors make great authors. I won't be buying anything from Forge Publishing any time soon.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too much preaching (how ironic!) for my taste, September 17, 2008

By 

Scott Bright "scottypotty" (Grayslake, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: First Daughter (Hardcover)

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There were many things I liked about this book and quite a few that I disliked. It took me about 100 pages to really get interested in the plot and characters (the book is about 400 pages total), but after that I was more or less hooked. I particularly liked the development of the main character, Jack McClure, and wondered if the description of his dyslexia as a type of disability accompanied by extreme giftedness is accurate or rare. I just finished the book tonight, so I'm looking forward to researching that.

For me, Jack's backstory was even more interesting that the main plot. I thought the author did an excellent job of creating a sympathetic character with texture and depth and really liked the Gus character as well. The rest of the characters weren't nearly as well developed, and some were merely caricatures.

This leads right into what I liked least about the story. The debate over whether or not organized religion is a good thing or bad thing began early in the book and continued through to the end. While the outgoing U.S. President was presented early on as a stark raving mad religious zealot, there were also evil characters on the godless side. It appeared for at least half of the book that the author was trying to portray both arguments from a somewhat neutral position. This changed in the latter part of the book, however, to relentless diatribes about the evils of religion and the idiocy of those that choose to believe in God and any form of afterlife. I felt I was being preached at during many parts in the second half, and that's just annoying.

Instead of being a suspense novel with some bits thrown in about religion, this almost felt like an editorial about what's wrong with religion and why we should all be atheists encased in popular fiction to make it more palatable. Based on that and my opinion that the actual writing was pretty good but not great, I just can't recommend this book and don't plan to read other books by this author.