Customer Reviews

The First Team

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

 

 

I had read The First Team when I was a kid in Jr. High School - my dad bought these books, and I wondered what kept him up at night. When I read this paranoid Soviets-Invade-America thriller, I was completely enthralled by the detail, the character of Hewlitt, and the theme. This was indeed pre-Reagan times, America looked like it very well could die, and we were looking for heroes. We got one in Hewlitt, and as much as I like Tom Clancy's early books, this book is every bit as good as "The Hunt for Red October" (did Clancy "borrow" the idea from Ball?) and "Cardinal of the Kremlin." It is sadly out of print, but it deserves re-release as a historical political thriller (along with "The Jesus Factor" by Edwin Corley and the books of Fletcher Knebal). I recently ordered this out-of-print book from Amazon, and received, oddly enough, a British version of the book, complete with spelling changes to British-English! Nonetheless, I found myself once again engaged in this book, and I literally stayed up all night to finish it. The quaint sexism and Ball's restrained sex scenes are charming to 1999 sensibilities, and the theme of the USSR invading America without a shot seems incredibly anachronistic and unlikely - but the main idea that constant vigilance is the price of liberty remains as cogent today as then. I thank Amazon Books for finding this book for me in great condition, and will treasure it! And no, I don't get paid to say that - no one can buy me.

I wonder if John Ball is alive today. I'd love to option the book to make this into a film. I'd cast Donna Murphy as Barbara Stoneham, Val Kilmer as Percival, Danny Glover as Frank Jordan, Will Smith as Davy, and perhaps Alec Baldwin or Tim Matheson as Raleigh Hewlitt, the heroic Russian Language translator of the White House staff. Adm. Barney Haymarket could be played by James Earl Jones or even John Vernon (against type), and Zalinsky - ah, someone with a REAL Russian accent, cold as steel. Col. Rostovich needs an evil, vicious character actor, perhaps Rutger Hauer.

Does anyone know if John Dudley Ball, author of "In the Heat of the Night" and "The First Team", is still alive?

A stirring but believable pre-Reagan cold war thriller. A lame duck President is soon to be replaced by a liberal who campaigned on the promise to unilaterally disarm and achieve peace with the USSR by whatever means necessary. The outgoing President establishes a super-secret "First Team" to form the framework of resistance. Our story begins as the Soviet occupation troops land on American shores...

When you read about the underground during the wars in Europe, it is hard to believe that any country could of won without it. The USA is not so big that it can not be taken down due to a lacked government. I would hope that the USA has something and someone intelligent enough to think ahead and prepare for the weak and inadaquate times to come. I thought that this book had a scary feeling of realism intertwined with fiction.

John Ball, best known for In The Heat Of The Night, creates a gripping political tale which opens with Russia having taken over the political machinery of the USA. The story tells of the struggle of a group of American heroes who plot to take back the control from the Russians and restore the political structure as it was.

In the tradition of In The Heat Of The Night, Mr. Ball creates heroic, believable characters which made this reader wish he could meet them.

Before Tom Clancy there was John Ball. Found
by accident, top-notch thriller tells how
the Soviet Union (in the old days) takes over
the United States without firing a shot.

Team is assembled by former president to try
and take country back. Main character is an
interpreter who works in White House and is
recruited by FIRST TEAM to help take back the
country from the Soviets, and the Russian
factory manager who is chosen to run the US
from the White House. Spy, counterspy, and
a stolen nuclear missile submarine, its all
here. Clancy could have used this one for a
guide to what he writes. Excellent!

If you enjoyed The First Team, you will surely also enjoy Taylor Caldwell's The Devil's Advocate. It's another good story about an American underground/resistance movement, in America, after a take-over by a hostile government.