Customer Reviews

Hawke

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(27)

 

 

I don't know about you, but the longer an author's backlist is, the more hesitant I am to begin reading a series. One the bright side, you won't be waiting on pins and needles for a sequel, but there's a lot of territory to catch up on. I've been buying Ted Bell's Alexander Hawke thrillers since the very first one was published. Now that there are five books in this series, I've finally gotten around to reading the first one. Debut novels are often rough. I was pleasantly surprised by this one.

The novel's prologue recounts what is likely the single most traumatic experience of Alex Hawke's life--the cold-blooded murder of his parents when he was seven years old. Young Alex witnessed the whole thing, but has blocked the events from his memory. It's a terrible start on life, but Alex has a few advantages as well. He's the scion of a wealthy and influential British family. He's raised by a loving grandfather and given all the best advantages in life.

After the prologue we meet the adult Alex Hawke. In addition to being a captain of industry, he does covert jobs for the British and American governments. That's not as random as it seems. As a younger man, Alex had served with distinction in the special forces of the military. He has ties to the rich and powerful everywhere. And business interests around the globe provide the ideal cover for his presence in hot spots.

In this case, the hot spot is Cuba. Hawke is instructed to find who has bought a very dangerous submarine, but what he finds in addition is a coup d'état ninety miles off the US coast. What's more, the situation has gotten very personal when the bad guys drag Hawke's girlfriend Victoria into the mix. Fortunately, Hawke has backup. Aside from the American government he's working for, he's brought his own most trusted allies. Foremost among them is Ambrose Congreve, a semi-retired Scotland Yard inspector, and Hawke's closest friend. Also, there is Stokely Jones, a former New York cop who acts as Hawke's body guard and Chief of Security. Hawke has surrounded himself with a loyal team that would go to hell and back for him. I expect we'll get to know each of them better as the series progresses.

As I mentioned above, it's a strong debut. The writing is fine and the pacing is good. The plot featured some good twists and turns, and even had a fun buried pirate treasure sub-plot. Hawke's a character you can build a series around, and while his extreme wealth and other gifts are a bit preposterous, it's kind of fun to see how the other .00001 percent lives. (Was I the only one sort of picturing Richard Branson as I read the book?) There was really only one thing I had a big problem with, and oddly enough it was one of the supporting characters. Specifically, it was Stokely Jones, who spoke all of his lines in an ignorant and affected dialect. An example, "Ain't far. See all them Christmas lights hanging in the trees on that island over there? Only a couple of miles. We could swim it, but Mr. Congreve, he old fashioned." Not only is it annoying to read, I found it somewhat insulting to a minority of which I'm not a member. I really hope it gets toned down in subsequent novels.

And I guess I'll find out, as based on this debut, I plan to move forward with the series. I'm looking forward to getting a better handle on Alex Hawke, and seeing how the supporting cast continues to develop.

For me the worst crime a book can commit is to be boring, so while some of the negative reviews here may make legitimate points regarding credibility, believability, etc., "Hawke" ultimately was a fast, entertaining read for me, mainly due to its engaging characters and engaging character interaction. There's also some genuine emotional resonance, as Alex Hawke slowly confronts his childhood demons. Also, I didn't mind some of the more outlandish plot elements, as they reminded me of the kind of thing Ian Fleming always did: drop a colorful, comic-book style villain and his over-the-top caper into an otherwise real-world setting. It worked well then and it works well now.

The book "Hawke" by Ted Bell is a thrilling adventure novel. Sadly, the story was poorly edited. Research was really lacking in the novel and errors were so blatant that even average people who read thrillers but are not in the military could notice the mistakes. The word 'obviously' was obviously overused.
In the end one painfully finishes the novel to see what other thriller cliche the author will use.You find yourself looking for errors because you bought the book,you want to finish it,you know the author must have done this on a dare,so you slog your way to the end. I hope Mr. Bell has got "write a novel" off his list of things to do in life because "buy a Bell novel" is sure off my list of things to do in life.

If you've read other books in this series but not this one, do yourself
a big favor and buy it. It really lays out the hero's character and provides
a lot of background that will make future books even more enjoyable.
The trauma AH experiences as a child is chilling and makes for difficult
reading but this is the underpinning of his character and so essential.
Loved the book, love the series. Keep 'em coming.

This book started well and then quickly fell apart. It became another entirely predictable spy-thriller story where the hero gets the girl, gains total revenge on his enemies (only after having a nice dialogue with them so they will remember what they did to him years ago, of course), and then saves the entire world in the nick of time. That's certainly novel, isn't it?

This book was so bad that after a while I began to wonder if the author was deliberately attempting a send-up or satire of James Bond type novels. There are numerous plot holes, serious and significant story line problems, too many characters and not nearly enough character development.

The only positive I could find is that the fellow reading the audio version did a superb job with it. The fact that he didn't die laughing while reading the stilted dialogue and corny conclusion is an accomplishment in itself!

I read through 2/3's of this book and could not continue. This is the most badly written spy/technothriller I've ever read. This dude obviously has never been around real U S Naval Aviators (I was a fighter pilot for 22 years). He doesn't seem to know the difference between an F-18 Hornet and an F-14 Tomcat. Then he figures that the F-14A is the main bird in the flock. If memory serves me the Tomcat version is now F-14D or maybe even later. The A's did not last all that long. All of 'em were upgraded with new engines and a lot of other stuff.
Back to the book the various people on the flight deck wear colored jerseys to conform to their general duties. To clarify, the yellow shirts are aircraft directors, the blue shirts are plane pushers, the red shirts are ordnance, purple is the refueling crews, white is normally medical, and so forth. There are also subsets. The catapult and arresting gear crews wear yellow shirts. Green shirts are for aircraft maintenance people and brown shirts are exclusively for plane captains.
His knowledge of the intel community is farcical. My last 8 or so years with the USN was in with that group and I can tell you that Bell never met a real spook.
Ted Bell obviously got this novel pushed through based on his clout. I highly recommend that he return to writing ad copy rather than taint the world of Clancy, Coyle, Huston, Bond, Cobb, Grady, Griffin, Coonts and Herman. There are many others, but these are the ones I'm familiar with and respect highly.
I suspect that Cussler and Demille were either pressured or bribed to make their false statements regarding this novel.
This novel was a waste of my valuable time and money.
I chickened out and continued reading the book with high hope that it had to improve.
USN aircraft carriers do not have orderlies. They don't utilize ensigns as personal servants for officers. And I'd say that the entire corps of USN ensigns were collectively insulted by using cherubic to describe a smile. Whoo-boy!
I'm trying to figure from under what rock the term, "Let's book." came from. I mean, like you could substitute "rock" or "roll" or both or "do it" or about a jillion other appropriate comments, but "book"? I think not.
The other point is that flight ops aboard a carrier are very carefully crafted and to think that the Kennedy was already at Flight Quarters before awakening our "hero" from a drunken stupor begs the question of how this book got published. Perhaps upon looking at the photo Mr. Bell might figure that everybody else imbibes heavily. In the USN there has been no booze officially allowed on board since sailing ships. There have been occasions, but only under the closest supervision and due to vastly extended at-sea periods.

Brief character summary: Alex Hawke is a brilliant, handsome, and overprivileged sociopath, given to bursts of violent physical assault and harboring poorly-concealed contempt for anyone who fails to give adequate obeisance. His fascination with swords and his deeper bond with male rather than female characters suggests a phallic fixation derived from intense, pre-pubescent emotional trauma. His tendency toward explosive violence (and quick, heated resentment) hints at an inability to express or process hostile emotions. His love of gadgets (which he explicitly describes as his "toys") likewise points to a psychological growth stagnant since childhood.

Aside from the generally juvenile style of writing, Bell suffers from a hopelessly cinematic structure and pacing, and he relies heavily on feeble caricature and trite plot devices that make a soap opera look like high art. The narrative voice is pointlessly inconsistent, and the text itself frequently lapses into cliche.

I haven't read Cussler, but his endorsement of this awful book makes it clear that his own literary tastes are questionable.

If you enjoy vapid, one-dimensional characters who engage in naive good-vs-evil crusades, then you might like "Hawke." If, however, you require your characters to be more than flat stereotypes, then stay away!

--Tom

I paid $7.99 for this book and read all of three chapters. The author did not earn the right for me to read more. I heard a talk-show host recommend his new book "Assassin" and I thought I'd read the first novel always looking for a good new author.

"Hawke" failed miserably. I don't have the technical background many of the other reviewers have, but I know bad writing when I see it and this is it. Oh my gosh. The dialogue is VERY BAD, as if Bell didn't even read it himself before submitting it for publication. It doesn't flow like real people talk.

Also, the first three chapters are about the main character, Alex Hawke. No problem normally. But Bell treats us in each chapter as though we've never met the character.

The first, prologue, sums up the tragic murder of Hawke's parents when he was a boy. Fine there, except that no one would notice the hold where he's hidden? Even before his father is murdered and left in a way to conceal it? They rip the ship apart, but miss a little used, but non-hidden part of the ship? Also, a key and map are going to remain in a pajama pocket with a boy curled up for four days, it wouldn't fall out? Finally, when the boy was taken to the hospital, the map wouldn't have been studied by countless personnel or even the people who rescued him?

The first chapter introduces us to someone called "The Englishman", in uppercase mind you, hinting that it's a different character. Nope, it's Hawke who is just called and "hired" by the president of the US to find a super-de-duper submarine that's gone missing. Ugh. And then when all that's done, super-cool Hawke has the woman calling offer phone-sex (since they are former lovers, but he's dumped her for another, he's so cool).

Finally, the second chapter has Hawke and his well-connected Scotland Yard buddy waiting in the Bahamas or somewhere to meet some former KGB goons. Here the dialogue is REALLY BAD. Also, when Hawke is introduced in this chapter, it's like we've never read the previous part of the book. Like Bell expects someone to pick up a book and start in the middle.

Listen seriously to the one-star reviewers here. This book IS that bad. Not sure I'll give "Assassin" a chance now. Sad, I really wanted a good new author.

Very rarely do I buy a book that I absolutely cannot stand. Unfortunately, this is one such book. There was no medal awarded for having read it, although I feel like I deserve one.
I wonder if a cross between Treasure Island, Sherlock Holmes, a Boys' Own adventure and a modern day thriller is something that any author can pull off. One thing is for certain: Mr Bell can't and nor can his editors.
Annoying, childish, poorly researched and written are just some of the ways I would summarise this book. There are so many better books out there (pretty much anything other than this one), so do yourself a favour and look elsewhere.

best new author I have found and I have read all his books in succession and each was as good as the other.
Have recommended him to library, friends etc. If I go to a booksale I mention this book to everyone
Timely theme----bought his newest from Amazon and waiting eagerly for another !!!!
Saw blurb on Amazon recommending Hawke and written by a famous author. So happy I did and thanks Amazon
Give him a try----you will be glad you did