Larry Bond's First Team [Hardcover]

Larry; DeFelice, Jim Bond (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2004

Officially designated the Joint Services Special Demands Project, "The Team" is a unique unit created to address unconventional threats in an unconventional manner, beyond the bureaucratic restraints of either the U.S. intelligence or military establishments. With an almost unlimited budget, The Team--consisting of a CIA officer, two Special Forces commandos, and one Marine--is authorized to track vital intel and then take immediate action. A radical response to perilous times, The Team has never been more needed than at this very moment: a quantity of radioactive waste, being shipped across the former Soviet Union, has gone missing. In the wrong hands, the stolen material can be converted into a "dirty bomb" capable of rendering any American city uninhabitable for centuries. With time running out, The Team must locate and neutralize the threat--unaware that their unseen enemy has already chosen a target: the island paradise of Honolulu.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: New York, NY, U.S.A.: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, 2004, New York, NY, U.S.A.; First Edition, First Printing edition (2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0641641737
• ISBN-13: 978-0641641732
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,215,996 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars gritty and edgy, February 19, 2005

By 

Douglas De Bono - Author of No Safe Harbor (Minnetonka, mn United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Larry Bond's First Team (Bond, Larry) (Hardcover)

A lot of people did not like this book. Folks you could do much worse. This book moves quite fast and you need to pay attention otherwise, you will lose the plot.

The writing style for this book reflects the anxiety of the main characters as they track the components for a dirty bomb through Central Asia. If that was the intent then the authors achieved their goal.

However, I think they missed an interesting subplot by not playing up the friction between Corrine (the lady lawyer) and Ferguson (who is trying to get killd before he dies of cancer).

This is an average thriller against the back drop of the War on Terror.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I beg you not to read this book., June 10, 2004

By 

Bill Garrison (Oklahoma City, OK USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Larry Bond's First Team (Bond, Larry) (Hardcover)

I have a new "worst book I've ever read" on my list after trudging through this garbage for the last three weeks. First Team has two things going for it. First, the book summary on the jacket because that is the only hope you have of following the plot, and second, the captions beginning each chapter that indicate where the characters are.

Larry Bond's books have all been high quality novels, even though the last one he wrote wasn't as good. But he hasn't written anything in awhile then returns with this effort with co-author Jim Defilice. I don't know who wrote what, but somewhere along the line, they really botched this book up.

The story involves a team that operates outside the law tracking terrorists. It has CIA man Fergeson, two special forces memberts Rankins and Connors and a marine called Guns. They are on the trail of terrorists trying to prevent a dirty bomb being set off in the USA.

I seriously considered quitting this book after about 100 pages. At this point the problem wasn't the storytelling, but the horrendeous dialogue among the "First Team". I guess the authors were trying to add character to these people, but every other word was a joke or a lewd comment. This detracted from the story because it often seemed forced and out of place and incredibly unrealistic. I doubt soldiers trade crass jokes in the heat of battle.

The horrible dialogue tapers off somewhat and then the horrible story takes over. The authors can't describe scenery at all and do a horrible job of telling the reader why characters are in Iran, then in Russia, then split up into teams, then together. Why are they following a train? Why do they stop? How do they get to a US airbase from following a train? Those easy questions are never answered.

This book has the typical computer nerd working in a messy office at headquarters and he finds some useful info and shares it with the team in the field. Or at least I think he did. What he finds out and tracks makes no sense. The authors mention a May 11 memo. Where did this come from. Did I miss its introduction early in the novel?

The president of the USA sends a sexy 26 year old attorney who amazingly has gone through special forces training out in the field to go with the "Team" and to make all key decisions. Ridiculous.

The "authors" do a horrible job of setting up the premsis for the existence of the "First Team." They do a baq job of writing characters and dialogue. They have no clue about telling a story.

This book is horrible. Please don't read it!!!!!

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but nothing new., June 15, 2004

By 

Slick (Charlotte, NC, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Larry Bond's First Team (Bond, Larry) (Hardcover)

First off, Larry Bond and Tom Clancy are my favorite writers for fiction. However...

This is not like any of Larry Bond's first three books: Red Phoenix, Vortex, and Cauldron. It does resemble his latter two of Day of Wrath, and Enemy Within.

I found it a good book and easy to follow, but not to the level of his first three. It is fairly typical of most terrorist plotted techno-thrillers out today. It is worth buying, but only in the bargain bin or paperback.

I highly recommend Michael Farmer's "Tin Soldiers"