One Is the Loneliest Number (Tom Clancy's Net Force; Young Adults, No. 3) [Paperback]

Tom Clancy (Author), Steve Pieczenik (Author), Diane Duane (Author)

Book Description

Series: Net Force | Publication Date: April 1, 1999

In this new adventure, a fellow student makes life miserable for the rest of the Net Force by sabotaging a virtual simulation program. But when a Force exiles him from the group, the brilliant outcast creates a virtual "playroom" that will blow them all away. Based on the major mini-series from ABC-TV.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Paperback: 182 pages
• Publisher: Berkley (April 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425164179
• ISBN-13: 978-0425164174
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #627,941 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Diane Duane was born in New York City -- a descendant of New York's first mayor -- and worked there as a psychiatric nurse before leaving the profession for the only one she loved better, the business of writing. Since the publication of her first novel in 1981, she's written fifty more, not to mention numerous short stories, comics, computer games and screenplays for TV and film, and has picked up the occasional award here and there. (She has also worked with Star Trek in more media than anyone else alive.)

Right now she's probably best known for her "Young Wizards" series of young adult fantasy novels, featuring the New York-based wizards Kit Rodriguez and Nita Callahan -- in business for twenty-five years now, their most recent adventure being described in the ninth YW novel, "A Wizard of Mars" (just released in paperback).

DD shares a two hundred-year-old cottage in the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland with her husband, the Belfast-born novelist and screenwriter Peter Morwood, a laid-back white cat named Goodman, and various overworked computers... an odd but congenial environment for the staging of epic battles between good and evil and the leisurely pursuit of total galactic domination. (And a lot of ethnic cooking: her own favorite foods come from the cuisines of central Europe and the Mediterranean.) In her spare time she gardens (weeding, mostly), studies German and Italian, listens to shortwave and satellite radio, and dabbles in astronomy, computer graphics, iaido, amateur cartography, and desktop publishing ... while also trying to figure out how to make more spare time.

Her favorite color is blue, her favorite food is a weird kind of Swiss scrambled-potato dish called maluns, she was born in a Year of the Dragon, and her sign is "Runway 24 Left, Hold For Clearance."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Tedious beginning, mediocre ending, October 1, 2005

By 

Geert Daelemans (Leuven Belgium) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: One Is the Loneliest Number (Tom Clancy's Net Force; Young Adults, No. 3) (Paperback)

Madeline Green, also known as Maj, is a member of the Group of Seven: a gathering of youngsters that enjoy creating virtual simulations of historic events. Maj has just finished her simulation of a 1964 bomber plane that originally crashed on its maiden voyage. She invites the Group of Seven to watch and judge her latest creation. But early in the simulation something goes dreadfully wrong: Maj is unable to control the plane and she crashes almost directly after take-off. When it becomes clear that Roddy, the super intelligent loner of the group, has sabotaged Maj's simulation just to prove that he can, the group decides to teach Roddy a lesson. But this only inflames the situation: Roddy's out for revenge.

It is difficult to make sense of the author's decision to use the first quarter of One Is the Loneliest Number as a tedious description of a virtual simulation. Apart from a poor introduction of the main character is does not contain any information that tickles the curiosity of the reader. It is more than obvious that the simulation is going to crash, so building towards this is not adding much suspense to the story.
Luckily once this mind-numbing setting has been concluded the story really starts. The tone and rhythm completely change, another character is introduced in the form of Mark Grideley who immediately takes the lead and makes the character of Maj obsolete. It is as though the author realised his mistake and quickly took action to make the plot more exciting.

All considered this story turns out to be only a mediocre episode of the Netforce series, only to be read if you feel the urge to read the complete series.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Net Force Explorers: One is the Loneliest Number, October 1, 2002

By 

Priscilla Stafford (Yokohama, Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One Is the Loneliest Number (Tom Clancy's Net Force; Young Adults, No. 3) (Paperback)

Madeleine Green, called Maj, has spent a year perfecting one of her latest virtual sims. She decides to present it to her friends who calls themselves the Group of Seven, seven teens who are all computer whiz kids. But all it took was a few moments for one of the Group, Roddy L'Officer, to sabotage her sim program! Since Roddy has done plenty of damaging 'pranks' before, the rest of the Group decides to exile Roddy, meaning no virtmails and no sims between the friends and him. But Roddy has something up his sleeve, a new 'playroom' he has recently created. But the 'playroom' is not all he's done, he's also discovered something of pure genius, something that can be used for good... or for evil.

The Net Force Explorers is a great Young Adult fiction series, especially those with a love for computers and the Internet. Since the Net presented in the books have no boundaries, you will never know what to expect next. With well-thought out plots, the stories have plenty of twists and turns, having the whole plot well balanced with mystery, excitement, and adventure.

Unfortunately for me, "One is the Loneliest Number" isn't one of my favorite Net Force Explorer's books. The reason is because the back of the book did not explain what the story was about very well so the first half of the book was very slow and a bit dull for me. I think the reason is because though in the back it says that the Group of Seven are Net Force Explorers, it's not necessarily true. Only Maj is an Explorer so Net Force doesn't appear for a while in the story. But as soon as things began to pick up, I must admit that the story was incredibly exciting! My tip is, though maybe a bit slow at first, keep reading. The last few chapters are EXTREMELY exciting!

The character of Maj Green is pretty average, has a temper that flairs up occasionally but soon simmers down. But for me my favorite character was Mark Grideley, who appears later in the book. He is fairly young, thirteen years old, but since he is the Net Force director's son, he's very smart. As stubborn as a rock, he is in a way a good leader. I LOVE the part where he, Maj, and Charlie (another Explorer) confront Roddy. But of course I can't say too much!

The series is for Young Adults and I strongly recommend only older kids read it since there are many occasions where a few bad words are sprinkled here and there. Not that bad but still in a way a bit annoying to have them in the book. But I still highly recommend it for older kids for I'm sure you'll love it!

5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars REALLY GOOD, May 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: One Is the Loneliest Number (Tom Clancy's Net Force; Young Adults, No. 3) (Paperback)

I believe that this book is a really good book, and I would certainly want to buy the whole series after just this first book. I really want to go out and buy the rest of these books. Two Thumbs Up! :-))