Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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!

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! :-))

My name is Mike from 1st period English II, and I am reviewing NET FORCE "One is the loneliest number" by Tom Clancy.
It is basically your general science fiction novel where computers rule the world in the future. I liked this book not only because I like science fiction, but because it is an outstanding piece of literature. It is so outstanding because it is a thinker. You are not supposed to under stand everything as soon as it happens. A couple of pages later, the it all clicks together. In the begining, the characters talk of simulations, North American XB-70 Valkyries, and Spitfires. When it is put into words in such a matter, the words have no meaning. In later pages, however, you soon find out that the kids are virtually simulating well known wars such as WWII, and the Battle of Gettysburg. Also, the NA XB-70 Valkyrie is a super virtual jet that Maj,a main character, brought back to life. Finally, a Spitfire is a log-lived aircraft in their virtual world.

I also like this book because it is extremely descriptive. There are adjictives that paint much more than a picture. The auther, Tom Clancy, tells the story as if he is living it at that point in time. He really knows how to stay in the moment. "It stood silhouetted against the brightening crimson line of dawn, a shadow that could as yet cast no shadow of its own"(1). Tom Clancy could have simply said, "It made a silhouette when the sun came up." "Very suddenly, and Maj hoped showily, they appeared on the tarmac as they were mentioned: A threesomeof F-104 Starfighters, their brushed chrome gleaming blindingly in the sun and their engines already wound up and screaming with mechanical enthusiasm"(21). The words, "Three planes showed up," would have covered that 38 word sentence. I am not sure wheather it is the discription or what they are describing that caught my eye.

The third and final reason why I like this book is because it is all about kids. It really puts things in perspective and helped me relate to the characters ans situations better. "In the future, computers rule the world. The et Force was formed to protect us fro any and all criminal activity on-line. But there is a group of teenage whiz kids who sometimes know more about computers than their adult superiors"(back cover). That showes that kids are running the show.

I give this book four out of five stars because it is only 175 pages long. I reccomend this read to teenagers that watch Star Trek, and was first in line for Star Wars Episode II.

The copy I purchased was missing pages 59 thru 90, a critical part, and had 91 thru 122 twice. I tried to just forget the missing pages and continue, but it was impossible, to much was missing from the story. Other than the aformentioned problem, the book was very good, what I could read of it.