Customer Reviews

Outsourced

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There are some issues with the military-industrial complex. In principle, contracting some of the more mundane functions of the military or even intelligence services out to private companies makes a lot of sense, as they can most likely find the most efficient means of delivery when profit is on the line. But as Ms. Hillhouse reminds us in a chilling coda, the extent to which our government's most sensitive functions--from counterintelligence to humint to operations and logstics--have been farmed out to private companies is worrisome. Especially when some of these companies (QinetiQ and Aegis Defense Services come immediately to mind, but there are others) are foreign owned and thus owe allegiance not just to their share holders but potentially to other governments as well.

This is where Outsourced comes into play. Like another current events fiction book I loved--A Corpse in the Koryo by James Church--RJ Hillhouse uses a fictional story to highlight the severe danger Private Military Corporations, or PMCs, represent. This allows her to explore how and why this system can break down (and often does, told through real life news stories excerpted at the beginning of most chapters) without coming off as a preachy, and quite possibly shallow, polemic.

In that sense, she is writing in the vein of early Tom Clancy, demonstrating extensive research, deep literacy of the political, social, and military issues involved, and a good eye for thrill. The writing is crisp, the pacing good, and the descriptions both enjoyable and clearly born of knowledge and not assumption. A love story between a warrior woman named Stella but known as her alias Camille, and Hunter Stone, a Pentagon Spy caught in a collapsing circle of competing agendas, forms the general framework of the story. Through this story, some of the more pernicious aspects of the chaos in Iraq come to light, including just how very easy it is to make people disappear there without explanation or investigation.

Just that section alone, showing how easy it is for personal agendas to not just set back the mission of peace but to rapidly spiral into a murderous cycle of revenge, would make this keen reading. But it is when the book morphs into a larger critique of how the War on Terror is conducted (including the interesting claim that bin Laden was captured in Waziristan in 2002 and his death covered up so al-Qaeda would remain rudderless, as well as stories of relentless border clashes with Syria, Iran on both sides, and Pakistan) that its real value becomes clear.

For example, a significant chunk of the book takes place in the Uzbek portion of the Kyzyl Kum Desert, at first near the vanishingly small town of Sukuti then an al-Qaeda training camp further south (Hillhouse helpfully provides coordinates, which can be plugged into Google Earth to see it's right between Bukhara and Samarkand). A fake PMC called Rubicon is running a secret prison nearby--a black site. By having a private company run the prison (either for the CIA or DoD), the government itself avoids, to a large degree, the brunt of the criticism. It is not Langley which is responsible for the fatal torture of suspects, it is the company they hired out--blame the company, not The Company, as it were.

In this conceit, showing both how utterly reliant upon and utterly powerless the government is to stop these companies, Hillhouse's novel can be considered a success. I was a bit disappointed she didn't explore how these companies might undermine the War on Terror more, though the ending, which wound up surprisingly satisfying, does approach the subject from a slightly oblique angle (especially the revelation that some PMCs, and some parts of the government, might not want the war to actually end).

But it seems silly to complain that a novel didn't properly address the complexities of the political and social realities surrounding privatized armies. The volume of literature on the subject, from the mercenaries of medieval Europe to the mercenaries of today, is small but growing every year. The new political and legal tangles these corporations create, including messy issues of legitimacy, legality, and jurisdiction, are so new no one really knows how to address them properly. For example, when Blackwater accidentally kills an innocent Iraqi, to whom must it ultimately pay the price? If a DynCorp spraying agent murders an Afghan villager, how do they get justice? These "soldiers" are not bound by US law while in-country, and neither Iraqi nor Afghani law applies to them. The new rule placing them under the UMCJ is weak and easily gotten around. So who do they answer to? Are they only responsible to their shareholders?

Some situations that arise in the book are eerie if only for how plausible they seem: a border clash between PMCs and the Taliban inside the NWFP in Pakistan, or along the border with Syria. I had some trouble believing that all the havoc these companies caused during the various chase scenes would go unnoticed by either the military or the press, but then again I have no idea what doesn't get reported or who turns a blind eye.

Ms. Hillhouse has accomplished something very few have: she has forced me to reexamine my own relationship with the government, including who I support and why. Who in charge is really looking out for our interests? And even if they are, is it moral for me to bask in our safety and prosperity when it comes at such a tremendous cost? Whatever answers I eventually settle out in my own head, the process of answering them will have proven extremely valuable. If for no other reason, even if it weren't an exciting spy thriller, I'd recommend it. As it is, there are many reasons to buy this and read.

Outsourced
Those who have been to Iraq and those who have trod the halls of CIA headquarters will readily recognize that, in terms of researching her topic, Hillhouse's real life details are a match for Tom Clancy. Where Outsourced's author may even surpass Clancy, however, is in her ability to communicate in print the intellectual and emotional tension of espionage and paramilitary operations so as to almost provoke a physical sensation. Throughout the book, the Boy Scout-like straightforwardness of soldiers is counterpoised with the dark betrayals of spies into a yarn that made it difficult to find a spot where I could put the thing down. At the end, I found myself wondering just where the dividing line was between fiction and fact--the type of fact that just hasn't made it into the newspapers yet. Don't start reading this book on a weekday evening. You may find yourself calling in for a day off just to finish it.

Outsourced is a look into the future of wars that this country will fight. America has become the home of the outsourced worker and this novel demonstrates how outsourcing has come to the American military. While it is a fictionalized account, the settings described by Hillhouse ring with the resonance of stories taken from our daily papers.

The action is set at a break neck pace which keeps you turning the pages to see what could possibly happen next. From raids in Ramadi to the cells of Abu Ghraib you will mesmorized by the action. The techno/military thriller is well written and keeps your attention throughout the entire book. This is a great read - grab it today!

I keep recommending this book to people. I can't speak highly enough about it. Although it starts off a little rough (there are a lot of characters to keep track of), the book found its footing around page 60 and stayed good for the remainder. It's as fast-paced as "24," but with more realism. Interspersed throughout various chapters are media quotes that relate to the events being fictionally portrayed in the book, giving the reader an education in addition to entertainment. At the end, there is even a section called "The Facts Behind the Fiction."

"Outsourced" is a great story overall; plenty of action, espionage, location changes, and even a little romance here and there.

Over 75 years ago, Marine Corps General Smedley D. Butler wrote "War is a Racket", a scathing indictment of the men who profit from the blood and tears of others. R.J. Hillhouse updates this theme in "Outsourced", a novel based on her research into the new, outsourced American military/intelligence complex. Her characters are well-drawn and compelling, the action sequences move plausibly and briskly, but what makes "Outsourced" so gripping is its foundation on widely-reported but little-noticed items in the news. At the heart of "Outsourced" is a fundamental and frightening question: If the intelligence our government uses to guide our foreign policy is filtered through the hands of for-profit entities -- and, as Hillhouse documents, it is -- then Americans must ask whether our wars overseas are undertaken for foreign policy objectives or to open new markets for companies in the business of making war.

I had no idea that war was so complicated. That shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who happens to be in the military, when you're considering that this review is written by a civilian... one who's closest encounter with the military has been that of watching war movies, playing the occasional military themed game, and of course the time I got to fire off various pieces of military hardware when I was living in the Philippines.

I always thought that it was pretty black and white, I didn't realize there were so many gray zones when it came to the military.

Particularly when it comes to the fact that, if even 10% of what was hinted at in the book Outsourced was true, that the US military, nay the US government has gone into using mercenary companies to bolster the amount of troops that they actually have on the ground at the moment.

In order to circumvent the laws passed by congress.

Now, again, if even a fraction of the things hinted at in the novel are true, then Mercenary companies are becoming a pretty major player in the military world, and that there is a great deal of money to be made by these companies across the globe, wherever there are hotspots that the US military happen to be involved in.

It certainly opened my eyes when it comes to what is happening behind the scenes.

Now, for the review. As per usual, I will not give out any spoilers that one can't find out on their own by reading the back cover of the novel. I hate ruining things for people.

The novel, written by R. J. Hillhouse in short, is about a mercenary outfit working in Iran for the government, acting as support for the troops, and taking on independent missions for cash.

Enter Camille Black, the head of a major player in the Mercenary Outsourcing world. She has been hired by the CIA to track down her former lover, who was supposed to have died several years before, and kill him.

It's a novel about betrayal, secrets, terrorism, and subterfuge. Oh, and of course Mercenary companies hired by the U.S. Government to do things that they don't want the public to discover.

And about the fighting between the different companies for contracts and sources.

Overall, it was a very well written novel, with plenty of action to keep the most adventure hungry reader satisfied.

The descriptions and the characters were well constructed, although at times I found several of the characters in the novel to be too cliché.

One thing that really stuck out about the novel and something that really bothered me was how the main character acted at times. I swear to go she was schizophrenic. It was as if she couldn't make up her mind about a certain character.

I can't go into too much detail as it would be considered a fairly major spoiler, and as I have stated, I don't like to spoil things for potential readers.

The overall plot wasn't that difficult to follow, and even though there were some minor side plots, it all meshed together smoothly.

The thing is, I can't say how much of the plot happens in the real world, and I never will be able to say... you know, the bit about the U.S. Government outsourcing to mercenary companies to bolster the troops in the Middle East and Afghanistan, using them to conduct `black' operations that would drag people through the mud if it was ever found out, that sort of thing.

But, it read like it was all true, and felt very real as I devoured page after page. Even the location descriptions were very well done.

It wasn't a super novel, but it was definitely worth reading, even if just to open your eyes to the whole Mercenary world that exists - or could exist.

3.5 out of 5.

I just finished reading "Outsourced". GREAT BOOK! I was impressed with the depth of knowledge and reserch R.J. Hillhouse put into this book. It gave me a lot to think about when it comes to our government and the freedom we take for granted. There are huge prices that are paid, with so many we will never know about. The story let you see a true possible senerio that real people can go through in the day to day situations that come in times of war. It is not a blanket story that is reported a lot of times by the media or by the government. It sparked a deeper interest in our government for me, and opened up a bounty of questions.
The lead character being a strong woman with brains is brilliant! I like to see that women can be portrayed as they truely can be.
I definately recommend this book. You won't be able to put it down. I will problably read it again. I can't say that for too many books I have read.
I have also read her first book, "Rift Zone". Totally different then this one but nonetheless a great book to read.

If you're not in the spy/military business, I guess it would be hard to deem whether this book is 'right on the money' or not. But it certainly feels like it to the curious outsider. It's kind of a next step in spy thrillers, drawing on the classic spy novel features of mind games, deception and conspiracies, while adding elements that puts it right in the context of the events of the last decade. On top of that, it's very fast-paced and excitingly written. If I were to look for any drawbacks, it might be that I feel the book is a bit too short. The plot unfolds in the right tempo, but for me personally I wouldn't have minded a bit more elaboration on sceneries, social environments (for example bringing in the lives and perspectives of local populations and their lives in the shadow of the WoT) and character developments. At times the book comes across as a bit one-dimensional, picturing characters as being more or less only warriors and spies.

Very enjoyable read. A note worthy good thing about it was the fact it was the author was a woman and the protagonist was to (I hate it when authors write trans-gender, never works you know?). All was pretty much realistic, (including all the crazy girl emotions) but more technicals on weapons could of been used, as ex-army I can tell you we think about our weapons, the conditions, and what they can do all the time. And as you read you think you know the plot and you read because the story is good (action too) but there are some unexpected but realistic plot twists in there. Very good writing for a 1st attempt. I would recommend this to any interest in action/adventure and even international affairs.

Hillhouse knows her subject well. The novel is typically formulaic but offers twists and turns that keep the reader engaged and titillated. A page-turner, this book also gives important insight into the REAL world of our modern military and its relationship with the business world. At once alarming and encouraging, it does not overtly condemn the DoD's increasing reliance on private contractors in lieu of enlisted soldiery, but it is a cautionary tale just the same. Books of this genre, to sell well, must contain many unlikely scenarios. This book does that and much more. As with any book in this vein, suspend your incredulity, kick back and enjoy the escape.