Customer Reviews

Quick Silver

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Pentagon is held hostage in "Quicksilver", the thrilling new book by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, and the reader is held hostage by their magnificent plotting and unforgettable characters. Known and loved by millions for their Star Trek series, the authors took us on a wild, suspenseful ride and kept building the suspense until we forgot everything else, including breakfast, lunch, dinner and all plans made for 48 hours. Amy "Nuke" Bethune is a delightfully attractive heroine, a young woman who finds herself in the center of unexpected tragedy and has to prove her mettle. As we watched the President of the U.S. and our whole security system fall under devastating attack, we also marveled at the way Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens sprang surprises on us. Without giving away anything, we would shocked and overwhelmed by the dramatic twist on page 23. It literally bowled us over. The heroes in thes story are courageous and admirable, but no thriller works without a mesmerizing villain, and the authors have provided a great one for our reading pleasure. The phrase "cliffhanger" has been overused in reviews, but here the word applies. "Quicksilver" is a masterpiece, and would also make a superb motion picture. Now that we've had such intense enjoyment from the book, we can't wait to see it on the big screen.

This book is wonderful. It was the first book by Judith Reeves and Garfield Stevens that I had read. It makes you want to finish the book in one sitting, your heart will be pounding as the action never stops. You always wonder whats going to happend to your favorite charecter. A Must Read for anyone who likes espionage and spy/thriller books. I highly recommend it.

Quicksilver is full of fast and furious action and suspense. This powerhouse thriller achieves a runaway victory on the basis of sheer storytelling excitement. You will not be able to turn the pages fast enough. I passed up the author's previous novel ICEFIRE, but I am going today, to pick up ICEFIRE at my local store. I recommend this one for the miltary buff as well as the main stream people. "I would not miss this one!

This book is remarkable. Fast and continuous action. Surprises at every turn. When you think "the authors can't let that happen." it happens. A book that's hard to put down, even to get some sleep. And clean, that is, no sex. Wholesome family and patriotic values. Excellent!

After Clancy invented the techno-thriller with the debut of 'The Hunt For Red October' in the 80's, I was wondering if/when someone would take it to the next level...well Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens' has done for the techno-thriller what they did with Star Trek books: they re-wrote the textbook on HOW it SHOULD be written.

Solid storytelling that isn't just exciting, but thought-provoking at the same time...characters you can identify with, and a bad guy who is as cool as they come. The idea of taking over The Pentagon is definitely something that in reality IS probably impossible to pull off, but these guys make it sound like not only COULD it happen, but it just MIGHT one day... Moving from scene to scene with seamless ease and leaving you guessing what is gonna happen next and the action sequences are as choreographed as a Jackie Chan fight scene...right down to the smallest of details. Virtually nothing is overlooked in this absolute riviting thriller -- in fact the only thing that struck me as I finished this was WHEN are they going to come out with ANOTHER book? They have entered this arena as virtual unknowns, but they have proven themselves as worthy in the literary world of action as anyone...and clearly superior to MOST of what is peddled these days as good fiction. Not just a good book...not just fun...but exceptionally so. Highly Recommended.

I read Icefire and thought it was a great book filled, with action and likeable characters. I looked forward to Quicksilver and if I hadn't of read Icefire I would have given up on it. The first 200 pages could have easily been shortened to 50 or so. I also didn't like the wimpy peace-loving male character. Don't get me wrong, I didn't mind, at first in this novel, the strong female characters, but it got a little much how they both thought of him (Tom Chase) as "thick" and a "nuisance". It almost sounded like the husband and wife writing team were communicating their frustrations about the other through the novel.

The story, after the first 200 pages is however filled with action and will keep you reading.

I will wait for reviews before reading another of Reeves-Stevens novels.

I really liked this book for many reasons. It has a good plot, full of twists and turns. The action is fast, I read the book very quickly. The author keeps you guessing, your not sure who is going to make it to the end alive. The best way to describe the book is its like the DIe Hard movies. This time though the hero is a girl. I had trouble with the way she handled herself with the terrorists. She was just too good. Bruce Willis maybe, but a twenty something girl, I don't think so. But what the heck, its different. Lots of futuristic hardware and good badguys, throw in unpredictability and you have a good fast read. Highly recommended.

You will love this book if:

--You love technothrillers but believe that the US military is run by warhappy Dr. Strangeloves;

--That the only heroes in the US military - the only ones who see clearly, do the right thing and defeat the bad guys - are women who Fight Their Way Up Despite All Those Sexist Guys Who Leer At Them;

--That it's wrong to make sexist remarks about women, but don't mind repeated sexist remarks about men;

--That the only sympathetic men are wimpy, Gandhiesque pacifists - "I won't carry a gun!" - while happily employed working on far-beyond-top-secret communications and weapons system;

--That men are fascists when they kick ass, but women are cool when they do the same thing;

--That a second-year female naval cadet who's taken a couple of tactics and hand-to-hand combat courses can turn, when Payback Time comes, into a distaff Rambo doing everything but carving notches in her gun for each bad guy she wastes in her efforts to get even;

--That unbelievably depraved bad guys who kill more than a thousand people in closely related terrorist incidents, while being shown early as neo-Nazis, can somehow be excused as pan-European idealists credibly worried about American hegemony and war-mongering. The message lingers there at the end that you, too, should be more worried about this than the thousand of your fictional countrymen killed in this novel. This might play in Berkeley, but after Sept. 11, I wouldn't try to sell this in lower Manhattan.

It's too bad, because the Clancyesque technical guts of the book - from a nasty new Star Wars weapon based on electro-magnetic pulses, to the fine details of security at the Pentagon and how it might be defeated - are worthy. And the ending, while hokey, isn't terribly more so than Clancy's "The Bear and the Dragon."

But you get the feeling that the Reeves-Stevens writing team took turns writing passages, with Reeves-Stevens Him writing technical details interspersed with the tedious "you-go-girl" narratives written by Reeves-Stevens Her.

Didn't enjoy this one as much as their earlier "Icefire". The tech is far out, the situations are unbelievable and the characters exist to only to serve the plot and to get the hots for each other at odd times. Recommended for genre buffs only.

I read this book over 8 years ago. It was written in 1999 but the story takes place about 5 years beyond that. In some ways, this book is earlier prophetic.

General Milo Vanovich and Major Margaret Sinclair are watching the test of an orbital platform defense weapon that all participating believe will create an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) to knock out equipment but not harm people. However, the "defensive" weapon turns out to be very offensive as all 384 sailors aboard the USS Shiloh are killed almost instantly. This project is called Quicksilver.

Our story begins with three main plotlines from here: The President of the United States along with his assistant, Hector MacGregor, his wife, the Vice President and many other high ranking officials including the Joint Chiefs of Staff are heading to the Pentagon to announce the admission of Russia to NATO. While many military officials are not sure that the US can trust Russia, the President is confident that peace is attainable at last.

Secondly, we have Tom Chase, a high level electronics and communications engineer and now FBI instructor, preparing to go to a ball game with his 8 year old son Tyler. He receives an emergency page for General Vanovich who he used to work with. Two officers come to his house - one to take him to the General in the Pentagon and the other to take his son to the ballgame. Tom promises to page his son when he is on the way home.

Thirdly, we have Midshipman Amy Bethune frustrated as another classmate, also a woman, has stolen her regulation underwear so as she comes out of the shower she has to get tricky and sneaky herself. As she is finally dressed and races to the parking lot to catch a bus that is taking 40 midshipman to help out at the Pentagon celebration, she sees the bus drive away!! Luckily she has a motorcycle parked off campus that she can use although she has to search and use her backup key.

Several things become apparent right away: In the President's party, there is some strong disagreement with a couple of the Joint Chiefs on how the President is handling Russia and the military. They all have quite a discussion in the Tank Room at the Pentagon and two of the chiefs resign and leave the Pentagon.

As the midshipman who hid Amy Bethune's underwear is gloating that Amy missed the bus and will miss the opportunity, the bus is blocked by road crews who incredibly come on the bus, ask for their passes and start shooting!!

Finally, we have Tom Chase meeting the General who looks very ill- dying of colon cancer which Tom did not know -- and he wants Tom to join him back in his organization. He also starts telling Tom about Quicksilver.

Enter into this mix some type of terrorists who start quickly killing people after they sneak into the Pentagon and whose motives seem rather obscure at first.

We have heroes and bad guys and in-between guys and lots of action!!

A really good read. Fast-paced.