Remote Control. [Import] [Hardcover]

Andy McNab (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 389 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books, NY, 1997.; First Edition edition (1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0552760439
• ISBN-13: 978-0552760430
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (69 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars McNab creates a great new hero in this tense thriller, July 6, 2002

By 

fionnmaccumhal "fionnmaccumhal" (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Remote Control (Mass Market Paperback)

Andy McNab's first thriller is a top-notch combination of violent action,
pulse-pounding excitement and edge of your seat suspense.

In "Remote Control" McNab introduces a new hero, Nick Stone, who makes most
other famous fictional heroes look like prancing twits (can you say "Dirk Pitt"?) An
ex-SAS operator and current deniable ops specialist for Britain, Stone is something
of a cross between Hammett's Continental Op and Alistair MacLean's Phillip
Calvert: tough as jacketed hollow points, totally on-task, and cunning enough to
beat the bad guys at their own game. Nick Stone has more life in him (and more
blood and soul) than any action hero this side of Pendleton era Mack Bolan.

The action in "Remote Control" never lets up for more than a few pages, and even
when Stone isn't facing guns and fists he's deep into the task at hand and planning
2 or 3 moves ahead so that the pace just keeps up and the tension builds.
Stone has to work against a plot without any help after he finds the family of a
friend murdered. On the run and out in the cold with his friend's seven year old
daughter in tow, Stone uses his training, intelligence and toughness to best
advantage. And just when he's past one challenge, an even greater one confronts
him. The story is told in first person and it really sounds like authentic dialogue.
This is like the golden age of Len Deighton's spy writing but with a tougher and
more realistic hero. Hard-boiled stuff!

The great relationship between childless Stone and seven year old Kelly is a
wonderful thing in this book. I think I worried as much for him when he had to
finally tell Kelly her family was dead as when he was in any of the many deadly
encounters in the story. McNab obviously knows something about children and
Kelly's character is so real it makes the reader very frightened for her safety.

The cover quote from author Stephen Coonts claims McNab is "the best suspense
thriller writer. . . since Alistair MacLean" and I can't argue with that. This book was
everything you'll want in a thriller. I can't wait to start the next one!

This is a 5 star effort if ever there was one. Read it.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Damn Good Read, February 3, 2000

By 

Kali "bengaligirl" (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Remote Control (Hardcover)

REMOTE CONTROL is an exciting, bullet flying, rib cracking, guts spewing story about an ex-SAS man, Nick Stone, who gets caught up in the vicious murder of an old friend and his family. Rescuing the only surviving member of the massacre a seven-year-old shell shocked little girl called Kelly, Nick goes on the run, and finds out that even friends are potential enemies in a world of IRA deals, drug cartels and messy TransAtlantic politics. This is a knuckle bitingly good book and I spent the whole of an evening reading it from cover to cover. Andy McNab is as good a writer of fiction as he is of fact. I liked his hero because it showed the man to be human and not just a killing machine as SAS soldiers are often portrayed in many novels. I hope that McNab thinks of writing a sequel to REMOTE CONTROL as Nick Stone and Kelly make quite a formidable team. A big thumbs up for this cracker of a first novel.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not great, but not bad, November 2, 2001

By 

"smokey_joe" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Remote Control (Mass Market Paperback)

After reading McNab's "Bravo Two Zero" and "Immediate Action," I thought I'd give his fiction a try. Overall this book is entertaining, with more action than recent vintage Clancy novels. The action is often quite intense and, in those moments, it is a real page turner. The technical and tradecraft details are what really make this book. McNab, or course, is all the more believable in these areas due to his personal experiences as relayed in his non-fiction work. He buys a credibility there that Clancy, et al. just can't match. Worth reading for that fact alone.

While the story is good and the details better, the writing itself is sometimes clumsy. Maybe this is nitpicking, since the reality is that the writing somehow seems to "fit" the story (you wouldn't want Steinbeck or Hemingway telling the story, would you?). However, I suspect that the writing is simply due to first novel syndrome (I had no complaints about his writing in Bravo Two Zero), and would expect this to improve in future works.

Although I only gave the book 3 stars, I'll definitely keep McNab on my "read" list.