Customer Reviews

Traitor: Library Edition

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

 

 

I've read almost all of Ralph Peters' novels, and this is probably my favorite to date. I passed it over in hardcover--frankly it didn't sound very interesting. I couldn't have been more wrong: it's one of the best written, engrossing novels I've read in a long time. Peters is one of the few military thriller writers that can name drop Thomas Hardy novels and actually make us believe his characters read them. I know what a cliche this sounds, but I couldn' t put it down. Peters has within him his best novel yet--some day he'll write the Once An Eagle of his generation of officers.

After 25 years in the defense industry, watching the Services buy big things they don't need while neglecting small things they do (like enough pay so the troops don't have to be on food stamps), it continues to disturb me that the American taxpayer continues to allow Congress to sell out to what Ike Eisenhower called the "military-industrial complex". TRAITOR could have been a documentary. This is a great novel, thrilling and unpredictable, but it is also based on the real world and all the more gripping because of this.

A new book by Ralph Peters is a must-buy in this house, and Traitor tells why. Greedy defense contractors are threatening to rip off the taxpayers to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. The hero, John Reynolds, is no James Bond, but, rather, an honorable soldier who won't compromise his integrity. If this is your first Peters' book, I'll bet it won't be your last!

The portrayal of our defense industry in this story is unfortunately accurate. We have placed so much emphasis on "smart weapons", that we have forgotten the real effectiveness of our military. The action and pace of this book will keep the reader enthralled and they will not want to put it down.

This book grabbed me from the first word through the close of the authors notes. Peters' characters are brought to life on the pages before your eyes. This book could only be written by a talented storyteller with the insight of an insider like Ralph Peters. It started for me with Peters last book "The Devil's Garden" and with "Traitor" I am now a true Peters fan.

Convoluted, yet intracite. A complex cast of villians and double-crosses, mixed with a inditement of the military-industrial complex. While not as good as "The Devil's Garden" or "Twilight of Heroes", it is still an entertaining read.

I enjoy most of Rakph Peters books, and think Traitors is one of his finest.

His writing is tight and obviously well researched. The characters are believable and plots grab you by the neck. I read this when I should have ebbn sleeping..couldn't put it down.

I just finished another excellent novel by Ralph Peters --- Traitor (hard cover).

I placed it at the bottom of a stack of books I brought home from the library, two weeks ago. I generally put his books at the top of my reading list, but the cover art was so impressively unappealing and the title so blasé that I almost took it back to the library unread.

It seems to me that Mr. Peters has proven his ability to write exceptional, and well plotted, thrillers. Why would anyone stick such an uninspired cover on a truly extraordinary read?

If someone likes Clancy, Higgins, et. al. they should love Ralph Peters.

In an author's afterword, Peters decribes this book as his homage to Chandler, Hammett and Cain, which it most certainly is. But there's no overt emulation of the style of any of those authors; what one does experience is the exhilarating momentum of plot, vivid characterization, and the acerbic wit that those authors brought to bear in their work. Peters' protagonist is an honorable man making his way through a chaotic present, similar to Philip Marlowe in Chandler's novels, with a comparable eye and ear for the "luminous detail." And the first-person perspective makes for some great interior monologue throughout the book. Readers who are dismayed by the lack of moral center in the books of such authors as James Ellroy might find Peters' writing a worthy alternative.

Ralph Peters is one those success stories that only the army is capable of: rocker dropout joins army and becomes one of America's leading strategic thinkers. In his spare time, he turns out immensely entertaining page turners, which are remarkable for holding your interest by sheer narrative drive and deft characterization. Sex and violence are not as important as plot and background. His heroes tend to win not by being tougher or smarter than their enemies, but by being more honorable. In Devil's Garden and Twilight of Heroes, his best books, one learns a fair bit about current international concerns, as well. No one shows better how much damage can be caused by stupid career minded bureaucrats. Victory is always bittersweet, with the real bad guys still in control. Both Garden and Twilight are worth more than their cover price just for the wonderfully accurate portrayal of that blowhard Strobe Talbott. In Traitor, Peters tries something new, less realistic, more violent, more cynical. His villains are evil this time. Although I prefer the tone of his earlier novels, he is in top form here and his villain, Punchy Hunt, is one of the great bad guys of popular fiction: a Shakespeare quoting millionaire war hero who respects integrity and is, in his own way, honorable as well. Peters understands that the best villains in literature have as many virtues as the hero does, they're just put together differently.