Customer Reviews

White Star

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I'm not a huge gun person, but I've enjoyed most of Stephen Hunter's books as well as White Star. It ranks up there with my favorite Hunter book, Point of Impact.

Owen Gray is a retired Sniper who was known as the "White Star" back in Vietnam. Gray now lives at home with a family of three children whom he has fostered. Trusov is also an expert Sniper from the same era, and draws Gray into a game of death. Soon, professional hits are carried out on people close to Gray, and he is pushed to pick up his weapon once again and plunge into action. Trusov runs the show until both snipers are alone, left to settle the score man to man. Thayer hasn't done a bad job, some reviewers have put his novel down by saying there's no touch of reality, but putting those aside; it is a decent and enjoyable action/adventure story with a few thrills added in. There are also some truly interesting points and details about the methods of professional sniping. The ending is brutal and long, concerning the final shoot-out, but it doesn't seem to ruin anything at all. In fact, being fond of action novels, I found it entertaining- although I do realize it was hard to believe that some of those things would happen the way it was portrayed. Still, a great way to fill in your time!

James Thayer has clearley not spent too much time in the woods, if ever at all. As an avid outdoorsman, I find his depiction of the wilderness contradictory at best, and unrealistic at worst. Apparently the author knows nothing of firearms, specifically military firearms. His description of the story's hero, Owen Gray, holding the WOODEN stock of a modern Marine Corps M40A1, is laughable, as all current USMC sniper rifles have composite stocks. Finally, none of the characters are believable or even sympathetic. Don't waste your time on this one. If you want to read an excellent fictional book about a former Marine sniper, check out Stephen Hunter's Point of Impact. If you want to read about the real thing, check out "One Shot, One Kill", which is about Gny, Sgt. Carlos Hathcock, an American hero from the Vietnam war, with 93 confirmed kills.

I read the book White star by James Thayer.
A cram course in the art of killing. The best against the best in a compelling yet thoughtful thriller that draws you through a labyrinth of deceptions until the explosive climax. Two snipers in a dual where only one survives. Owen Gray, worlds best sniper, who killed 97 soildiers in Vietnam, against Nikolai Trusov, son of Victor Trusov who put 88 Nazi soliders in his crosshair and pulled the trigger. Nikolai lived all his life with sniping in mind and hes out to prove he's the worlds best. If there was a squad of fast-paced action writers, James Thayer whould without a doubt be the leader.
" We know how good Nikolai Trusov is because we've seen him do his work. And the Russians confirm how talented he was in Afganistan. So it has to be me." this quote touched me because Owen, the american sniper, said he was ready to dual against Nikolai by himself to save other peoples lives. James Thayer writes fiction and makes it sound so real, right at the barrier of unreal fiction. Which makes it the most exciting book you can read with out being too unrealistic. This book is definatley not for people under the age of 13, because it is very graphic writin and Thayer makes it sound so real.

Owen Gray is an assistant prosecutor who also happens to be an ex-ace sniper with the Marines. But Gray hasn't picked up a rifle in ten years and has no desire to. Suddenly, people near Gray are being assasinated and Gray discovers it's really him the sniper is after. The mysterious sniper is trying to force Gray into a man-to-man showdown that Gray has no other choice but to accept.

I never really believed in the Owen Gray character. For an ex-Marine sniper with 96 confirmed kills he just seemed to wimpy to me. But I could have lived with that. The thing that really destroyed my belief in this book was the duel. The two snipers get shot, burned, stung by wasps over 400 times, but just keep trucking along. The author seems to believe that by piling more and more debilitating wounds on these two that he's upping the suspense. Actually, all he's doing is making it more cartoonish until it gets to the point where it's not believable. It's easy to see that people who write like this have never seen the real affects of gunshot trauma.

My recommendation? Read Stephen Hunter's "Point of Impact", "Black Light", or "The Master Sniper" if you really want to see how this idea works in the hands of a good writer.

As a veteran of both Marine Sniper and Force Reconnaissance Platoons, I found White Star completely ludicrous. The obvious lack of research (did the author read anything beyond Carlos Hathcocks biography?)and the utter fallacy of some of the supposed Scout/Sniper traits (some of which were in complete opposition to reality) would have been laughable, had many men not worked very hard to earn the title that Mr. Thayer bandys about so frivolously. That the plot is cartoonish is largely irrelevant as it is a work of escapist fiction. Stephen Hunter has proven that you can write outlandishly macho fiction and still be technically and tactically accurate. Basic information that would have been available had Thayer done even a modicum of research would have helped flesh this out. As it is, for anyone with even a minute amount of experience in the woods, much less as a Marine Sniper this book is offensively poor. The characters are stereotypical at best. Even the stereotypes are missing essential elements however. If it is any indication, I read White Star 5 years ago, and though I read 3-5 books a week, it has stayed in my mind due to its many faults. Next time, ask someone in the profession you choose to write about. I would not presume to write about the practice of law withoutinterviewing attorneys, please do Snipers (who work in a very precise, demanding discipline) the same courtesy.

This book started off with a bang and continued on in that same vein. It was almost one action scene after another. Some of the scenes were a tad on the "ooh gross" side, but aside from that, the book was pretty good. Unfortunately, I listened to this book on an abridged audio tape so a good portion of the book was cut out. And in some cases, you could tell where scenes were missing. But aside from that, the book was enjoyable.

I read this book for two reasons. First, I read Keanu Reeves was negotiating to play the lead in the film version. Then I came across the book again. Two times in one week; so I decided I should read it. Having just finished the lyrical descriptive style in "Cold Mountain," going to Thayer's minimalist sentences was like shock therapy, food without spice. As a tale teller, Thayer's constructed a tight suspenseful plot. As a novelist, his style is bare bones. I think White Star could make an excellent screenplay. The love interest seems more obligatory than inspired and it's action-packed. As a novel, it's okay.

White Star is a first rate action tale that plunges into the psyche of the military sniper, and the special skills that are required to be the best. Owen Gray is a legendary sniper who made a name for himself in the Vietman War. Now, as an assistant state attorney in New York, he's put his past behind him, along with a dark secret. Gray is drawn back into his former profession, when bodies begin falling around him as the result of a very efficient sniper. With the help of an NYPD detective, and a beautiful FBI agent, Gray realizes that the sniper, a renegade Russian, is drawing him into a one-on-one duel. Gray must not only confront the Russian sniper, but his own personal demons as well. Mr. Thayer has crafted an engrossing story with rich characters, and a description of the climactic confrontation that will have you smelling pine needles, hearing the wind as it wafts through the forest, and cringing as bullets whiz by your head. This is grand story telling in the tradition of Alistair MacLean. You will not only enjoy White Star, you'll savor it.

This book proves the saying 'don't judge a book by its cover'.