Book Review on Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy

Clear and Present Danger

By Tom Clancy

Book Review by Jack Reynolds

Summary:

   On a boat just outside the coast of the US and Mexico, a rich business man takes his family for an inconspicuous boat ride on his private yacht.  Little did they know the true reason of the ride was really to ease the purchase of drugs from Mexican cartels.  A couple million dollars in hand he goes to make the exchange while his family is safely asleep and the deal goes bad.  The mother and daughter are raped, cut up and thrown to the sharks along with the drug buying father.

The coast gaurd shows just in time, to see the cartels cleaning the mess off the walls.  As a coast guard captain for many years, Wegener, becomes sick of the system and take matters in to his own hands.  Knowing that if the murderers are sent back to the states they will easily escape the judicial system and sell their wretched product once again.  He sets them up for on-ship-court, something that hadn't  used for 200 years on criminals.  And if they are given a guilty sentence he is allowed to hang them on his ship.  When they are all set for execution he separates the two convicts and puts a head through the noose.  The first one drops and the second one confesses to everything, and so does the first.  The hanged man had been nothing but a dummy to fool the two of them into confessing.

This is how the book begins and this will put our hero, Jack Ryan, on the spot to either move up in the CIA or save the lives of an op gone wrong.  He will face off against almost all the evils of society and have to shove each and every one of them out of the way.  With a chance to save someone or play the administration at every corner this book will keep you in suspense every moment.

Opinion of the Book:

     Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy is now one of my all time favorite books.  Unlike other books where the main character sacrifices their moral choices for the "greater good" Jack Ryan will do absolutely no dancing with the system.  It starts off with one of the driving forces of societal cruelties, greed.

 The first part is almost a perfect example of how cruel society is.  These people, except the father, were killed and raped because of a drug sale the had no knowledge about.  They had no way to protect them selves and nowhere to run.  They were innocent people trapped in a trap set by people who care about nothing but money.

  Wegener's ingenuous plan, in the second part, to get the cartels to confess was an extremely well done plan.  Using them to get each other's confessions worked like a charm and probably saved lives.  Sadly though this work-around method had to be used or they would have just used societies' currently unjust, broken system of law.

How this Relates to the Theme:

So, here I go with my extremely Liberally Social Conservative ideas on society and my almost complete detrimental view of it.  This book really puts the system out there and lets its true colors fly.  When men put their lives on the line to fight and work for a system that they thought they could trust, you would at least think that when their lives would become endangered that system that they dedicated themselves to would save them.  Alas no, this system will leave them to die at the hands of Mexican drug lords, the same people who cut out your tongue and then ask you to tell them who they are working for.  The same people who sell detrimental products to ignorant or malleable people that could possibly kill them only for money.  Even then they don't need the money, after all they just left a couple million sitting around as a decoy bank account so they wouldn't find the one overseas that was linked to their giant castle that they live in.  A castle for a single man to live in!

If all of these themes don't point something out to you you are probably thinking, "But the government didn't do it, its all the Mexican's fault!"

Well my narrow minded friend you would be wrong.  The US is allies with Mexico, and the Mexican government has a multitude of employees that have a very high, unexplained income.  And not just 100,000 dollars too high but 2 or 3 million a year too high.  And since the drug trade need someway to manipulate the government into turning a blind eye this would be the perfect solution.  These members have slowly been removed from the system but honestly I don't believe for a second that they are not there in secret.

Now the good old US ought to do something about this right?  It is not only immoral but hurt tax revenue, so they ought to care about that right?  No, we have done very little to stop the cartels.  While continuously more measures have been made no real action has been taken.

Now why have we done nothing?  Because we don't have any real leaders in the government.  Real leaders can throw public opinion aside and do what need to be done there and now.  If we continue to put people that are so obsessed with their public opinion that they won't do anything that would bother anyone the we will get nothing done.  People get elected(Hopefully) because the majority of people agree with their opinions and judgement so they should at least have enough confidence in themselves to take a risk based on their ideals.  But alas we have so little hope to see any progress in government at its current state.  True leaders are the one willing to stick it all on the line when they know that they are right.  They take the peoples opinion into account but realize that they are really the only one in the moment and they have the best viewpoint on the situation.

Who should Read this Book:

Everyone should read this book.  I brings up complicated issues that are controversial and will likely make the a mad as a bonfire.  But that is a good thing.  If you read and feel nothing or are left unintroduced to any new ideas then you have simply wasted you time.  If you go for my philosophy then this might be the best use of your time all week. 

Other Reviews:

For all of you that are thoroughly unimpressed by my superior writing ability, here are some other sources to convince you why you should sprint to your local internet hot spot and force your way through the Amazon servers to buy this book so it can be dropped on your head by a drone.

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32669.Clear_and_Present_Danger

Kirkusreviews: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/tom-clancy/clear-present-danger/

Book Review on Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Review by Emily Northcraft

Author: Orson Scott Card

Genre: Science Fiction

Summary

The classic science fiction story Ender's Game written by Orson Scott Card is a great read.  This novel is about a young boy who goes by the name Andrew 'Ender' Wiggin.  It tells the tale of Ender growing up as a child who is mentally tortured, isolated, and sent away from his parents due to the government's oppressive reign.

The main character goes by the nickname Ender.  Weird name, right?  Anyway...

Ender is a boy genius.  Unfortunately, he is a third.  What is a third?  ... That is a good question!  The Government, being an oppressive group, wanted to limit the population, due to the war with the 'buggers'.  Families are only allowed to have two children. Special permission from the government is required to have more than two children, which is very rare to achieve.  Third, or third child, is a very nasty title.

Ender's parents were given permission to have a third child mainly deals with the war with the buggers.  The 'Buggers' are an insectoid alien species.  The government is anticipating a Third Invasion from their rivals, who had attacked before.  A twist in the book, spoiler warning, is that the buggers never intended to attack again, after realizing the human species is not a lame group that they could easily overcome.  This can be seen literally in the book within the discussion between Ender and Colonel Graff:
"Ender, we didn't go to them first, they came to us. If they were going to leave us alone, they could have done it a hundred years ago, before the First Invasion."

"Maybe they didn't know we were intelligent life. Maybe—" (Card 178)

This quote shows that Ender is beginning to understand the government and their reign of control.

Back to thirds.  The reason Ender was even authorized to be born was because of his older brother and sister.  His brother, Peter, is an incredibly intelligent person, which is what the government wants in children so that they could help lead them to victory in the war.  Problem is, Peter may or may not be a complete blood-thirsty sociopath... More or less.
Ender's sister, Valentine, is also fairly intelligent, but is way too mild and sweet for the government.
They allowed the birth of Ender so they could have a perfect combination of both his siblings, enabling that he could become the perfect war general.

Now that you know the critical points within the novel.  Be warned, I may ramble confusingly, but what can you do?
Children, when first born, get what they call a 'monitor' on the back of their neck that they live with until completing or failing the government's program.  The purpose of the monitor is that the government and their officials are able to monitor the child's every thought and feeling.  If a child passes their little tests, the child's monitor is removed and they could be sent into space to enter a training program that will shape them into perfect war generals.
They are sent to the next best location, compared to prison!  They are sent to Battle School, which is a space program that teaches them advanced battle methods and puts them through miniature fights/battles that teach them war tactics and strategic skills necessary to be the proper war general.  Once, or if, you finish Battle School, you are sent to Command School, which is an advanced and more in-depth Battle School.
I would like to add, last-minute, that the monitor is forced to be implemented among new-borns.
Believe it or not, the main character and protagonist of the story may or may not be the big hero of the novel.  No spoilers!

That is basically the main idea of the story, without telling large spoilers or parts of the novel itself.  I guess you will just have to read it to find out.  Keep in mind that I left a large portion of the novel and its summary out so that I could talk about more subjects, but feel free to read a more in-depth summary, like from the source: http://www.shmoop.com/enders-game/summary.html
Or feel free to check out SparkNotes!  This link will save both of us some time.  Now it's time for me to get to my main point.  Yay!

Opinion On The Book

I personally believe that this is a very amazing story.  I think that the plot is very creative and in-depth.  Though it is not within the range of my usual genre choice, I could easily say that this book would be something that I would definitely read again.
Now, related to the worse part of my opinion...  I think that some of the parts of this book were a tad sloppy, but overall very good.  The end seems like it was thrown together without much thought, but that is a very vague judgement on my part.
Overall, this book was very original in all of its thoughts and a very good novel I enjoyed taking the time to read.

Who Should Read This Book

I would suggest this book for teenagers who enjoy a very in-depth and emotional read.  This book is very original, and any person who enjoys a good science fiction novel would definitely have a great time skimming the pages of this fantastic novel.  I would reserve this book for teenagers and older because some of the content could be seen as confusing to younger readers.

How It Relates To Our Theme

Now that you understand the novel, let's begin with the subject that I would like to address.
The theme that my little group of friends and I decided to focus on is the cruelties of society and how the government controls everything.

My point would be that the government is highly oppressive and controlling of basically everything...but that is common knowledge.  Like I had said near the beginning of the review,  the buggers never intended to attack a third time.  Eighty years had past since the last assault, and the government decided to rekindle the fire, for a lack of a better metaphor.  As you can see from the quote near the beginning of the blog, Ender can understand how the government is too controlling.
The government is also only controlling and forcing the third war so that the citizens of Earth will remain terrified of the buggers and more war will not break out between the countries.  Since the government realizes this, there is no need for them to kidnap and torment young children and take away their freedom.  The government, as bad as it sounds, could just continue with their false stories about the bugger war while still continuing to have peace among the surface.  All without the terrorizing of children.  Citizens are forced to remain ignorant of these facts.
The government can be seen sending children to space so that they can learn how to kill an entire species.  They trade the children's education for war tactics.  In some cases, in order to see a child at their breaking point, they will isolate the child so they are driven to near insanity, with the hopes it will make them a better person.

Movie Review

I watched the movie before I read the book.  Sadly, I do have a few complaints about the novel and movie.

When I first saw the movie, I thought it was incredibly good, and I was excited to read the novel.  Disappointingly, after reading the novel, I did not enjoy the ending of the novel, and the movie was forever ruined for me.  This is a slight exaggeration to show my discontent with how the novel and movie work together.  The author of the book didn't even get any money or say in the movie!  How messed up is that!

Anyway, I think that the book and the movie are pretty similar, for the most part.  It has been a while since I have seen the movie, and I have no way to access it, so my judgement is purely what I believe is my memory.  I looked the movie's soundtrack up, because I remember enjoying it, so I'll let you listen and enjoy, too!  Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brIkzQaaNz4

If my memory serves me correctly, I do think I can point out some differences between the book and the movie.

One difference is the game that Ender plays on his "desk".  The movie changed the game up quite a bit.  For one thing, after he kills the giant within the game, he does not see his sister in the book.  In the book, it sends him to another set of puzzles and gut-retching situations for him to go through.  In the movie, once he kills the giant, he sees his sister, who in then leads him to the nest of the 'Bugger Queen'.

Also, the age progression in the book and movie are much different.  In the book, Ender first leaves when he is at the age of six, and then the book progresses until his is a young adult.  In the movie, we basically only see Ender at the age of a teenager for the majority of the movie.

The movie cuts out an incredibly large portion of the book that regards a huge conspiracy with Peter and Valentine, Ender's siblings.  I will not spoil what they took out because it is a very good plot within the main plot of the book.  Keep in mind, cutting this part of the book out means that they had to majorly change the end of the movie since the plot they cut out of the movie leads into the end of the novel.

These are all of the differences that I am going to note, considering that I have gone way past the word count limit on this blog entry.  Sorry about that, teach!

The Beach House

Author: James Patterson & Peter De Jonge
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction

Summary: 

Peter Mullen works as a valet at parties. He is loved by everyone, or so he thought. His body turns up on a beach shore and it's up to his older brother, Jack, to find out what actually happened to Peter. Everyone says he committed suicide but Jack has his doubts after seeing that Peter's body had several broken bones and bruises, but others counter that the storm could have done that to him. Jack soon finds out that there are some people that will do anything to cover up the truth about Peter's death. He is led into a maze of lies and deception and finds he doesn't know who to trust. Nothing fazes Jack not when he and his friends are threatened, not when he is thrown in jail, not when he loses his job, and not even when he faces death. Just as Jack feels like he is going to lose, he finds something that could change everything but must protect it which proves to be harder than he thought. Jack goes against the entire system to find the truth but soon finds out that the truth has a painful cost.
I would add more to the summary but I feel like that would give away the element of surprise in the book. The plot twists in the story are what make the story action-packed and exciting.

            

Opinion on the Book:

This book is one of my favorites by James Patterson. It has his usual appeal to mystery but in this case it is realistic fiction. You can clearly see James Patterson's style of writing in this book, it has his slight sense of humor and is very organized. This book is definitely a page turner. It has plot twists at the end of each chapter. The beginning is interesting but once the action starts it doesn't stop until the very end.

"But Sammy stuck to his vow. Maybe out of respect for Peter, or even Jack. They barely got a sound out of him. Not when they stuck his head in the backed-up toilet. Not when they cooked his hand over the flames of the gas stove. Not even when they took him out to the shiny concrete balcony overlooking Eighteenth Street. And threw him off'" (Patterson 224)

This passage is at the end of chapter 68 and is one of my favorite passages because it demonstrates James Patterson's beautiful style of writing. The passage itself is rather dark but it's a great passage that manages to save the suspense all the way to the end of the chapter.

Who should read this book

Anyone who loves James Patterson books would enjoy this book, but the reader should know that this book has lots of adult content in it. This book is suggested to young adults ages 13 and above (anyone younger might find the contents a little disturbing.) Also people who like mystery with a mix a deception, danger, crime, and death would enjoy this book.

How This Relates to the Theme

The theme of this blog is the cruelties of society. The Beach House relates to this theme because it displays the truth about society, money can get anything done. After murdering Peter the murderers bribe people to stand false witness and help cover the crime up. The book also demonstrates the truth about how much society values a human's life. In the book Jack tries to voice himself through the press. He gets front page for a day, but after the first day it isn't important or interesting anymore. The reason for this is that the press only broadcasts things that are considered 'breaking news', but you can't only blame the press, the people don't care about things after a while.

Other Websites

These websites are about the book and James Patterson. The first website is James Patterson's website about The Beach House. The second website is an interview with James Patterson that mentions this book a little.

James Patterson Website     

James Patterson Interview

Book Review on Divergent by Veronica Roth

Divergent

By Veronica Roth

Summary:
        

        Divergent by Veronica Roth is a thrilling novel full of love, loss, and betrayal. The main protagonist, Beatrice (later referred to as "Tris", the name I will be using throughout the blog), is a young woman struggling to find herself against the repressive factions (Erudite: Intelligence, Abnegation: Selflessness, Dauntless: Bravery, Candor: Honesty, and Amity: Peace) that have been created to allow everyone to do the jobs they are best at, thus creating a more efficient and capable society.

        However, while many other 16 year old's, like Tris, are trying to discover who they are, Tris finds out during the testing phase (tests run to find a subject's affinity to each faction) that she is something known as "Divergent" (clever book title); someone that has the qualities of the majority of the factions. Those categorized as Divergent are seen as incredibly dangerous because they do not adapt well to one certain lifestyle in any one of the factions, rather, they prefer a blended lifestyle that living in all factions at once would provide. This would seem like not a very big deal, however, because they do not adapt to one faction alone very well, the leaders of each faction and the government view them as uncontrollable, meaning they do not mold to the "perfect" society.

        Throughout the novel, having switched factions from Abnegation to Dauntless, Tris struggles to be accepted by her new faction-mates. Not only that, but Tris also struggles with living with only some of her many qualities, as well as dealing with inter-faction rivalries. All of this creates a nice subplot that helps to provide depth to Tris and the supporting characters.

Opinion on the Book:

The five factions present in Divergent

        Out of the many books I have read recently, few have pulled me into the novel like Divergent has. Roth's concise wording allows every bit of detail to come out as important, and the book does not feel overly fluffy, like I found The Hunger Games to feel. This, combined with her interesting characters and surprising twists, had me turning the pages for more. While some ideas are not expanded on quite as much as I would've liked, such as why the factions were split up with the five qualities, I found Divergent to be a very enjoyable read.

Who Should Read this Book:

        While I might not have enjoyed novels such as The Hunger Games as much as others, I believe that anyone who enjoyed the trilogy should give Divergent a try. Not to exclude others, any that enjoy action/adventure novels would enjoy this book. Divergent's strong female protagonist in Tris (shown clearly by her bravery and her joining the Dauntless) could also give anyone who doesn't enjoy watching any important female character be put in the backseat compared to the male characters just enough reason to give it a read.

How this Book Relates to the Theme:

        In my opinion, Divergent fits in nicely with the theme "cruelties of society". For example, any person that does not make it through a faction's initiation phase (essentially a test to see if you're good enough for their faction), are cast out into the streets, left with no home, no faction, and no one that would give you a second glance (besides the Abnegation). Much like the social class "the Untouchables" in the Hindu caste system, these "factionless" are seen as failures of society, making them worthless to any who lay eyes on them (this blog would be a lot easier if I didn't have to keep noting that the Abnegation aren't as cruel). Furthermore, without revealing too much of the story's plot, it is revealed that a faction had created a tool to completely take over everything, regardless of the bloodshed that resulted in using this tool. That one faction could do this without remorse implies that other factions would have no problems incorporating such a plan into their end-game. 

Movie Review:

Divergent movie poster showing costars Shailene Woodley and Theo James

        While I have nothing but praise for the book, I feel that the movie adaptation of Divergent was lacking in crucial areas that, for me, made the book so good. For one, Tris' relationship with Four isn't quite as focused. Now, don't get me wrong, I would prefer action over a love story any day, and that's what the movie seemed to gravitate to; however, when the relationship is so crucial to how the characters interact and how the plot moves forward, it felt like the relationship side was half-baked and uninspired compared to the book, leading to a relatively interesting surge of emotions towards the end of the movie that, had I not read the book already, would've made me think  "Whoa, where did that passion come from?" 

        Second, some of the confrontations felt too friendly. Tris' main confrontation with the boss of the take-over-the-world plot felt like Tris was being too friendly for the situation she was placed in. The meeting went smoothly, as if there were no tensions or stress between the two. This might've been from the lack of internal thought being given by Tris - a book allows so much more insight to occur for a character's thoughts than a movie does - but it still felt strange to me.

        Finally, the Dauntless faction and all of it's ideas seemed to be lost in the movie. I don't mean to say the Dauntless wasn't stupidly brave - they were - I'm just saying the unforgiving nature of the Dauntless wasn't shown as much. For example, in the initiation process, the book has one initiate not make the jump from a train and fall to her death, the movie has no such occurrence. This scene showed me for the first time that the Dauntless faction was very ruthless: either you live, or you die. While this may seem like a violent scene to include in a movie, it's not like the final product of the movie was lacking in any to begin with. Overall, I feel like, for such an important setting in the movie, the Dauntless faction's beliefs and ideas were not as important to the movie as the book.

Links for more: 

Common Sense Media Book Review
NY Times Book Review
Cinema Crazed Movie Review