Book Description
Hacker extraordinaire Kevin Mitnick delivers the explosive encore to his bestselling The Art of Deception
Kevin Mitnick, the world's most celebrated hacker, now devotes his life to helping businesses and governments combat data thieves, cybervandals, and other malicious computer intruders. In his bestselling The Art of Deception, Mitnick presented fictionalized case studies that illustrated how savvy computer crackers use "social engineering" to compromise even the most technically secure computer systems. Now, in his new book, Mitnick goes one step further, offering hair-raising stories of real-life computer break-ins-and showing how the victims could have prevented them. Mitnick's reputation within the hacker community gave him unique credibility with the perpetrators of these crimes, who freely shared their stories with him-and whose exploits Mitnick now reveals in detail for the first time, including:
- A group of friends who won nearly a million dollars in Las Vegas by reverse-engineering slot machines
- Two teenagers who were persuaded by terrorists to hack into the Lockheed Martin computer systems
- Two convicts who joined forces to become hackers inside a Texas prison
- A "Robin Hood" hacker who penetrated the computer systems of many prominent companies-andthen told them how he gained access
With riveting "you are there" descriptions of real computer break-ins, indispensable tips on countermeasures security professionals need to implement now, and Mitnick's own acerbic commentary on the crimes he describes, this book is sure to reach a wide audience-and attract the attention of both law enforcement agencies and the media.
Download Description
Hacker extraordinaire Kevin Mitnick delivers the explosive encore to his bestselling The Art of Deception Kevin Mitnick, the world's most celebrated hacker, now devotes his life to helping businesses and governments combat data thieves, cybervandals, and other malicious computer intruders. In his bestselling The Art of Deception, Mitnick presented fictionalized case studies that illustrated how savvy computer crackers use "social engineering" to compromise even the most technically secure computer systems. Now, in his new book, Mitnick goes one step further, offering hair-raising stories of real-life computer break-ins-and showing how the victims could have prevented them. Mitnick's reputation within the hacker community gave him unique credibility with the perpetrators of these crimes, who freely shared their stories with him-and whose exploits Mitnick now reveals in detail for the first time, including: * A group of friends who won nearly a million dollars in Las Vegas by reverse-engineering slot machines * Two teenagers who were persuaded by terrorists to hack into the Lockheed Martin computer systems * Two convicts who joined forces to become hackers inside a Texas prison * A "Robin Hood" hacker who penetrated the computer systems of many prominent companies-andthen told them how he gained access With riveting "you are there" descriptions of real computer break-ins, indispensable tips on countermeasures security professionals need to implement now, and Mitnick's own acerbic commentary on the crimes he describes, this book is sure to reach a wide audience-and attract the attention of both law enforcement agencies and the media.
Customer Reviews:
Riveting, Informative, Challenging. A must for any Network Administrator.......2007-05-19
Kevin Mitnick is a legend among computer hackers - and his unique position as a former world class computer hacker turned security consultant lends him credibility to the hacker community. Because of this, he has the trust of the most skilled computer hackers in the world (many who have not yet been caught) - giving him access to these stories.
I am a network administrator and I have learned much from this book. It is basically a compilation of stories of different particularly elaborate hacks. Each chapter includes a story of how a particular individual beat the system. At the end, he analyzes the failures and includes suggestions on how to prevent a similar exploit in your company. I particularly liked the Casino hack, in which a group of techies crack the code to particular slot machine and use it to predict when the next winning hand would come.
I never knew what was possible til after I read this book!.......2007-01-09
The stories in this book are amazing. It's unbelievable to think of the way these geniouses accomplished their goals. Whenever they hit a wall, they always keep searching until they find a way around it, and in the end it could mean millions for them.
Great book, if your into hacking and security intrusion, this will be heaven.
A great hacking book!.......2006-11-30
I picked up this book on a whim, I wanted to learn more about hacking and Kevin Mitnick. It wasn't all about him, but it was still quite good. The stories in this book are very good, I enjoyed reading, and I've passed it on to other people.
mitnick.......2006-11-06
I could not manage to get through the whole of this book, and in fact gave it away, because Mitnick is so pompous as to make a subject that is so thoroughly interesting so painful to get through. Seriously, he must have none of his over-inflated personality left because I think it all dripped out of my book.
Interesting if you can get past the horrible writing...........2006-10-19
This guy is definitely a geek and NOT an English major. The stories are interesting and frightening if you can get past the constant run on sentences and poor grammar. Good luck.
Product Description
Books one through ten of the popular Roswell High series written by Melinda Metz.
Book Description
Haynes offers the best coverage for cars, trucks, vans, SUVs and motorcycles on the market today. Each manual contains easy to follow step-by-step instructions linked to hundreds of photographs and illustrations. Included in every manual: troubleshooting section to help identify specific problems; tips that give valuable short cuts to make the job easier and eliminate the need for special tools; notes, cautions and warnings for the home mechanic; color spark plug diagnosis and an easy to use index.
Customer Reviews:
Does not cover all models.......2007-08-09
I was disappointed to find that it only covers the 800cc bikes (which it does well), but not the 1400cc models. Nowhere in the title or description of the book does it tell you this. If you own the Intruder 1400 or Boulevard C90 don't bother with this book.
great information.......2007-08-03
I found lots of information about my bike in this manual. It is well written and easy to understand. It lets you know before you start a project if it will be difficult or fairly simple. If you want to work on your on bike this will definately help. The book paid for itself with the first repair.
Average customer rating:
- Perfectly wrong but with perfection
- Great Book but page 222 is missing from this issue!
- Bilge
- An Insult to the English Language
- WHAT!?!?!?!?!
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Intruder in the Dust
William Faulkner
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Faulkner, William
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ASIN: 0679736514
Release Date: 1991-10-29 |
Book Description
A classic Faulkner novel which explores the lives of a family of characters in the South. An aging black who has long refused to adopt the black's traditionally servile attitude is wrongfully accused of murdering a white man.
Customer Reviews:
Perfectly wrong but with perfection.......2007-02-17
We are in the South, in a rural city and area. A crime is committed, a white man is shot dead and an old black man is arrested for it on Saturday night, red-handed, because he was next to the dead shot body with a gun in his pocket. This black man has had a past of refusing samboism. He always behaved in a non standard way for a black man in the South. No question is asked. A lawyer is called by the black man and the lawyer does not ask questions and assumes the black man is guilty of the crime he is accused of committing. It will take a white teenager (16 and the lawyer's nephew), a black teenager (his friend) and a white older lady with a truck to accept to go and explore the grave of the dead man on the request of the black man. They find out the man in the grave is not the man it should be, but is another assassinated white man. And then the plot thickens tremendously because these three people plus the lawyer will manage to take over and convince the sheriff to go investigate this tomb with them. The father and two sons of the victim have been summoned by the sheriff. The two sons will dig out the grave and find it empty. Then they all manage to find the body the teenagers and the woman had found more or less carelessly hidden in some sand and the body of the first assassinated person in a patch of quicksand. The black man is definitely saved. The criminal will be found out to be a fourth son of the old man, a brother of the victim himself because the murdering brother was cheating some wood out of a forest patch that was being cut down and sawn into boards to be sold later on, at a profit of course, from the assassinated brother with an accomplice, the second man who was killed two days later and hidden in the assassinated brother's tomb. This murdering brother will be forced to commit suicide in jail for the white community not to have a trial, not to have to hang a white man for the killing of two white men while at first a black man had been accused and had by pure chance escaped a lynching. But the book is interesting for a lot more than this murder plot. It is no thriller because we nearly know from the very start that the lynching will not happen. The interest of the book is in the narrator who looks at the situation and events through the sole eyes of the lawyer's nephew that is always referred to as "he", third person singular, and never with a name. This awkward narration creates a distanciation in the fictional voyeurism of the book that kind of keeps us active and alert. The second interest is in the long speeches and explanations the lawyer delivers to his nephew in order to initiate him to adulthood. The discourse is a general speculation about racism, samboism, the liberation of black people or rather of the South from this samboism and racism, how it can only happen from inside and not from outside, the reaction of the whites in front of this accused black and the possibility or impossibility of a lynching, etc. It is a close examination of the racial conscience of the South, and not only the whites, but also the blacks. The third interest is in the initiation of this young teenager that goes far beyond only understanding the southern mind, the southern past and future, the southern race relations and how to free them from the heritage of slavery and the end of it imposed from outside. It has to do with physical growing and even the sexual or emotional levels of that growing, how some sexual emotion can appear in the strangest of all situations and distort the teenager's vision for a while. Finally it also depicts the complexity and beauty, contradictory confusion and clarity of their mentality and consciousness, or unconsciousness. Faulkner has it all wrong as for how the liberation of the blacks will come, but it does not matter : it represents the vision the whites had at a certain moment in history, in fact between the two world wars. He could not take into account the consequences of WW2 on the mental liberation of the black community and particularly the weight and power northern blacks will find in the war that will make them go down South, if necessary and with white people too eventually, to help their black brothers down South to get on the road to civil liberties. But it is this very historical limitation that makes the novel all the more interesting.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Paris Dauphine & University of Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne
Great Book but page 222 is missing from this issue!.......2006-11-27
I purchased this from Amazon.co.jp recently. When I got to the part where the murder was explained I was quite upset to find that the most important page, page 222, was not there. In its place, page 220 had been printed again. So the pages numbered as follows...219, 220, 221, 220, 223,...
Does anyone know what happens on page 222!!! If so please paste it here!!!
Bilge.......2006-09-05
I've read some Faulkner now, some required, most voluntarily, and still have yet to figure out what the fuss is about. Yes he can weave a story, but good grief, imagine the ego of a man who thinks he can turn out a story as incomprehensible as this. Right now I'm reading his bio by Jay Parini trying to decipher the Faulkner code.
I'll let you know if I do. I guess I've just read too much Flannery O'Conner (brilliant) and consider Faulkner a bit too precious. Slam me if you must. "A Light in August" was good, and I'm reading short stories that are wonderful, but please, present and future authors, try to engage the reader, not send him/her away frustrated.
An Insult to the English Language.......2005-04-30
I just finshed reading it for my sophomore honors class, and I am sure that I will never voluntarily read Faulkner ever again. Throughout the novel, there is no use of punctaution, such as an apostrophe, and the sentences run on for as long as a whole page. The first hundred pages require more attention than A Tale of Two Cities, and the narration gets worse from there! It's as if Faulkner didn't want to appeal to or reach any person. And to make matters worse, there are no book notes anywhere, save essays, that can help understand it. And so don't read this voluntarily, but, if you have to, good luck and hope that they have made sparknotes for Intruder in the Dust.
WHAT!?!?!?!?!.......2004-11-15
I AM CURRENTLY READING THIS BOOK AS A MANDATORY OUTSIDE READING BOOK FOR MY 11TH GRADE ENGLISH CLASS. I AM ON CHAPTER THREE AND I STILL HAVE NO IDEA OF WHAT IS GOING ON EXACTLY. FAULKNER'S USE OF WORDING IS EXTREMELY CONFUSING AND DOES NOT CAPTURE THE READER AT ALL.ALONG WITH READING THE BOOK WE HAVE TO COMPLETE A PROJECT EXPLAINING THE PLOT AND MAIN THEMES. HOW CAN I DO THIS IF I DON'T UNDERSTAND THE BOOK ITSELF?THIS BOOK IS SAID TO BE A GREAT PEICE OF AMERICAN LITERATURE BUT I DISAGREE COMPLETELY.I THINK IT'S REALLY BAD.
Average customer rating:
- Look No Further
- Excellent history of a fantastic aircraft
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Intruder: The Operational History of Grumman's A-6
Mark Morgan , and
Rick Morgan
Manufacturer: Schiffer Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
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ASIN: 0764321005
Release Date: 2004-08-01 |
Customer Reviews:
Look No Further.......2007-03-31
With the mighty Intruder's departure from carrier decks, the US Navy put itself out of the deep strike business. Therefore, the Morgan brothers' excellent treatment of the A-6 is doubly valuable, not only as a detailed history of the aircraft, but the 70-year legacy it represented in dedicated attack aviation. Therefore, anyone interested in the Grumman "bomb truck" need look no further for an authoritative, detailed account of one of the significant aircraft in naval aviation history.
Excellent history of a fantastic aircraft.......2006-11-11
The Intruder was the first aircraft I worked on, and I have always been impressed by it. This book covers the chronology of the aircraft in tremendous detail, from concept to Viet Nam, the Persian Gulf, and retirement. Squadron histories are detailed from the command's beginnings, not just their Intruder years. Many quotes from Intruder pilots and B/Ns add first person color to the technical detail. Includes a summary of all Intruder losses, both combat and operational, and a model/buno reference.
I intended on buying the book for historical purposes and to flip through on occasion - I surprised myself by reading it cover to cover. There are a few gramatical errors, but they don't detract from the content. If you have any interest or connection to the Intruder, this book makes a good addition to your library.
Average customer rating:
- Not as good as his other novel
- Lots of plot twists
- STREET JUSTICE
- A real page turner!
- Awful...
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The Intruder
Peter Blauner
Manufacturer: Vision
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Contemporary
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ASIN: 0446605050 |
Amazon.com
Peter Blauner's dark thriller The Intruder centers on John Gates, a homeless man in Manhattan who has come to believe that a lawyer named Jake Schiff has stolen his family and ruined his life. When Schiff takes up extreme measures to put an end to Gates' harassment, the world is turned upside down for both men. Blauner's characterizations are taut and he excels at creating short, edgy scenes that fray at the nerves as this morality play careens toward its inevitable conclusion.
Book Description
Peter Blauner's dark thriller The Intruder centers on John Gates, a homeless man in Manhattan who has come to believe that a lawyer named Jake Schiff has stolen his family and ruined his life. When Schiff takes up extreme measures to put an end to Gates' harassment, the world is turned upside down for both men. Blauner's characterizations are taut and he excels at creating short, edgy scenes that fray at the nerves as this morality play careens toward its inevitable conclusion.
Customer Reviews:
Not as good as his other novel.......2006-12-28
I bought this book because I tremendously enjoyed Blauner's 1997 book, "Slipping Into Darkness." Slipping Into Darkness is a real page-turner; it was masterfully written and I couldn't put it down. But Intruder is nowhere near as good. The characters are flat, the drama is predictable, and - worst of all - the plot line is highly implausible. I cannot say too much more without giving it away, but as someone who works in the field of forensic psychology I really had a hard time suspending my disbelief while reading this book.
Lots of plot twists.......2004-08-22
The title to this book is interesting and serves as a decent introduction to the story. Ostensibly, the Intruder in the story is the homeless man who fixates on Jake Schiff and determines, through his crack-induced haze, that Jake Schiff has somehow stolen his family and his home. But, as you read you notice that there are actually lots of intruders. Jake Schiff is a Jewish lawyer from a rough Brooklyn neighborhood who doesn't quite fit in with his WASP law firm and their snooty ways. His wife is a social worker who is an intruder in her work world because she cares more about the clients than the bureaucracy. There's a mobster named Phillip who is an intruder in his world because he's hiding his homosexual feelings in the very, very macho world of the mafia. He's also an intruder in Jake's world as he forces Jake to deal violently with the homeless madman who has laid siege to his life.
But, then again, maybe I'm reading symbolism in to places where it doesn't belong. What the heck, it's fun. This book is a good read and has enough plot twists to satisfy all but the most jaded of readers.
STREET JUSTICE.......2004-03-03
In this rather downer of a novel, Peter Blauner etches realistic and scathing portraits of a diverse cast: Jake Schiff, a power house lawyer who finds his life turned upside down by the invasion of a "street Person" with severe emotional problems; his wife, Dana, a psychiatric social worker whose involvement with this same person catapults her family into a vortex of danger; John Gates, the street person whose tragic past and dependence on drugs, spirals him into a maze of terror; Philip, a sly mafia man who insinuates himself into Jake's life and through a murder sets a path of irretrievable terror.
Blauner has a deft touch in creating seemingly hopeless situations, and though he redeems himself with characters finally doing something right, it ends on a rather dim vision of the future of our characters.
Well done but disheartening.
A real page turner!.......2003-09-26
This was the first book I've read by Peter Blauner and it will not be the last.
At one time, John Gates felt that he had it all, a family and job of his own. But after his daughter was killed in an accident right before his eyes he experiences severe depression. Soon, he finds himself unemployed and on the streets. He meets Dana Schiff, a psychiatric social worker and he's convinced that Dana is really his exwife. Soon John G. begins to stalk her family. Jake, her husband and also a lawyer, decides to take matters into his own hands to protect his family. Unfortunately, the decision he makes, could cost him his life.
Awful..........2003-03-07
I picked up this book to read during a long flight, and I am so sorry I did. It is supposed to be gripping and exciting, but all I did was yawn! And I read some 200 pages before I gave up. I always take books on overseas flights because I usually cannot sleep to save my life. I wish I had taken another-any other-book besides this one! That flight, I can assure you, was dreadfully long.
Book Description
Each pilot and bombardier/navigator sat side by side in an all-weather jet built for low-level bombing runs, precision targeting, and night strikes. Their success-and their very lives-depended on teamwork in flying their versatile A-6 Intruders. And when the North Vietnamese mounted a major offensive in 1972, they answered the call.
Carol Reardon chronicles the operations of Attack Squadron 75, the "Sunday Punchers," and their high-risk bombing runs launched off the U.S.S. Saratoga during the famous LINEBACKER campaigns. Based on unparalleled access to crew members and their families, her book blends military and social history to offer a unique look at the air war in Southeast Asia, as well as a moving testament to the close-knit world of naval aviators.
Theirs was one of the toughest jobs in the military: launching off the carrier in rough seas as well as calm, flying solo and in formation, dodging dense flak and surface-to-air missiles, delivering ordnance on target, and recovering aboard safely. Celebrating the men who climbed into the cockpits as well as those who kept them flying, Reardon takes readers inside the squadron's ready room and onto the flight decks to await the call, "Launch the Intruders!" Readers share the adrenaline-pumping excitement of each mission-as well as those heart-stopping moments when a downed aircraft brought home to all, in flight and on board, that every aspect of their lives was constantly shadowed by danger and potential death.
More than a mere combat narrative, Launch the Intruders interweaves human drama with familial concerns, domestic politics, and international diplomacy. Fliers share personal feelings about killing strangers from a distance while navy wives tell what it's like to feel like a stranger at home. And as the war rages on, headlines like Jane Fonda's visit to Hanoi and the Paris Peace Accords are all viewed through the lens of this heavily tasked, hard-hitting attack squadron.
A rousing tale of men and machines, of stoic determination in the face of daunting odds, Reardon's tale shines a much-deserved light on group of men whose daring exploits richly deserve to be much better known.
This book is part of the Modern War Studies series.
Customer Reviews:
Summa cum laude.......2007-05-21
It is written: now let us praise famous men. Professor Reardon,though an academic, has told a very human, very touching story about the men who answered their nation's call during turbulent times. They all served aboard USS SARATOGA. This book is a great tribute to that ship and her men. A momentous accompishment!
a true classic.......2007-03-10
...as a Puncher who served with VA-75 during this period and the men mentioned within,I can personally attest to the accuracy and detail that the author has so wonderfully and painstakingly written.She does the men a high honor,and is a class act herself.I found myself sucked in reading it and reliving my time with them.Not a better book written on the A6 Community.Very highly recommended.
Excellent depiction of squadron life.......2007-01-03
I flew Intruders with several of the people who were prominent in the book - I wish I had been able to read about what they had been through at that time. As students and young pilots we heard bits and pieces about this cruise, but never an end to end account. The squadron and their families are captured very well by the author, as good people doing their best under trying circumstances. Top Gun captured the glamor of Naval Aviation, but this book has the real story, the real people, and the real hurt that goes with the job.
A Former World Famous Sunday Puncher Review.......2006-08-03
From start to finish, I could not put this book down. I felt the emotions when the crew members were told about the emergency recall over what must have been an unforgettable weekend. I felt I was back in my squadron all over again, except this time I was observing countless A-6's launching off the Sara with live weapons going into battle. I remembered Bruce Cook who had dreams of flying with the Blue Angels and whose life was sadly cut short flying a C-1. I had flashbacks of sitting in the VA-42 Ready Room at Oceana while news reports announced that Da Nang was being overrun by Viet Cong and thought that our government had truly let down the brave pilots and b/n's of VA-75 who flew during the Vietnam War. Most of all, I thought of my B/N, John Pfrimmer, and tried to imagine both of us in combat. I think we would have done the Punchers proud. God bless these guys, they are truly heroes.
Superb.......2006-02-09
Excellent in all regards. Dr. Reardon captures the wartime ready-room environment in detail rarely seen by other authors. As a carrier aviator and a former student of Dr. Reardon, I whole-heartedly recommend this book for anyone interested in a snippet of carrier aviation's near-100 year history.
Average customer rating:
- Good writing job, with unsparing realism
- Bombs Bullets and Death
- Great for aviators and veterans of the war in Vietnam
- Exciting reading
- Vietnam War as Thriller
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Flight of the Intruder
Stephen Coonts
Manufacturer: US Naval Institute Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Contemporary
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ASIN: 1591141273 |
Book Description
20th Anniversary Edition With a foreword by Ward Carroll and an added preface and epilogue by the author
"Flight of the Intruder will join the classics…once begun, it cannot be laid aside."--John Lehman in the Wall Street Journal
"Bristles with the same authenticity that helped catapult The Hunt for Red October to the top of the best-seller list . . . Coonts' pilots are the real McCoy and his compassion for them sustains his story from first page to last." -Kirkus Reviews
"No book has ever opened the world of naval aviators like this. Once you start reading you won't want to stop."—Tom Clancy
"A first novel of impressive power and authenticity . . . when Grafton is at the controls of his Intruder, the novel comes alive with a jolt."—Washington Post
"A moving novel of men at war that captures the horrifying sweep of battle and its nerve-shattering emotional effects."—San Diego Union
"Packed with action, emotion, suspense, and tragedy, Flight of the Intruder offers profound and gripping insight into the lives and loves of naval carrier pilots."—Clive Cussler
"A superbly written story laced with intricate technical detail of modern aerial warfare and authentic dialogue."—Washington Times
"When he is flying, Jake's exhilaration is contagious; his instincts meld with the controls of his aircraft, and is life-or-death decision sharpen his senses."—New York Times
Hailed as the finest combat aviation novel to emerge from the Vietnam War, Flight of the Intruder spent twenty-eight weeks on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list and became one of the top twenty best-selling first novels of all time. An instant classic, the book was translated into more than twenty languages and made into a major motion picture. Its hero, Jake Grafton, became a household name and the star of more than a dozen other Coonts' bestsellers. In the twenty years since the book's debut, millions of copies have been sold. But this twentieth-anniversary edition is unique. To mark the occasion, Stephen Coonts has written a preface explaining how he came to write the novel and restored an epilogue that was edited out of the original edition in 1986.
Without question, the strength of the book lies in its flying scenes when Jake Grafton straps himself into the cockpit of his A-6 Intruder. Jake's love of flying is contagious whether you are picking up the book for the first time or rereading it for the third. No one better captures the world of Navy carrier pilots than Stephen Coonts. An Intruder pilot who flew combat missions off the deck of the USS Enterprise in the Vietnam War, Coonts lived the life he writes about, and he puts readers inside the hearts and minds of the pilots to reveal a world unknown to those outside the naval aviators' fraternity. Few will forget the book's final gut-wrenching scene when Jake's once-innocent love of flying gives way to guilt and frustration and the need to give meaning to the deaths of his comrades.
Customer Reviews:
Good writing job, with unsparing realism.......2007-06-23
Fans of Stephen Coonts' Jake Grafton series may enjoy the first of the series. We meet Grafton as a Navy pilot in Vietnam.
This differs significantly from later Grafton episodes, being about war rather than espionage. Truer to life, this is more of a writing job than some of Coonts' later novels, which excel as page turners but are more two-dimensional. Jake Grafton in later books plays straight man and Mission Control to arch and enjoyable characters like Tommy Carmellini and Zelda Hudson. Here, we find out who he really is. This book was assigned reading for Naval pilots, and you can see why: its unsparing realism sacrifices little to entertainment. The terror of pilots who brave catapult launches, land crippled planes on storm-tossed aircraft carriers at night, dodge SAM missiles and carry on despite comrades' deaths, is palpable, and their courage in the face of it is inspiring.
In later books Grafton is often characterized as one cool, bad dude, but that is told rather than shown and not always convincing. Grafton in his later career is mostly an officer and a bureaucrat detached to direct sensitive spook missions. Others get the action while he gets into and out of a scrape or two along the way.
Here, though, he faces violent death every day, and we see why his buddies dub him "Cool Hand".
The Vietnam war has, not surprisingly, been avoided as a setting by most action writers, a loss to the reading public. The perspective of those who, like Coonts, actually fought this war has too often been MIA, with war opposition becoming the conventional wisdom and drowning out the vets' perspective.
Grafton and his fellow pilots must risk their lives for what is by late 1972 a discredited cause. The diplomats are trying desperately to keep it from becoming a lost one as well, but the "peace is at hand" mentality causes them to designate only low-value bombing targets, apparently to avoid scotching the impending peace deal. When Grafton's bombardier dies bombing a cluster of trees under which trucks may be parked, Grafton becomes embittered, his faith in the mission, the military and its civilian leaders shaken. He considers going outside orders to strike at the enemy. On the way to his choice, he grapples with what it means to kill faceless people from the air, meanwhile observing the foibles and weaknesses of fellow pilots who lose their nerve or belief in the war.
Grafton meets future wife Callie while on liberty in Hong Kong. While later in the series they become staid and boring, here they are two young people falling in love in an exotic setting, with Grafton's life on the line and his future in doubt.
Coonts has been praised for being to aircraft carriers what David Poyer is to destroyers and Tom Clancy to submarines. The detail is superior. When Grafton lands at the end of a mission, you feel nearly as drained as he does.
It's a first novel. It's not perfect, it drags at times, but a serious literary effort in the military fiction vein and well worth finishing.
Bombs Bullets and Death.......2007-02-27
This was an interesting read. Coonts really got into the emotions of the pilot. But dont think this is a touchy-feely book, there is enough action to rival Ludlum. Instead of just the hero side, the author gives you the whole picture.
Great for aviators and veterans of the war in Vietnam.......2006-11-18
It has been twenty years since Stephen Coonts's fictionalized account of Lieutenant Jake Grafton's life as an aviator flying A-6s during the war in Vietnam, entitled, Flight of the Intruder, was published. Since then, nine successive novels following Grafton's career have been produced by Coonts, who flew Intruders there himself. The story begins with Jake and his bombardier navigator, Morgan McPherson, flying a routine mission to take out a seemingly unworthy target, a "suspected truck park," during which McPherson is killed when a civilian's lucky rifle shot penetrates the aircraft. While recalling that mission to bomb a "garbage target," Jake begins concocting a plan to secretly take out an important target of his own choosing, even though it will require him to enlist the help of his new bombardier navigator as well as someone in intelligence, and could result in the discharge from service of all of them. Interwoven with the story of the planning and execution of the strike and the aftermath is a subplot about his relationship with an American woman, Callie McKenzie, who he meets while on leave in Hong Kong as well as the sometimes serious, sometimes silly interactions of the military personnel he shares living space with on the aircraft carrier (the USS Shiloh). Although the writing and content were probably par for the course twenty years ago, and while most folks expect military aviators to resort to some colorful language, a few sentences describing young prostitutes and what they are willing to do, are, even to non-prudes, distasteful, unnecessary and detract from an otherwise relatively entertaining story. Those who can get through the first 100 pages, packed full of enough military aviatorspeak to make the average person's head spin, will be rewarded with a story relevant to the times (then and now) about the role of the US government and military in foreign countries.
Exciting reading.......2006-03-30
I loved this. Typical of many such "war books", the author writes from his own experience. Sometimes written from the experience of a submarine commander, or an F-86 Sabre fighter jock,--- in this book, the hero flies a carrier based A-6 attack bomber (as did the author during the Viet Nam years). I differ with the reviewer that disliked the technical details. I found them fascinating. The complications of carrier based flight, the "routine" of bombing runs over North Viet Nam, and the unrelenting quiet enemy . . . fuel consumption. A study of a complicated war seen narrowly from the seat of a combat aircraft. The author also puts you in his seat, experiencing the sudden unexpected loss of co-workers - a reality of war. Not a perfect novel, but I found it to be an informative and well-executed adventure novel, from a credible author, that easily achieved "hard-to-put-down" status. If you start it, you'll finish it.
Vietnam War as Thriller.......2006-01-03
Stephen Coonts, former US Navy Intruder pilot in Vietnam, took his experiences and turned them into great fiction. This classic should stand alongside Where Eagles Dare or The Eagle Has Landed, A real classic about a controversal war. The first of the Jake Grafton series of novels is still the best.
Highly recommended.
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