I read the EndWar series out of order, reading the second book, "The Hunted," before this book, the first one. It is like reading "Hunt for Red October" before "The Patriots Game"

I assumed "Endwar" was about the fictional 2016 Saudi Arabia and Iran war. I was wrong. It was set four years after the Saudi Arabia and Iran war, one year before "The Hunted" took place.

The end of the book was too choppy. There were many story lines going on: US submarine, US President & staff, JSF & Russian spy, race up a Calgary tower, battle for a small Canadian town, Green Brigade terrorist / Russian traitor, Russian submarine, JSF rescue mission, US pilot needing to be rescued, Russian leaders scheming, and ... I think that is it. Four or five pages would describe one of those plot scenarios, until a cliff hanger type thing happens. The setting would then switch to another set of characters for a few pages. I think it would be better if the story stayed with one plot line for 10 - 20 pages before switching to another. ( )

I've read cereal boxes that were more interesting than this. The only appeal for me was the setting which happens to be in my "back yard" of Alberta. ( )

A page turner with multiple story lines. ( )

"David Michaels" gives us a book very different from its predecessors—which, given the source material, is perhaps to be expected.

As the tagline on the stepback suggests, this is intended to be a novel of a near-future (2020) World War III. The book starts with the war having already begun; this is not the tale of the war, but rather one event set against its backdrop.

It's told in traditional Clancy style, unlike the Splinter Cell novels by this pseudonym; that is, this is a wide-ranging tale, seen from multiple viewpoints ranging from the President of the United States down to the boots on the ground. Unlike recent books by Clancy himself, it doesn't spend overlong indulging on the technology the combatants are using; it's accepted as fait accompli, giving the book a much faster pace than seen in Clancy's own works.

Perhaps the only fault is that self-same pace; there's not much time to explore the large cast of characters in much detail. But even though we don't necessarily see every facet of there character here, there's still a sense that there's more to them beyond what's on the page; that sense certainly helps give them depth.

If you're a fan of Clancy's early works, I'd suggest going ahead and giving EndWar a try. It offers the scope of his later works without the bloat, giving you exactly what it says on the tin: a fast-paced Clancy-like story set during World War III. ( )