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24 Declassified novels
Moderators: Giskard, imbri, ndemeter

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Tien_Le
Charter Member

Joined: 22 Sep 2002
Posts: 878
Location: corner of no and where

24 Declassified novels

I learned about the novels based on Jack Bauer's previous missions on 24 Insider.

Barnes & Noble has three of the 5 novels listed.

Operation Hell Gate: September 27
Veto Power: October 25
Trojan Horse: December 27

The name of the fourth one is Cat's Paw...release date not yet known.

_________________
consume less; live more

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2005 12:53 pm

Tien_Le
Charter Member

Joined: 22 Sep 2002
Posts: 878
Location: corner of no and where

Book Review. *NO SPOILERS*

24: Declassified
Operation Hell Gate
Marc Cerasini
ISBN: 0060842245

Operation Hell Gate adheres faithfully to the 24 formula in every aspect except one: Jack gets to eat, sleep and go to the restroom, all in the same 24-hour period. This tightly scheduled narrative maintains consistent levels of suspense throughout and handles the action genre adequately. The writing was a little sketchy at first then improved as the story developed and the hour-by-hour format became more comfortable. Mr. Cerasini has a firm grasp on the tech-speak and weapon-speak required for this discipline. The plot doesn't have any gaping holes in it; the only question left unanswered for me was intentional, perhaps to segue to the next installment in the series.

Set in a pre-Day One time frame (in fact pre-9/11), I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed having Richard Walsh, Jamey and a not-yet-corrupt Nina alive and acting like the professionals we always knew they were. Ryan Chappelle is�well...Ryan. In all fairness, however, he does at some point exercise the cajones prerogative.

I'm a late-bloomer where appreciating Tony is concerned, but he is allowed to shine in this book. He gets one of the two character arcs in the story and achieves secondary hero status. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about him.

New York City as a character was too gritty for my taste. Still, the author clearly knows the venue well enough to give it a dark, dysfunctional feeling up to the task of hosting our man Jack, even to the point of being mildly intimidating.

Unlike with the television series where the terrorists tend to be painted with the same broad strokes, the author is allowed to put a more human face on a couple key individuals. The reader is given time to examine their struggles and reasoning.

I mentioned earlier that there were two character arcs in this novel. One might expect the other arc to belong to Jack Bauer. Alas, it does not. Throughout the first 23 hours of the book, Jack has been reduced to the status of a generic action figure. Mr. Cerasini fails utterly to capture Jack's essence even a little bit. The 'voice' of his character has such a distinctive cadence and rhythm, such an unmistakable presence that I would have thought it would be a no-brainer to replicate. To fall short in this task is a grave disservice to the audience for this series. I must say that I felt like it was the very soul of Jack Bauer who reached out through the author and wrote the final and finest hour himself out of sheer force of will. Otherwise the only hint of the man would have been the photo on the cover.

Jack Bauer is a complex man who has been allowed to grow in some fashion, learning something key about himself in every season of the show. Nothing of his virile, righteous, compassionate and flawed nature is evident. We learn nothing new about him or his background. The only time his thought and decision-making process comes into focus relates entirely to which weapon to choose from an assortment.

Oh how I wish a real novelist had been handed this assignment instead of an author who specializes in writing books based on television shows. I've long been a fan of the Star Trek: Deep Space 9 re-launch, so I'm well-acquainted with television programming being treated with mastery and depth (Andrew J. Robinson, Heather Jarman). Operation Hell Gate is a true missed opportunity to handle this concept with anything resembling artistry.

Buy the book if you don't mind spending the equivalent of admission to a matinee for a B movie. If it were a movie, I'd say wait till it came out on television.

_________________
consume less; live more

Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2005 3:28 pm

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