Enjoyed this. Maybe not as strong as many of the books in the Marine Corp series but lots of muscular military stuff. Noticeable again how the central character and our hero is very wealthy. He also leaps from bed to bed which is a bit clumsy. I'm sure I will enjoy reading more books in this Presidential Agent series though. ( )

Synopsis: 'When a Boeing 727 is violently hijacked from Angola and flown to parts unknown, the security agencies of the United States race to find out what happened, only to descend into power struggles. Fed up, the President turns to an outsider - Major Carlos Guillermo Castillo. A pilot, West Point graduate, and veteran of Desert Storm, Castillo has a sharp eye for the facts - and the reality behind the facts. Undercover in Africa, he is helped and hindered by unexpected allies and ruthless enemies, and begins to untangle a plot of horrific dimensions - a plot that, unless Castillo acts quickly, will end by, very badly...'
Review: Not only is this a military book, it's a ripping good character study of a group of very likable people. Characters are well developed through flashbacks, the plot doesn't suffer from the character development, and the storyline is sound. Makes me want to read the next book in the series. ( )

No more W.E.B. Griffin

I love the military - I love war novels. And I am a sucker for serialized novels.

A few years ago I finally picked up a W.E.B. Griffin book (do not remember the title). I was excited - read it. but really struggled with the fact that there was almost no action in the book. So I put him off.

Recently I have picked up 3 of his novels from the "Presidential Agent" Series - and am now 450 pages into "By Order of the President." No way am I going to clog thru the next 150 pages. In the beginning of the book - a pilot and his co-pilot get their throats slit - and then the action stops. The President and a bunch pif his minions (Secy Defense, etc.) fumble around - talk in cryptic language (they all were buddies in a past life) - and generally just engage in office politics, until I want too blow my head off!

No more best buddy - past relationships which are called upon - no more "rules be damned" I'm going to do what I know is best (that worked for Jack Bauer, but not for the characters in W.E.B.'s world) - no more of the endless flying around, commandeering military planes - or using your rich families planes to do the government's business. I have had it. W.E.B. Griffin (or your son, whoever is writing this stuff) - you will not steal another hour of my precious life.

I am giving up on "By the Order .." and giving away my unread books (about 5 of them) because I do not want to be bored out of my mind. NOTE: I have NEVER given books away!!!!

This must be someone(s) out there that likes this drivel. But NOT MEEEEEEE!

DonB ( )

This book is the first in the series about Charlie Castellio, a super-hero kind of guy that we all wish actually existed and worked to save us all.

The story line was interesting, and moved right along. In fact, it jumped around a little too much for my tastes.

My complaint with this one is the absolute lack of any resolution of the many point of the plot--in fighting and territorialness in the various intelligence agencies in the USA. The main point of the book was that good ole Charlie/Carlos at a tender age it seems to me was asked by the President to examine the intelligence agencies to see what each knew about a particular incident.

There was absolutely no resolution to this question--it just drifted off into space. A major annoyance to me were the outright lies one of the members of an agency told about a situation that nearly cost the USA a great deal of misery; absolutely nothing in the book regarding what if anything was done to this person when it was discovered. Not one word. Or, come to that, what was done about an injustice done to another agent due to this other than a vague "It'll be alright" kind of thing. And the main female lead was so unlikely as to be a detriment. And, of course, the constant calling of the lead character "Don Juan" was just idiotic.

My true problem with this edition, however, is the HORRIBLE audio book properties. There are clever sound effects added, esp. when a battle rages, as they always do in this series. I don't need gunfire, loud booms, sirens, and God knows what else screaming in the background, in spots nearly drowning out the narrator. Very amateur, very childish, very distracting, very irritating. Had I know these things were part of the edition, I would not have listened to it.

My other quibble -- why does one of the main characters, an American Colonel, speak with a British accent? Ridiculous.

This book would be a good bathtub or beach read, but I can't recommend this audio edition -- the production flaws outweigh the reasonably good story, albeit one without adequate resolution of plot lines.

Exciting book that was a fun listen. The characters were very well (over) developed, probably because this was the first of a series. I'll read #2. ( )