Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43200 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Customer Reviews

Fire the editor, turn grammar checker on
This book was passed to me by my 14-year old son. I needed something to do on a flight to Tokyo, so I read most of it on the way there, and the rest on the way back. The large amount of spelling and grammar errors took away from my enjoyment of the book. It seemed that the editing of the book was outsourced to another country that did not grasp the language. I have always enjoyed Tom Clancy's books, whether written in the first person or the third person, and this one was fairly interesting. The author seemed to spend too much time describing details of the surroundings Fisher was entering, which was more of a distraction than needed details. There seemed to be good technical details of Navy tactics, but the weapons were purely fantasy. It was a fiction book, so I can't be too critical about that.

Action Packed!
This is my first Splinter Cell novel and overall I enjoyed it. I thought the plot was interesting and there was a lot of action. The biggest problem for me was the blow-by-blow description of Sam entering hallways, elevators, etc. The other biggest disappointment was the number of grammatical errors. The editor shouldn't be paid. Unfortunately, I've seen that a lot of late in many of the novels I read and by different publishers. Maybe it's a representation of what our schools are producing. (lol)

This Book Is Pathetic!
I only read halfway through Checkmate and had come across TWO DOZEN errors in grammar and spelling. I had to put the book down for a few weeks because it annoyed me so much! I can't believe that in this day and age this book would pass a spellcheck with no problems. The book claims to be printed in the United States of America, but I don't think it's just coincidence some of these sentences sound like a chinaman proofread this book. Here's what I mean:

Some grammar issues:
p40 "To his right he heard a the muffled chugging of a marine engine."
p44 "...he might be able wait out the security sweep."
p68 "...and a spiked soft rubber ball roughly the size of marble."
p190 "Inside he found storage closet lined with empty shelves."

A few misspellings:
(same page as a grammatical error) p68 "...the sabot breakes away, leaving only the Cottonball."
p77 "If it became necessary, the man's disapperance wouldn't immediately raise an alarm."

Spellcheck didn't catch these?!? Was this book penned on a legal pad before being immediately and haphazardly typed up? In many places periods, commas, and words were even left out entirely! I have lost interest in this book, hardcore.

Narration. Not only are there so many errors of all kinds, but the narration is way off from the first two books in the Splinter Cell series. Splinter Cell's self-titled and Operation Barracuda series were well written and had a first person narration. At first, the first person style was kind of annoying, but then it stood out more and made the books what they are: good. You got to feel like you were inside Sam Fisher's head, just as if you were controlling his every move while playing the video games. It was a good way to tackle a video game such as Splinter Cell and make it into a good book. Checkmate drops the first person narration and goes for the third person. Why? No clue. Is it broken? Nope! So don't fix it!

So, what about the actual storyline and plot? In all accounts, the story could have been topnotch. A lot of elements were there to potentially make this one shine. However, even that wasn't done right!

For the facts I discussed above, I give this book one single star because Amazon won't allow a rating of zero. If I were Tom Clancy, I would be embarrassed and ashamed that a book like this had my name all over it.