Operation Hell Gate (24 Declassified)

Strip away the 24 nametag and familiar characters and, as an action novel in its own right, Hell Gate is sub-sub-sub-Clancy. It would NEVER get published.

24 as a TV serial is corny and cliched, the characters are pretty much one-dimensional caricatures and the whole series becomes increasingly contrived and fantastic. But it is still an enjoyable ride. It delivers. I'm a fan, that's why I bought Hell Gate, and also why everyone else will buy Hell Gate. I won't be buying any more in the series.

What you get with Hell Gate is a very anaemic immitation of the TV series with none of the character depth, none of the pace and none of the sub plots. The main thread is standard 24 fayre and would make a half-decent plot for the TV, in fact it would also make a decent plot for a well handled novel...but this is not a well handled novel.

It is extremely flimsy and seems to have been written in a great hurry by a teenage boy who got the most basic plot points to work from...and has just filled the gaps in between with superficial references to CTU.

It's bad. But it gets very, very bizarre indeed when the Irishmen enter the story. The first couple of attempts at Irish colloquialisms are a little obvious and jarring when you come across them...but then the author just goes nuts with his attempts to make these Irishmen sound authentic.

I'm sure he's making half of the words up. It's the literary equivalent of Dick Van Dyke's 'cockney'...hallucinating. In fact it's almost like someone has written the original draft, then converted it into a foreign language with some lousy translation software, and then converted it back again to English....it's THAT mangled.

A good read. (5/7 people found this helpful)

This book is pretty decent... sticks to the formula in the show with the multiple plot lines/twists and generally maintains the vibes. It occurs before day 1 so its good to see the characters from day 1 all interacting together. In terms of the actual storyline.. its fairly good.. a bit cliched at some points..gettin a lil reminscent of an action film at some parts.. i think the biggest compliment that cud be made for this storyline is that it is strong enough to have been used as a plot for a season of 24. Ther is enough in the storyline that they cud hav made a season out of it.. (obv expandin on points in the book - goin into more detail than the book can etc) however whilst it is a good read, and keeps u wanting more... the biggest criticism for this book is that after reading it.. a few weeks on.. ud struggle to remember what it is about.. and that is somethng that wud never happen with the tv series(except mayb day 4)
If ur a 24 fan..def check it out.. cos it is a fun read.
Not a truly amazing one tho however.

Best 24 book so far (7/7 people found this helpful)

This book is amazing. it is set prior to the events of season 1. ther is detail in this book of characters which didnt appear in the show until season 4 EG Bill Buchanan when he was working in the seattle district office according to his profile on fox.com/24. The book when it starts off feels very similar to series one as it has jack going of lone wolf and being framed for the murder of two Federal Agents. The only thing odd about this book is that Chapelle seems to always be on the floor of the CTU complex when you didnt see this in the show

A good read for fans of 24 (5/5 people found this helpful)

If you like 24 then you'll like this book. Set before the events of season 1, this book is a quick read, and fast paced. It's interesting to see how the characters interact before the events of season 1.

There are some minor and major discrepancies in the surroundings that Jack finds himself in, but they do not detract from the plot. Would have given this 5 stars if it weren't for those!

Operation Hell Gate - Jack Bauer Has Another Bad Day??? (8/9 people found this helpful)

As a huge fan of 24 I really enjoyed this book, which is set prior to the first series of 24.

Without spoiling the plot too much, Jack Bauer finds himself stranded in New York, trying to stop a terrorist plot, without any 'real' support from CTU.

Like the series, the novel consists of 24 chapters, with each chapter representing 1 hour in Jack Bauer's day. There's even the clock from the TV series. There's the usual multiple story lines and plot twists you'd expect from the TV series, but it doesn't go into as much detail as the TV series. Not really suprising, given that the book itself is only 316 pages.

A minor disappointment I felt, but it did make the book a light read, and also allowed me a read a chapter within a 20 minute coffee break at work.

My only real gripe about this book was at one point one of the characters hides under an office desk, whilst the office is shot up. The gunman stays in the room and changes the magazine in the submachine gun. Nothing new - but this takes about a whole 20 minutes according to the clock in the book. A minor problem - but it jumped straight out of the page at me!

Another thing I didn't really like, which you might just feel is down to taste, was that the author made the book a little too 'techy'. Jack Bauer has a tracking device in his watch, that CTU can use to track him, and at one point he uses to track his PDA (which he's given to another charcter so he can track them). This is Jack Bauer in 24, not James Bond as 007!

A good read, with what I felt were a few minor problems. But on the whole it stuck to the 'feel' of the TV series.

Operation Hell Gate (24 Declassified)

Marc Cerasini

Reader Reviews:

One of the more bizarre reads I've ever had (0/0 people found this helpful)

A good read. (5/7 people found this helpful)

Best 24 book so far (7/7 people found this helpful)

A good read for fans of 24 (5/5 people found this helpful)

Operation Hell Gate - Jack Bauer Has Another Bad Day??? (8/9 people found this helpful)

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