Tom Clancy’s Net Force: Changing of the Guards Book Report
Tom Clancy’s Net Force: Changing of the Guards Book Report Looking for a book that will wake you up and make you wonder about the covert world of computer crime and computer crime-fighters? Look no further! Tom Clancy’s Net Force: Changing of the Guards is a book that will keep you reading until you fall asleep! Changing of the Guards, written by Steve Perry and Larry Segriff is set in the Net Force world, which was created by Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik. Set in 2013, ten years after it was written, it is our world just with much more advanced computer systems and technological devices.
It is based around Net Force HQ, a “secret” base much like the FBI has at Quantico, that a government agency is based out of to detect and end computer crime. There are a few major players in the series and a few villains unique to this novel. Alex Michaels is the head of Net Force, who is stepping down from that position. Tom Thorn is the officer who is taking his place. Jay Gridley is the best computer operator on the good side of the law. John Howard is the head of military operations, who is also stepping down. Abe Kent is taking his place.
A few of their wives play minor roles in the story. Sam Cox is the main villain of the novel, who, he and his company are worth billions of dollars, and he was a soviet spy in his youth. Eduard Natadze is a Georgian hitman for Cox who is a serious classical guitar player. This story is set up in the common style; bad guy appears, bad guy appears to win, bad guy gets defeated. In the beginning, Jay is working in decrypting a list of old soviet spies. Cox orders Natadze to capture Jay, but the plan he comes up with goes bad and Jay ends up getting hit with a bullet fragment in the head.
He goes into a coma that is deeper than it should be because of a past injury. While he is in the coma, Alex, Tom, John, and Abe hunt for Natadze. However, they can not find any leads. Things seem dire, until Jay wakes himself out of the coma he is in. He, along with a few sudden realizations, manage to hunt down Natadze. However, they can not connect him to Cox with evidence that will hold up in court. To take Cox down, they trick Natadze into thinking Cox tried to kill him so he would kill Cox. My favorite part of the book is the coma. Jay is stuck in a coma, and he realizes this, so he devises a plan.
He woke up from the last coma by strengthening the brain waves from alpha to beta to theta to delta waves. Each step requires more concentration. To do this, in the dreamlike coma, he creates an event like he does with VR simms, or virtual reality simulations. He creates a strong man competition in his mind, where he challenges the four wave strengths. He defeats Alpha easily. Beta also falls easily before him. Theta is the first real challenge, and he barely defeats him. As he challenges Delta, he realizes that he needs to focus on the challenge, not on defeating Delta.
Doing so enables him to create delta waves in his brain and wake himself up out of the coma. There is one main underlying idea in this story. At the end, after Natadze is tricked into killing his boss, Jay finishes decrypting the list of soviet agents. On this list, that Cox was supposedly on, he is not listed! The idea behind this could be interpreted in two different ways. One is criminal activity never pays off. The other is let sleeping dogs lie, for if you kick it, it will wake up and bite you. This book is a must read for any Tom Clancy fan. It is set in the Net Force setting that is comparable to the original “Jack Ryan” series.
It is written very well, and it will not disappoint anyone who likes Tom Clancy. However, I would not recommend this book unless you have read the whole series up to this book. There are more than a few things that, unless you have read the series, you will not get. This book was written with Clancy fans in mind. While there is a large series put out by Clancy that is continuously being lengthened, there are many people that are daunted by the size of his books, and many that have finished all of his books. This book was written with these people in mind, as it is written in Clancy’s style but it is only 318 pages.
If I could save any one character in this book from disaster, it would be the very minor character, Tyrone, Alex Michaels son. I identify with him, as in this book and other books, he goes through struggles like I have. He also goes through more than any teenager should need to. He shoots and kills an assassin that is trying to kill his dads coworker and his pregnant wife. This books ending is wonderful. I love how the evil peon, (Natadze), gets away while the evil kingpin, (Cox), dies. In most books, the minion dies and the kingpin gets away.
Also, I like how the good guy, (Thorn), bends the law to make sure that Cox does not get away. The person that I would like to have as a friend is Jay Gridley. He does not care about himself, he only cares about his country, his family, and his friends. If there were more people like him in the world, not only would the world IQ average go up, the world would be a better place. The book Tom Clancy’s Net Force: Changing of the Guards Book Report is a great book that will hook you in and not let you free until you finish it. A must read for all Clancy fans, it has characters that go much deeper than just a name.
