Tom Clancy's Net Force (1998) Book Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing well, though I'm not as thrilled with today's weather as I was with what we got over the weekend. This is a busy week here at the Geek Cave with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always coming out on Wednesday, the season finale of The Mandalorian dropping on Wednesday, and the series finale of Star Trek: Picard airing on Thursday. With those reviews coming out on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, I decided that today would be the perfect day for a book review. I just finished reading Tom Clancy's Net Force by Steve Perry, which was first published back in 1998. Let's get into it!

Net Force is weird to read in 2023 given that it takes place in late 2010, and was published in 1998. Mostly because VR wasn't pretty much non-existent in 2010, though it's much more common today. Just not as common as it is in the 2010 of this novel. 

Being that this is a series that was created by Tom Clancy, but not written by him, there isn't as much focus on the political side of things. It feels more like a police procedural in the vein of NCIS than a political thriller like some of Clancy's later novels. Net Force follows the cyber arm of the FBI, known as Net Force, as they look for the killer who assassinated their commanding officer, Steve Day. The five main characters are Commander Alex Michaels, Deputy Commander Toni Fiorella, Jay Gridley, who is the head of Net Force's online investigations division, Colonel John Howard, the head of Net Force's military operations unit, and his son, Tyrone, who occasionally helps Jay with his investigations.

There's some political stuff in this book, but it's very much focused on the characters. For example, Toni is a martial artist who specializes in Pukulan Pentjak Silat Bukti Negara-Serak, which is based on a Malaysian martial art. Basically she's very dangerous in hand to hand combat, as we see at the end of the book when Toni takes on the assassin who has targeted Alex. 

Toni is my favourite character in this book. And that's because, with the exception of Tyrone and his love interest, Belladonna Wright, Toni is the only well developed character who isn't stereotypical. Part of the problem is that Steve Perry isn't great at interpersonal relationships. He's great with the military and technological stuff, but not with people interacting with other people. Which is something I've noticed in Shadows of the Empire, which had been published two years before Net Force came out. Because, yes, Steve Perry, the author of this book, also wrote Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire. Which is insane.

I first read this book all the way back in 1999 when my best friend at the time, who also lent me most of the Bantam Spectra Star Wars novels, lent it to me. It was my introduction to Tom Clancy. I enjoyed it and when my friend decided to get rid of his copy, he gave it to me, and that's the copy I still have on my shelf today. It's a good book, but, like I said, Perry isn't great with writing character interactions, but he's great with the technical stuff. Even when it's futuristic stuff that didn't exist yet.

Nine more books were published in the series with the 10th book, Archimedes Effect, coming out 2006. I've only ever read the first five books in the series.

A relaunch series, titled simply, Net Force, began publication in 2019 with Dark Web by Jerome Preisler. I can't find any information on this book or the relaunch series in general so I don't know whether it's a relaunch in that Dark Web picks up where The Archimedes Effect left off or if it's a full on reboot that updates things to reflect modern day tech rather than the tech predicted for 2010 back in 1998.

In addition to the main series, Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik created a young adult version called Tom Clancy's Net Force Explorers which is set in 2025 and features a youth auxiliary of Net Force, known as the Net Force Explorers who take on cases that Net Force can't. Especially when other teenagers are involved. One of the members of the Net Force Explorers is Mark Gridley, who is the son of Jay Gridley, who is now the head of Net Force and spearheaded the Explorers program. Probably due to him having worked with Tyrone Howard in the main series. So in a way, this series is very much like the Star Wars: Young Jedi Knights series, which was also published by Berkley Jam Books, which ended around the time this series was starting. Net Force Explorers was written by Diane Duane, who was known for writing Star Trek novels in the '80s and '90s, Bill McCay, and Mel Odom, with guest writers penning a couple of volumes. I had several books in the series when I was a teenager with the first two I got were Book #3 One is the Loneliest Number, and Book #14 High Wire. The first book in the series, Virtual Vandals, came out in 1998, probably around the same time this book was published.

In 1999 a made-for-TV movie adaptation of the first book was produced. Scott Bakula, who would be cast as Captain Jonathan Archer on Star Trek: Enterprise two years later, was cast as Alex Michaels and Joanna Going was cast as Toni Fiorella. It's not streaming anywhere, though you can find it on YouTube. I think it also had a home media release at some point. I've never seen it so I have no idea how faithful to the source material the movie is.

Overall this is a pretty good book even if its portrayal of 2010 is completely outdated. I'm pretty sure it's still in print so if you're interested in reading it, I definitely recommend it.

Alright my friends that's it for me for today. I'll be back on Wednesday for my review of The Mandalorian season 3, on Friday for my season 3/series review of Star Trek: Picard, and on Sunday for my review of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always. So until then, have a wonderful evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.