Prism: A Novel - Hardcover

Bay, Austin

3

9 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060175257 ISBN 13: 9780060175252

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1996

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In a near future world in which extrasensory mental powers have become the weapon of choice, Hawkins, a retired operative of "The Shop" is reluctantly drawn out of retirement to infiltrate the sinister paramilitary organization of tyrannical Texas billionaire Coleman O. Mosley.

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From Kirkus Reviews:

James Bond lives again in a wildly improbable, marginally absurd military thriller that forges high-tech hardware and ESP. Armchair military strategist Bay (A Quick and Dirty Guide to War, not reviewed; coauthor of From Shield to Storm, 1992, etc.) reworks the Bond formula, introducing Wesley ``Wes'' Hawkins, a psychic soldier and employee of an ultrasecret extrasensory- perception government spy bureau called ``The Shop,'' managed by a female psychic puppeteer named Chatterly. Wes is ordered to haunt a dingy bar in Toulon, posing as a mercenary, so that he can infiltrate the Texas-based high-tech empire of American billionaire industrialist Coleman Oswald Mosley, a failed presidential candidate and impassioned model railroader. Wealthy enough to own a fleet of 747's and military hardware sufficient for a dozen Third World dictatorships, Mosley wants Wes to assassinate former American President and avid golfer Grover Renwick as well as current President Randall Duncan. To make sure Wes cooperates, Mosley's paramilitary thugs abduct his daughter. What follow are several scenes of artfully executed military mayhem in Bosnia, Somalia, northern Virginia, and Montana in which Wes distinguishes himself. While Mosley and his army communicate by beepers and e- mail, Wes chats with Chatterly by focusing his mental powers on crystals. Alas, Chatterly keeps her powerful thoughts to herself, saying little about the assassination plot or the importunate temptations of Sari, a leggy femme fatale posing first as a French chambermaid, then as a topless Caribbean nymph. Wes also gets flirtatious glances from the President's ``tigress'' wife, Carolyn Duncan, who, we presume, has other things on her mind than universal health care. After some Byronic brooding on the dehumanizing aspects of being manipulated by nasty people, Wes finds the fate of the world in his hands, and also finds himself, his daughter, and the President's son in a hail both of gunfire and psychic blasts. Implausible but readable fantasy for Soldier-of-Fortune fans. -- Copyright �1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

Carey Hawkins is an unusual assassin. Highly skilled with a sniper rifle, he is also armed with extraordinary psychic powers, which he employs to devastating effect in this spooky, if murkily plotted, techno-thriller from Bay (The Coyote Cried Twice; A Quick and Dirty Guide to War). Hawkins, who narrates, acts as a disturbingly amoral agent of The Shop, a psychic special-ops division of the CIA. Reluctantly brought out of retirement, he is assigned to infiltrate the security network of a paranoid Texas billionaire, Coleman O. Mosley. The Shop knows Mosley plans to assassinate the U.S. president, but Hawkins is unsure of the purpose of his mission. Is he to foil Mosley's plot or assist it? Once on the billionaire's payroll as a hired gun, Hawkins is tested in bloody shoot-outs in Bosnia and Somalia as Mosley prepares him for the ultimate rub-out. The climax to all this mayhem is surprising and shocking, if not quite satisfying. Bay lays down his story in cool, lean prose that's as tough as his protagonist, who's plenty tough. If, in battle, brain is superior to brawn, then the Rogue Warrior has met his match here, and then some.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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