Splinter Cell: Operation Barracuda

Having been a huge fan of the splinter cell games, i decided to buy the two novels by david michaels, the first entitled splinter cell, and the second, splinter cell: operation barracuda. After reading them both, ive decided the latter was a far more thought out novel than its predecessor and my favourite of the two.

The first paragraph is a definate attemp to start as the author means to go on, it grabbed my attention and kept me reading on. Sam Fisher is sent to investigate a peculiar military facility in siberia, which leads to him discovering members of the shop visiting the encampment. The shop are a russian black market arms dealing network ran by four main leaders, one of which isthe "big boss", if you will. They have networks all over the world and access to any equiptment they desire, and they have a firm hold in the black market of every country worth caring about to them. It is safe to say they are THE arms dealers/ stereotypical russian bad guys in american made entertainment.
The investigation seems to all be going smoothly until the last minute when, KABLAMMO, Sam is spotted and ends up being chaced down a mountainside on a jet ski to escape his enraged persue-ees.

This kind of scenario is typical throughout the book but it dosn`t destroy the origionality of some of the finer twists and turns. there is also a few cool new gadgets and incredibly swish vehicles sam uses to complete his objectives in foreign and home soil.

I dont want to spoil the plot, but the story involves the shop, a triad named the lucky dragons,and a small chinese army that deviated from the countrys main military forces and is led by one "General Tun". Theres also a traitor inside Third Echelon who`s been feeding information about the Splinter Cells to The Lucky Dragons and The Shop (who from the first novel, have a list of all the Splinter Cells and their vital statistics, and in said novel, assasinated a good few of them- not good old Sam though!).

Anyway, i would definatley reccomend this as an essential purchase for fans of the game, and its a bargain at £4.95 from amazon.co.uk, and while your at it you might aswell order the not-so-satisfying-but-still-worth-a-fiver Splinter Cell, and the frothcoming Splinter Cell: Checkmate.