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| The First Commandment: A Thriller | 
 enlarge | Author: Brad Thor
Publisher: Pocket
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy Used: $2.25
You Save: $5.74 (72%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  58 reviews
Sales Rank: 1994
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 496
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 1416543805
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9781416543800
ASIN: 1416543805
Publication Date: May 20, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Help save a tree. Buy all your used books from Green Earth Books. Read -> Recycle -> Reuse!
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Product Description
A master assassin. A vendetta years in the making. And a counterterrorism operative who will risk everything -- even treason -- to keep the people he loves alive.Brad Thor, the New York Times bestselling author of Takedown, delivers an explosive international thriller featuring Navy SEAL turned Homeland Security operative Scot Harvath, who somewhere, somehow, has left the wrong person alive. "Thou shalt not negotiate with terrorists..." Six months ago: In the dead of the night, five of the most dangerous detainees in the war on terror are pulled from their isolation cells in Guantanamo Bay, held at gunpoint, and told to strip off their orange jumpsuits. Issued civilian clothes and driven to the base airfield, they are loaded aboard a Boeing 727 and set free. Present day: Covert counterterrorism agent Scot Harvath awakens to discover that his world has changed violently -- and forever. A sadistic assassin with a personal vendetta is wreaking havoc of biblical proportions. Unleashing nightmarish horrors on those closest to Harvath, the attacker thrusts everything Harvath holds dear -- including his life -- into absolute peril. Ordered by the president to stay out of the investigation, Harvath is forced to mount his own operation to uncover the conspiracy and to exact revenge. When he discovers a connection between the attacks and a group of prisoners secretly released from Guantanamo, Harvath must ask himself previously unthinkable questions about the organizations and the nation he has spent his life serving. A renegade from his own government, Harvath will place his life on the line as his search for the truth draws him into a showdown with one of the most dangerous men on the face of the earth. Brad Thor roars through this nonstop adventure full of international intrigue, twisted betrayals, and ultimate revenge.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 53 more reviews...
 Harvath, alone and on the hunt! July 19, 2007
22 out of 23 found this review helpful
I have been eagerly anticipating the release of this book since I finished "Takedown: A Thriller" last year, and let me start by saying it is worth wait! The story picks up where the last one left off: Tracy Hastings is in deep coma and Scot Harvath is by her side anxiously praying for her recovery. At this same time five terrorist are being release from Gitmo as part of a hostage deal. One of these characters begins hunting down Haravath's friends but President Jack Rutledge wont let Scot go after the bad guy. Of course this does not stop our hero who is soon on the hunt while trying to avoid capture by his own government. Many of our old friends are back in this one, including Scot's old evil opponent the Troll. Thore knows how to pack more pulse pounding thrills into a single page then just about any thriller author out there. Don't miss this one!
Not to be Missed!!! August 30, 2007
21 out of 25 found this review helpful
Brad Thor is one of the best. Right up there with Vince Flynn for writing topical thrillers that entertain and educate, this may be the most tightly written of his six novels that it has been my pleasure to read. The protagonist of these books is Scot Harvath a former Navy SEAL and Homeland Scurity operative.
This book picks up where the last one, "Takedown" leaves off. At the end of that book, Scot Harvath's girlfriend Tracy steps out on the porch of his home and is felled by an assassin's bullet which is just enough off target to spare her life, but serious enough to put her in a coma and on a ventilator.
Harvath does not realize it at the time, but that attack on Tracy is the first of several that are planned for people close to Harvath. Who is carrying out the attacks, who is planning them and why consumes not only Harvath, but the reader as events unfold. Someone appears bent on revenge, but for what?
It is a large onion that Harvath must peel his way through to get to the answers and telling you more than that could spoil the masterful writing effort that Thor has offered for our reading enjoyment.
Do not pass this one by.
 Weak plot, weak ideas September 10, 2007
11 out of 24 found this review helpful
I hate to be the first person to write a less-than-glowing (i.e., realistic) review of this book, but I feel I must point out several significant problems.
First, the plot. The title is based on the idea that America's "first commandment" in the "war on terror" is "Thou shalt not negotiate with terrorists." So far so good. Next, Thor postulates that there is one situation in which our government will violate this commandment: when terrorists target children. Here we run into problems. The first problem is that I could reveal this without it being a spoiler, since this thread peters out halfway through the book and ends up having absolutely nothing to do with the plot's resolution, which is weak anyway. One assumes that the title of the book indicates a theme which will integrate and run through the plot--at least, in good fiction.
Next, this indicates some serious ideological shortcomings. Presumably, the reason for such a "commandment" is that negotiating with terrorists only serves to embolden them. If that's the case, then for precisely that reason, the worse the threat, the more crucial that we follow the commandment. If terrorists learn that we'll break our rule only if they target our kids, soon we'll have every terrorist in the world targeting American children. Duh.
Next, while not an explicitly religious novel, several points seem to gratuitously pander to the worst aspects of conservative politics. The good guys contend that we ought to seal off our borders and build a wall between Mexico and us, while anyone with the most basic knowledge of American history and military history more generally should know that (more-or-less) open immigration along with other freedoms is what made this country great (as we are all only here thanks to foreign immigrants), and that sealing off its borders and trying to fight a defensive war is a nation's death-sentence.
*SPOILER ALERT*
Throw in a dig at the Terri Schiavo case in which the patient miraculously recovers at the end after the heartless parents pull the plug without even waiting a couple of days for the significant other to arrive, and one begins to think that Thor is merely a puppet of the Christian fundamentalist movement. The strange ending in which the terrorist mastermind turns out to be a Machiavellian Israeli trying to frame Palestinians for his crimes in order to stir up pro-Israel/anti-Palestine sentiment seems to throw this off a bit, but I suppose there might be a tension for such people between being pro-Israel and anti-Semitic.
I was hoping for something more along the lines of TV's 24, but with a more consistent plot (so much for that), but the completely amoral my-country-right-or-wrong, might-makes-right Scot Harvath makes Jack Bauer look like a saint by comparison. Some of Harvath's gratuitous and hideous acts of torture, which are often carried out solely for personal revenge and not even for the objective protection of America, are quite disturbing.
The search for great post-9/11 rationally pro-American literature continues...
 A contrarian view. October 31, 2007
10 out of 15 found this review helpful
Thor's "First Commandment" is strictly an average read. The premise stretches credulity to the breaking point and the story line snaps it (credulity) in two. The so called first commandment of dealing with terrorists is to never negotiate with them. Obviously this is not an inviolate rule as the context of every terrorist encounter has to be carefully considered before a decision is reached.
But suffice it to say, if one is not ordinarily inclined to negotiate with terrorists threatening our children is not likely to induce us to change this policy. I did not find the reason for releasing 5 savage terrorists from Club Gitmo at all credible. The terrorists simply threatened to target our school buses some time in the future if they were not released. Yeah, we're going to fold when so threatened thereby encouraging all future terrorists to target our children. Lame.
Secondly, our protagonist, Scot Harvath and the sundry villains are simply not particularly believable. The Troll, who I take has been in other of his novels, turns out to be an all warm and fuzzy sort of guy. Give me a break. I found myself sorely disappointed about 1/3 of the way through the book and that sense of disappointment only deepened as the novel wore on.
Another aggravating habit of Thor's is to break up the story into tiny chapters thereby simulating a longer novel. This is an entirely bogus way to create the illusion of length.
Scot Harvath's love interest, Tracy, was attacked early in the book for which Harvath feels responsible. She is basically pronounced brain dead by the doctors and her parents pull the plug only to have her miraculously recover (Terry Schiavo anyone?) once Harvath returns from saving the president's life.
I've not read any other of Thor's novels and am unlikely to do so. If you enjoy books of this genre, go read any of Vince Flynn's early Mitch Rapp novels. They blow the drawers off this novel.
Action Packed Thriller! August 29, 2007
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Once again the hero of this Brad Thor thriller is Scot Harvath.He is a
dormer Navy Seal,Secret Service agent, and at present a Homeland Security
agent. In this newest novel five fearsome and dangerous terrorists are
released from Camp Delta at Guantanamo. This is a result of a secretely
negotiated deal by President Jack Rutledge. One of the terrorist killers
is named Phillippe Roussard(Juba). He is a sniper who has killed countless American troops in Iraq. He begins attacking people who are close to Harvath. Using intelligence gained from the Troll Harvath begins
hunting down the five terrorists. President Rutledge charges Harvath with
treason and orders Harvath brought in dead or alive. An Omega team from
the CIA is sent out to dispatch Harvath. Slowly but surely Harvath gets to the bottom of why the terrorists were released. He finally discovers
who Roussard really is. Roussard is using the "Ten Plauges of Egypt" to
harm Harvath's friends and relatives.Harvath has met his most evil opponent yet. Harvath is having to dodge the Omega team and stop the
terrorist Roussard. This makes for a very exciting read. Be sure not to
miss this exciting book.
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