BrainWeb

BrainWeb begins with the character Nick Hall trying to save the top actors at the Academy Awards from being executed one by one on TV by Islamic Jihadists. He does this by using his special ESP ability to guide a SpecOps assault at the risk of exposing his identity to those trying to capture him to use his ability for their own evil agendas. In particular, Nick and his love Megan are kidnapped by a psychopathic politician who wants Nick to learn secrets about his political rivals. Meanwhile, for other nefarious purposes, a powerful arms trafficker captures Nick's close friend Alex who is the sole source of microcomputer brain implants that can access the internet. Then Nick's confidant, black ops leader General Girdler, who's trying to help Nick, Megan and Alex, is blamed for their abductions. A flurry of action follows, with Nick leading the way. But I won't spoil the book for you by telling you more, except to say that the many adventures in BrainWeb are brilliantly created by the author.I've given 5 stars to all the N.Y. Times best-seller techno-thrillers written by Douglass E. Richards. One might call his novels "extended-science" fiction. They involve credible, yet undemonstrated as of 2015, phenomenology in fields including neurobiology, DNA research, microcomputer brain implants, psychopathy, and ESP. But none of this is at all tedious nor requires any knowledge of the field. This almost-believable technology is then embedded in gripping tales with deep backstories. Further, Richard's books are flawlessly written, composed with outstanding word pictures, and, except for one early sequel, are all fully stand-alone reads.

How many other authors will take the time to send you a Facebook message telling you about their new book? While Richards has many fans, I've appreciated the fact that he takes the time to stay connected with his readers and he loves getting feedback.As to the book itself, Richards delivers everything I expected: thrilling twists, loads of action, and deep philosophical thought on technologies and issues that aren't too far away. As with his other books, I read BRAIN WEB in a single sitting. Richards captures your attention and holds it--only letting you go at the conclusion, which is quite satisfying. He's set the stage for a third book, though BRAIN WEB stands on its own. I would highly recommend MIND'S EYE (the "sequel"), but you will enjoy this book even if you haven't read it.Get it now!

Nick Hall is back and taking the story to a new highlight. For me, Douglas Richards is evolving into a more advanced author. The start of the BrainWeb is quite horrific but too realistic to ignore. Combing action and technology was always a strong point of Douglas but this time the main characters are deepening as well. Clearly it is a work of fiction but based on quite real inventions and facts. It provides an interesting view on a potential future and related privacy concerns. But above a great adventure, I highly recommend it. And don't worry if this is the first book you read of Richards, it works fine without the previous books. However, don't be surprised If you get hooked on all the books :-)

The story was kind of contrived but not too bad. Certainly exciting, which is kind of a trade off, I guess. But what’s really hampering my enjoyment is the the dialog. Obviously the author, who ends his books with extra nonfiction chapters about the technology in them, is an overly wordy, over explainer. And unfortunately he makes every character in his books the same way. The dialog is excessive and feels completely unrealistic. You know that phrase “explain it to me like I’m a 4 y.o.”? That’s what every character does to every other through the whole book. Besides that, the attempts at humor he mixes in are all pretty corny. (Though that doesn’t stop the characters from laughing.)Can't say I didn't enjoy it. (Parts that applies to.) But I'm really surprised it's rated as highly as it is.

As usual, Mr. Richards hits the mark again. I'll admit that during the first 1/3 of this book, I was a bit apprehensive. Had Mr. Richards taken a turn to the dark side? The diabolic scenarios he depicted had me wondering. I slogged onward, hoping to not be infected with the dreary future he outlined. I soon learned that this was just the roller coaster climbing slowly up the first ascent. When it finally reached the pinnacle, it was all about hanging onto your seat and enjoying the ride. The twists and turns and rapidly changing paradigms will leave you breathless.At the end, he neatly ties up all the loose ends, and doesn't leave us hanging. He also was honest enough with us to include at the end a section on which topics in the book were based on facts, and which were pure fiction.

This is an excellent second installment in the Nick Hall series. The only problem with this series is its improbable assumptions concerning telepathy. Once you set these absurdities aside, these are excellent stories with powerfully driven characters, a strong plot, and many twists and turns to delight the reader and keep him or her guessing.One of this author's strong points is his ability to create realistic villains. In my opinion, it is more difficult for a writer to come up with true to life villains as opposed to heroes. After all, we are all heroes in our own minds, are we not? But it takes real imagination to create a realistic villain. Mr. Richards does this effortlessly and repeatedly. This villains are some of his best characters. Further, he manages to put most of his characters somewhere in the middle as neither Saints nor Devils. I did not think that this second installment in this series would be better than the first, but I think that it probably is. Check it out and judge for yourself. RJB.