Chip Off the Bloc

If you suspend belief and just enjoy a dated story for what it is this was a great read. The story opens up on a pretty fun action to set they story off. We then find the team training during a test mission fighting a security robot which is totally like short circuit which also came out in 86. So dated and doesn’t age well but exactly what makes it fun. Spoilers. The ending was fun cause they bring in a ‘laptop’ the size of a sewing machine and look up a bank account on the ‘internet’ to find a phone number and link it to an address where the bad guy lives. Something so simple now but in 86 was the future! Could not put it down. The reason I give it nine instead of ten is just cause it doesn’t stand the test of time. Even though that is what I want.

Looks like I am going against all the other reviews here. I thought this was awful. No story line and populated by blockheads and dunderheads. Years ago I saw this Brit sitcom set in war time France and all factions and characters were idiots. The same is true here. The 'story' is set in LA, and there was me thinking that Able Team handled adventures set in the USA. There were chapters that introduced characters only for them to get shot and never mentioned again. The book opens with Phoenix Force pitting their skills against a robot and the robot is using live ammo! Seriously? And we even get to hear what the robot is thinking. What junk. I will give the book 5 stars for the great wrap around cover. Otherwise the story is junk. MERGE are a joke. The KGB are a joke. Phoenix Force were Keystone Kops. And the genius of a 13 year kid was poorly handled. And WTF does the title even mean and what relevence does it have on the non existent story?

What a great book! I thought this book had it all. I think Karl makes a great addition to the team. I like When David had to babysit Bobby I liked how those 2 related to each other. And of course you know trouble going to find him. The Russians in this book Were more comic relief than anything. I liked how Karl and Bobby wrote. Computer program to steal the money that the Russians Put in the MERGE bank account. All in all a really solid entry to the series. 9 stars

This was an action packed book from start to finsh. This was my first PF book and boy it was a great one, I like the idea of Robert Pearce's son is the computer wizs. The raid at the end, that is the best part in the book. If anybody sees this book at the used book store ............ you should get it.

This is an excellent read. From the start where prior to the mission the team are attempting to infiltrate an area patrolled by a new prototype robot sentry and how it is done is very good and you will be thinking hmm how good was that and this may be a good title? So it is, a good plot where a computer scientiest woking on the American SDI project is kidnapped and auctioned to the competing world powers, good sub plots featuring his son, the russians (couple of bumbling fools to me), and the Mexican crime family which is part of MERGE who have orchestrated the kidnap. Lots and lots of use of computer technology in this title mainly aimed at Hahn but also at the son of the hostage. Whilst by todays standards the capacities/capabilities of the machines mentioned is comical it would have been possible to do what they did even with the 300 baud internal modem installed. (Would have taken a while but). The manipulation of bank accounts is terrific as is the realisations of the Mexicans and especially the Russians as they can't figure out where the money has gone. Very good finish where the Mexican hardsite is located by the team and the final assault is executed with a successfull recovery of the hostage. Last couple of pages Armando Torres-Quinteros (Godfather of the Mexican family) escapes in a helicopter from the roof and thumbs his nose at the team as he flies over other neighbouring properties while Calvin is aiming an RAG launcher but doesn't fire. An excellent epilogue follows dotting a few fullstops and finalising some characters who won't be in any future titles.

I started reading the “Bolanverse” twenty years ago. “Chip off the Bloc” was my very first Phoenix Force novel that I ever read. I still remember every plot point, the level of detail and action. This novel succeeded in hooking me to this series and the rest. I thought the kid was too much of a cliché and every problem that I had with the novel flowed from him. Everything else, including mention that this isn’t the original team of Phoenix Force members, was compelling. I also enjoyed the pre-mission mission, involving the DARPA robot. Classic stuff, at least to me.

Amusing adventure. Especially Hahn's improvised use of the floppy disk to put out one of the baddie's eyes. I remember riding my bicycle to the local bookstore to get it the week it came out.

A solid action thriller from Nueman, he writes a lot like Fieldhouse, these guys made a good writing team.

I am relatively new to the Force series, but this one definitely caught my eye. Action, and a touch of human emotion tossed in with the Force having to protect the young Bobby. A wonderful book all the way around.

Don't remember much from this one, but I remember it was action packed. Usual Fieldhouse.

One of the few times that PF has to protect children, in this case a computer prodigy, and it's interesting to see how the team reacts to their assignment. It's funny to read the technology references now, but I remember reading it the first time and thinking, "Wow, what a setup!" As Gunslinger said, it's typical Fieldhouse.