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Good and bad, really. It was a great vehicle for a tour of Vietnam, past and present, and DeMille manages for the most part to keep up the pace over 650 pages - though an editor could have cut out a good quarter, in my opinion.

On the down side, he layers cliche up on cliche, and wrongly assumes that acknowledging the cliches by having the main character occasionally say things like "I felt like James Bond!" negated their predictability.

I was frustrated to once again encounter a strong, independent, flawed, and interesting female character who meets a guy and becomes 'undone' instantly, becoming a tag-along puppy dog willing to go wherever he does. But perhaps that scenario appeals to men?

A good albeit fluffy read, made weightier by the historical and geographical setting, and the knowledge that DeMille was drawing from experience in writing about Vietnam past and present.