Firewall

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell

By: James Swallow

Narrated by: Natalie Naudus

Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

Legendary agent Sam Fisher teams up with a new NSA recruit - his own daughter - to save the world in this gripping new thriller from the renowned Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell® video game universe.

Veteran Fourth Echelon Agent Sam Fisher has a new mission recruiting and training the next generation of Splinter Cell operatives for the NSA’s covert action division, including his daughter, Sarah. But when a lethal assassin from Fisher’s past returns from the dead on a mission of murder, father and daughter are thrust into a race against time as a sinister threat to global security is revealed. A dangerous cyberwarfare technology known as Gordian Sword - capable of crashing airliners, destroying computer networks, and plunging entire cities into darkness - is being auctioned off to whichever rogue state makes the highest bid. Sam and Sarah must call on their very singular set of skills to neutralize Gordian Sword and stop the weapon falling into the wrong hands - at any cost....

©2021 Ubisoft Entertainment (P)2022 Recorded Books

Great read.

It was a lot of fun to revisit the world of Sam Fisher and Splinter Cell. Felt like I was back playing the game. Narration was outstanding!

GREAT story; New Faces, CLASSIC Splinter Cell

I won't retread too much on the other 4-5 star reviews as they are all true. This is an excellent entry into the Splinter Cell franchise. Sam is back and better than ever, along with most of the characters from SC: Blacklist. The story felt and was read like it could have been adapted into a sequel to Blacklist, which is a very good thing on part of James Swallow.

Narration:
I've seen a lot of negative reviews aimed towards Natalie Naudus' performance on this audiobook. I give her performance a 5/5 stars. I for one am VERY particular about audiobook narration. You can have the greatest book ever written narrated into audiobook form and I wouldn't be able to sit through it because the narrator didn't have the proper tone or didn't use the right intonation/accents to bring life to the characters. Natalie does a superb job in this regard as a solo narrator. The gruff of Sam Fisher is excellently captured; the cold, matter-of-fact-ness of Anna Grimsdotter (?) is perfect; and the roller coaster of emotions that is Kobin is well-emulated. Again, the story felt like it could have been adapted into a game, and the narration made it feels like I was actually watching the game.

Sarah Fisher:
It's no spoiler that Sam's daughter is now a Splinter Cell as she is on the cover of the book...and I am all for it.

For context, I have played all SC titles on release (yes, even SC Essentials and both versions of Double Agent) and do consider myself a die-hard fan of the franchise. When I saw the cover, I can honestly tell you that I was uneasy about the direction the lore was going...but I stuck with it and James Swallow, in turn, stuck the landing.

The beginning chapters explain what leads Sarah to this point but also poetically ties up her once behind-the-scenes arc starting at SC: Double Agent, leading through SC: Conviction, and ending up to the present. Without getting into spoilers, remember all that this character has been through since Double Agent...and then remember whose daughter she is.

IF you are still not convinced that this is the direction you want the franchise to go, don't worry, Sam is still THE leading man in this story and appears to remain so for the foreseeable future. Whether or not Sarah eventually becomes the new face of SC remains to be seen, but if that is Ubisoft's long term goal for the character, at least they gave her an excellent introduction as agent of Fourth Echelon.

Enjoyable the whole way through

A lot of fun with some cool twists, great narration, and a satisfying ending. I've only dabbled with the games and didn't read the other books and still enjoyed it, so don't be discouraged when you see most of the series isn't available. (I hope that changes!)

Best thing since Splinter Cell Blacklist

As someone who's always replaying the games, this book did justice to every single character, they're personalities, their story arcs. It's the PERFECT follow up to Splinter Cell Blacklist.

An absolute must for every splinter cell fan and one that I believe any espionage fan will thoroughly love even if you don't know Splinter Cell.

When I first saw that the book covers Sam's daughter I was worried but wow, this was awesome!

The narration was just out of this world.

Please keep these coming!

Nice Storyline, Brilliant Reader.

This storyline of Splinter Cell continues between Splinter Cell Blacklist and Ghost Recon Wildlands with Nomad (Game Series). The reader Natalie Naudus sounds great/ sound like Karen Bowman (mission handler) from Ghost Recon Wildlands/Breakpoint series.

Excellent Book With A Great Story!!

Really loved this book and the exceptional story line! Great narration of the characters that kept me engaged and my mind never wandered. Having read the Splinter Cells books and played the video games, this series is one of my favorites for sure!!

Ok story line but the voice over…..yikes!!

I enjoyed the story but the narrators voices SUCKED for some of the people. Some of them sounded alike making it hard to follow at times. And her voice for the Legendary Sam Fisher SUCKED, wow can’t believe they let that stand. Would have been better to have had 2 people doing the reading for more variety in others and someone who could have done Sam justice.

Good story somewhat ok narration.

Great story but for the narrator takes some getting used to. I feel like with Sam her narration felt Sam was whispering throughout the story and the narration of Brodie was kinda annoying.

A fun listen!

This was a great way to dive back into the series. I last played blacklist back in like 2015? and there were recurring characters that I didn’t remember, story for Sarah, and more. It inspired me to pick up the game to replay on Xbox. I look forward to the next novel in the series

Dudebros just salty it wasn't a dude reading this

I loved this--Ms. Naudus' narration was good, it was smooth, and she did a creditable job. The dudes giving her one star are just salty at having a narrator with two X chromosomes.