Customer Reviews

Balance of Power

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(33)

 

 

In Balance of Power, Richard North Patterson follows up on his previous novel, Protect and Defend, by presenting another story about a political hot button issue. Instead of abortion, this time the topic is guns. Unfortunately, the politics wind up being more important than the plot and the result is a book that is merely above average, not really great.

The story focuses on recurring character Kerry Kilcannon, the charismatic President saddled with an opposition Congress. After members of Kilcannon's wife's family are killed in a mass murder with a high-powered gun, Kerry - already an advocate of gun control - steps up the pressure to restrict access to certain weapons. Opposing him are the Sons of the Second Amendment (SSA)- an obvious substitute for the NRA - who are extreme in their views and willing to resort to any level of dirty tricks to win.

There is a semblance of political balance here, but there are no doubts where Patterson's sympathies lie. And while these views often parallel my own, that doesn't make me enjoy this book any more. Instead, this book often seems to be little more than a slanted political debate. While not all the pro-gun people are villains, all the villains are pro-gun.

Anyone who is pro-gun is likely to hate this book and it's not good enough to win anyone over. Certainly, when compared to another recent political novel that I've read - Michael Crichton's State of Fear - Patterson's novel shines. Both emphasize politics over plot (although with distinctly different viewpoints), but at least Patterson's characters are more than talking heads. Indeed, Patterson is a good enough author to make this a high-three star effort, but it is nonetheless a weak book for him.

As with all of Richard North Patterson's work, page-turning, political infighting makes BALANCE OF POWER a must-read for political junkies on both sides of the political aisle. That said, if you have a closed mind and any kind of opinion at all, for or against gun legislation to go along with it, you'll either love or hate this book. I'll give you three examples.

"Richard North Patterson has a keen eye for how Washington really works. His portrait of the gun lobby is right on-both in terms of its power and its political tactics. A must read for anyone interested in the gun debate." -Former President Bill Clinton

"BALANCE OF POWER is a rip-roaring novel about guns, lawyers, and politics. Richard North Patterson has extraordinary insight into how Washington works, and a complex and heartfelt understanding of the effects of gun violence on our society. This is a great read by a masterful writer." -Senator Edward M. Kennedy

"I hate this book." -Any living member of the National Rifle Association

Okay, maybe that last one was a little exaggerated, but you can see what I mean about readers either loving or hating this novel. And from the examples cited above, you can pretty much figure out where Patterson comes down on the debate.

The third book in the Kerry Kilcannon trilogy finds President Kilcannon about to wed. After the wedding, tragedy strikes his new wife's family. Kilcannon ran on a promise to do something about guns in America, now gun violence has attacked close to home. But it's not the first time, Kilcannon's brother was killed by an assassin's bullet when he ran for the presidency. So, President Kilcannon has valid reasons for his fight for better gun legislation and we can sympathize with him in his struggle to get it.

However, perhaps Patterson goes a little over the top in his portrayal of the gun lobbyists and those that believe in the right to bear arms. There must be a least one guy out there in America who sincerely believes in his right to own a handgun for protection and for no other reason. Still, this is a fabulous book and if you can around the fact that it's not fair and balanced and doesn't pretend to be, then you'll be treated to a wonderful five star story and you'll learn about how your senators and congressmen work when they pass legislation that affects your life, and I think that I can guarantee, Republican, Democrat or Independent, you won't like how they do it.

Balance of Power, Richard North Patterson's twelfth novel, tells a story about politics and the background posturing and backstabbing that is endemic therein. It is not a particularly pleasant book but it is interesting and well written. The core of the narrative is a battle between President Kerry Kilcannon and the SSA (Sons of the Second Amendment) obviously a pseudonym for the NRA (National Rifle Association).

In a previous book, Kerry's brother James, had been assassinated while running for president. Kerry, who later became a U.S. Senator also was shot by a would be assassin during an election campaign. He recovers and goes on to become President. Obviously gun control is close to his heart and this book describes Kilcannon's efforts to institutionalize a modicum of safety measures in the face of the intractable SSA.

The Plot

After unraveling the president's plan to get gun manufacturer's to voluntarily provide locks for their handguns and require background checks on sales at gun shows, SSA president, Charles Dane goes on the offensive against the hated Kilcannon. As the Republican Parties main contributor, many members of the Senate and Congress are beholden to the SSA, so Dane meets with the Senate Majority leader, Frank Fasano, to go over strategy to neutralize his perceived enemy.

The Story

Shortly after taking office, President Kilcannon, a divorcee, marries his lady friend, the beautiful, former Lara Costello, previously a news correspondent. However, prior to the wedding, Lara, while in San Francisco, confronts her sister Joan, a victim of spousal abuse and forces her to talk to Kerry, who was a former prosecutor, specializing in spousal battery. After getting Joan to file a complaint against her husband, John Bowden, Police secure the gun from him that he had held to Joan's head a few days previous and he is arrested and subsequently released on bail, with the stipulation that he stay away from his wife and six year old daughter, Marie. But John is a troubled man.

John Bowen, obtains passage to Las Vegas, where he attends a gun show purchasing a gun that has been banned in California, along with especially deadly bullets, from a private seller, at the gun show. Then he returns to California where he awaits the return of the Costello family from Washington DC, where the five Costello women had attended Kerry and Lara's wedding. At this point the stage it set for tragedy, leading, subsequently, to a round of Machiavellian intrigue, which would make Robespierre proud.

Conclusion

Balance of Power is a long complicated book of 605 pages. It is both heart wrenching and inspiring. During the inspiring parts, I'm not ashamed to admit my eyes would water. If you pick up this book you are in for an emotional rollercoaster.

This book would not appeal to gun advocates, since it depicts the gun lobby as unalterably set against even the most modest safety measures, even those volunteered by gun manufacturers. The author, Richard North Patterson, conceded to a gun control bias in the Acknowledgment section at the rear of the book, although that was obvious to me, from the tenor of the novel. In truth the book mirrors the intransigence that often emanates from the real life NRA, regarding seemingly innocuous legislation, in total disregard of the victims and survivors of gun violence.

In summary, Balance of Power is an excellent tale of the exercise and misuse of power in lobbying and government which can make one seethe. The character development is superb, with distinct conniving antagonists you love to hate, contrasting with good and admirable protagonists. The situations that unfold are extremely interesting, such as a conundrum which existed between a lawsuit needed to thwart pending legislation, whose passage would terminate the lawsuit.

The book is well written and the writing is fluid. There is, in my opinion, some superfluous verbiage though not overly so. Patterson's writing style, although sometimes technical, is still easily understood. He is one of the better authors I have read. I did have a problem with one element of the story, where they were submitting legislation that would kill all product liability against all manufacturers, passage of which, would wipe out pending and future lawsuits by employees of a company that had received fatal doses of asbestos in a mine. That didn't seem like product liability to me. Still Balance of Power is a fascinating read, that gives the reader a glimpse of the inner workings of congress and special interest groups. Final rating 4.65 stars.

Richard North Patterson is known as powerful, literate author of suspense novels which explore social, political and legal issues. Although Patterson's bias almost always shines through, he makes a valiant and usually credible attempt to explore both sides and let each proponent in his novel make the best case for their position. "Balance of Power" is neither a suspenseful novel, nor a balanced view on the issue at the core of the book, gun control and American politics. Nonetheless, the novel is a masterful, well written, page tuner. It is also an advocacy brief in novel form.

If Patterson's goal in writing is to affect the public debate, he is unlikely to succeed despite the muckraking quality to the book. When Upton Sinclair and other muckrakers wrote their advocacy novels in the early twentieth century, their works were serialized in the only mass media of the day: newspapers and popular magazines. Today the mass media has already been so saturated on this issue that Patterson's work brings nothing new to the public debate.

"Strict constructionalits" who believe that when the Founding Fathers made reference to a "well organized militia" they meant individual citizens or believe that the right to bear arms trumps the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" will dismiss "Balance of Power" as the work of "Nazi jackboot" who wants to take away a hunter's right to own a hunting gun. For those who believe in responsible gun control, the book is sermon directed at the choir. I cannot predict how those in the middle will react, but I suspect anybody who reads "Balance of Power" with an open mind is more likely to join the choir than the NRA.

Richard North Patterson's "Balance of Power" continues his series featuring the young Democratic President Kerry Kilcannon. As with the other entries in this series, it contains a plot almost guaranteed to fire political controversy.

Kilcannon, you see, is written as a man driven by principle. Earlier, it was this principle that made him force through the confirmation of Caroline Masters to the US Supreme Court even though she decided in favour of abortion in a landmark case. This time around, the issue is gun control.

As Patterson frequently reminds his readers, Kilcannon believes in this cause passionately - having lost his elder brother to gun violence and been wounded himself during his Presidential campaign (all similarities between Patterson's characters and real-life ones are of course wholly intentional). It is, however, the First Lady who gives impetus to the debate when her family is shot.

Most of the old characters from the Kilcannon series make repeat appearances here. Kerry and Lara (who marries him early in the book), Chad and Allie Palmer, even Macdonald Gage - the Republican Majority Leader who Kilcannon previously destroyed politically - appears as an "elder statesman" for the new Majority Leader, Frank Fasano. Another welcome returnee is Sarah Dash, the lawyer in the Tierney case which gave Justice Masters such headaches. Dash now, conveniently, works for the Kilcannon Center - an anti-gun violence group - and attempts to sue an arms manufacturer and the Sons of the Second Amendment (Patterson's thinly-disguised NRA) in a case which forms the backbone of the novel.

Any work of political fiction which attempts to deal with such a contentious issue as gun rights will always be controversial - one need only read over the reviews here to see that. However, given the record of President Kilcannon, one can hardly accuse Patterson of hiding his bias. Likewise, to claim that the ending was predictable is to state the exceedingly obvious. With nothing more than a skim of the blurb on the back cover, anyone could tell you the rough outline of the plot.

While it is fun to read this novel as an exercise in "spot the politician", that only serves part of the purpose. Especially when Patterson makes it so easy by having SSA President Charles Dane declare that the government would take his gun only "from my cold dead hands".
What this book serves as is an interesting entree into the issue of gun politics - an issue which is misrepresented by both sides of the debate. By no means is it intended to be factually accurate or unbiased (it is, after all a work of fiction). All it is intended to do is to tell a story - and that it does in spades. Critiquing it based on one's personal politics is an exercise in futility at best.

That said, Patterson's novels do tend to fall down when it comes to dialogue. Perhaps as a result of his background in legal thrillers, he has an unfortunate tendency to make all of his characters orate as often as possible. While there's obviously nothing wrong with oratory in the Senate or a court room (we could probably do with more of both in real life), it somehow doesn't quite ring true in the private lives of the characters. The effect is somehow disconcerting, as the characters become less believable human beings and more simple avatars for his own views.

Then again, the day I read Richard North Patterson expecting a literary classic is the day I should be committed.

While some may claim this is the excelent example of advocasy, I found it to more closely resemble propoganda. The heros of the book are full of sympathy and wisdom. The gun-toting conservatives are described with every stereotype imaginable. The First Lady sips tea with victims of gun violence. The cut-throat Republicans go to their "private clubs" to be served drinks by black waiters.

I have to say that I don't have a gun, have never had a hunting license, and don't belong to the NRA (thinly disguised in the book as a different organization). Yet I found the rhetoric so thick that it angered me.

If you think that Teddy Kennedy's politics are mainstream, this book is for you. If you think that every problem in Amerrica could be solved with a few less conservatives and that people that try to protect constitutionally given rights are on the fringe, you'll love it. If, on the other hand, you feel that a president that messes around on his wife, gets his lover pregnant, covers up the abortion, and uses the legal system to circumvent the legislative branch is not the role model that you want for your kids, I'd suggest something a little less biased. The "Comunist Manifesto" comes to mind.

According to Patterson, 20% of US citizens like guns, 20% dislike guns, and 60% are somewhere in the middle, providing the "balance of power". The 20% that like guns will dislike this book, and the 20% that dislike guns will like this book. The other 60% are likely to move a bit closer to disliking guns by reading this book. But the reader should be mindful of the fact that Patterson is controlling both sides of the gun debate inside the covers of his book. Clearly, he is anti-gun and believes that the Second Second protects only the rights of state militias, not individuals. If you're looking for a well written, emotionally compelling, fictional story to buttress your belief that guns are bad, this book is for you. On the other hand, if you'd like to explore a balanced debate, check out "Opposing Viewpoints Series - Gun Control (Opposing Viewpoints Series)" by Helen Cothran (Editor).

Here's my take on Balance of Power: it's a political fantasy for liberals. It's designed to take liberals to an imaginary land where they can cheer a heroic president who triumphs over evil. In this case, the good president fights to pass new gun-control laws that will magically stop crazed killers with big guns from shooting innocent children, while armies of evil goblins -- I mean, bad conservatives and the wicked gun lobby -- try to stop him.

Now, there's nothing wrong with a good fantasy. The problem with this book is that it's so laughingly inept.

Let's start with the characters. They're cartoonish. Liberals are handsome and virtuous. Conservatives are gaunt and malicious. But author Richard North Patterson is so ham-fisted he goes further: he gives evil characters evil names so you'll instantly KNOW they're evil. One nasty Republican is named "Harshman." (Harsh man. Get it?) A turncoat Democrat is named "Slezack." (Rhymes with sleaze-hack. Get it?) I'm surprised he didn't name the main Republican politician Caligula Puppycrusher, but that might have been too subtle for his fans.

Second, Patterson has withering contempt for people who own guns, so gun-owners are frequently called "gun nuts." But, again, that's not enough. Patterson explains that many Americans own guns because they have a "fear of minorities." (They're racists. Get it?) Patterson does everything except play the theme from Deliverance when a pro-gun character makes an appearance.

Finally, because gun-owners are so wicked, Patterson has no compunctions about fudging the truth to "prove" his points. He packs Balance of Power with dozens of inaccuracies about firearms and the Second Amendment. For example, he pretends that more guns cause more killing. Yet, since 1974, the number of guns in America doubled -- but murder rates have declined by a third. Curiously, that fact is never mentioned in the book.

Yes, I know Balance of Power is fantasy -- er, fiction. However, Patterson intends it to be an "expose" of guns and the gun lobby, so he has an obligation to be truthful about what he opposes. He isn't. Which means you'll only enjoy Balance of Power if you want your dislike of guns confirmed, unsullied by facts, spoon-fed to you in the form of a simplistic good-versus-evil fantasy. The rest of us -- those who live in the real world -- will find it disappointing.

Full disclosure here: I am an unabashed champion of the Second Amendment who views guns as our most important right.

That said, my problem is not that Patterson wrote a novel to promote an antigun agenda--after all, I did the same thing for the other side (the novel "Unintended Consequences".)

My complaint with Balance Of Power is that Patterson needed to use physical impossibilities to make his case. In his story, the "evil" gun in question that he wants banned is obviously a handgun, yet it holds 30 or more rounds of ammo, and the ammo it uses is repeatedly described as "too powerful for hunting--there wouldn't be any animal left."

That dog won't hunt. Typical semiauto handgun calibers such as 9mm Luger or .45 ACP are much LESS powerful than typical hunting rifle calibers, to the point that many Fish and Game departments around the country prohibit their use for hunting BECAUSE THEY ARE TOO WEAK and cannot be relied upon to humanely kill game.

Balance Of Power invents some mythical superduper round that is "too powerful for hunting" but small enough that you can fit 30 of them in a concealable handgun. Riiiiight.

Without this impossible fabrication, Patterson would have had to make the case in his story for banning ALL handguns, and although I suspect that's what he'd like, he didn't have the intellectual honesty to admit it.

Many novels take a political stance of one type or another. Authors of these stories should make their point without resorting to impossibilities and lies.

Balance of Power is a large novel length tirade about gun policy in America. First off I guess it's important to say that if you like gun ownership and have strong views about freedom and guns in America than you probably won't like this book.

The novel while being fictional is essentially a description of the political and legal process that would likely need to occur to increase gun control in the United States.

In saying that the characters are OK, many of the minor ones are skilful half-real politicians and the initial storyline has some interesting tension.

Perhaps the real problem with Balance of Power is its extreme length. While I find the topic interesting and the novel is obviously the result of much hard work, one finds themselves drifting off during the legal and political arguments. The novel could have been much better with some thematic subplots, and some more human action, rather than so much procedural junk.