9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
What happened to the international incidents??, October 24, 2004
This is the eleventh book in the Op-Center series, and is the weakest story yet. Instead of an international crisis or espionage mission, Op-Center finds itself the target of a budget axe, and must downsize. At the same time, Op-Center finds itself drawn into a murder investigation that entangles it in the vicious world of Washington politics.
This book is trying hard to question the motivations and agendas of the powers-that-be in Washington, but fails to hit its target. In the end this book feels more like a worn-out detective story that happens to involve Op-Center characters. Hopefully, future volumes in this series will return to the international stage, where the stories are more interesting, and the potential consequences create more tension.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Awful, awful, awful, August 5, 2004
The helicopters on the cover of this novel are actually flying through all the massive holes in this story's plot.
The final resolution requires the reader to make too many ridiculous leaps. Obviously it's fiction, but the author never draws me in to the world he's attempting to craft. The characters are dry and without depth and most of the dialogue reads like it was written by a 4th grader.
I begrudingly give it two stars because I did stick with it till the end because I HAD to know how it was all going to end ... so I guess that says something.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Review of Call To Treason, September 19, 2004
I really do get disappointed by the commercialism of the 'Tom Clancy' authors these days. While it is undoubtedly a legitimate technique to utilize the worlds and characters created by other authors, this particular work will never be anything like a Clancy at its best.
As these series develop they seem less and less like Clancy.
The characters are becoming unbelievable and the plots lack both plausibility and grit. The "Clancy" of old exploded nuclear weapons in the USA, overturned corrupt presidential régimes and had key characters die when least expected. He took risks based on somewhat believable, though remote, probabilities and displayed to us all some wonderfully flawed characters.
The flawed General Rodgers and Paul Hood of Op-Centre despite their almost diametrically opposed judgments both succeed at the end, but reality isn't like that. It is inevitable that this plot will resolve in the best way for the ongoing society that is the US of A, though the reality of September 11 clearly indicates that truth is never as glowing as Op-Center's successes.
All that said if this wasn't plastered with Tom Clancy's name all over it, the book could probably stand as a reasonable airplane read.
There is a rapidly developing plot but the reader is given too many facts when the surprises could have been so much better had they been revealed later in the plot.
The first murder is engrossing, carefully thought out and well paced but then it all goes downhill. Rovin can obviously write, arouse emotion and deliver action but he is just not able to put this incredibly complex plot together. I doubt anyone could. Maybe it was released for the USA election fever.
Op-center needs to go back to its roots - action, technology, planning and teamwork. I can only hope that number 12 finds its way there. Smart plots building on the characters already developed, with a few surprises, will lead this team back from the wilderness. I hope so as airplane seats are getting smaller and a good yarn is essential to pass the time.
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