Customer Reviews

Chain of Command

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It's nice having the former Secretary of Defense write a book as you really get the accuracy of inside the government. I really liked this book and couldn't put it down. It's on the order of the Baldacci books.

Weinberger and Schweizer have put together a novel that is definitely fast and highly entertaining, with enough thrills to please most thriller fans. The only slight drawback was that the plot seemed just a little farfetched, though it was fun to read.

Recommended for the thrills

I loved the story from the first page. If you want a political thriller that starts on page one and carries through until the end, this is it. Having read other reviews, I believe Mr. Weinberger's past employment may be tainting people's perceptions of the book. People are different in their political stance so they may not like the book based on 'principle' but I truly believe that if you want an exciting read, this will be it. Sadly, it will also be the only as Mr. Weinberger has passed.

I'm glad I didn't read the reviews before picking up the book (at Walmart)because I had finished another in the middle of a business trip. I don't finish many books in 24 hours, but, this is an exception. I suspect the criticisms come from people that are still upset that Reagan beat Carter and Mondale. I came to Amazon to see if Schweizer might be continuing the story in a sequel. I liked the characters and I have seen some compare them to Eastwood/Ford type movie roles. I see it more as a "Jack Bauer" type role. Too bad Kiefer Sutherland already got tagged in a Secret Service role. This would make a better movie, and as 1 "24" fan, I'd love to see him in the role of Mike Delaney. The plot is audacious, and requires the suspension of disbelief at times, which makes for good fiction.

Not farfetched at all, and in some ways the fiction has been surpassed by truth.
There is the remarkable similarity of the fictional President Boyd's attempts
to overthrow the Constitution, and what was attempted by the real President
Bush. Although Boyd uses assassination and staged bombings in the U.S., Bush
used 9/11 in a similar manner to induce fear in the population and provide a
rational for executive rule. Boyd's power play runs into more Congressional
opposition and is less brazen than the reality of actions by G.W. Bush.
This is in the tradition of fictional warnings of distopia, such as 'It
Can't Happen Here', "Brave New World" and "1984".
It's also a good political action thriller; better than the Clive Custler
books.
Weinberger has certainly used his knowledge of the inner workings of
government to good effect here.

though i was expecting a true "thriller", this book kept me entertained nonetheless. It's predictable, but entertaining enough for me to read while i was on vacation. and most importantly, it does make one think deeper about the current events surrounding us.

Read in two days. Kept you on the edge from the first page. Hard to put down. Though a work of fiction, seems to fit todays political intrigue.

The action and plot are fast-paced and pretty nearly believable given the quality of our elected officials. However, I wonder how much of a hand Mr. Weinberger had in writing this - as a former SECDEF, he ought to know that Mary Campo, whose rank is LTCOL and is referred to as "Colonel" (pp. 19, 62, and elsewhere), would not wear "gold leaves...on your uniform" (p. 60) - the insignia of a major. Also, you COULD head east out of DC and arrive in Centreville (p. 152) in Maryland - it's on the Eastern Shore -and a LONG way around to getting to the Shenandoah Valley. You head WEST out of DC and pass through Centreville VA on Route 29 south of Dulles Airport, enroute to the Shenandoah Valley. Perhaps having had a personal driver all those years atrophied Mr. Weingerger's geographical knowledge. It's glaring and blatant errors such as these that reflect poorly on the authors (whoever they may be) and even more poorly on the quality of editorship in our publishing houses, and turn a thriller into a book for the trash can.

So far I have read 36 pages and have found five serious writing or editorial errors, including
a helicopter from the Marine Corp
a car pealing off down the road
placing the Secret Service in the Justice Dept.
"ex officio" taken to mean "unofficial" rather than the correct "arising out of a person's official position" (e.g. the VP is ex officio President of the Senate)

An error rate like this makes the book very nearly unreadable - one is constantly waiting for the next howler!

You could figure this book out after the first 10 pages. It reads like Brad Thor's "The Lions of Lucerne" except Brad book was first and better.
While this was not a terrible book, I wouldn't recommend it for anyone looking for something new.