Customer Reviews

Cold War (Tom Clancy's Power Plays)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Yep, it's not of the same caliber that we'd expect from Tom Clancey. Maybe the reason is because Tom Clancey didn't write it. It is, though, an entertaining book that doesn't take a lot of thought. Kind of like watching a James Bond movie...lot of thrill and action...not a lot of need for grey matter.

This is the perfect book to take to the beach or summer get away. Since it take place in the cold depth of Antartica...it's a wonderful diversion from staring at an overheated thermometer measuring summer temperatures.

Characters are minimally developed. Action is abundant. The story is just gripping enough to keep the reader interested.

It'll never win a writing award...but then it probably wasn't intended to.

A great book for light summer reading.

The cover loudly proclaims "Tom Clancy's Power Plays", yet this book was neither written by Clancy, nor probably even reviewed by him before publication, given the shoddy quality of the writing.

To be fair, it is written in the "Clancy style" with technically accurate descriptions and multiple sites of action around the globe. It misses the mark, though, in terms of plot, belivability of characters, and general writing. There is no real climax, and instead of tying disparate story lines together as Clancy does, "Cold War" just seems to have several threads going on for the heck of it (to fill space?). I kept reading in the hopes things would resolve, but they never did.

As another reviewer suggested, this is the first in this series that I've read, and perhaps these are continuing characters and story lines which work better in that context. Personally, I don't think I will take the time to find out.

Agree with the other reviews......No, it's not WRITTEN by Tom Clancy. Liked the plot, but too many characters that are never really developed, relationships left unexplained and dangling. Rather abrupt ending like the book was rushed to press without enough time to adequately complete it. Gets mired down in pointless explanations of subjects that really have no bearing on the plot/outcome. This is my 1st read of a book from this series, maybe some of the characters/subplots come from earlier books in the series that should really be read first ??

A 3-star rating for most writers is an accomplishment. Anything with Clancy's name on it implies, at least, tacit approval from Clancy. Since this was actually written by someone else (as a number of Clancy created series are), it would appear that Clancy has begun to care more for the money his name makes than the readers who trust his name. I am disappointed with Clancy. In fairness, though, the book does have good technical facts and plenty of action. The characters, however, appear to be good generic cut-outs.

I do agree that this particular book was puzzling at best. The multiple story threads confused me, though in some places I could see where they tied together. Something must be said for the good quality of the descriptive writing, though...as a prospective writer myself, I do enjoy a detailed story. Whoever wrote this, whether or not Clancy was indeed among them, did take care to describe the places in which the story takes place, and to describe the character of the people involved. I was inspired to work on my character development, as is portrayed in this book, and to better describe places and machinery and other objects that are involved. However, the descriptiveness of a story counts for little if the storyline is set askew, confusing the reader. So, yes...I liked this book, but...it could have been organized or concluded better.

This is my first book in the Power Plays series. That could account for some of the confusion I (and others too) experienced about some "threads". What I can't figure out is why people don't realize the connection between the art forger, Scotland murders, and happenings in Antarctica. It seems so obvious to me, although they did seem sort of unrelated at first. The forger, murderer, and Antarctic criminals were employed by the same person and the arrest of one helped unravel the rest. It is a bit foggy even at the end though.

I found the book to be one of Clancy's better books (yes, I know it wasn't actually written by Clancy, but I don't know how else to put it) although it did seem to be tying up some loose threads while leaving others dangling. It had plenty of action, and also many unnexpected happenings. It seemed to encourage you to try and figure out the "mystery" by yourself before the main characters did. Definitely a book that I would recommend. Read and enjoy.

Tom Clancy, a world class adventure and military writer really vrought home how dangerous military operations are in extremely cold places, especially Antarctica. It is a medium sized book, but it sadly lacks the common twists and turns that become of a world class thriller such as this one. In a nutshell, the US military are experimenting with engineering and technologies so that if they want to, one day, they could work on Planet Mars. But, leading entreupeneurs want it a different way, and boy are they anarchists? A man who is dealing black market artworks is making money: a lot of money: and is funding the people who want to isolate the military into not going anywhere near Antarctica. With the unearned money, they buy nuclear waste from Britain, planting it around the site so that the personnel get dosed up with clinically high amounts of radiation. But all is not as it seems, and Tom Clancy, why does he have to always end without twists in the tale? Besides from that, it's a 'not bad' sort of book, but the story could easily be improved with a little more art and affection: more twists and more turns. I'll award two, perhaps three stars.

What a total disappointment. The descriptive narratives where too long and in some cases totally irrelevant. Awful terminology used to describe the operation of snowmobiles (snow bikes?). Also technical misses that aren't ever found in Clancy books. I would suggest better quality control if his name is going to be on the cover. Save your money.

This is the first book in the series that I have read, and all I can imagine is that 1) the others are better, and 2) this book was tying up loose ends from previous books. What did a professional art forger and "new" picassos have to do with the events at the South Pole? I sure don't know. Waste of time and money--buy it and read it if you have too much of both.

Nobody picking up this latest installment of the Power Plays series truly believes that it has been penned by Tom Clancy himself, even the cover clearly credits the author, Jerome Preisler; as such, it is a competent novel of the action/adventure/thiller genre that does not pretend to be more. Weaving various plot lines togther, from an insightful Scottish detective, to an internatinal master art forgerer, with the climax in the barrens of Antartica, the book's plot is well paced but somewhat confusing. As stated in other reviews here, the detail and scene setting take priority over character development and dialogue, and the final resolution seems a bit rushed. Generally an entertaining read as long as the consumer enjoys this type of story and keeps expectations managed.