Customer Reviews

Gambit

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

 

 

Bodman's second political thriller (Gambit, 2008, following Checkmate, 2007) has some compelling strengths: a frighteningly topical premise, complex plot and subplots, taut intrigue, non-stop tension. U.S. commercial air traffic is under assault by unknown assailants using what missile-defense expert Cameron Talbot believes to be a stealth missile, undetectable by radar. Her assignment: perfect her 360-degree laser defense system so it can be used to protect commercial airliners. With passenger jets shot out of the skies like pigeons, the airline industry in a nosedive, and the stock market in the tank, she'd better hurry. Her top-secret work is complicated by attempts on her life (I counted six) and a love triangle involving the Vice President of the United States and former lover Hunt Daniels.

Bodman draws a convincing, authentically-detailed picture of Washington in chaos as politicians try to control a spiraling catastrophe. Unfortunately, the characters are less convincing, tending toward the stereotypical: the imperiled heroine and her ditzy sidekick; the strong, silent hero; the suavely tricky politicos; the vile villains--foreigners, naturally. And the cute-clever dialogue often reads like something out of a comic book. Disaster novel fans (of whom I am one) will find themselves reading for the plot and premise of this not-so-thrilling thriller and skimming the rest.

Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

In this book, a very realistic scenario is portrayed in which terrorists shoot down commercial planes as they take off from U.S. airports. Air travel in the U.S. is crippled, reminiscent of the days immediately after 9/11. Our protagonist the brilliant scientist Dr. Cammy Talbot, who saved the day with her missile defense system in the previous book, this time designs a laser defense system for airplanes. And as last time, her life is in jeopardy as the bad guys try to eliminate her to prevent her from succeeding. The book has lots of details about the White House, political intrigue in Washington, the intelligence and military communities and the high tech defense industry. Author Bodman, having served in the White House for six years and been a senior director of the National Security Council is well qualified to write from experience.

The book was an enjoyable and quick read. I can imagine these books would make good action movies. In fact after a rather dramatic event near the end, one of the characters says, "Took a lot of guts to pull off that E-DIRCM movement, though. Looked like something you'd only see in a movie with special effects."

This spy thriller is hard to put down. It is written with a spare journalistic style and moves you long at a pace that keeps you wanting to read just a little more. The author's background makes her an expert on the workings of Washington, the White House and the National Security community. It makes you look three steps farther at the happenings in our complicated world and its intricate network of alliances and competition.

This book is for those who are intrigued by politics. It deals with an attempt to militarily invade Taiwan by a bunch of radical Chinese military. I found the author spent too many words on the political scene with interaction between out government cabinet heads and under-secretaries. There is a "snake in the grass" that I could discern before the author let on. I could figure out a couple of the sub-plots myself. So, nothing new was learned. China IS our enemy.

Most action/thriller books today are written by men and it is refreshing to find such an interesting plot told with a woman's sensibilities. I was first drawn to the book by its title which is similar to one of my own books(Rebel's Gambit). I opened the book and began to read it in the book store. 100 pages later I finally managed to actually buy it and leave the store.
Rebel's Gambit

This author is new to me. I read 'Checkmate' and was encouraged to read the sequel 'Gambit' and I wasn't disappointed. The story line is right along with current events and keeps your attention. With her background working in Federal Government, she brings a lot of insight to the plot. I would recommend this as a very good read.

Bodman starts with a decent premise, but the book gets bogged down in her unrealistic "super-scientist" heroine and "her" worries about the lost love-of-her-life.

It became too much of a romance novel and that detracted from what could have been a pretty good yarn.

"If you like thrillers with a touch of fantasy then Karna Small Bodman is the writer for you. Gambit is another winner."

Computer scientist Dr. Cameron "Cammy" Talbot has little time to sit on her laurels following the CHECKMATE technology she and her team created that prevented war between India and Pakistan. Recently a terrorist has developed a missile system that has shot down commercial aircraft; Mr. President, Vice President Jayson Keller, and their top National Security advisor Austin Gage wants her and her Bandaq Technologies team to create an antimissile gizmo to place on planes so that the cock pit can be aware of a deadly incoming and destroy it.

She visits her associate Dr. Wen Hu at MIT for assistance, but soon afterward someone kills him and destroys his lab. She realizes that she is next and a few somewhat amateurish but potentially lethal assaults occur. Cammy turns to her former lover, Special Assistant to the President for Arms Control and Strategic defense Lieutenant Colonel Hunt Daniels for protection while few fly and more die who do.

More a romantic suspense (even the VEEP wants Cammy) than a thriller, readers will enjoy this race against the clock each day means more deaths and less air traffic. The story line grips the audience as the enemy technology seems plausible. Although the romantic subplot is well written it feels out of place as the excitement is with stopping the adversaries soonest.

Harriet Klausner