Customer Reviews

Hong Kong

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I truly enjoyed this book. After the first 100 or so pages I couldn't put it down. Much better than the prior novel (Cuba). I found the principal characters generally believable. The robots seemed a bit much at first, but then anything is possible. Perhaps something similar does exist for the military. Looking forward to the next story.

Stephen Coonts proves he is more than equal to the task of maintaining the Jake Grafton character as he ages and moves away from the cockpit and the flight deck. This story harkens back to the tone and the pace that Coonts set with Under Siege, another book that found Jake Grafton ashore. Coonts works in some old characters, an exotic locale and some pretty good observations on the looming political/cultural struggles in China. He also weaves in some good comparisons to present day Hong Kong and life the way it was under British rule. There is enough high-tech stuff here to satisfy the techno-thriller reader, but it is paralleled by some good character portraits and an expansion of the character of Jake's wife, Callie. All in all a very satisfiable addition to the Jake Grafton series.

See Storyline above.

This, in my opinion,is one of those rare 5 star books. It packs a ton of action with an outstanding locale. You'll actually find yourself cheering for the good guys with enthusiasm. The two different plots in the book are weaved together with a fine touch. Jake Grafton must rescue his wife from a greedy criminal while at the same time rebels are trying to overrun the communists. This is one heck of a good read, and if action is on your list, don't miss this one.

Highly recommended.

David Poyer, Tom Clancy and Stephen Coonts have made China this season's enemy du jour. This entry involves the least amount of military might, but does utilize a sci-fi robot to carry the day for the revolution that occurs, when big business can't take communism any more. Grafton's task this time is more personal, the rescue of his wife from a gangster. But it somehow seems too easy, though you won't find it hard to keep turning the pages.

I found this book rather disappointing, even though it did get quite exciting towards the end with the descriptions of how the rebel forces take on the Chinese Army and manage to take over Hong Kong.

My biggest criticism has to do with the way Jake Grafton responds to the kidnapping of his wife Callie by Hong Kong crime boss Sonny Wong. Jake knows that Sonny has Callie locked up somewhere, is having her tortured, and probably intends to kill her when he gets the information he wants and/or gets the ransom he is demanding.

So what does Jake do? He stages a raid on Sonny's restaurant, shooting a guard dead in the process. Jake then confronts Sonny and finishes up by setting fire to Sonny's restaurant. But does he demand his wife released here and now? No! Jake makes various threats to Sonny about what he'll do if Callie is harmed and then walks away!

I found that action so crazy that I spent most of the rest of the book wondering how Jake could be so dumb as to act like that. As a small redeeming feature even Jake wonders how he was so dumb: 100 pages later he's thinking of himself in the third person and saying, "He had his chance last night. He should have stuck his revolver up Wong's nose and told him he was going to blow his f***ing head off if he didn't produce Callie in a quarter of an hour."

Of course Jake eventually learns where Callie is being held captive and stages another raid in which he manages to free her. But still, how could he have been so dumb (and so uncaring?) to not exploit his first chance to get Callie freed?

I also found it somewhat problematic that the "Sergeant York" fighting robots were so advanced. This book is supposed to be a techno-thriller, but these robots were so intelligent and so powerful that it was more like science fiction.

So far I've read two of Stephen Coonts' books and I do intend to read some more despite my disappointment with this one. But one thought keeps returning to me: how does someone with Jake Grafton's flair for disobeying orders get promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral?

Rennie Petersen

I bought the book after seeing several people reading it at airports. I thought it would be a good read to pass time while on the plane. I was sadly mistaken.

I would have stopped reading the book after the first couple of chapters, but continued reading it till the end as I wanted to give it a fair review. This is my first Stephen Coonts book and I can say that it'll be my last!

Coonts has demonstrated that he is a biased and prejudiced author who did not conduct a proper research before writing this book. Any one who has been to Hong Kong and China would know that the Chinese government is not as corrupt and the people not as dissatisfied as Coonts made them out to be. It is this kind of fiction,and I stress FICTION, that breeds distrust and misunderstanding of another government.

Coonts even tried to justify his work in the author's note at the end of the story with an account of the use of Hanyu Pinyin as nonsensical because he does not understand the romanised version of the Mandarin dialect. I'll like to point out that even in the English language, many combinations of the alphabets into words do not make sense. Eg. -tion is pronounced as "shion" instead of "tee-on". Peking is only Peking to the Western world, no Chinese dialect or language pronounces it as Peking. In fact, Hong Kong is also not a translation of any Chinese dialect or language. In Cantonese, Hong Kong is pronounced as "Heung Khong".

He also claimed that only Northern China speaks mandarin and all of Southern China speaks Cantonese. I'll like to point out to Mr. Coonts that China is a country with over 200 different languages and dialects. It is logical for a country to adopt a national language to ensure better communication. And it is not unreasonable to adopt the dialect of the capital as the main language. Mind you, the written language is the same for most of China, just the reading of it is different based on the region you are in. And Cantonese is only spoken in the province of Guangdong (which incidently the closest to Hong Kong). Taiwan (whether or not you consider it to be part of China) speaks mainly Mandarin and Fujian.

Sorry for ranting. But his one-sided view of Asia really got me riled.

Fresh from his mission in CUBA, U.S. Rear Admiral Jake Grafton finds himself on what he expects to be a relatively uneventful mission in Chinese controlled Hong Kong. His assignment there, to investigate possible ties between former comrade, software billionaire and US Consul General "Tiger" Cole and a group of political insurgents, seems so straightforward that he even brings his outspoken wife Callie with him to see the sights.

Jake's expectations are dashed when his associate, burglar extraordinaire Tommy Carmellini, retrieves a tape planted by the CIA from a Hong Kong businessman's office, even as said businessman's fresh corpse, discovered upon entry, enters

the initial stages of rigor mortis. It turns out that the corpse, China Bob Chan, had ties to both a Hong Kong crime cartel and the anti communist movement, as Callie discovers when Jake, unable to have the work done elsewhere, asks her

to translate the tape. Although Callie is unable to understand the nuances of the recorded conversations, someone is afraid she might, and thus kidnaps her. Her kidnapping makes things personal, as Grafton tears Hong Kong apart searching for his bride. His search also uncovers intriguing information about the scope of the revolutionary movement, whose roots reach far deeper than anyone suspects.

If you haven't yet read Coonts, you'll be pleasantly surprised by his sure footed story telling, larger than life characters, and his ability to juggle myriad elements in a complex plot. HONG KONG is a classic page turner, the kind of book that keeps you up way past your bedtime. The action never wanes; neither will your enjoyment.

This book drew my attention because it combined my interest in Asia (including China) with the excitement that I knew from other Stephen Coonts novels featuring Jake Crafton. The book is exciting but it lacks depth. Many have noticed the factual errors but it should certainly not be read as a realistic account of China. There are some truths in the book but over all it misses the actual situation. A revolution as presented in this book is no longer realistic, if it ever was. But taken as a fictional novel, it attempts to cross the border between the realistic and the fantastic. However, this is not Coonts type of novel and thus he is unable to leave his realistic style. Thus the book remains uneven and is not worth the money. Buy another book from Stephen Coonts instead! He knows how to make a story exciting without making you feel uneasy as in this book.

"Hong Kong" begins rather amateurishly, with dialogue and scenes reading out of a cheap, B-rated spy movie. Stephen Coonts quickly warms up to his trade, however, and shows his masterful skill at crafting a thrilling, though far-fetched, tale of the classic democratic triumph over Communism, through whatever means necessary. Interesting twists and turns await the reader, but the sheer amount of possibilities and details imagined by Coonts left me pleasantly suprised and even more attracted to the story. Particularly interesting for those who have a fancy for Sino-US economic and political relations, such as myself. In a phrase, a modern Ian Fleming "James Bond" novel.

This book is not the best entry in the Jake Grafton series (I still hold out for the first, Flight of the Intruder) but it is a very good book, if you can put up with a couple of annoyances. The plot is rather simple. Grafton goes to Hong Kong at the behest of the government. His mission is to investigate whether the American consul there is getting involved in something he shouldn't be. The reason for sending Grafton is that a lifetime ago he flew missions in Viet Nam with the guy, and they're friends. So Jake goes to Hong Kong, and takes his wife along, because he met her in that city thirty years ago.

When they arrive, things get hot pretty fast. In addition to Jake's old friend (now a dot-com billionaire) there are various spies of dubious loyalties, an even more doubtful smuggler, and the usual Communist monsters running things. Coonts' politics are rather apparent (the fictional Democrat President has been bought off by the Communist leadership, and the Communists themselves are scum) and may be offensive to some people, or at least a bit annoying. His action sequences are fun, though I will say that the bit with the combat robots was a bit much.

Overall I enjoyed the book, though, and would recommend it.