Customer Reviews

Hunter Killer

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Patrick Robinson really started his fiction career with a bang with "Nimitz Class" and "Kilo Class". Since then, he has seemed wildly erratic. The quality of his output has evened out somewhat in the last three or four outings, into a pattern that is almost maddeningly mediocre. As with most every one of his naval-themed novels, the plot summary seems that it should be wildly entertaining and at least partially plausible. Mr. Robinson has delivered on that promise on a few occasions, and other times he has not. "Hunter Killer" seems to have fallen into the latter category.

One hang-up in some of Mr. Robinson's earlier works is that he got bogged down in trivial detail; every meal and wine tasting that every character had was described down to the most minute detail, at the expense of the storyline. Fortunately he curtailed these descriptions, though they pop up a few times throughout "Hunter Killer", and - despite the obvious fictional content - one can't help but wonder how naval officers can afford such extravagant feasts. In reducing the gourmet play-by-plays, Mr. Robinson kept the story very tight. However, that has led to another problem in the past several stories. Where he has reduced that unnecessary detail, it seems that he has not adequately filled out certain components of the plot and storyline. Everything seems to play out just a little too cleanly or awkwardly, or the action sequences are minimally detailed, while the discussions fill up three or four chapters.

In "Hunter Killer", this pattern holds. So much is devoted to discussions about carrying out the operations, recruiting the participants, and so on. Several chapters occupy the reader's time to these details. But then the actual execution of the operations and the ensuing U.S. response occupies a very small percentage of the book. The result, to this reader, is a lot of buildup to a resultant sequence that elicits a sigh in response. There is also the continued annoyance of how Mr. Robinson keeps writing the escapes of the antagonist Ray Kernan; I had a hard time fathoming in "Hunter Killer" how he could walk up to a team of SEALs who have targeted him for years and still be able to slip away. It is a somewhat lame way of trying to keep your foil for future novels.

The characters in Mr. Robinson's books - "Hunter Killer" included - also fail to ever do much for me. I find the Jimmy Ramshawe character slightly annoying, and Arnold Morgan - for all his bluster and kick-ass attitude - pretty boorish and obnoxious. That doesn't say much for the protagonists of your franchise. Even in reading fiction as escapism, one can't help but wonder how these two would continue to run roughshod over the Washington political establishment and leaving the President completely impotent. To his credit, though, Mr. Robinson did introduce a character with some potential in Jacques Gamoudi. He could be what John Clark was to Tom Clancy's franchise, but something tells me that this potential may not be tapped, or at least not fully exploited.

One last pet peeve that shows up in "Hunter Killer"; that of the stabs at humor through overused lines that Mr. Robinson tries to pass off as funny. He'll use it throughout the entire book, or take the "shock-and-awe" approach and use it dozens of times in the course of one or two chapters. To cite one example from "Hunter Killer", he usues a line about Jackie Gleason doing a French accent at least four or five times in the course of twenty pages. It wasn't very funny the first time, and got worse as the same line repeated itself in that short a space. I don't mind humor, but it has to be funny, and the reader doesn't need to be repeatedly hit over the head with it.

All those annoyances aside, "Hunter Killer" does have its interesting and somewhat entertaining moments. It is clear that Mr. Robinson possesses a great deal of naval knowledge, and so the descriptions of the battles and naval operations are among the best in the fictional realm. Again, though, it just raises the sense that there was a lot of unfulfilled potential. Readers of this genre can do a lot worse than "Hunter Killer", but they should expect better. In that regard, then, I rate it three stars to reflect the latest in a line of mediocrity that has found its way into Mr. Robinson's writing.

As a huge fan of Patrick Robinson, I was greatly disappointed by his latest, "Hunter/Killer". It spent half the book setting up the "bad guys" mission (which is what I expected), but when it came to the rebuttal from the US of A, it was as if Robinson decided that to do it right would make for too long a book, so he hurried through it. What happened to the French President? Did the ships docked along the French Riveria ever get blown up?

Did King Nasir go after the French Special Services for trying to assasinate his buddy? General Rashood played second to a new character - so I suppose the saga of him and Shakira is still to follow. Operation Tanker was a total "shoot and run" . There is normally more action taken by Morgan and the USA. To blow up France's tankers and escort was a good starting point, but come on, Patrick, you can finished much, much better than this!!!!

This is one fun book. Patrick Robinson has whipped together a plot that will keep any military/techno/political thriller junkie vastly entertained.

A young Saudi Prince who does nothing but party and snort drugs rams his power boat into the Queen Elizabeth II. Just another day in the carefree life of almost 35,000 members of the Saudi Royal family supported by the nation's monarchy and oil wealth. Well, not all 35,000 royals are such fun lovers.

One senior Saudi Prince is so upset that he approahes those always lovable French with a proposal to overthrow the reigning monarch and put himself on the throne. The plan calls for treachery, inflicting massive pain on billions of innocent, greed, dishonesty and requires a complete lack of morality.

The French love it.

And so the fun begins.

Robinson deploys an arsenal of state-of-the-art submarines, special forces, political players and the skills of Jimmy Ramshawe, an underling at the NSA.

The plot is excellent. Lots of twists and turns all serving to advance the story without causing the reader to blink in disbelief. The characters are a bit uneven. Some are larger than life and unbelievably so. With others, Robinson paints well.

The action is never ending and Robinson does an excellent job of not telegraphing his punches. If you're given to biting your nails, wear gloves while reading "Hunter Killer," lest you munch straight through to your knuckles.

An excellent thriller and one that I obviously thoroughly enjoyed.

Jerry

This is Robinson's eighth submarine warfare novel, and I am starting to hope it will be his last, although it was certainly an improvement on the last two he has put out, "Scimitar SL2" and "Baracuda 945". A disgruntled member of the Saudi royal family gets disgruntled and plots their overthrow, enlisting the aid of the French. Using a French submarine, the coalition targets the Saudi family's foundation: oil. The US administration gets faint at the prospect of an energy crisis, and enlists the aid of retired Arnold Morgan to fix the problem, which he does, amid his usual right-wing racist banter. We also see the reappearance of James Ramshawe, a poorly developed character, although it is not as unfortunate as the re-appearance of that bumbling idiot Arnold Morgan. One gets the distinct impression that Robinson says to himself: I have "submarines, arabs and Arnold Morgan", and tries to throw them together to make a story. The novel deeply lacks the originality of his earlier works, the plot predictable, the characters shallow, and Arnold Morgan... well... he's just plain boring. I cannot recommend this novel. 1 and 1/2 stars.

The Saudi princes and other family members have spent the money

coffers of the Kingdom nearly dry with the extravagant swinging

lifestyle.Their spending has taken Saudi Arabia to the brink of

financial ruin.Prince Nasir has had enough of his wasteful and

big spending relatives.Nasir approaches the President of France

with a plan to eliminate the Royal family,make Nasir King, and

give France exclusive oil rights.The President readily agrees to

this deal.With the use of two nuclear submarines,French special forces soldiers,and the hiring ofColonel Jacque Gamoudi(known as

Le CChasseur-The Chaser)Hamas General Ravi Rashood the French make this happen.These forces cause untold damage on oil installations on the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.They are also able to depose the King Of Saudi Arabia.The French are in total control of the situation.Mass chaos in the markets of the world

and the economies of the world ensues.The American President calls in Admiral Arnold Morgan and Lieutenant Commander Jimmy

Ramshawe to save the day.They immediately start implementing a

plan.La Chasseur becomes hunted by French Special Forces who want to kill him and American Special Forces who want to expose France. This is a very good book that you will read from cover to cover.Buy it and you won't miss out.

If you are after an exciting sub novel, grab an earlier Robinson. After his first three, he should have stopped writing.

A Saudi prince, disgusted by his profligate government, enlists French aid to overthrow it. France, eager to displace the Americans as the Saudi's chief ally, hire Jacques Gamoodi, a commando capable of anything - part of a super-plan to demolish Saudi petro-industrial complexes with sub-launched cruise missiles and then lobotomize the military using special forces and spark a revolution. In the throes of the attack - which will put Saudi oil out of circulation for two years - Americans learn the secret of France's role in the uprising. In retaliation, the Americans attack French shipping while seeking to expose its perfidy

Familiar? Though technically a new plot, the makings of Robinson's other books are here. We have cruise-missile attacks against petroleum-industrial centers, part of some complex plan involving hired terrorists; special forces raising all sorts of hell; a guerrilla mastermind, and Arnold Morgan returns - retired but brought back because he's the only person who can deal with the situation for an apparently clueless Pentagon and an obviously clueless president.

So, what's specifically wrong with "Killer"? First, the choice of geopolitical bad-guy. According to Robinson, France was chosen because it was the nation both sufficiently powerful and sufficiently averse to American interests - even though nothing in France's plan of subversion appears beyond the means of either Russia or China; it otherwise mirrors the Iranian-backed plot of Robinson's "Barracuda", and the need for any nation to back such a plot in an era of stateless terrorism is never considered. By the end Robinson reveals motives other than the process-of-elimination to explain the French connection - France's opposition to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 - 7 years before the events of "Hunter"; that's like blaming the US in 2005 for things we did in 1998. Putting aside the politics of the Iraq invasion, and whether the French were the only opposition, the French-backed coup in "Killer" doesn't quite dwarf our own inspired-acts of regime change, whether those in the real world or those occurring in Robinson's other books. Robinson is so worked up over France, that by the end of "Hunter", the Americans have directed all their attention against them and not the fundamentalist, anti-American & anti-Israeli regime which the French have created.

The next-biggest problem is the plot - it's not only nonsensical as a whole, but even the simple parts sound plain nutty. Robinson starts his story with a fundamentalist Saudi prince who - disgusted with both western subversion of his government and its financial destabilization - colludes with a western government to subvert his government and financially destabilize it. The French are so desperate to hide their role, that they send French officials to Gamoodi's house, and tell him and his wife everything - down to the French President's meeting with Nasir. The French smuggle Ravi Rashood - Robinson's other terror mastermind - to a meeting with Gamoodi. The meeting of course is on French soil and (to leave no disbelief behind) brings Rashood on a French jetliner of which he is the sole passenger. Why the French can trust the wily Prince Nasir to allow them (or any other western power) to hold sway in the "new" Saudi Arabia, is one of those questions Robinson never considers. (The French think that Nasir is more politically vulnerable than they are - an assessment even Robinson can't accept by the novel's end - the only question is, why do the French?)

Finally, with all the talk of collapsing western economies "Hunter" is inept at actually depicting how these economic and political shocks affect the lives of his characters who continue driving Hummers and dining on high-priced cuisine. As in other Robinson's other books, the plot centers on attacking a target using means you'd think the target should have expected. (Even the Iranians have submarines with cruise-missiles, yet Robinson's Saudi Arabia is pretty much an open field for French missiles; saboteurs enter & destroy Saudi bases with impunity. Dependably inept Saudis flee rather than fight.) There is little exploration into the technology of technothrillers, and much on display here either 1) looks lifted from mil/technology websites or 2) is just plain wrong. (One of Robinson's characters estimates a 737 to carry about 400 tons of fuel - or over three times the max gross takeoff weight of a the biggest 737's).

The Series of Implausible Events reminds us that "Hunter" is only a novel, rather than a realistic cautionary novel; unfortunately, the quality of writing reminds us that it's a horrible novel, lacking any character development or plausible characterization at all. Not quite evil - the French are just pathetic, undone by the gross incompetence that the author bequeaths them, and reduced to speaking in loud BLOCK LETTERS. Whole plot threads go nowhere, and nothing is resolved. Robinson ignores plotting to concentrate on minutiae - usually on expensive food. His writing style will be enough to provoke outrage from better writers who haven't enjoyed his success. And while I'm no grammar-fascist, Robinson's overheated and overlong prose - redolent with all sorts of stylistic no-nos - will be enough to vindicate a host of first-grade teachers. Thus "Hunter Killer" is only the latest of Robinson's laughably implausible and poorly written books. Instead, naval warfare and technothriller fans should consider the Lenson series by Poyer, or "Dangerous Ground" by Larry Bond - each much more worth your time than this.

Many issues in this book are believable and very possible. i find most details in his book surprisingly accurate, especially as I live in Riyadh. The only annoyance I have is the author's need to have his characters speak in English than suddenly revert to French, or Arabic, or whatever language is their native language, for certain terms or retorts. I guess he does this to remind the reader that the character is from, wherever. However, the premise of the book is dead on and he couldn't have picked a more likely partner in France as the Saudi's choice of an underhanded associate in overthrowing their own government.

After having thoroughly enjoyed Nimitz Class several years ago I anticipated enjoying this novel. The story line is decent, but the book is marred by myriad technical errors; a Browning Hi-Power revolver, AK47 bullets (7.62x39mm) that won't penetrate a wooden table top, supposedly highly trained Mossad assasins who walk into a crowded restaurant and attempt an execution by wildly spraying the entire restaurant with AK's, etc., etc. Overall, a disappointing novel. Save your money.

Simply not interesting enough to continue after first few chapters. Too many Arab names with no personality, too much background of characters without building interest in them, I love political thrillers, but this was not thrilling.