Customer Reviews

Politika (Tom Clancy's Power Plays)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(29)

 

 

This was a major misfire from TC. Is this the alter ego of Clancy? It reminds me of Spielberg:the good Spielberg who makes Schindler's List, ET, and Saving Private Ryan; and the bad Spielberg who makes The Temple of Doom and The Lost World. This book takes a long time to move along-unless 100 pages is acceptable to you-and only sparked my interest due to the New Years bombing. This isn't as bad as the newer Rainbow Six( which bites a lot). I just miss the old Clancy:the one who gave us Red October, Patriot Games, Red Storm Rising, Clear and Present Danger, etc. Come on Tom; no more power plays to make a quick buck are gonna work here.

I bought this book because it had Tom Clancy listed as the author. Surprise. He has hired another ghost writer. The book started out on an exciting note. Boris Yeltsin dies after having heart surgery. The next plot developer is a terrorist act that is committed in New York on New Year's Eve. After the terrorist act it is all downhill. The plot dies a sad death. The villains are even boring. I also was able to discover that Roger Gordian is not Jack Ryan. This is not vintage Clancy. The new book "Bear and the Dragon" is a much better book. I think he must have fired his ghostwriter. Don't buy this book.

Overall, this spin-off has a lot good about it, and I enjoyed reading it. I also own the computer game, which is taking me a while to figure out, but I'll get there! Anyway, the story is a good one. Yeltsin dies, and a massive famine hits Russia. Desperate Russian communist sympathisers bomb Millennium celebrations in NYC(this bit is brilliantly portrayed, hence a 3 star rating) and Roger Gordian, a millionnaire with a crisis-hit marriage(work, work, work) sends his private mercenaries armed with an assortment of high-tech gadgets into Russia to locate the perpetrators. The action scenes are undeniably entertaining, but the narrative is very poor in many places. Did we really need the policeman's graphic self-pity dragging on about his dead wife? That bit was so incredibly cliched and nicked from OP-CENTER(re: Gregory Donald) An unnecessary subplot distracting the readers from the real players(Gordian's private army and the Russians.) For instance, there are way too many references to TV, movies, actors and personalities to suggest a plotline or character study to a reader. As a reader and an aspiring writer myself, I've learned the hard way myself about this folly(thankyou to various critics and agents for pointing me in the right direction, wannabe writers take note!), it does not work. But Clancy can get away with anything, so it seems. Anyway, I'm glad this book came free with the game because I would not waste money on it. Ah well, I'm going to go back to reading Michael diMercurio, Dale Brown, and Stephen Coonts, to name but a few, REAL authors with PROPER storylines! Politika is a good time-filler, if one wishes, but the narrative is MIND CANDY.

This book is not exactly very bad, but it is quite weak. A shallow story, weak characters and not well written. I had the impression that the author, opposite to the REAL Clancy, didn't alwyays know what he's talking about. Dear guys at RED STORM: I'm getting tired of books with Tom Clancy on the cover but not inside. I think that even Mr. Clancy didn't like the book too much. Look at the editorial. In his "Op-Center" series he always thanked his ghost-writer for the "invaluable contribution" to the book. This time, in POLITIKA, he only thanked the ghost-writer for the "valuable contribution." Quite a down-turn, isn't it? Mr. Clancy, WRITE another book on your own and stop launching boring spin-off series!END

I'm a great admirer of Clancy's work but this is one of the rare occassions that he has not lived upto my expectations. It is also my first book in the "Power-Plays" series. I liked the way he prepared the plot upto the explosion but the story seem to lack "punch" after that. Still it is not that bad.

I was generous and rounded up. This is not the best book by Tom Clancy, not by any means. But it is not as bad as the other reviewers say. It has a lot of good ideas in it and it has a couple of good intertwining subplots and good action scenes. Sure the characters weren't the best, and having more development would have been great, but it is what it is, and I thought it was pretty good overall.

I think this is a great book for those who like Tom Clancy, but for those who are impatient when it comes to slow paced books, you might want to skip this one. I definitely don't recommend this as a starter for someone whose never read Clancy before.

Takes Clear and present danger, Ruthless.com, and Exective orders and surpasses them all. One book you should not put down. Brings the action af the inside world to the outside world. Excellent book. Go get it now, while it is still on the book shelfs.

Not only the book is shallow and weak, Clancy's attention to detail is gone too. I can forgive him misspelling of so many Russian words, but a woman named Nikita?! This is a masculine name! Clancy seems to be going from detailed, informative and interesting descriptions to butt-kicking kind of cheap thrillers.

This book is a disgrace to the Clancy name and really is throwaway tripe. The wafer-thin plot, which could have been written by any schoolkid in a creative writing lesson, leaves a lot to be desired; and is in no way a geopolitical "powerplay" as the title suggests, and although the concept of a terrorist destabilising governments is not new, a real Clancy book would give it a twist, have detailed brinkmanship, deals, bluff and blackmail; this book misses out huge chunks of the process and is worse as a result. The characters are not developed particularly well, and the main hero is entirely unbelievable, as is his private army and desire to meddle incessantly with world affairs. His crack team's superiority to the whole of the American intelligence aparatus is suspect, but their ability to be able to take out any number of armed bad guys using only stun guns and without harming them at all is totally uncovincing. The various climatic battle scenes take only a few pages, and are very badly written, with very rapid and unconvincing resolutions as soon as the goodies arrive. The book is at least, short; though if the politics, battle and detective story were better written it could expand and be better as a result. The only good bit is the mass destruction of the terrorist attack, but, thinking about it, it is precisely the kind of attack which couldn't realistically happen.
In summary then; this is nothing like a good Clancy book. It is terrible, and as long journey fodder is only marginally preferable to staring at the seat in front. Read any proper Clancy book, or a proper thriller; not this feeble attempt at imitation of the master.