Customer Reviews

The Power Broker: A Novel (Christian Gillette)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I bought this to read on a flight hoping that it would be better than "The Chairman" by the same author, but it was more of the same bland boring drivel that could very well have been written by an average high school student. The dialog is not believable, the characters have no depth, and by not very far through I just didn't care what happened to any of them. When you eventually slog through to the end there's no real conclusion, and the last few chapters could really just be replaced with "Suddenly everything magically and boringly worked out, and the good guys lived happily ever after".

If you liked "The Chairman" then this may be just what you're looking for, but I can't give this a low enough rating.

I was pretty disappointed with this effort by Stephen Frey. After awhile mentioning billions as if it has any meaning to the average reader, makes my eyes glaze over. The supposed good guy, Christian, is set up and fooled on a regular basis. If he is this gullible how did he become such a financial wizard? Too many unexplained happenings. He swims in icy Maine waters and his shoes don't squish? Is he wearing shoes? Don't his clothes drip all over the place. No, no and no. The author fills up a lot of pages and has a secret club a power club that has been written about many times before. It is an old plot idea and one can only hope this type of organization does not actually exist. If it does, expect your brain to be pulled out through your nose; the fate of one hapless character. Don't waste your time. I suffered so that you would not!

Deceit, trust and honesty are themes that are repeatedly surfacing in Frey's novel "The Power Broker." All relationships are questioned and tested in this action and crime packed story.

The novel encompasses several original story lines that did not seem to mesh together until the second half of the book. The two powerful, secret orders one of white and the other of black men entailed a large amount of detail on both sides that left the reader confused as to which characters belonged to which orders. Each of the orders had separate goals for a presidential hopeful.

I had great difficulty keeping track of the dozen or more characters in this novel, even though many were killed off during the course of the novel.

I did quickly become attached to the true main characters of the book Christian, Quentin, Nigel and Allison. I found that my favorite part of the novel was the dialogue between these individuals. The story that was told with these characters through their business practices was easy to follow and believable.

In all honesty, I had to force myself to read past the first few complicated and intricate chapters. There were too many characters and settings introduced in the first few chapters. I especially found myself very perplexed as to how the prologue fit in with the beginning of the novel. As the story progressed, the amount of story lines seemed to increase and did not converge until the final few chapters.

This novel could have used a character chart or map to prevent the reader being lost with too many characters and settings.

For some reason I keep picking up Frey books with the expectation that they will be knock down thrillers filled with intrigue. You will find a little of that here, but the Power Broker is so filled with compositional flaws that anything approaching readability is quickly overwhelmed by Frey's need to jump around from one character to the next. I lost count of how many first person chapters Frey pushes in here that orient themselves around someone new. Also, for the first half of the book Frey is constantly adding new major... very major plot threads that are as cumbersome as car wrecks.

This could have been a pretty good book I think if Frey had approached it through the eyes of a single character such as the predominant protagonist, Christian Gillette. I am always game for a political thriller and it seems that Frey has managed to pit several sides against each other in a unique bid for power. Sadly, Frey is a pretty good writer of prose, has interesting ideas, basically, he has everything you need for a darn good genre writer... everything that is except a will to force his thoughts into a tract that would allow for another to follow along.

I've not often started a book and put it away on the shelf. I'm considering giving it away. The writing during the first 30 pages was trite and formulaic, the plot seemed unbelievable and I couldn't suspend disbelief for more than a minute. Pass.

This is the third book of the Stephen Frey series featuring

Christian Gillette.In the previous novels he had been elected the chairman of Everest Capital by one vote.He has become one

of the premeire figures in the world of American business.His

firm Everest Capital is one of the strongest companies.

Jesse Wood is trying to become the first black President of the United States.He is being bankrolled and backed by Elijah

Fort a billionaire who owns Ebony Enterprises.Fort wants Wood to

select Gillette as his Vice-President to strengthen the ticket.

Samuel Prescott Hewitt if the CEO of U.S. Oil.He is also the head of an old organization called the Order.The Order has shaped events in America since the days of fighting Indians.

He is trying to stop Jesse Wood.Thanks to the Order Gillette is having problems with his gambling casino and his NFL franchise the Las Vegas Dice.Hewitt has also arranged for an Everest company CST to become subject to an SEC investigation.Gillette

is also beginning to question the loyalty of Allison Wallace his partner in Everest.

This is a very interesting book that will keep you wondering who the good guys are and who the villains are.Be sure to read it.

Stephen Frey weaves an intricately plotted novel, again featuring Christian Gillette. Sure the novel was a little over the top but it was darn entertaining. I rushed to get to the end. With the usual back-stabbing and corruption, you never know who you can trust. This series has been truly entertaining, but I'm wondering if it might not be best to wrap it up with just one more novel. I'm ready for something fresh from this very talented author.

Highly recommended.

Somehow between "The Chairman" and this book, Christian Gillette morphed from a cutthroat chairman looking to protect himself from other nefarious characters and cutthroats, a truly fascinating enigma - into a hero-for-everyman type of character. The book still kept me interested, but the series' high note was the 1st book, and the overall quality of the story has descended steadily since. Hopefully, "The Successor" will reverse that trend.

Christian Gillette is the chairman of Everest Capital in New York. He is one of society's most eligible bachelors. Allison Wallace, his managing partner, and contributor of five billion dollars to his current fund intrigues Christian, both for her business acumen and physical beauty. The chapters run like a television show flipping back and forth between Christian, Jesse Wood, and Senator Hewitt. Jesse Wood is the first African American nominated to become president. His handlers want Christian to be his vice president nominee for the Democratic Party. Senator Hewitt belongs to the Order, a secret society with select members that will stop at nothing to preserve their way of thinking. An exciting novel set in the world of high finance with unique characters and quick action. I realized also that it was helpful that I read The Protégé so I knew more details about the main characters.

I had read Stephen Frey's books that came before this novel and the one after this novel and I needed to have this book to connect the 2 novels. It came quickly and it continued the story contents for completion.