Customer Reviews

Shadow Watch (Tom Clancy's Power Plays, Book 3)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

I have to wonder if some of the other customer reviewers read the same book I did. For example, Chase Cole from Melbourne, Fla, states that we never really learn how or why the shuttle explosion in Chapter 1 occurs. Yet both questions are answered quite explicitly in the story, and more than once at that. He nitpicks about a single engine Beech Bonanza being unable to transport a significant amount of illicit narcotics, presumably unaware that the Beech can ordinarily carry close to one thousand pounds of cargo and be optimized for even greater loads. He also complains that the dream sequences serve no purpose and suggests they ought to be skipped. Well, by my reading they a)provide defining insights into the psychological motivations of Annie Caulfield, a major character who is clearly to become a member of the regular series "cast", b) reveal crucial information about her history and the internal and external obstacles she must overcome over the course of the novel, and most importantly c) develop the plot by setting up the very climactic scenes in which we, through Annie, discover "how and why" the shuttle exploded. But hold on, the page-skipping Mr. Cole isn't yet finished! He also complains about the villains "walking", seemingly being too obtuse (or pretending to be anyway) to grasp what should be obvious to anyone. Namely: we're being set up for a sequel, folks! This is a smart, crackling thriller. Don't let the nasties and kvetches steer you wrong.

Being a dedicated Clancy fan,I feel cheated by this book.So much of it is irrelevant and the book seems totally out of joint. The author, whoever that is, spends many pages on sequences that have little to do with the plot. Others have noted that dream sequence, I feel the long sequence in Maine was rather unnecessary though it was interesting. The characters are superficial and seem cartoonish. I found the book irritating to read and had to force myself to finish. Please, Tom, write your own books.

Terrible. Having read (and thoroughly enjoyed) the likes of Patriot Games and Hunt for Red October I feel bitterly disappointed by this spectaculary unsuccessful collaboration. It seems to me that dedicated Clancy readers are being exploited and cheated by being duped into buying this utter rubbish that is clearly not his work. It is the work of an ameteur. If this book did not have Clancy's name on the front of it than it would surely not have been published. I had to force myself to finish it. I really couldn't care less what happened to anyone in the story as the characters were so badly drawn and deadly boring. I am very glad that I kept the receipt. Line your hamster cage with it, use it to start your fire, even make little aeroplanes out of it, but PLEASE DON'T READ IT!

This books is not as bad as the Net Force - Hidden Agenda paperback. Some of the characters and the technology are interesting. The plot moves along nicely. Nevertheless, it is a far cut below the better of the Op Center books. Being disappointed with the two most recent books starts to raise some interesting questions about whether I will buy the next chapter of each of these franhises when they come out... As someone who has read Clancy books relgiously since the beginning, i am beginning to question where this is going.

After reading Shadow Watch i was dissapointed. Most Clancy books are great but this one however was just, well....not good. The beginning was ok with a space shuttle that blows up at its launch date and leaves everybody in the book (including you the reader) in shock. the book from there manages to keep up with an all out assault on a factory in SA. But from there the book dies. None of the characters were described well in this book and it was hard to finish the next 200 some pages. The only real reason this book was published was because Tom Clancy had his name on it. To make it short, spare yourself of this book and get a good Tom Clancy book such as Patriot Games or Red Storm Rising

Remember Tom Clancy, the author of pretty good thrillers like The Hunt for Red October and Patriot Games? They were exciting reads, were made into good movies and starred Jack Ryan, a rock-jawed and resourceful defender of truth, justice and the American Way. Come back Jack - and come back Clancy. This book is like a lot of other recent Clancy output: bland technobabble and military nonsense that reads as though it has been chucked in a writing blender and reheated in a literary microwave, and not a patch on, say, Clear and Present Danger. The plot: it's 2001, and a Bond-style villain is set on messing up an international space station and wreaking havoc on the US. The characters mouth acronyms as locations shift from the US to Asia to South America, but you'd read more convincing action in a car-repair manual. Clancy is now a franchise, really: the cover of Shadow Watch says it was `created' by him and another author - and it's based on a computer game. Clancy is spread too thin these days to be able to write effectively.

This book is the LAST book of the series! Not the first! The books is better if you read the first two novels that you all neglected to read!Read Politika and Ruthless.com first. They came before Shadow Watch.This book has great ideas but it makes little sense and isn't as good if you don't read the others first. This is a great novel!

This was a 3 hour book on tape and after being regaled for more than half an hour with all of the details of a battle in which I neither knew who was fighting or why they were fighting I decided that I'd had enough.

These Clancy rip-off story lines only go to show that Clancy has a special talent for developing characters when he actually writes the books. It also shows that he has a special talent for soaking up the cash wherever he can. What a con - let Clancy creates the characters and let hacks write the books for him!

Please, don't waste your time!

The beginning of the book starts out great, it immediately grabs your attention and keeps you glued to it throughout. However, the ending has got to be the lamest of all time. There was no drama to the end and it seemed to leave me hanging, expecting more. It is a fairly decent book however, it could be much better.

Shadow Watch (ISBN 0-425-17188-4) by Tom Clancy and Martin Greenberg is a descent book, but needs more development. This is the only book in the Power Plays series that I have read, but I have read other Tom Clancy books. I found the story hard to start, but once I got past the opening paragraphs the story was okay. The characters, particularly Annie Caulfield, need a little more fleshing out. The overall plot is plausible, but there are some holes that are not typical of Tom Clancy's style. Overall a good book for reading, if there is nothing else available.