Customer Reviews

Term Limits

5 star:		(186)
4 star:		(76)
3 star:		(29)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(28)

 

 

By my count, Vince Flynn has written six poliical thrillers to date with a seventh due in October, 2005. I have now read all six published works in no particular order. "Term Limits" was, I believe, Flynn's debut work. Having read it last provides, I think, an interesting perspective on Flynn's work.

Five of the six Flynn novels feature Mitch Rapp, a very skillful assasin. "Term Limits" doesn't have Mitch Rapp, but it does feature many of the characters found in his later novels.

Straight out of the box, Flynn gives a unique voice to the political thriller. In his Washington, the politicians are generally loathsome, self-serving creatures lacking basic integrity, morality and values. All they live for are their greed and swaggering egos.

The book opens with the murder of Senator Fitzgerald, an obese, alcoholic senator intent on projecting his own power even when, as in this case, it leads to the deaths of American solidiers.

Fitzgerald's neck is expertly broken in his home. Within hours two other equally corrupt politicians are murdered. The murderers issue a set of demands calling for the executive and legislative branches to acheive certain political goals. As in all Flynn novels, these goals resonate with ordinary Americans.

The CIA and FBI come into play to solve the crimes. But President Stevens' Chief of Staff and National Security Advisor don't necessarily want the murders solved. In fact, they think more murders would help President Stevens achieve re-election.

Michael O'Rourke, a first-term Congressman from Minnesota has alrady turned down the President's invitation to vote for his overblown, bloated budget. O'Rourke, a decent man, has an idea of who the assasins might be. A former Marine he recognizes the killing techniques as those American Special Forces might use.

Director Stansfield of the CIA and his assistant Irene Kennedy, head of counter terrorism efforts pursue the leads in conjunction with Director Roach of the FBI and Special Agent McMahon. All of these characters live on in Flynn's subsequent novels and I am glad they do.

The suspense is riveting. Is the President involved in the brutal murders of Senator Olson and a "clean polirtics" Representative? Will the White House succeed in its attempts to manipulate public opinion?

Flynn's Washington is a place of distrust, dishonor, duplicity, hypocrisy and murder. He is, in my opinion, the best crafter of political thrillers in the business today, putting Tom Clancy (except for "Red October") to shame.

In "Term Limits," we see Flynn gathering his strength for later efforts. In all the other Flynn novels, the characters literally jump off the page. "Term Limits" has one minor character who doesn't quite have it. The political cynicism of Flynn's subsequent novels are sharply drawn: you can recognize many of the repulsive characters as being modeled on politicians whom we are all too familiar with from the daily news. In "Term Limits" only one politician, the alcoholic, self-interested, hypocritical, immoral Senator whose death opens the book triggers immediate recognition with its real prototype.

The plot is tight. Flynn simply doesn't require that his characters have fortuitous, unbelievable inventions to adcvance the story. His plots are simply exquisite. (One of my particular irritants are authors who use scenes involving food and drink as bridges to let the characters expound. Jack Higgins and Clive Cussler in their latest novels overuse these devices: Flynn simply doesn't need them.)

"Term Limits" is a true page-turner. I intended to spend an hour with it as bedtime reading --- and it kept me glued till dawm. What higher compliment can I pay to Vince Flynn? Oh yes, the same thing happened when I read his other five novels.

Jerry

Term Limits is fast paced and filled with scenarios that both can and probably have happened. This realistic view of political power makes events that seem impossible to the once naïve public feasible and all too real.

Assassinations rock the U. S. President, Secret Service, Cabinet, FBI, and CIA when three are carried out on a single night. Ignoring the ultimatum issued by the "terrorists" causes a fourth man to die and puts the President in the line of fire. Fear triggers tempers as the administration determines if it should make changes that yield to blackmail? Then two more men are murdered, but where only the four specific targets were taken out in the first wave, these also include law enforcement guards.

Questions power the plot; drama moves it forward; action demands reading even though your eyes are tired and burn; the characters are interesting and multi-dimensional.
* Why isn't the budget balanced?
* Why do the Republicans and Democrats care more about special interest groups than the constituents who voted them in?
* Who has the power in the White House?
* Who runs Black Ops, and what power is used to maintain the secrecy of an organization in their clandestine operations.
* Is anyone capable of controlling them, and are personal agendas the root of military and covert actions?
* Is this story too real to be ignored?
* How many groups are behind the assassinations?

Any spare minute found me reading this novel. When I finished it, I was satisfied. The story was complete, the questions answered, I am interested in what's next for these characters -- they became real. Five stars to Vince Flynn, and the knowledge that I will buy more of his books.

Victoria Tarrani

Vince Flynn manages to keep the action moving at break-neck speed for over 600 pages. There are practically no slow spots. The premise is fairly preposterous, and the climax totally unbelievable, but who cares? This is fiction, and an exciting and enjoyable read. There are more plot twists than a Clinton Presidency and more shoot-'em-ups than a Clint Eastwood movie. Vince doesn't even slow down long enough for any kissy-face.

The comparison to Tom Clancy is inescapable, so here goes. While the writing quality in Term Limits is professional, I have the sense after reading numerous Clancy novels that his language skills are bit more high brow. There is a higher level of sophistication in Clancy books. And while Flynn obviously did a lot of research, Clancy does more. But for that reason, many readers will prefer Flynn's books. Clancy tends to focus more on technology; Flynn goes right for the gut. Action, action, action.

This is a must-read for political thriller lovers, and a good choice for all other suspense fiction readers. --Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of Wake Up Dead.

In reviewing this book, I found it hard to properly rate it using Amazon's 5 star system (IMDb.com's scale of 1-10 for rating movies is, IMHO, much better) because I honestly want to give it 3 ½ stars, but can't. It is a good book (especially for a rookie) nonetheless it has some real flaws. The best parts? In the Tom Clancy/Robert Ludlum tradition, the plot is fast paced and the writing is tight. At no point is the reader bored. It is the literary equivalent of the movie "Mad Max", i.e., lots of action and thrills, albeit somewhat rough around the edges. If you look beyond the action, you notice that the main characters are somewhat one or two dimensional (a common complaint in the techno/spy thriller genre) and, worse, the plot itself is rather contrived. I mean, does anyone REALLY believe that a handful of former Navy SEALs would plot to kill prominent politicians because they refuse to cut spending and balance the budget? Yet that is the central premise of this book. There is a more credible subplot, in which the SEALs assassinate one Senator (a dead ringer for Ted Kennedy) because the stupid fool let slip a vital piece of info while drinking at a local bar, this info ended up in enemy hands, resulting in said former SEAL team leader having half his men killed because the terrorists knew they were coming. At any rate, you don't have to be a tax and spend liberal Democrat to find the notion of using assassination (technically, not terrorism, since the SEALs refuse to kill any "civilians", just the politicians) as a tool to change political policy rather disturbing. I mean, I'm as much in favor of cutting all the waste and bloat out of the government as the next guy, but the "solution" proposed here smacks a bit too much of Timothy McVeigh. That aside, there's an interesting plot twist in which the president's unscrupulous Chief of Staff and National Security Advisor team up with a shady former CIA figure to stage additional assassinations to draw public support away from the SEALs, who have gone public with their demands, and whose actions in bumping off several sleazy politicians has actually aroused considerable sympathy. This leads to the final showdown, with a series of fast paced actions that threaten to blow the whole Administration apart if the shady machinations with the former CIA man are revealed. So, the bottom line is this: if you like Clancy (especially his early stuff) or Ludlum, and enjoy a plot with lots of paranoia and anti-government skullduggery, then you will get an entertaining read. Just don't expect a whole lot in the credibility dept.

As I was reading this book I had to stop and check the publication date. Imagine how shocked I was to see that this book came out in 1998! OVER ten years ago, and the mess that is created by our government in this book is still going on. So on a very small level this book is a little prophetic. Now, this isn't a Mitch Rapp novel. I was under the impression that Mitch was in every one of Vince's books (I've only read three to date) so that was a mild, pleasant shock. However, not having Mitch in this book did not take away from the adrenaline level and excitement at all.

The premise was what got me reading: a group of assassins is fed up with how the government is being run. So they execute a plan to kill the top three idiots in government who are the problem. Not talk to, not discuss terms... but KILL! Well good for them and good for America! After they do us this huge favor they present the President and the rest of the government with demands on how to get this country back on track. And of course, our government being our government, these fools think they can STILL be seedy and stupid and try and outsmart the assassins. Dumb move. A REALLY dumb move.

If you love government conspiracy books with a heavy dose of `in your face' testosterone, then this is your next read. I don't know in what order Vince's book were published and I don't care. All I know is that when I go into my bookstore, I'm grabbing the next Flynn book I see.

This is the first novel that Vince Flynn wrote and I have to say it was a great start. I've read all of Flynn's books and can't decide which one of them I like the best. Mitch Rapp, who doesn't appear in this story, is the protagonist of all the other Flynn books. I look at Term Limits as a good starting place for people who have had the Mitch Rapp series recommended to them. This book is action packed and the main characters (Navy Seal dudes) appear in most of the Rapp books. Give this one a try.

Mr. Flynn comes out of the gate swinging with this novel. He does not waste the readers time with endless motivations by the characters in the book. While the characters do seem a bit one-dimensional, they are easy to keep track of. While several stereotypes are played out here, they all have a ring of truth to them. Yes, there are people in the world who see everything in black and white, and there are certainly politicians that strive to make political gains out of any situation.

The picture painted of "senior White House Officials" basically rearranging the deck chairs on a sinking Titanic rings true. There is very little doubt as to who is doing what to whom. Mr. Flynn does not try to make this a mystery novel, rather a procedural on assination and it's aftermath. We are introduced to some characters who have deep motivations for what they do, and we can sympathize with them.

Mr. Flynn does not resort to "deus ex machina" by having magical weapons or characters appear when the situation becomes dire. What transpires in the novel appears to have a genuine flow to it.

As a first novel, I reccommend it with few reservations. As I have started his second novel, I now look forward to finishing "Transfer of Power" and going on to the third novel. I will note that while some characters do make appearances in both of the novels, each book is certainly a stand alone read.

Mr. Flynn looks to be quite the writer and if he keeps this up, I will definately keep buying his books.

Many books being published to-day have the same repetitive theme to them - - - us against the outside world. Vince Flynn reverses this premise and describes the enemy inside, namely crooked politicians whose only pursuits are promoting their own selfish interests, at the expense of the voters who put them in power in the first place. The selected assassination of some of these politicians and the panic and irrational actions that ensues in Washington from the President on down ensures the reader a story line that is gripping in its telling. As the story plays out, the reader will eventually gain a grudging admiration of the assassins and then be in total empathy with them. This book will hit a sensitive spot with most readers in their attitudes to-wards a certain breed of to-day's politicians. If Mr Flynn's next book is half as thought provoking as "Term Limits", he is a real winner.

I finished this on 12142007. A good book but not up to Tom Clancy's early novels. I found the plot to be similar to the television program 24 which does not mean it is a rip-off of the program. The book was published in 1997 so a case could be made that the writers/producers of 24 were influenced by this book. I liked the book and wanted to start with this one since this is Vince Flynn's first published novel. I plan on reading all of his stuff.

For those reviewers who gave Mr. Flynn a thumbs down due to no minority - read black - characters or too many killings of prominent politicians and/or the lack of sympathy for their deaths; well - people need to remember this is a novel and it is the authors choice on where he wants to take the story. I recommend this book to those who like thrillers and who are sick and tired of PC.

After reading Vince Flynn's debut novel, Term Limits, it's not difficult to see why he's become as popular as he has over the past few years.

The main reason this book works, in my opinion, is that Flynn has such a brilliant way of describing the stealth murders and assassinations, the sneak attacks on heavily-guarded homes and buildings, and the secret surveillance and spy missions. At Term Limit's high points, you're no longer even mindful that you're reading words on a page; it's as if you've closed your eyes and are imagining the scenes on your own. The only thing that really drags this novel down (though not much) is the dialogue, particularly in the closed-door meetings, where the blandness of the characters is more noticeable. That is not to say that the characters are uninteresting, but they do lack qualities that really stimulate you to think about them too much. Perhaps this was intentional, so that the characters and the storyline don't take away too much from the suspense and the action.

If you're a fan of political thrillers, murders, mysteries, and espionage, Term Limits really delivers it all in one punch.