Customer Reviews

Tom Clancy's Op-Center: Divide and Conquer

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I'm a big reader of all the Clancy books, both the hard covers he works on every few years and the series written under his masthead by other authors. This new Op Center, written by Jeff Rovin (as it seems all the Op Centers were if you read the credits in the back of the book), is the best of the bunch. (In my opinion, Netforce and Powerplay series aren't really worth reading compared to Op Center.) In Divide and Conquer, the returning hero, Paul Hood finally confronts his personal demons and gets on with the business of saving the country. The plot is plausable (which is always a good thing in a techno-thriller) and very gripping....I read the book in one sitting and I look forward to the next in the series...sounds like there will be trouble brewing in India....

Overall, the Op Center books remain the strongest of the four on-going "Clancy" serials. While not as strong as Games of State or Acts of War, Divide and Conquer makes a solid contribution and continues to build the depth of the series.

One of the things that I enjoy most is the continued development of the on-going characters. This book focuses almost exclusively on Hood and does a good job of continuing the development of his character. In general, I find the characters believable and that they act rationally; I can not always says this about the Net Force characters.

I did miss several other continuing characters, including Rodgers, McCaskey and the Striker team. These characters essentially did not appear in Divide and Conquer. One of my dislikes about this book was just this omission; it ignored almost all of the normal supporting characters. Just as disconcerting, there are hints that the next book will continue this trend.

Additionally, I have a general sense of unease that the events of the last few books are supposedly so close together on the timeline. The pace of the events of these books seems unbelievable.

Finally, it will be interesting to see if the authors ever have the nerve for the main characters to fail, rather than succeed, when they are acting on their instincts...

I loved this book. It is wonderfully crafted, and is a real page-turner. It focuses on fewer characters, providing more depth about Paul Hood -- whose humanity makes him one of the greatest characters in these types of books.

The plot in this Op Center is especially good -- very devious and smart. Strategy and deception play a much larger role than military force in this Op Center, which makes the story so compelling. Essentially, in this Op Center, we encounter a Paul Hood who is beginning to get past a lot of difficult personal issues that built up in previous Op Centers. Just as this is happening, however, Paul Hood finds himself in a real maze of intrigue that requires all of his cunning and intelligence.

In short, the best Op Center ever. You will love this one.

Clancy, Pieczenick and Rovlin hit a home run with this thriller that has a lot to offer between its covers. Indeed, this is the best of the Op Center series, and perhaps better than many of Clancy's own projects.

Rovlin has picked up these characters very well and developed them seamlessly with what the previous authors have done. Hood's character draws empathy from the reader better than most techno thriller protagonists.

The plot in this installment is delicious, as is the pace. There are plenty of Whitehouse shenanigans, lots of intrigue...resourceful terrorists pursuit by intrepid and equally resourceful agents. There's even a bit of detente as the Russian Op Center makes a dramatic appearance.

All together, a stellar job by the authors. Its a good read, folks. Questions? email me.

I've read all of the Op-Center Books, and think this is the best one for a lot of reasons. It's even more suspensful than the others, and requires the Op Center team to defeat a terrorist through strategy rather than with force. What's more, the story is very creative. The conspirators are cold and super-ruthless. In the end, the message of the book its positive -- the efforts of a few dedicated people (even in this computer age) end the crisis.

A good thriller but missing something. This was not up to the normal Op-Center books, in my opinion. While it has a good story line it seemed to be off.

in this story Paul Hood ends up seeking help from is Op-Center counterpart in Russia to help hunt down the notorious assassin the "Harpooner". At the same time it seems that all of the issues in the Caspian Sea seem to be tied back to the US president who may be having a mental break down, or is he. His wife thinks that something is wrong and calls in his old friend Paul Hood who is being stonewalled by members of the president's cabinet. While the story is plausible it still bothered me. If you normally like this type of story you will probably enjoy the book but not be thrilled by it.

Heard the taped version of TOM CLANCY'S OP-CENTER:
DIVIDE AND CONQUER by Jeff Rovin . . . this is a gripping
thriller about tensions between Iran and the former Soviet republic of
Azerbaijan . . . conspirators within the State Department are at
work, trying to cause tensions to flair . . . at the same time, they
try to convince the President of the United States that he is
mentally unstable . . . it is up to Paul Hood and the members of
the Op-Center to prevent the outbreak of war and save the
President's honor . . . there's a lot of plot squeezed into these
tapes, and though I'm not ordinarily a fan of this genre, I admit
that I liked this tale . . . my enjoyment was magnified by
as a result of an excellent narration by Robert Foxworth.

Divide & Conquer is a nice change to the Op-Center series. The Op-Center series was starting to get old. It was getting a generic story line to it: Some terrorists come up with a bad idea, John Hood and Op-Cener must try and figure out what they are doing and send in Striker to stop them. In Divide & Conquer, spying and sabotage replace the Op-Center vs. Terrorists feel of Op-Center. The terrorists focus on starting a war and frame other countries for acts of sabotage. I thought the book was one of the best Op-Center books so far. If you liked "Mission: Impossible" you'll like this book.

AS a major Clancy fan, I've always enjoyed the Op-Center series. This was a exceptional book, different from the others in it's very focused "cast". Interesting just how easy it seemed to reach a man like the President of the U.S. & tinker with his mind & VERY SCARY. Though I missed the Striker Team, the new additions were great. This was one fast paced, exciting,"educational" book. I didn't see the end at all until the tie-up. It's amazing how Clancy can weave all the plots & sub plots, of course that is what keeps us all coming back. BRAVO.

What does "Created by Tom Clancy and Steve Pieezenik Written by Jeff Rovin" on the cover of this book mean? I hope it means it wasn't written by Clancy, because it is really a dog. The prose is formulaic, you'd think it was written by a computer. Take a generic idea, have the computer mix and match names, places, and tired trite situations. I'll stick to books by Clancy himself, even though I'm disappointed he would tack his name on such drivel.