Under Siege [Import] [Paperback]

Stephen Coonts (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: Fontana; 1ST edition (1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0006470629
• ISBN-13: 978-0006470625
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.4 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Stephen Coonts is the author of 14 New York Times bestsellers, the first of which was the classic flying tale, FLIGHT OF THE INTRUDER.
Born in 1946, Stephen Paul Coonts grew up in Buckhannon, West Virginia, a coal-mining town of 6,000 population on the western slope of the Appalachian mountains. He majored in political science at West Virginia University, graduating in 1968 with an A.B. degree. Upon graduation he was commissioned an Ensign in the U.S. Navy and began flight training in Pensacola, Florida.
He received his Navy wings in August, 1969. After completion of fleet replacement training in the A-6 Intruder aircraft, Mr. Coonts reported to Attack Squadron 196 at NAS Whidbey Island, Washington. He made two combat cruises aboard USS Enterprise during the final years of the Vietnam War as a member of this squadron. After the war he served as a flight instructor on A-6 aircraft for two years, then did a tour as an assistant catapult and arresting gear officer aboard USS Nimitz. He left active duty in 1977 and moved to Colorado. After short stints as a taxi driver and police officer, he entered the University of Colorado School of Law in the fall of 1977.
Mr. Coonts received his law degree in December, 1979, and moved to West Virginia to practice. He returned to Colorado in 1981 as a staff attorney specializing in oil and gas law for a large independent oil company.
His first novel, FLIGHT OF THE INTRUDER, published in September 1986 by the Naval Institute Press, spent 28 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists in hardcover. A motion picture based on this novel, with the same title, was released nationwide in January 1991.
The success of his first novel allowed Mr. Coonts to devote himself full time to writing; he has been at it ever since. He and his wife, Deborah, enjoy flying and try to do as much of it as possible.
Mr. Coonts' books have been widely translated and republished in the British Commonwealth, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Turkey, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Russia, China, Japan, Czechoslovakia, Serbia, Latvia, and Israel.
Mr. Coonts was a trustee of West Virginia Wesleyan College from 1990-1998. He was inducted into the West Virginia University Academy of Distinguished Alumni in 1992. The U.S. Naval Institute honored him with its Author of the Year Award for the year 1986 for his novel, FLIGHT OF THE INTRUDER. Mr. Coonts and his wife, Deborah, reside in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A non-techno thriller with people-like people, April 8, 2004

By 

Rennie Petersen (Copenhagen, Denmark) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Under Siege (Mass Market Paperback)

Under Siege is the fourth or fifth (depending on which way you put them in order) book that Stephen Coonts has written about his fictional hero Jake Grafton. It's a good read, both because it explores a scary scenario about what could happen if Columbian drug lords terrorized Washington DC in the same way they terrorize Columbia, and because it details the lives of some very believable people who are involved in the conflict.

Unlike some of the later Jake Grafton books, Under Siege doesn't feature much in the way of high-tech weaponry. Instead, it features a large cast of characters from all walks of life and describes them in ways that make them seem real and allow us to empathize with them.

This book is a thriller, of course, and the story is certainly suspenseful and exciting. A Columbian drug lord has been extradited from Columbia to the USA and awaits trial in Washington DC. In the hopes of forcing the Americans to release him, he institutes a war of terror against Washington DC on several levels. Soon there are assassination attempts on the President and several other key government figures, innocent people are being gunned down left, right and center, bombs are exploding in public places and the city is blacked out when the electrical system is destroyed.

How will the politicians, the police, the military and the ordinary residents of Washington react to this? Stephen Coonts has his suggestions, some of which are rather surprising, and this keeps you reading as the level of terror increases and the story unfolds.

Stephen Coonts is good at describing people and their relationships. Here's a passage I found especially appealing:

"You love a woman for many reasons. A goddess she seems when you are young. But finally you see she is of common clay, the same as you, with faults and fears and vain, foolish dreams and petty vices. So you cherish her, love her even more. As she ages you cling closer and closer, holding tighter and tighter. She becomes the female half of you. The toughening of her skin, the engraved lines on her face, the thickening waistline and the sagging breasts, none of it matters a damn. You love her for what she is not as much as for what she is." (Page 87 in the paperback edition I read.)

Not what one expects in a thriller, and that makes this quote even more appealing.

I do have some criticisms though, and that's why I'm giving Under Siege four stars instead of five.

Most importantly, I dislike thrillers that create a fictitious modern history populated with real people. An assassination attempt on the President of the USA is exciting, but placing George Bush Sr. in the role of the target makes the whole thing a bit too weird.

Another problem I had with Under Siege is that the description of the mutilation and killing of a drug dealer gets quite a bit too graphic for my taste.

Finally, there's a scene where an assassin shoots a man 500 yards away, firing through a glass window right in front of his gun. This is simply not possible as far as I know because the glass window will deflect the trajectory of the bullet by a tiny amount, and after 500 yards this tiny deflection will have become a very large displacement from the desired trajectory.

Still, I did like Under Siege a lot, and I think it's a refreshing change from similar high-profile thrillers that are typically populated by cardboard clichés instead of real people.

Rennie Petersen

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Unique Book!, January 26, 2001

By 

Melvin Hunt (Cleveland,, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Under Siege (Mass Market Paperback)

This was an exciting book by Coonts. This was also a unique concept as a plot. A major drug salesman is arrested and brought back to America to stand trial. Through his wealth the drug salesman hires crack commando squads and an assasin. The assasin wounds President Bush and Dan Quayle has to take over. This is where the action begins. The country is under seige. The government is pushed to the limit trying to deal with the commandos. Vice-President Quayle has his hands full dealing with this crisis. This book also has strong characters. This is a definite read. You will enjoy it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Narco-terrorists - Islama-terrorists, What's the Difference?, May 17, 2005

By 

Mr D. "Artist/Designer/Kibitzer" (Cave Creek, Az United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Under Siege (Mass Market Paperback)

First, the President's helicopter is shot down by two missiles on the way back from Camp David, killing four including the Secretary of State and putting President George H.W. Bush into a coma. Next eight or ten heavily armed terrorists break into the Capitol Building killing or wounding everything in sight in one bold suicide attempt, until they are finally suppressed. Then, acting President Dan Quayle, after viewing the damage at the Capitol Building, while giving a short press conference on the Capitol steps is apparently shot at. He isn't hit but the Attorney General is. But this was just a prelude. Things get so bad that the National Guard and Army is called in and then the riots start.


It seemed to start when, in an effort to show that we were winning the War on Drugs, the United States extradited Columbian drug kingpin, Chano Aldana, for trial. Aldana, probably insane but a truly scary and evil individual man gave an interview to two Washington Post reporters saying in essence that he was Satan incarnate and that the streets of Washington were going to be awash in blood if he wasn't released.

So begins a story of violence and terror in the streets of Washington that was written fifteen years ago but seems right at home in this age of terrorism and terrorist threats.

I never read a book by Stephen Coonts where Navy Captain (in this book) Jake Grafton wasn't in and this is no exception. He, along with his sidekick Toad Tarkington is currently attached to a terrorism unit of the Pentagon, working directly for the Joint Chief of Staff. He and FBI agent Tom Hooper wind up trying to track down Henry Charon, a rancher/hunter/poacher/hunting guide/hit man from New Mexico. The main plot is interesting enough but Coonts adds some subplots involving Post reporter Jack Yocke, Aldana's lawyer Thanis Liarakos, attorney/fixer/lobbyist T. Jefferson Body, smarmy senator Cherry and last but not least, my favorite, undercover agent Harrison Ronald Ford, who was trying to get the goods on Washington's number one drug dealer Freeman McNally.

If the main story was engrossing, Coonts' method of weaving these sub-plots made a good book great. Each sub-plot was separate but they all had a thread that tied them together. The story involving Ford was most compelling and almost took away from the main story.

The Author

I don't read many of Coonts' books even though he's an excellent writer because his subject matter is usually militarily oriented a genre I do not gravitate to but this book was the exception. Although the military is involved, it deals more with law enforcement and government..

Coonts is really a talented writer. His writing is fluid and compelling. It's easy to follow and in the case of this book kept me turning them pages. His character development is just right, making you feel things with the characters but not going overboard. Of course repeat character Jake Grafton is Mr goody two shoes, almost too perfect with no vices and the perfect family but that's the way Coonts chooses to portray him. You could compare him to Clancy's Jack Ryan.

Other characters in this book however are another matter. We have unethical to sociopath to truly evil behavior. Our assassin looks at his work as a game - the only thing worth living for. The drug dealers as you might expect are brutal. And of course there are frailties such as the irony of Aldana's attorney, Liarakos' position comes out, defending the number one drug dealer in the world while his wife is a crack addict.

Conclusion

When I first read this book, some ten years before September 11th I found it to be a well written, very interesting story containing three or four interesting subplots but there was no way I thought something this horrible could be perpetrated on the American people. Well things have changed and as I read this for the second time, I kept feeling similarities to the atrocities that were being committed in the book and what's going on in Baghdad and throughout Iraq. It's eerie.

It seems to me that if we ever capture the likes of Osama bin Laden or Abu Musab al Zarqawi we certainly don't want to bring them to the United States. Better a bullet hole to their head and an unmarked grave.