Customer Reviews

Under Siege

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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

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.

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.

As a Tom Clancy fan, I was captivated by the story all the way through up to (almost) the end. It is a monumental and very believable story, with even some kindness for Dan Quale. (I wonder how the writer feels about our current C in C?) The events are riveting, and as far as I know, true to life, if but a slightly bit graphic on the violence. The story is well woven and crafted. I do feel, however, that it may be stretching credulity that a seasoned and naturally skillful hunter could know all the minute details involved in operating in beautiful (?) downtown Washington, D.C., and leaving almost no trail, paper or otherwise. I also find it hard to believe that a person who has operated in total cold calculation for several hundred pages would suddenly take a "pot shot" at someone who had annoyed him, and then after eluding troups in an outdoor setting, get bottled up in an empty sports stadium. Oh well, s___ does happen. And it all is believable and very entertaining for most of the book.

I guess that I feel that the writer had a tremendous story going, and somehow did not 'cash in' on the ending with all the potential he had carefully and artfully developed. I racked my brain for ideas as to how I would end it, and felt that the book would have needed several more chapters (on an already long work) to properly wind it up. We could have had the U.S. invading Columbia, and the Columbians retaliating by smuggling in a "made in Russia" nuke, and blasting Washington D.C. in a grand final bang Holocost, after which the rank and file citizens mount and win a tremendous war of revenge against that country. Or, we could have our hunter make an apparent clean escape to Columbia, only to be betrayed and murdered by the very people he was "servicing".

Anyway, because they don't let me give it a 4.5 star rating, I give it a 4. Good book. Well worth the money. Could be better.

In this gripping story, Colombian drug barons hire suicide commando squads and a trained assassin to take out President Bush. He is hospitalised after his helicopter is shot down, and Dan Quayle steps in to solve the growing problem . . . is that a worse nightmare than drug barons?! The leaders may be out of date now, but considering when this was written one can let Coonts get away with it. The action scenes, including the terrorists causing massacres in the Capitol and on the Washington Metro are first rate; there is always something interesting happening. Add to that political fumblings in the White House as Quayle can't cope(very true to life for its time) and a corrupt lawyer subplot, and you have a tale to rival the very similar 'Clear and Present Danger' by Tom Clancy. Only this one has less technobabble and Coonts once again relies on pacing and readability. Worth reading.

One of the best books of this type Ive ever read. Everyone at HAII said they enjoyed it.

Unbelievably good. It's not possible to fit this much action into a book. Stephen Coonts has done it again...

It's better than the movie and it's a nice pickup after the slowdown in The Minotaur. If you like action, THIS ONE'S A NON-STOP SLAM-BANG THAT DOESN'T QUIT WITH THE ACTION OR THE SUSPENSE!They shoot down the President's helicopter and basically declare a war on the leading politicians in DC. READ IT

After the slight dissapointment of The Minotaur, I was glad to read Under Siege (and no, there's no relation to the movie of the same title), which had a firmly land-based plot
taking place in Washington, D.C. I like the creative way Coonts did the attacks on the U.S. government, the terrorists using tactics that just keep surprising you. After a while, I was thinking "Now there's an appropriate title for once!". The capital truly was under siege. Still not quite Coonts' best, but still a truly outstanding novel!!!

From the start Coonts gets your attention. The US Govt. brings a drug lord to America to stand trial. He uses Columbian tactics to be released. Everything from commando teams to an assassin to take out the President. The book starts to flow when the assassin wounds President Bush. The story is great. Well developed...until the end. I would have given this book 4 stars if the ending would have lived up to the rest of the interesting story line. With what we have learned in the book about the assassin, it is hard to believe he would act as he does after being so meticulous.