Op-Center 01 (Paperback)

~ (Author), (Author), Jeff Rovin (Author) "Gregory Donald took a sip of scotch and looked across the crowded bar..." (more)
Key Phrases: recon officer, countdown clock, options paper, North Korea, Gregory Donald, Bob Herbert (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Cold War is over. And chaos is setting in. The new president of Russia is trying to create a democratic regime. But there are strong elements within the country that are trying to stop him: the ruthless Russian mafia, the right-wing nationalists, and those nefarious forces that will do whatever it takes to return Russia to the days of the Czar.

Op-Center, the newly-founded but highly successful crisis management team, begins a race against the clock and against the hardliners. Their task is made even more difficult by the discovery of a Russian counterpart... but this one's controlled by those same repressive hardliners and represents everything Op-Center stands for. Two rival Op-Centers, virtual mirror images of each other. But if this mirror cracks, it'll be more than seven years of bad luck.... --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

From School Library Journal

YA?A terrorist bomb explodes at a celebration outside the Palace in Seoul, South Korea, with hundreds of casualties. Was it planted by angry North Koreans? Anti-reunification South Koreans? Or one group posing as the other to shift blame? Will the U.S. go in to help an ally? Speedy and efficient answers must be provided through a new U.S. intelligence agency under the direction of Paul Hood. Shorter than many other Clancy novels, Op-Center is action-packed and less violent than Without Remorse (Putnam, 1993). Brief chapters relate each event in the 41 hours during the international crisis and shift quickly to many locales. Readers must remember under what circumstances they last saw each person and must be able to keep the Korean names straight. The author is a master at providing a past and a personality for the main characters in a few words. The others come alive through their actions. The intricate climax shows that neither side is all good or all bad: cooperation is needed to keep peace. Sure to be popular, especially when the television movie airs.?Claudia Moore, W.T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Berkley; later printing edition (February 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425147363
• ISBN-13: 978-0425147368
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (165 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #786,217 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good read for "down time", October 1, 2003

By	Nawfal "Q" (USA) - See all my reviews

I'm a philosopher, so I read a lot of heavy books. Once in awhile I have some "down time" books which I like to read just to pass time reading something that I don't need to scrutinize with pencil and paper nearby. This is one of those books, and it really does fulfill that purpose well. This is not the 'Clancy Classic' of "Red Storm Rising" or "Without Remorse," so don't get your hopes set up for that.

I enjoyed the different characters and their role in problem solving. The authors do well in showing how people often have self-interest and fair-weathered natures. I also thought that the subplots (e.g. with Hood's son, with the diplomat's wife) were present enough to engage the reader, but not overdone.

I felt that it was somewhat difficult to keep track of the various foreign characters because of their names. Instead of picking just their surname or family name, often the characters are referred to in numerous ways - thus, making it tricky to keep up. Also, I feel that perhaps a few pages could have been spent on explaining the Op-Center itself, given that this book is the first in the series..... the reader is left only basic clues about the status and origin of the Op-Center.

All in all, an excellent book for waiting rooms, beach days, and/or lazy hours on the porch.....

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Crap - but understand that Clancy didn't write this., October 21, 1999

By	David Alpern (Ruckersville, VA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Games of State: Op-Center (Paperback)

I agree with all of you. The opcenter books are best described as garbage. But don't blame Tom Clancy - or do, but understand that he didn't write them. He just came up with the idea, and sold it. Note that amazon.com doesn't even list an author for these books, just creators (Clancy and Pieczenik). That alone should tell you something.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The best of the Op-Center series by far., April 2, 1998

By	[e-mail] (Birmingham, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Games of State: Op-Center (Paperback)

This entry in the just-about-above-average Op Center series is easily the best one to read out of the lot. The first one wasn`t bad, Mirror Image was passable, Acts Of War was a bit old hat and plain daft, but this beats the lot! The story of Neo-Nazis inciting race hate to change world events by means of right-wing propaganda computer games based on KKK cookouts and Nazi concentration camps may seem far-fetched to some readers, but the technology behind it is described in such a way to make it easy to understand and, frighteningly enough, feasible. The angle on the re-unification of Germany starting the resurgence of Nazism is also well put together. The characters are a lot better portrayed, especially Paul Hood`s first love paranoia. But the main criticisms which stopped this from being a ten out of ten were the co-incidence of Nancy just happening to work for the Neo-Nazi organisation trying to provoke hate(come on!) and Bob Herbert`s Dirk Pitt-style heroics in a wheelchair! That got a bit too silly, but on the whole the story and the politics behind it are the strengths here. Well worth a read.