Line of Control (Tom Clancy's Op-Center, Book 8) by Tom Clancy, Steve Pieczenik, Jeff Rovin
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Book Reviews of Line of Control (Tom Clancy's Op-Center, Book 8)
Book Review: Could have been better
Summary: 2 Stars
As an avvid Clancy fan who has read every book he has had to offer, I was enthusiastic about his latest Op Center, especially after how he left off the last one. This story however, didnt move me and seemed to have left a bad taste in my mouth. This could be because it seems that Mr. Clancy has begun to farm out his noteriety with this series to anyone who can write a book. Plot seemed real enough, just how he brought us to it and how he lft us at the end is something I hope he will fix in future writings of this series.Book Review: Bad and Getting Worse!
Summary: 2 Stars
Another bad book with Tom Clancy's name on it. That is startingto be the norm these days. Striker is supposed to capture a radical cleric who is creating problems between India and Pakistan. The story never gets off the ground. The plot is awful.
The action is actually ho hum. The characters even fall short.
But remember,that is the style with Tom Clancy books these days.
A very dissapointing book. I sincerely think that Tom Clancy
should fire his ghostwriter.
Book Review: Exiting to read, but story does not make sense
Summary: 2 Stars
The format the book is written is excellent. The story does not make any sense. I was very disaponted to reach the end of the book and find out that all the trouble that they went through, could have been resolved by just making a call.Book Review: Dire Rubbish
Summary: 1 Stars
This book is so bad that it deserves a negative rating. First off, when you see the words Tom Clancy on the cover, you would reasonably assume that he at least had some input or some editorial control over the content. This is patently not so, because Line of Control is so badly written that a trained chimpanzee would have made a better job of it. Obviously Clancy has just sold out an idea so he can rake in the $ without any effort (which, being a Clancy fan, saddens me). To begin with, the author (Jeff Rovin) clearly knows absolutely NOTHING factual about the conflict in the Kashmir. If he wanted to base a book on it, he should have done considerably more research. Line of Control is wholly misleading. It is also full of factual holes. She looked towards the driver on her left Even school kids know that India is one of the countries that drives on the left, therefore, the driver is seated on the right. It is also full of rubbish knowledge the sort of knowledge you would easily acquire by reading Jaynes or some such publication, but that has absolutely no place in the book For example, this is a direct extract from Line of Control (pages 180-181):- Ten Pakistan Air Force bases were operational full-time. These were the major operational bases PAF Sargodha, PAF Mianwali, PAF Kamra, PAF Rafiqui, PAF Masroor, PAF Faisal, PAF Chaklala, PAF Risalpur, PAF Peshawar, and PAF Samungli. They would all be hit with two missiles each. Then there were eleven forward operation bases that became fully operational only during wartime. All of these would be struck as well. They were PAF Sukkar, PAF Shahbaz, PAF Multan, PAF Vihari, PAF Risalewala, PAF Lahore, PAF Nawabshah, PAF Mirpur, Khas, PAF Murid, PAF Pasni, and PAF Talhar. Finally there were the nine satellite bases used for emergency landings: PAF Chuk Jhumra, PAF Ormara, PAF Ranjanpur, PAF Sindhri, PAF Gwadar, and PAF Kohat. So, how did fifteen printed lines of air force base names move the story on? They didnt they were never mentioned again. Talk about a waste of time, just to be told how knowledgeable the author is. Rovin also fails spectacularly to obey the prime rule of good writing SHOW NOT TELL. He lectures the reader for page after page. Chapter 29, for example, does absolutely nothing to move the story forward it just TELLS the background of an Indian Minister. Any half-decent novelist would have built this information gradually into the story, maybe using other peoples conversations to provide the Ministers background. Instead we have a whole chapter where the plot stalls as the author catches up on some homework that had no right being there. And that was only one example of many chapter 20 was just as dire. And I was driven wild by the he said, she said at EVERY conversation point:- How are you? Dave said. Just fine, Maggie said. Pleased to hear it, Dave said. How are your parents? Maggie said. Keeping well, Dave said and so on. As for characterization NULL. I didnt feel empathy for any one single character in the book. NOTHING. Its the first time Ive ever read a novel where ALL the characters are one-dimensional. Pages and pages were devoted to the extra-marital relationship between Paul Hood and Ann Farris. Did it add to the story? NO. Did it lead anywhere? NO. Was it resolved? NO. So why was it there? Again, it served only to stall the plot. Maybe Jeff Rovin was getting paid by the word, so needed to add as much bumph as he could. I was grossly disappointed with Line of Control. I considered giving it two stars because I kept going to the end, just to see the resolution of the plot. But even the ending was weak and hurried. This is probably the worst book I have read in years.Book Review: A Line Over reached
Summary: 1 Stars
Tom Clancy is clearly overreaching in this incoherent and rambling book set in Kashmir. The sheer implausibility of the plot and the lack of understanding about the basic ground reality of Kashmir unfortunately touch upon a number of distressing issues. The complexity of ethnic and religious issues in Kashmir taken in conjunction with South Asia's emerging prominence in issues of global security and commerce could have provided Mr. Clancy with enough material which he could have exploited. Regrettably the book oversimplifies most of this rich historical and contemporary framework. Post the cold war; Mr. Clancy is clearly out of his comfort zone. The book fails on many other yardsticks as well. Mr. Clancy's forte in his different books had been his ability to focus on the minutiae of different aspects of the military. Here he gets basics wrong. Most of the equipment and hardware of the Indian Air Force, unit designations, and procedures seem erroneous. Most importantly the book very simply put is not a good read.