A review of Red Rabbit

Red Rabbit

T0m Clancy

Jack Ryan. The early CIA days . . .

When young Jack Ryan joins the CIA as an analyst he is thrust into a world of political intrigue and conspiracy. Stationed in England, he quickly finds himself debriefing a Soviet defector with an extraordinary story to tell: senior Russian officials are plotting to assassinate Pope John Paul II. The CIA novice must forget his inexperience and rely on all his wits to firstly discover the details of the plot – and then prevent its execution. For it is not just the Pope’s life that is at stake, but also the stability of the Western World.

Red Rabbit is the thrilling eighth novel featuring Jack Ryan, following The Sum of All Fears and Debt of Honour. Published after Executive Orders, the novel charts Jack Ryan’s earliest mission for the CIA, and is the stunning prequel to The Hunt For Red October.

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This was written many years after Patriot Games and The Hunt For Red October, though it fits between those two books in the timeline of Jack Ryan. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite match up to those earlier books.

The plot is reasonable, being based around a real event that took place in 1981, and the writing is accessible, if more simplistic than is the norm for an author who often writes in a very easy to access way. Somehow, though, there is something lacking from the book, it’s almost as if the book was written by someone other than Tom Clancy, someone who is familiar with the Jack Ryan universe, but whose writing style is more basic.

Having read a number of the reviews on Amazon for this book I think I have identified one of the things that is lacking from this book; the strongest aspect of Tom Clancy’s has always been his descriptions of combat and weapons, neither of which feature in this particular story.

I read this book because it’s part of the series, and I will re-read it the next time I go through the Jack Ryan series, simply because it is a part of the series, but if it was a standalone novel, I wouldn’t be bothering.

Mayday – A fun adventure

Mayday (Dirk Pitt #2)

Clive Cussler

Major Dirk Pitt picked up the frantic distress call as he cruised his lumbering amphibious plane over the islands of the Aegean. Brady Air Force base was under fire, its entire force of jets destroyed on the ground . . . by just one First World War bi-plane!

A psychotic ex-Nazi, a bloodthirsty Greek strongman and a beautiful double agent set Pitt on the trail of the warped mastermind behind a devastating sabotage plot. And on that trail, danger and death are never far behind . . .

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The second book in the Dirk Pitt series is as good as the first, with Cussler again showing that he knows how to write a good character. This time you don’t just have Dirt Pitt but also his best friend, Al Giordino, who only appeared briefly in the first book. Giordino is very obviously the light relief against Pitt’s more sensible character, but that isn’t all there is to him, nor does it mean he’s any less well-written.

Every character that Cussler writes, especially the main ones, show a very real personality, showing humour, compassion, strengths and weaknesses as the occasions demand.

The only reason I haven’t rated this book higher is the storyline, which is a little lighter than I would like; it’s well-written, I won’t deny that, but I would have liked more depth.

Commando

A retired elite Black Ops Commando launches a one man war against a group of South American criminals who have kidnapped his daughter to blackmail him into starting a revolution and getting an exiled dictator back into power.

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This is one of the numerous action movies Arnie did in the 80’s, which means it’s short on plot, just look at the synopsis above, and the acting and writing are only average. None of that matter’s though, because you watch it for the action sequences, and it has them in abundance.

Nobody can deny that this is anything other than mindless violence, and it doesn’t pretend to be, it is purely an action movie that intends to entertain, and boy does it do that. The final action sequence following on from when Arnie arrives on the island is lengthy and bloody, with some great improvisation when it comes to weapons, and a load of fun to watch.

If you’re after something clever with top drawer acting, look elsewhere, but if you only want something to entertain you for two hours or less, look no further.

Pacific Vortex

Clive Cussler

Dirk Pitt, a major in the American air force and director of special projects at Numa is having a quiet day at a secluded Hawaiian beach when he spots something floating in the water. Curiosity gets the better of him and swims out to retrieve it, in doing so he finds himself in the midst of a dangerous mystery – the object he spots is a message capsule from a missing nuclear submarine, and he is drafted in to help find and retrieve the submarine.

Making the job more difficult is the fact that the submarine is not the only vessel to go missing, dozens have disappeared over the years in an area called the Pacific Vortex. Before he can find and recover the submarine, Pitt is going to have to solve the mystery that is the Vortex, which will put him in the middle of a beautiful woman and a dangerous man – is he up to the task.

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This is a short book, compared to later entries in the series, with a less complex plot, but as an introduction to the series and it’s main character, it’s well done and enjoyable. As with many of the books in the Dirk Pitt series, there’s a hint, perhaps more than a hint, of James Bond, both in the character of Pitt and in the other elements of the book, there’s nothing wrong with that, though.

Pitt is a very well constructed character – you learn more about him as the book progresses, which is much better than learning it all at the beginning, and he is someone I’m always keen to read more about. As I said, the story isn’t complex, but it has enough going on to keep the reader interested, and the ending is tragically triumphant, with the bad guy beaten, but at a cost.

What I think makes Cussler’s action adventure series, even this lightweight opener, better than many others is the way the lead character feels; he feels his physical injuries when something happens to him, and that affects what he is able to do later in the; this is in contract to characters like Bond who are half dead in one seen and fighting fit in the next. Pitt also feels the weight of events, his personality stays essentially the same but there are tiny changes that show he is affected by the things he goes through.

Overall this is very enjoyable, and if you haven’t yet gotten into the Dirt Pitt/Numa series, I definitely recommend starting at the beginning.

Rain On The Dead

Jack Higgins

When the an attempt to assassinate former US President Jake Cazalet is prevented by the timely arrival of Sean Dillon and Captain Sarah Gideon of the British Security Services, they find themselves in the middle of the latest attempt by Al Qaeda to disrupt the West and cause as much chaos as possible.

The war is being fought around the world, in London, Paris, Ireland and the US in this book alone, and now it involves people from both Sean’s and Sarah’s pasts, on both sides of the conflict.

It’s been a while since I last read a book by Jack Higgins, but I remember him being a better writer than this. I’m not sure if the problem is because this is not the first book in the series, I don’t think so, however. There are some reasonable characters in this, and I accept that I’ve jumped into this series well after the beginning so I’ve probably missed a lot of character development, but they still seem to lack any real depth, which is a shame because I like what I see of them here.

The writing lets the book down as well, and it could so easily have been a cracker. The plot is not a bad one, it certainly has potential, but there are so many coincidences and convenient connections between the good guys and the bad that it isn’t long before they become unbelievable.

Further letting things does is the action sequences, which are all over with too quickly to provide any real sense of drama or danger; this is especially true of the ending, which left me feeling more than a little disappointed and cheated.

If you’re after a quick read that doesn’t need much concentration then go for it, otherwise, I’d advise finding something better.

A new short + Die Hard review

For those of you who have been enjoying my writing, I have just put up a new short story, you can either find it here under the short story tab or on wattpad – https://www.wattpad.com/story/84967628-the-bee

When a man and a bee fight, no-one is safe, least of all a bystander

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DIE HARD 

New York cop John McClane travels to LA to visit his wife and arrives in time for the skyscraper she works in to be taken over by terrorists. When the police outside fail to help it’s up to McClane to take on the terrorists from within the building, a difficult task since he’s both out-manned and outgunned.

This is considered a classic action movie from the 80’s for a reason. Bruce Willis plays John McClane to perfection; he’s no Rambo, no highly trained solder, he’s just a cop doing everything he can to save his wife, and the other hostages. Every run-in he has with the terrorists leaves him more bruised and bloody, and you have to wonder why he doesn’t find a quiet corner to hide in before he gets himself killed.

The supporting cast, especially Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber, leader of the terrorists, is great and the action barely lets up. When it does it’s usually for the sake of some barbed conversation between McClane and either the terrorists or the cops.

I’ve watched this movie a number of times over the years and still enjoy it, thanks for the performances of the two leads and the fact that the special effects look as good now as they did when the film was new – no dated CGI or other effects here.

If you like action and good characters, and somehow haven’t seen this movie, or its sequels yet, check it out.

A fun adventure

Tonight I watched the first episode of Sky’s new series, Hooten and the Lady, and I’ve got to say I’m glad I did because it was great.

Lady Alexandra travels to the Amazon on behalf of the British museum in search of the camp of Victorian explorer Percy Fawcett, along the way she encounters an American adventurer, Hooten, when they are both captured by  a tribe of locals. After a trial by combat they have to join forces and make a run for it, eventually finding their way to Fawcett’s camp, where they discover a map to El Dorado.

I won’t give away anything more, suffice to say they encounter adventure and danger and get to know each other a little better.

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I really enjoyed this opening episode; there was some nice scenery, beautiful relics, decent characters and good chemistry, all in all it was as much as you could want from the first episode of a new series.

The acting from the two leads, is decent but not great, I don’t expect them to win any awards for it, but they do have good chemistry, which I hope will develop further as the series continues. The writing is on the same level, not award-winning but more than acceptable.

Where this gained some solid points with me is in the location scenes, and in the artifacts, which looked genuine enough in the relatively quick glimpses the audience were given.

Not quite so good is the slightly derivative nature of the characters; there is a mix of Indiana Jones, Lara Croft, and Nathan Drake from the Uncharted games; I even saw a scene that was very reminiscent of one from Romancing the Stone with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner.

Overall I’m going to have to give this  because despite its flaws it is very enjoyable and I’m looking forward to watching the next episode.

Patriot Games

Tom Clancy

On holiday in London, Jack Ryan, historian, teacher and former marine, gets in the way of a terrorist attack. When the terrorist he captured escapes custody and his family is attacked Ryan joins the CIA, where he uses his intelligence and his ability as an analyst to track down the terrorists, who are planning a fresh attack on the target Ryan saved.

Despite being thirty years old, Patriot Games never feels dated as it follows Jack Ryan’s efforts to do the right thing while protecting his family. Jack Ryan is a well realised character with a conscience and flaws, all of which make him as realistic as any to be found within the pages of a book; contrasting him are the terrorists, who have a deadly goal and are prepared to kill anyone that gets in their way to achieve it – they are not rabid, indiscriminate killers, though, they’re intelligent and they have a plan.

While there’s no doubt who we’re supposed to root for, Tom Clancy has done a good job of showing that terrorists are not all mindless, suicidal bombers, which makes them all the more frightening. He also shows the work done quietly, out of the spotlight, by the security services who fight such men and woman on a daily business.

In this age of increased terrorist activity, Patriot Games gives an important insight into the war being fought to protect us all.