Scimitar SL-2

Admiral Arnold Morgan #7

by Patrick Robinson

A volcano. A nuclear missile. An explosive, deadly threat to the West.

The murder of a prominent geophysicist and the eruption of Mount St. Helens are viewed as coincidence by the White House. But Admiral Morgan suspects the involvement of his nemesis, terrorist Major Ray Kerman. Then comes the chilling threat - Kerman has a nuclear device, Scimitar SL-2, which he intends to launch straight into the heart of the volcano Cumbre Vieja, causing a massive tsunami to devastate the East Coast of the United States. Shocked into action, Admiral Morgan returns to the White House to run Operation High Tide - a desperate race to evacuate the East Coast and locate the nuclear submarine before it launches its deadly weapon ...

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Military Fiction, Action, Adventure, Audiobook, Modern

582 pages, Paperback

First published August 3, 2004

About the author

Patrick Robinson was a journalist for many years before becoming a full-time writer of books. His non-fiction books were bestsellers around the world and he was the co-author of Sandy Woodward's Falklands War memoir, One Hundred Days.

Reviews

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly good submarine novel.

A terrorist seeks to fire a missile into the crater of a volcano on the Canary Islands, creating a giant mega-tsunami that will devastate both the West Coast of Europe and the East Coast of the USA. Admiral Morgan has to try to find him.

A book that has a lot going on, but no real action. Entertaining but light.

[Andrew Rimmer · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is poor. I have read quite a few other Patrick Robinson books and have enjoyed them - but not this one.

The characters are paper thin stereotypes. Even the leading characters are one dimensional and predictable - there is zero character development. The authenticity was completely lost due to characters acting in unrealistic ways just to fit in with the story. I found myself not caring what happens, because I simply couldn't believe in the characters that made up the story.

This along with the story trundling along a very predictable path made the book a real chore to read. It is a real shame, because the 'What If' of the story had great potential.

I find it disconcerting that an experienced author can get a book like this published. Is it laziness? arrogance? poor editing? or simple rushing another book out? The faults in the book aren't subtle; they jump out at you almost immediately. I hope it's not a sign of things to come from Patrick Robinson.

I have never felt compelled to write a negative review about a book before but this book is rubbish.

[Henri Moreaux · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a whole this book is good, it's a solid addition to the Admiral Morgan series. It's got a nice mix of politics, action and intelligence work. There's less undersea action than some of his other books but the story nonetheless does revolve around an Iranian purchased Soviet submarine.

The Iranians, or, "fucking towelheads" as they are referenced in the book, plan an attack which would destroy large parts of the eastern coast of the United States - it's nice to not have the same targets rehashed. However, there were some rather large holes in the plot; such as the rest of the world who would also be devastated to varying degrees not lifting a finger to help.

The edition I read, William Hienemann, 2004, 0434011959 had several editing errors which somewhat broke your immersion in the story such as dates listed as "9 October 9 2009" or one paragraph which had a characters name, "Adan", several times correct but once listed as "Adam". There were only a handful but still I would expect better from a mainstream publishers final edition.

Overall, an enjoyable tale if you can overlook the flaws.

[Ian Birtwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know how the plot goes - Terrorist threatens the western world, only one man can sort it out, by whatever means he deams necessary. The story is long on set-up and a bit short on the ending, but still provides a page-turning read. Read the other books in the series before this one, it probably won't stand well on its own.

[John Giroux · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book sucked. The characters were cartoonish, the style was pathetic (I dare someone to count how many sentences in this book begin with the word "And"). Full of stereotypes... I accidentally read one other book by Robinson, but after reading this one, there are more than enough other authors around that I enjoy, as well as those that I've yet to discover, that I see no need to ever waste my time reading another one of his books. If there was a "zero stars", I'd give it that.

[Andy Reiman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Farcical to the extreme, even for the military submarine thriller genre.

[John Wade · Rating 1 out of 5]

A load of right wing tosh.

[Douglas J. Muenzer · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was like the author had a great idea , but not enough written material. His writing to me seemed like a quota had to be met and he didn't have enough written to meet it. This resulted with a ton of useless pages written that had no bearing on the story at all. It was so bad for me that I stopped reading halfway through the book and moved on. Just my opinion. But I will not be purchasing another book by this author.

[Mike Grady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good entry in the Admiral Morgan series by Patrick Robinson. While it flows nicely, it does drag a bit going into minute detail on the complexity of coastal evacuation.

[Sri Gopalan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm really conflicted about this book. It starts off with so much promise - a great plot and potentially great characters. It holds so much potential. But very soon, it degenerates into a limp, predictable, excruciating read. It is long drawn out, with lots and lots of repetition. It almost feels like the author ran out of ideas and needed to meet a minimum word quota to get published. It looks like Patrick Robinson picked a major city's disaster recovery plan and stretched it by a few thousand words. And of course, the premise that the US is the greatest country in the world, and everything it does is justified put me off.

[Pete · Rating 1 out of 5]

Probably the worst entry in the Admiral Morgan series. The plot is ludicrous to the extreme. Aside from an excellent quote from Winston Churchill regarding political suicide there is nothing here worth reading.

[Navin Raj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just one line from the book sums it up for me "How are we going to find those fucking underwater towelheads?"

[Ross Jernigan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the author that I was used to.

I've read a lot of books by this author and he always superbly told a good yarn. This book was poorly written, poorly researched and poorly edited. I can't believe that it's the same author. He gave an easterly course of 270. Not! He had the air force flying brand new F14D's. The F14 was a navy plane. The air force never flew it. The F14D was last manufactured in 1996. They were far from new and in fact were not even being flown anymore at the time of this yarn. They had been replaced by the F/A 18. Culturally, there was a Palestinian woman in a position of authority over men. That simply doesn't happen. The errors were so prevalent that it was hard to find a page that didn't have at least one error. It was such a distraction that it was hard to focus on the story and enjoy it. The 25th Amendment to the Constitution describes the manner of removing a President who becomes unfit to serve. The author could have written it in such a way that this Amendment was observed but instead, he just lazily created his own process, a military coup that would be unlikely in the extreme. I stuck with it and finished it but it was a waste of good time and money.

[Kay Cugini · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book! there are a lot of reviews which mention errors or issues with military procedures etc, but as I am no military expert I wouldn't know about that, however I have done a lot of research and reading about Cumbre Vieja and am very interested in the subject of this and mega tsunamis, so this book is right up my street.
The book centres on Hamas terrorists threatening the US with mega tsunamis by way of a nuclear attack on CV, they show their abilities by a cruise missile attack elsewhere (no spoilers).
The majority of the book focusses on the group in a stealth nuclear sub navigating the world's oceans whilst the US try to find it. There are some terrific characters (Arnold, Jimmy!) and the extreme tension ramps up constantly as they try to find the pesky sub whilst making plans to evacuate the US Eat Coast, battle with an incompetent President and protect Cumbre Vieja.
Absolutely cracking read, loved it!!

[George · Rating 1 out of 5]

This plot is interesting...environmental extortion and the USA held hostage to a "towelhead". The book is marred by multiple errors of fact. For example, the Army NCOs are not called "Senior Chief," a classified EP-3 would not be used for Seattle civilian transportation when Air Force McChord (airlift base) is right down the road. These two egregious examples explain why I rated it a "1". Also, I think that the author just changes the dates and uses the same cruise missile trajectory used in the last book--geez, there's even a hapless civilian that clues the USA leadership...just like the last book. It's got a nice mix of politics, action and intelligence work. It is a real shame, because the 'What If' of the story had great potential. There are more than enough other good authors that I see no need to ever waste my time reading another one of his books.

[Gretchen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started reading this series years ago and loved it. Somehow I got away from it for at least 8 or 9 years, until yesterday when I started the 1st in the final 4 books in the series that I haven't read. Wow - it didn't disappoint. Action packed and, I think, a clear statement on the need for our military to be strong and ready always. Obviously this plot is pretty far-fetched, but still, the threats are there, and in this book, our navy was ready. Whenever I read books like this, I'm always hopeful that our real-life leaders have this much integrity and courage. Admiral Morgan is still the same character as he was in the earlier books and I can't wait to see what situation he finds himself in next.

[Tom Koralewski · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fresh plot concept drew me to this novel. There's the usual superhero - with no faults - and the corresponding religious fanatic villain, who duel from afar. The impressive descriptions of military equipment and capabilities held my interest. I admit to getting a bit lost between the multitudinous Generals, Admirals, and myriad other commissioned officers with each's posting; their motivations, strengths, and purposes for inclusion in the plot could have been addressed better.
There are many, many pages involving seemingly endless descriptions of oceanic bottom features, submarine tactics, and underwater currents/abnormalities; I found these tedious, but others may not. The actual military actions and denouement occupied far less than a third of the book.

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bislang mit Abstand der schwächste Robinson, den ich gelesen habe. Klar, wer wirkliche Literatur erwartet, ist bei ihm völlig falsch. Aber bislang er zumindest noch einen einigermaßen guten Spannungsbogen und Aufbau. Hier plätschert das Buch sinnfrei vor sich hin und ergeht sich am Ende im ellenlangen Beschreiben einer Evakuierung, während der Showdown auf 10 Seiten runtergerotzt wird. Man merkt, dass Robinson hier selbst keinen Bock mehr hatte. Schade, denn das Setting hatte dermaßen Potenzial.

[Rod Gregg · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read many Patrick Robinson books. Sometimes a plot is so improbable that it becomes probable because of the author's imagination coming to life. Unfortunately, this book never took a breath. (SPOILER ALERT) The palace coup outlined in vague detail was constitutionally impossible. It would never be allowed to exist and that Hamas could coordinate such an attack is laughable. They can barely organize a suicide bomber on a bus. I normally like Robinson's attention to detail, but this one read like he provided the sub details to someone else's first attempt at broad strokes.

[Sasha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fun to escape into submarine warfare for an afternoon - burned through the book in ~4 hours. Too much Rah-Rah militarism, but that comes with the territory...

5/5 Readability - how fast you churn through it
2/5 Likability - how much you enjoyed it as you finished it. Did it make you feel good etc.
1/5 Education - did you learn something
1/5 Resonance - did you think about it after you read it?

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continuing the Admiral Morgan series. This might have been my second favorite of the series. It was more suspenseful than the last several and had a better assembled story. It had some local appeal as well, as some of the key points of the story happen off the Oregon coast and in the Pacific Northwest.

[James Whalen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A worthy read but a bit labored in spots.

A very interesting look into submarine operation and navigation. Too much time was spent free driving potential affects on every major city and military facility bordering the Atlantic ocean. That became a bit labored causing me to skim over much of that part.

[Richard Forshaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another cracking yarn from Patrick Robinson featuring Arnold Morgan. Very enjoyable book. Not quite to the same standard as Kilo Class, but very enjoyable nevertheless. Worth a read if you like a techno-thriller.

[Ian McIntyre Ian McIntyre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing

As always, Patrick has delivered a great story, bringing you the reader into it. I especially like it when admiral Morgan s name is mention every one quakes in their boots.

There is nothing to dislike about this story.

[Dan Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a new President in office and he is not a friend of the military. But when Hamas threatens to bomb an active volcano with could probably cause a tsunami to hit the east coast of America, the military minds get together and take action to protect our country.

[Skip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointed munuisha

I so wanted to give this book 5 stars. However, even though it was very well written, the author lapsed into boorish munuisha while describing the evacuation of the East coast of America.

[Michael Nickodem · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good story, but, the technical details are all wrong. The author mixes up USAF and USN aircraft, shoots down a missile with an ASROC which is an anti-submarine rocket launched torpedo and tries to shoot down the second missile with a Harpoon surface to surface cruise missile. Why did he not use surface to air missiles instead? The story is good, however, the technical stuff sucks!

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one was really good. Once it started reaching the climax of the story it was one of those books I did not want to put down until I finished it.

[MMc14 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this story. A good continuation of the plot from Barracuda 945.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book with likeable characters including the villains. Not very realistic but still enjoyable