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Tom Clancy's Power Plays #8
Wild Card
Wild Card by Jerome Preisler, Tom Clancy, Martin Greenberg [Berkley,2004] (Paperback) [Paperback]
352 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published November 2, 2004
47 people are currently reading
736 people want to read
About the author
Jerome Preisler
64 books109 followersJerome Preisler is the prolific author of almost forty books of fiction and narrative nonfiction, including all eight novels in the New York Times bestselling TOM CLANCY'S POWER PLAYS series.
His latest book is NET FORCE:DARK WEB (November 2019), the first novel in a relaunch of the New York Times bestselling series co-created by Tom Clancy. Forthcoming in May 2020 is the enovella NET FORCE: EYE OF THE DRONE.
Among Jerome's recent works of narrative history are CODE NAME CAESAR: The Secret Hunt for U-boat 864 During World War Two, and FIRST TO JUMP: How the Band of Brothers Was Aided by the Brave Paratroopers of Pathfinders Company. His next book of nonfiction, CIVIL WAR COMMANDO: William Cushing's Daring Raid to Sink the Invincible Ironclad C.S.S. Albemarle,will be published by Regnery Books in October 2020.
Jerome lives in New York City and coastal Maine.
His latest book is NET FORCE:DARK WEB (November 2019), the first novel in a relaunch of the New York Times bestselling series co-created by Tom Clancy. Forthcoming in May 2020 is the enovella NET FORCE: EYE OF THE DRONE.
Among Jerome's recent works of narrative history are CODE NAME CAESAR: The Secret Hunt for U-boat 864 During World War Two, and FIRST TO JUMP: How the Band of Brothers Was Aided by the Brave Paratroopers of Pathfinders Company. His next book of nonfiction, CIVIL WAR COMMANDO: William Cushing's Daring Raid to Sink the Invincible Ironclad C.S.S. Albemarle,will be published by Regnery Books in October 2020.
Jerome lives in New York City and coastal Maine.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
June 14, 2020
There is trouble in paradise as oil, murder, and long-lived shadowy cabals overshadow Trinidad just as UpLink is setting up an installation. Wild Card is the eighth and final installment of the Power Plays series written by Jerome Preisler as Pete Nimec goes to Trinidad on a working vacation and steps into international intrigue while suspended Tom Ricci goes renegade to rescue a kidnapped daughter for a small-time Mexican cartel leader.
Over two centuries ago, a French nobleman living on Trinidad and an English pirate form a partnership that their descendants continue by selling oil to rogue nations that the United States have put an embargo on. A Trinidadian Jarvis Lenard escapes from a rogue element within a high-end resort’s security force after his cousin attempted to blow the whistle and was murdered, staying for weeks in a nature preserve causing fits to the rouge security force. Pete Nimec is sent to look at the new UpLink project in Trinidad as well as figure out about the mysterious emails they received, he sees an oil transfer not knowing at the time what he saw but later figures it out, but the rogue security teams aims to kill him and his wife while they’re enjoying the resort. Nimec and his wife escape on a boat, making their way to the nature preserve where Lenard is hiding and swims out to them as Sword helicopters come in and scare off the rogue security team’s helicopter. Meanwhile Tom Ricci is on leave from UpLink after saving New York City because he did so without letting local, state, and federal authorities as well as the company know what was happening. Ricci links up with the former DEA agent that has helped him on two previous occasions, helping save a kidnapped young woman whose father is a Mexican cartel leader while starting a friendship with Julia Gordian.
Unlike the previous book in the series, the three subplots that were not only worth their print on paper but came together to create a satisfying whole. The first and only prologue in the series that showed the creation of the centuries-old partnership between the families of a French nobleman and an English pirate that had their descendants coming up with this oil smuggling scheme that is found out. While the character development was sparse for returning characters, one-off characters had development put into them—especially Jarvis. If this was written to be a quick page turner it succeeded but given the scattered shot subplots not only in this book but the previous one the well of ideas had run out for the series.
Wild Card is the final book of the Power Plays series, the ending of which was written in a way so that Jerome Preisler could either continue it or not depending on the publisher. While a drastic improvement over the previous book in the series, this book showed that the series did not have enough legs to continue.
Over two centuries ago, a French nobleman living on Trinidad and an English pirate form a partnership that their descendants continue by selling oil to rogue nations that the United States have put an embargo on. A Trinidadian Jarvis Lenard escapes from a rogue element within a high-end resort’s security force after his cousin attempted to blow the whistle and was murdered, staying for weeks in a nature preserve causing fits to the rouge security force. Pete Nimec is sent to look at the new UpLink project in Trinidad as well as figure out about the mysterious emails they received, he sees an oil transfer not knowing at the time what he saw but later figures it out, but the rogue security teams aims to kill him and his wife while they’re enjoying the resort. Nimec and his wife escape on a boat, making their way to the nature preserve where Lenard is hiding and swims out to them as Sword helicopters come in and scare off the rogue security team’s helicopter. Meanwhile Tom Ricci is on leave from UpLink after saving New York City because he did so without letting local, state, and federal authorities as well as the company know what was happening. Ricci links up with the former DEA agent that has helped him on two previous occasions, helping save a kidnapped young woman whose father is a Mexican cartel leader while starting a friendship with Julia Gordian.
Unlike the previous book in the series, the three subplots that were not only worth their print on paper but came together to create a satisfying whole. The first and only prologue in the series that showed the creation of the centuries-old partnership between the families of a French nobleman and an English pirate that had their descendants coming up with this oil smuggling scheme that is found out. While the character development was sparse for returning characters, one-off characters had development put into them—especially Jarvis. If this was written to be a quick page turner it succeeded but given the scattered shot subplots not only in this book but the previous one the well of ideas had run out for the series.
Wild Card is the final book of the Power Plays series, the ending of which was written in a way so that Jerome Preisler could either continue it or not depending on the publisher. While a drastic improvement over the previous book in the series, this book showed that the series did not have enough legs to continue.
December 9, 2025
⭐ A Fittingly Miserable Ending to a Pointless Series
This book is so catastrophically bad that even giving it one star feels dishonest. If Goodreads allowed zero stars, this would earn it effortlessly. Wild Card is the eighth and final entry in a series that should not have survived past book two, and reading it felt like watching a slow motion collapse of every narrative decision the author ever made.
I finished this book only because it was the last in the series and I committed to ending it before the New Year. I read the first one 26 years ago, reread it, and decided against all better judgment to complete the whole run. This final installment rewarded that effort by being incoherent, tedious, structurally broken, and emotionally hollow.
The only characters with any worth are Julia Gordian and Tom Ricci. Julia is the lone compassionate presence in an otherwise emotionally barren world, and Ricci is the tragic discarded hero who saved UpLink and the world countless times only to be thrown aside when it no longer suited Megan Breen or Pete Nimec. Ricci is the only person with loyalty or integrity, and the narrative treats him like an inconvenience. It is astonishing how badly the book and the series mishandles him.
Everything else is a disaster.
The plot with Annie and Pete is forced, cringeworthy, and pointless. No reader alive needed pages about her and her children. The book wastes time on emotional filler no one asked for while refusing to deliver an actual story. I did not understand anything in this book, and I do not think the author did either.
The villains in Trinidad and Tobago barely qualify as characters. There is no threat, no tension, and no motive. We lost the main villain DeVane entirely, and what replaces him is laughably weak. This fits the pattern: at every stage of this series the storytelling becomes worse. Book five descended into nonsense, book six fell apart, book seven collapsed, and book eight is the final insult.
The supposed thriller pacing is nonexistent. The book is a mess of scenes that go nowhere, conversations that achieve nothing, and plotlines that refuse to intersect. It is astounding that anyone signed off on this manuscript. Wild Card reads like a draft that was never revised, never outlined, and never tested for even basic logic.
UpLink as a concept disintegrates completely. The company is portrayed as a global monopoly controlling communications, intelligence, surveillance, energy, and more, yet somehow it has no coherent mission, no moral center, and no narrative purpose. It is unclear how the author thought any of these pieces fit together. Characters vanish, reappear, contribute nothing, and vanish again: Thibodeau, Scull, Norgard, Dan Parker. None of them matter. None of them are resolved.
By the final page, I was not angry anymore. I was numb. This book drained any remaining goodwill I had toward this franchise. It is astonishing in its incompetence, its confusion, and its complete detachment from anything resembling narrative logic.
This is not just a bad book.
It is a failure of storytelling on every level.
A horrendous ending to a horrendous series.
This book is so catastrophically bad that even giving it one star feels dishonest. If Goodreads allowed zero stars, this would earn it effortlessly. Wild Card is the eighth and final entry in a series that should not have survived past book two, and reading it felt like watching a slow motion collapse of every narrative decision the author ever made.
I finished this book only because it was the last in the series and I committed to ending it before the New Year. I read the first one 26 years ago, reread it, and decided against all better judgment to complete the whole run. This final installment rewarded that effort by being incoherent, tedious, structurally broken, and emotionally hollow.
The only characters with any worth are Julia Gordian and Tom Ricci. Julia is the lone compassionate presence in an otherwise emotionally barren world, and Ricci is the tragic discarded hero who saved UpLink and the world countless times only to be thrown aside when it no longer suited Megan Breen or Pete Nimec. Ricci is the only person with loyalty or integrity, and the narrative treats him like an inconvenience. It is astonishing how badly the book and the series mishandles him.
Everything else is a disaster.
The plot with Annie and Pete is forced, cringeworthy, and pointless. No reader alive needed pages about her and her children. The book wastes time on emotional filler no one asked for while refusing to deliver an actual story. I did not understand anything in this book, and I do not think the author did either.
The villains in Trinidad and Tobago barely qualify as characters. There is no threat, no tension, and no motive. We lost the main villain DeVane entirely, and what replaces him is laughably weak. This fits the pattern: at every stage of this series the storytelling becomes worse. Book five descended into nonsense, book six fell apart, book seven collapsed, and book eight is the final insult.
The supposed thriller pacing is nonexistent. The book is a mess of scenes that go nowhere, conversations that achieve nothing, and plotlines that refuse to intersect. It is astounding that anyone signed off on this manuscript. Wild Card reads like a draft that was never revised, never outlined, and never tested for even basic logic.
UpLink as a concept disintegrates completely. The company is portrayed as a global monopoly controlling communications, intelligence, surveillance, energy, and more, yet somehow it has no coherent mission, no moral center, and no narrative purpose. It is unclear how the author thought any of these pieces fit together. Characters vanish, reappear, contribute nothing, and vanish again: Thibodeau, Scull, Norgard, Dan Parker. None of them matter. None of them are resolved.
By the final page, I was not angry anymore. I was numb. This book drained any remaining goodwill I had toward this franchise. It is astonishing in its incompetence, its confusion, and its complete detachment from anything resembling narrative logic.
This is not just a bad book.
It is a failure of storytelling on every level.
A horrendous ending to a horrendous series.
September 10, 2015
This book is entertaining for those who like Tom Clancy type tales.
August 12, 2019
A big fan of Michael Crichton ;the dino guy, the man who created Jurassic Park and i must say, my all-time fave SUSPENSE Surgeon! A friend once told me, if ive fallen in love with Crichton, then it won't be that impossible to swoon over two of the most regal men in the grueling world of suspense fiction and the kings of sci-fi, to name a few in actuality - Tom Clancy & who-in-the-gripping-thrill-world wouldn't recognize DEaVer?! Clancy! for the most ;he's the total evolution of Crichton & Deaver all rolled in one!
So here it goes, for some unbeknownst reason, at first for a span of a few tormenting 5 straight hours with the book having been half-way thru the sh*t i have had to go over the entire thing, to painstakingly start over coz i was having a really hard time trying to recall all the characters - i mean, they're just too much (>.<)?-- all the while what's been revolving inside this tolstoy nuts is WHO the heck is THE WILD CARD? is it a HE? or is it one of the unending snippets of the many different settings in diff location and in a multitude timelines - well i really had to go over the book one more time. So this'll be the realist thing, this time, I did appreciate the story-line and in fact how it's written by Preisler - altho, the fact that the story was an excerpt from Clancy's rogue synopsis i should say Preisler indeed keeping up with the high-level of suspense writing (woHoOO KUDO to the author then, ) anyways, what truly fascinates me is the genealogy behind the present facts. It had to start with some dragging historical background from the very ancient times someplace located in the tropical hemisphere (effin TRINIDAD* - so as they say in the book) 'til the very present and how the latter part depicts the mystery behind the alliance of two congruent parties one the fairly legal Lord Morpaign over the domesticated pirate Baxter until their present days involving the very last of their genealogy, Jean Luc & Reed (i.e. 2006). Now, what actually made it all-the-more enticing to read is the fact that the writer makes you feel entrapped like a world of vantage points in each chapter involving different synopsis at different settings all happening at the same time with the characters being involved ;the writer en-genius to have incorporated in between the chapters Lathrop's cunning move behind the plan while the writer untangling bits & pieces of what's behind everything - tbh for a short-while i was really abashedly caught up with them playing lathrop pretending to trap tom ricci his old-time partner, and so to make the long story short Tom then is revealed to be the wild card! and then i fell for it, (spoiler alert) - Jean Luc for having to have his closet obsession of digging into the history of his family's alliance with someone with the likes of Baxter - at the most rueful moment of their tyranny it dawned on Jean that it's best to end the alliance with the sole object which continued to bind them - that is, indefinitely -- DEATH of Morpaign - (I know! shocking right?) - but then it gave off a different pleasure thinking how you're all too caught up with their historical feud & how it kinda brought a punch to the gut of how Morpaign ended it this way - the thought that between them, i really find him more regal, the sophisticated one, the head of all the decision making & the one who's always in the know-side of the business. - to hell with Baxter & his precious Ivy League degree. Anyhow i'm flagging this off due to spoilers - i sure do hope that everybody else get to enjoy this read as much as those other Tom Clancy originals :) for my fiction cravings satisfaction Deaver's pink book next in line ♥♥♥
So here it goes, for some unbeknownst reason, at first for a span of a few tormenting 5 straight hours with the book having been half-way thru the sh*t i have had to go over the entire thing, to painstakingly start over coz i was having a really hard time trying to recall all the characters - i mean, they're just too much (>.<)?-- all the while what's been revolving inside this tolstoy nuts is WHO the heck is THE WILD CARD? is it a HE? or is it one of the unending snippets of the many different settings in diff location and in a multitude timelines - well i really had to go over the book one more time. So this'll be the realist thing, this time, I did appreciate the story-line and in fact how it's written by Preisler - altho, the fact that the story was an excerpt from Clancy's rogue synopsis i should say Preisler indeed keeping up with the high-level of suspense writing (woHoOO KUDO to the author then, ) anyways, what truly fascinates me is the genealogy behind the present facts. It had to start with some dragging historical background from the very ancient times someplace located in the tropical hemisphere (effin TRINIDAD* - so as they say in the book) 'til the very present and how the latter part depicts the mystery behind the alliance of two congruent parties one the fairly legal Lord Morpaign over the domesticated pirate Baxter until their present days involving the very last of their genealogy, Jean Luc & Reed (i.e. 2006). Now, what actually made it all-the-more enticing to read is the fact that the writer makes you feel entrapped like a world of vantage points in each chapter involving different synopsis at different settings all happening at the same time with the characters being involved ;the writer en-genius to have incorporated in between the chapters Lathrop's cunning move behind the plan while the writer untangling bits & pieces of what's behind everything - tbh for a short-while i was really abashedly caught up with them playing lathrop pretending to trap tom ricci his old-time partner, and so to make the long story short Tom then is revealed to be the wild card! and then i fell for it, (spoiler alert) - Jean Luc for having to have his closet obsession of digging into the history of his family's alliance with someone with the likes of Baxter - at the most rueful moment of their tyranny it dawned on Jean that it's best to end the alliance with the sole object which continued to bind them - that is, indefinitely -- DEATH of Morpaign - (I know! shocking right?) - but then it gave off a different pleasure thinking how you're all too caught up with their historical feud & how it kinda brought a punch to the gut of how Morpaign ended it this way - the thought that between them, i really find him more regal, the sophisticated one, the head of all the decision making & the one who's always in the know-side of the business. - to hell with Baxter & his precious Ivy League degree. Anyhow i'm flagging this off due to spoilers - i sure do hope that everybody else get to enjoy this read as much as those other Tom Clancy originals :) for my fiction cravings satisfaction Deaver's pink book next in line ♥♥♥
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 8, 2022
Too bad the Power Plays series seems to be ending on a meh (weak?) note. There were basically a total of three action scenes, which to be honest is par for the course in PP, but this time the "investigation" part is weak. The literary device used to bookend the novel is nice, though not enough to rescue a book which seemed to have prepped for at least one more in the series. Still okay to read, though not the most proper to end Power Plays.
November 25, 2018
Like all Tom Clancy books this one started with at least 5 stories that don't appear to be related. For example bodies shipped to an airport, a jogger kidnapped, a hero discredited at a high tech company, a gardener from a fancy resort in Trinidad chased with high tech tracking devices, and a chop shop in Baja. But by the end the author Jerome Preisler pulls them all together.
May 10, 2017
Not a great story, there was no character development (not helped by my having not read any other in the series), fairly clunky plot, and little to keep the pages turning. It did all come together at the end, but it did feel a bit weak.
August 2, 2022
Very disappointed. On an island off the coast of Trinidad, a playground for the rich, an investigator finds shady dealings going on. Too many characters, too many switches in locale, need to know stuff from prior book, and leaves too many loose ends.
March 19, 2021
A lot of subplots in the beginning. It takes until the very end to string them all together. Not really my type of book. Probably won’t read another by the author.
April 8, 2021
Again, another typical book by Preisler where there is so much opportunity to be great and yet comes in flat at the end. I am glad the series is over as I don’t think I would have continued on.
Read
February 18, 2024dnf-lost interest
April 16, 2025
More of a man read.....after 100 pgs. I quit
June 4, 2011
* "Wild Card" (#8) refers, I think, to Tom, again in the boonies, on leave from the Yank military spy space agency in disgrace, because he cut corners to quickly rescue the boss's daughter in a previous book. The Power Plays series was created by Tom Clancy and Martin Greenberg, written by Jerome Preisler. I liked settings, a tropical reef and secluded desert. But so many brief plot sequences, I almost gave up. Start with swashbuckling pirates back some generations. A privateer uses excessive (gratuitous?) violence to force a Jamaican smuggler to give up half his profits in return for an expanded market. Annie and Peter ended book 3 with their first date, here they are married, on a trip to Jamaica. She's there to make a baby (gratuitous alert?). He's there to investigate. An officious customs official orders crates opened [exposing gratuitously gory body parts]. A native uses basic survival, on the run from - somebody bad. [Spoilers - The Caribbean's descendant causes the previous mayhem. But a feud between druglord families started in a previous book instigates a side-plot.] A gorgeous in-hibited in-lust student is kidnapped. Tom, hooked up with a stripper (more gratuitous bedplay) and alcohol, his former boss now retired, is convinced to help rescue the hapless maiden by a double-dealer shown taking down one druglord brother's fortress single-handed. [After the rescue, the student keeps crying "I love him" for her betraying boyfriend. Back home, Tom's former boss's daughter comes over for, in effect, a date. I guess they marry and procreate in future books.]
May 23, 2013
very poorly written, not at all up to Tom Clancy's caliber. The characters were all over the board jumping from one plot point to another. It wasn’t until the end when you could see how the story comes together. Using a two page narrative to bring a cohesive ending was far removed from Clancy’s earlier books
July 6, 2016
Bewildered for about two thirds of the book. Jumped about so much it did leave me feeling do I want to persevere. Is this book a part of continuing series as I think the Upload characters may have been previously introduced to readers.
October 24, 2008
This book was terrible. I had absolutely no idea what was going on until the last 50 pages.
May 24, 2011
Genre is Spy Novel
I thought the book was pretty good and was descriptive. I didn't like the story because I have seen a lot of movies and games like it and it gets boring after a while.
I thought the book was pretty good and was descriptive. I didn't like the story because I have seen a lot of movies and games like it and it gets boring after a while.
January 25, 2014
I liked what the back of the book had in store for my next read and the whole oil and gas industry format but i'm in the midst of reading this one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 7, 2016
Fans of Clancy will probably like this entry.
April 8, 2013
Fast paced, many facets, characters good but don't have the usual Clancy depth of development.
August 5, 2014
I finally got around to reading this book that was published in 2004 - I am not sure whether the series continued or not. Hopefully it did because there were still some loose ends with characters
Read
May 19, 2015audio book
June 14, 2011
Horrible....2 plots going on at same time....very confusing....poor finish....very disappointed
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews