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Jack Ryan Universe #25
Power and Empire
A newly belligerent Chinese government leaves US President Jack Ryan with only a few desperate options in this continuation of the #1 New York Times bestselling Tom Clancy series.
Jack Ryan is dealing with an aggresive challenge from the Chinese government. Pawns are being moved around a global chessboard: an attack on an oil platform in Africa, a terrorist strike on an American destroyer and a storm tossed American spy ship that may fall into Chinese hands. It seems that President Zhao is determined to limit Ryan's choices in the upcoming G20 negotiations.
But there are hints that there's even more going on behind the scene. A routine traffic stop in rural Texas leads to a shocking discovery--a link to a Chinese spy who may have intelligence that lays bare an unexpected revelation. John Clark and the members of the Campus are in close pursuit, but can they get the information in time?
Jack Ryan is dealing with an aggresive challenge from the Chinese government. Pawns are being moved around a global chessboard: an attack on an oil platform in Africa, a terrorist strike on an American destroyer and a storm tossed American spy ship that may fall into Chinese hands. It seems that President Zhao is determined to limit Ryan's choices in the upcoming G20 negotiations.
But there are hints that there's even more going on behind the scene. A routine traffic stop in rural Texas leads to a shocking discovery--a link to a Chinese spy who may have intelligence that lays bare an unexpected revelation. John Clark and the members of the Campus are in close pursuit, but can they get the information in time?
737 pages, Paperback
First published November 28, 2017
3439 people are currently reading
3584 people want to read
About the author
Marc Cameron
47 books2,010 followersA native of Texas, Marc Cameron is a retired Chief Deputy US Marshal who spent nearly thirty years in law enforcement. His assignments have taken him from rural Alaska to Manhattan, from Canada to Mexico and points in between. A second degree black belt in jujitsu, he often teaches defensive tactics to other law enforcement agencies and civilian groups. Cameron lives in Alaska with his wife and BMW motorcycle.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 487 reviews
December 10, 2017
READER'S SUBJECTIVE REVIEW WITH PLOT SPOILERS FOLLOWS:
By my count there have been four writers replicating TC in the Clancy Enterprise, and not all of 'em tell a story with the same panache. However, Marc Cameron hit all the right buttons in 'Power and Empire,' and I salute him for transforming the Jack Ryan series in the nick of time. What I thought was a general lack of romantic play in the Series suddenly came to life a few instalments ago when Jack Jr. sorta morphed into Iranian Ysabel Kashani's boyfriend. This was about the same time that Logistics Director and hot-bodied Adara Sherman went through operative apprenticeship and 'blam' she's the live-in with Dom Caruso. So somebody got the message that the Campus wasn't gonna flourish with tough guys alone forever. Now Marc Cameron has figured it out; we don't wanna read about some mano-e-mano struggle, even it it's a good storyline. Why the hell you think James Bond has flourished as an enterprise for six decades? It's because females play key parts in both the good and evil organizations!
In 'Power and Empire,' Cameron introduces us to four hot-bodied, kick-ass female operatives, what I call 'black widows' in my novels, EACH on the protagonist as well as the antagonist sides! Add in the victims of sex slave trading--an aberration before God--and there is a very friendly feel to the web and flow of 'Power and Empire.' So basically Cameron's created the right mix of characters, so all's he needs is a compelling and relevant storyline. He knocks it out of the park.
Now all of my novels occur in the early 1980s, so the KGB and the cartels are the evil being coped with. Now the Cold War ended 26 years ago, so since that time my favorite action-adventure authors have almost singularly focused on the Islamic jihadists as the bad guys. Truthfully, I've grown tired of reading the next and more bizarre storyline of jihadi bedevilment. In spite of the liberal Hillary press' attempts, Putin and the Russians ain't our sworn enemy anymore. Now ISIS ain't giving up, but I'm tired of reading about 'em. So why not focus on the Western Pacific where the true and last communist regimes still plot for supremacy? I know, Cuba's still one too, but with everybody earning the same $200 a month, Raul can't last forever. Anyway, the North Koreans probably do the most sabre rattling, but the People's Republic is where true mysterious mischief becomes believable in a storyline--and Cameron captured it believably in 'Power and Empire.'
The reason I like Cameron's fiction story is that the PRC President Zhao Chengzhi is really a fairly squared away guy trying to overcome and downplay the excesses of his predecessor. Unfortunately his Foreign Minister Li Zhengsheng and PLA Director of Central Security Bureau LGEN Xu Jinlong as well as the PLA Commander want to push the Empire back to its glory days, including taking back Taiwan, proclaiming the South China Sea their backyard pond and generally irritating the US Navy in any means possible. Along the way they employ some fixers from the dark side, and this leads into the prominent sidebar of the sex slave trade in Central America and the border states. Anyway, Zhao knows Li and Xu are conspiring against him, even plotting terror activities to madden US President Jack Ryan sufficiently for him to bow up and strike out at the PRC again. It all comes to a head at a meeting of G20 in Tokyo, where Li's bold plan to assassinate Zhao and Ryan is foiled by the Campus, but Jack Ryan Jr.'s in the crosshairs of danger.
Now to bring it all full circle and leave us feeling good about life, Jack Jr. opts not to return to DC with his Campus mates once they've secured the scene in Tokyo. Nah, Jack Jr.'s a strong heterosexual agent who has to endure the Adara Sherman-Dom Caruso hookup every day of his life. Enter Koanchosa-cho, Japan's Public Security Intelligence Agency, operative Monzaki Yukiko who's also unattached--and the mission's over and time to kick back and relax. He obviously is able to forget they met running through an underground sewer in Buenos, the stink of which he's uncertain he can ever wash off. Nah, they're gonna go get lost hiking up Mount Fuji, or the story would lead us to believe. I musta missed something; what happened to Ysabel?
Get this book, read it and enjoy it. I think you'll agree with me that Marc Cameron stumbled onto the cure for the common action novel. Good going bro.
By my count there have been four writers replicating TC in the Clancy Enterprise, and not all of 'em tell a story with the same panache. However, Marc Cameron hit all the right buttons in 'Power and Empire,' and I salute him for transforming the Jack Ryan series in the nick of time. What I thought was a general lack of romantic play in the Series suddenly came to life a few instalments ago when Jack Jr. sorta morphed into Iranian Ysabel Kashani's boyfriend. This was about the same time that Logistics Director and hot-bodied Adara Sherman went through operative apprenticeship and 'blam' she's the live-in with Dom Caruso. So somebody got the message that the Campus wasn't gonna flourish with tough guys alone forever. Now Marc Cameron has figured it out; we don't wanna read about some mano-e-mano struggle, even it it's a good storyline. Why the hell you think James Bond has flourished as an enterprise for six decades? It's because females play key parts in both the good and evil organizations!
In 'Power and Empire,' Cameron introduces us to four hot-bodied, kick-ass female operatives, what I call 'black widows' in my novels, EACH on the protagonist as well as the antagonist sides! Add in the victims of sex slave trading--an aberration before God--and there is a very friendly feel to the web and flow of 'Power and Empire.' So basically Cameron's created the right mix of characters, so all's he needs is a compelling and relevant storyline. He knocks it out of the park.
Now all of my novels occur in the early 1980s, so the KGB and the cartels are the evil being coped with. Now the Cold War ended 26 years ago, so since that time my favorite action-adventure authors have almost singularly focused on the Islamic jihadists as the bad guys. Truthfully, I've grown tired of reading the next and more bizarre storyline of jihadi bedevilment. In spite of the liberal Hillary press' attempts, Putin and the Russians ain't our sworn enemy anymore. Now ISIS ain't giving up, but I'm tired of reading about 'em. So why not focus on the Western Pacific where the true and last communist regimes still plot for supremacy? I know, Cuba's still one too, but with everybody earning the same $200 a month, Raul can't last forever. Anyway, the North Koreans probably do the most sabre rattling, but the People's Republic is where true mysterious mischief becomes believable in a storyline--and Cameron captured it believably in 'Power and Empire.'
The reason I like Cameron's fiction story is that the PRC President Zhao Chengzhi is really a fairly squared away guy trying to overcome and downplay the excesses of his predecessor. Unfortunately his Foreign Minister Li Zhengsheng and PLA Director of Central Security Bureau LGEN Xu Jinlong as well as the PLA Commander want to push the Empire back to its glory days, including taking back Taiwan, proclaiming the South China Sea their backyard pond and generally irritating the US Navy in any means possible. Along the way they employ some fixers from the dark side, and this leads into the prominent sidebar of the sex slave trade in Central America and the border states. Anyway, Zhao knows Li and Xu are conspiring against him, even plotting terror activities to madden US President Jack Ryan sufficiently for him to bow up and strike out at the PRC again. It all comes to a head at a meeting of G20 in Tokyo, where Li's bold plan to assassinate Zhao and Ryan is foiled by the Campus, but Jack Ryan Jr.'s in the crosshairs of danger.
Now to bring it all full circle and leave us feeling good about life, Jack Jr. opts not to return to DC with his Campus mates once they've secured the scene in Tokyo. Nah, Jack Jr.'s a strong heterosexual agent who has to endure the Adara Sherman-Dom Caruso hookup every day of his life. Enter Koanchosa-cho, Japan's Public Security Intelligence Agency, operative Monzaki Yukiko who's also unattached--and the mission's over and time to kick back and relax. He obviously is able to forget they met running through an underground sewer in Buenos, the stink of which he's uncertain he can ever wash off. Nah, they're gonna go get lost hiking up Mount Fuji, or the story would lead us to believe. I musta missed something; what happened to Ysabel?
Get this book, read it and enjoy it. I think you'll agree with me that Marc Cameron stumbled onto the cure for the common action novel. Good going bro.
July 29, 2021
A zinger of a read. But I do love the Tom Clancy novels. Who also translate to a great film. The Jack Ryan character is so relatable. A great plausible read. Someone in China is staging events to look like China want to go to war with the USA. But to make it look like USA strikes the first blow.
Unputdownable
Unputdownable
August 7, 2018
I was sad that Mark Greaney had left this series having delivered some excellent books. Given the Clancy estate have struggled to find anyone as good as him, I didn’t have overly high hopes for this. But it was better than I expected for most of the book, and Marc Cameron does tick most of the required boxes.
A lot going on in this, China seems to be set on confronting the US and forcing them into action, but the secret Campus team think there may be a little more than the obvious. At the same time, John Clark goes on a side mission to deal with some rather nasty people who are trafficking children.
I thought Mr Cameron got most of this right, especially the balance between ground level intelligence and action and the big picture. Where it lets itself down is that usually all the story threads come together in a powerful and page turning finale. Here it is a bit of a damp squib ending that lacked something. Interesting that of all the story threads, the one featuring an elderly John Clark doing his stuff is the most interesting and thrilling.
So mostly okay, but not quite what it should have been.
A lot going on in this, China seems to be set on confronting the US and forcing them into action, but the secret Campus team think there may be a little more than the obvious. At the same time, John Clark goes on a side mission to deal with some rather nasty people who are trafficking children.
I thought Mr Cameron got most of this right, especially the balance between ground level intelligence and action and the big picture. Where it lets itself down is that usually all the story threads come together in a powerful and page turning finale. Here it is a bit of a damp squib ending that lacked something. Interesting that of all the story threads, the one featuring an elderly John Clark doing his stuff is the most interesting and thrilling.
So mostly okay, but not quite what it should have been.
November 1, 2017
See this review and more at www.TheRealBookSpy.com
When the CGSL Orion, a massive Chinese oil tanker, explodes in a blast of white light while in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, questions quickly rise regarding the ship’s contents.
In Texas, Department of Public Safety trooper Roy Calderon makes what appears to be a routine traffic stop. Instead, the stop turns out to be anything but routine, when a frail young girl was rescued after being held against her will and used in a child sex ring. The feel-good rescue takes a sudden turn when it’s revealed that the girl is in possession of a thumb drive that belonged to Eddie Feng, a Chinese journalist with connections to players on both sides of the law, and the very man whom Jack Ryan Junior and the rest of the Campus operators are busy searching for.
When Feng’s drive shows a connection between him and a payment that was made the same day the CGSL Orion exploded, members of the Campus break into pursuit of the journalist, though their top-secret mission becomes intertwined with the FBI’s own investigation and search for Feng — complicating matters considerably.
As usual, a very hands-on John Clark leads the Campus’ mission with his calm, cool-under-pressure approach. However, the old operative–who is portrayed here much in the same way Clancy wrote him in Without Remorse (1993)–shows on more than one occasion that when the situation calls for it, he can still be extremely efficient and devastatingly lethal in the field.
One of the book’s more colorful scenes involves Clark sneaking into the house of a suspect, only to meet serious resistance from the man’s heavyset girlfriend, who attacks him and attempts to drag him into a pool. Clark, a former Navy SEAL, gives the woman what she wants, and happily takes their wrestling match into the deep end. Later, he quips, “I am old. But an old SEAL still loves the water.” It’s one of many really strong scenes that Cameron has written around Clancy’s best characters, taking full advantage of the deep roster he inherited.
As other seemingly random events occur around the world, President Jack Ryan and his administration start connecting the dots. With the upcoming G20 negotiations just around the corner, it’s obvious that the Chinese president is doing his best to handcuff Ryan and limit his options. While the Campus does their work in the shadows, Ryan must find a way to get ahead of President Zaho before the two countries engage in an all-out war.
Marc Cameron, who has long been one of the thriller genre’s most underrated authors, rises to the challenge of replacing Mark Greaney to continue Tom Clancy’s franchise in high-powered fashion. Going out of his way to alter his own writing style, Cameron does a convincing job adapting to Clancy’s overall style, including how he sets up his plot and creates threads for later on.
For a universe as vast as the one Clancy created, Cameron obviously did his homework. Not only is the plot well-written, but the characters all feel real and authentic, something diehard fans will no doubt appreciate. The Ryan in this book reads very much like the version portrayed by Harrison Ford, coming off as calculated and poised, but with a touch of panache. Always the smartest guy in the room, Cameron’s version of Jack Ryan is true to form, and a ton of fun to read.
When Clark isn’t stealing scenes, Ryan’s new special agent in charge, Gary Montgomery, shines as well. Montgomery and Ryan quickly form a “stellar” relationship, and the new lead Secret Service agent is likely to become a fan-favorite moving forward.
Expectations were high for Marc Cameron’s first Clancy novel, but the veteran author proved to be the right man for the job. Tom Clancy Power and Empire is a terrific, high-concept political thriller written with the same finesse and style that Clancy’s fans have come to expect.
Book Details
Author: Marc Cameron
Series: Jack Ryan Universe #24
Pages: 592 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 0735215898
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Release Date: November 28, 2017
Book Spy Rating: 8.5/10
Order Now: http://amzn.to/2xJDRfe
Praised as “one of today’s finest book reviewers” by New York Times bestselling author Gayle Lynds, Ryan Steck has “quickly established himself as the authority on mysteries and thrillers” (Author A.J. Tata). He currently lives in Southwest Michigan with his wife and their six children.
When the CGSL Orion, a massive Chinese oil tanker, explodes in a blast of white light while in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, questions quickly rise regarding the ship’s contents.
In Texas, Department of Public Safety trooper Roy Calderon makes what appears to be a routine traffic stop. Instead, the stop turns out to be anything but routine, when a frail young girl was rescued after being held against her will and used in a child sex ring. The feel-good rescue takes a sudden turn when it’s revealed that the girl is in possession of a thumb drive that belonged to Eddie Feng, a Chinese journalist with connections to players on both sides of the law, and the very man whom Jack Ryan Junior and the rest of the Campus operators are busy searching for.
When Feng’s drive shows a connection between him and a payment that was made the same day the CGSL Orion exploded, members of the Campus break into pursuit of the journalist, though their top-secret mission becomes intertwined with the FBI’s own investigation and search for Feng — complicating matters considerably.
As usual, a very hands-on John Clark leads the Campus’ mission with his calm, cool-under-pressure approach. However, the old operative–who is portrayed here much in the same way Clancy wrote him in Without Remorse (1993)–shows on more than one occasion that when the situation calls for it, he can still be extremely efficient and devastatingly lethal in the field.
One of the book’s more colorful scenes involves Clark sneaking into the house of a suspect, only to meet serious resistance from the man’s heavyset girlfriend, who attacks him and attempts to drag him into a pool. Clark, a former Navy SEAL, gives the woman what she wants, and happily takes their wrestling match into the deep end. Later, he quips, “I am old. But an old SEAL still loves the water.” It’s one of many really strong scenes that Cameron has written around Clancy’s best characters, taking full advantage of the deep roster he inherited.
As other seemingly random events occur around the world, President Jack Ryan and his administration start connecting the dots. With the upcoming G20 negotiations just around the corner, it’s obvious that the Chinese president is doing his best to handcuff Ryan and limit his options. While the Campus does their work in the shadows, Ryan must find a way to get ahead of President Zaho before the two countries engage in an all-out war.
Marc Cameron, who has long been one of the thriller genre’s most underrated authors, rises to the challenge of replacing Mark Greaney to continue Tom Clancy’s franchise in high-powered fashion. Going out of his way to alter his own writing style, Cameron does a convincing job adapting to Clancy’s overall style, including how he sets up his plot and creates threads for later on.
For a universe as vast as the one Clancy created, Cameron obviously did his homework. Not only is the plot well-written, but the characters all feel real and authentic, something diehard fans will no doubt appreciate. The Ryan in this book reads very much like the version portrayed by Harrison Ford, coming off as calculated and poised, but with a touch of panache. Always the smartest guy in the room, Cameron’s version of Jack Ryan is true to form, and a ton of fun to read.
When Clark isn’t stealing scenes, Ryan’s new special agent in charge, Gary Montgomery, shines as well. Montgomery and Ryan quickly form a “stellar” relationship, and the new lead Secret Service agent is likely to become a fan-favorite moving forward.
Expectations were high for Marc Cameron’s first Clancy novel, but the veteran author proved to be the right man for the job. Tom Clancy Power and Empire is a terrific, high-concept political thriller written with the same finesse and style that Clancy’s fans have come to expect.
Book Details
Author: Marc Cameron
Series: Jack Ryan Universe #24
Pages: 592 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 0735215898
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Release Date: November 28, 2017
Book Spy Rating: 8.5/10
Order Now: http://amzn.to/2xJDRfe
Praised as “one of today’s finest book reviewers” by New York Times bestselling author Gayle Lynds, Ryan Steck has “quickly established himself as the authority on mysteries and thrillers” (Author A.J. Tata). He currently lives in Southwest Michigan with his wife and their six children.
March 21, 2022
A worthy addition to the series
Marc Cameron has proven himself to be a worthy successor to Tom Clancy (R.I.P.) and Mark Greaney as an author in the “Ryanverse,” i.e. the Jack Ryan/The Campus novel series.
A few nitpicks here and there, such as (1) the implausibility of ChiCom PLA officers carrying Brazilian-made Taurus pistols instead of the homegrown standard-issue standard issue Norinco QSZ-92 and (2) the author’s misspelling of the Czech Vz-51 Skorpion machine pistol as the Westernised “Scorpion.” Also, this Kindle Edition has several typos/transcription errors with missing words that makes the affected passages quite confusing.
Those nitpicks and flaws aside,”Power and Empire” remains quite readable and engrossing and keeps the pages turning, as I have come to expect from novels in this series. This time the plot involves a dastardly combination of (1) an internal coup plot in the PRC by mandarins (pun intended) who hope to drive Beijing into a military confrontation with the U.S. and the Ryan Doctrine, and (2) Latino gangs and Chinese triads colluding in a diabolical child sex trafficking scheme. The latter becomes deeply personal for John Clark, as it brings back painful memories of Pam Madden from “Without Remorse.”
Meanwhile, Lisanne Robertson and Bartosz "Midas" Jankowski are welcome additions to the Campus team, and it’s cool to see Adara Sherman getting more directly to involved in the action. And hmmm, could there be a budding romance between Jack Ryan Jr. and lovely (but still tough as nails) Japanese intelligence operative Monzaki “Yuki” Yukiko…?
Marc Cameron has proven himself to be a worthy successor to Tom Clancy (R.I.P.) and Mark Greaney as an author in the “Ryanverse,” i.e. the Jack Ryan/The Campus novel series.
A few nitpicks here and there, such as (1) the implausibility of ChiCom PLA officers carrying Brazilian-made Taurus pistols instead of the homegrown standard-issue standard issue Norinco QSZ-92 and (2) the author’s misspelling of the Czech Vz-51 Skorpion machine pistol as the Westernised “Scorpion.” Also, this Kindle Edition has several typos/transcription errors with missing words that makes the affected passages quite confusing.
Those nitpicks and flaws aside,”Power and Empire” remains quite readable and engrossing and keeps the pages turning, as I have come to expect from novels in this series. This time the plot involves a dastardly combination of (1) an internal coup plot in the PRC by mandarins (pun intended) who hope to drive Beijing into a military confrontation with the U.S. and the Ryan Doctrine, and (2) Latino gangs and Chinese triads colluding in a diabolical child sex trafficking scheme. The latter becomes deeply personal for John Clark, as it brings back painful memories of Pam Madden from “Without Remorse.”
Meanwhile, Lisanne Robertson and Bartosz "Midas" Jankowski are welcome additions to the Campus team, and it’s cool to see Adara Sherman getting more directly to involved in the action. And hmmm, could there be a budding romance between Jack Ryan Jr. and lovely (but still tough as nails) Japanese intelligence operative Monzaki “Yuki” Yukiko…?
January 8, 2018
An average story, about 200 pages too long, with too many diversions and a "rerun" of a very old Clark story. The "conflict" between Zhou and Ryan is weak at best.
This book wasn't as bad as "Point of Contact" (Jack Ryan Universe, #23), but it was a close second.
The publisher will continue to milk this "universe" for all its worth, but it would be a true act of mercy for Tim Clancy's reputation to put this series to an end.
This book wasn't as bad as "Point of Contact" (Jack Ryan Universe, #23), but it was a close second.
The publisher will continue to milk this "universe" for all its worth, but it would be a true act of mercy for Tim Clancy's reputation to put this series to an end.
January 1, 2019
The book started out promising, but it quickly devolved into a mish-mash of multiple plot lines, some of them unnecessary to the central plot. The book ended suddenly without tying up loose ends, a very unsatisfying ending.
The book couldn't decide what it was trying to be, with several different, unrelated plot lines, some of them unnecessary. It's as if the author couldn't decide whether he was writing an international spy story, an American child-trafficking story, a Coast Guard search & rescue story, or a political intrigue story about an internal coup in China.
The main UNNECESSARY plot line was the child-trafficking story. Every few chapters, the scene would switch back to a gruesome story of child sex slavery in America, which had no relation to the main plot about Chinese spies and coup attempts within the Chinese government. If you took out the child-trafficking subplot, it would improve the book, because that subplot was totally unnecessary to the overall plot. It seemed like the author really wanted to write a novel about child sex-trafficking, but his agent told him they wanted a Tom Clancy novel instead, so he said, "Fine, I'll write your darn Tom Clancy novel about Jack Ryan, but I'm going to shoehorn my child sex-trafficking story inside the Tom Clancy novel just because that's what I really want to write." Why not make it two books instead, one about child sex-trafficking (nothing to do with Jack Ryan), and a second book about Jack Ryan?
Furthermore, the main plot (the spy story) suffered from numerous loose ends that were never explained and never tied up in the ending! Such as...
***SPOILER ALERT: LIST OF LOOSE ENDS AND UNNECESSARY SUBPLOTS BELOW***
Why was the Chinese container ship blown up? What purpose did it serve? Why did the bad guys do it?
Were the bad guys planning on blaming the Chinese container ship explosion on the Americans, or on foreign terrorists, or on Taiwan, or on the Chinese premier?
The author never explained, not even in the ending! Why waste so many chapters on writing details of an event that had no consequences that mattered? A few merchant sailors died in a fire, but it didn't cause an international incident, so why did the bad guys do it, what did they hope to accomplish, and what did the author hope to accomplish by wasting so many chapters on an insignificant event? Personally, I'm a U.S. Coast Guard fanboy, having served in the US Coast Guard Auxiliary, so I am happy that the author pointed out that the U.S. Coast Guard does a great job at search and rescue (SAR) operations, but to those who aren't Coast Guard fanboys, this was wasted ink.
Why did the bad guys (in this case, pirates) try (unsuccessfully) to attack a US Navy patrol boat, and why waste a couple chapters on the details? Again, not sufficiently explained, although presumably it was to make the Chinese premier look bad, but it was a whole lot of buildup that ended with no significant action (a couple dead civilians, a couple dead terrorists and one U.S. sailor, but the bad guys accomplished nothing, the good guys accomplished nothing (except rescuing one hostage), so what was the point in writing a detailed account of an insignificant event?)
Why the sub-plot about a small U.S. spy ship caught in a typhoon, and why waste a couple chapters on the details? That was a whole lot of buildup that ended with a whole lot of nothing! This was even more meaningless than the pirate attack on the US Navy ship or the explosion of a Chinese container ship, because this spy ship caught in a typhoon wasn't the actions of terrorism or piracy, nobody died, nobody was captured, so what was the bloody point of wasting so much ink writing a detailed account of a totally insignificant event?
Yes, I get the fact that it mentioned a Chinese admiral reluctant to obey orders of the Chinese premiere, but nothing happened as a result, nobody was killed, nobody was shot at, nothing happened as a result (other than a Chinese admiral getting arrested off-screen).
Why put the child sex-trafficking subplot in the story? Did someone tell the author, "It's a Tom Clancy novel, so you've got to include lots of confusing sub-plots"? Most of us who buy a Tom Clancy novel do it to read an action novel, not a child sex-trafficking novel. There is a market for crime novels about child sex-trafficking, but this subplot was just a distraction from the main plot, which was a spy story of sorts (with a lot of loose ends never tied up).
The above incidents wasted the author's ink, and wasted the time of the reader.
They used up valuable space in the novel that could have been used, SHOULD have been used, to tie together the major plots and then wrap up all the loose ends that the author never wrapped up in the ending.
Character development was lacking, for most of the characters. The characters seemed wooden. They're what's known in writing courses as "flat characters", as they never do anything unexpected. The bad guys commit crimes. The good guys track down the bad guys. Jack Ryan Senior is a US President who listens to what his underlings have to say. The women are all kick-ass hardened agents who can beat up men in a fist fight, but who have a weakness for tall, strong, and handsome American spies. There wasn't much romance, but even the little that there was seemed forced and wooden.
And the ending.... most unsatisfying. No spoilers here, as predictably the good guys win, the bad guys die, and Jack Ryan prevails as always. But the ending never explains why the bad guys did what they did, or what they hoped to accomplish with their feeble attempts to do bad-guy stuff.
Loose ends include: What happened to the Chinese premier? What happened to the traitors in the Chinese government? Did the US and China ever sort out what really happened with the Chinese container ship and why?
Why the devil did the bad guys sink that Chinese container ship, what did they hope to accomplish, what (if anything!) did they actually accomplish, and why was it important enough to waste several chapters of the book on?
You've probably noticed that the loose end that bugs me the most is that Chinese container ship, because it took up so many chapters, and at the end amounted to NOTHING, NOTHING!
Showing the virtues of the U.S. Coast Guard, that's about the only thing those chapters accomplished, but this wasn't supposed to be a US Coast Guard recruitment book; it was supposed to be a Tom Clancy / Jack Ryan action novel!
The book couldn't decide what it was trying to be, with several different, unrelated plot lines, some of them unnecessary. It's as if the author couldn't decide whether he was writing an international spy story, an American child-trafficking story, a Coast Guard search & rescue story, or a political intrigue story about an internal coup in China.
The main UNNECESSARY plot line was the child-trafficking story. Every few chapters, the scene would switch back to a gruesome story of child sex slavery in America, which had no relation to the main plot about Chinese spies and coup attempts within the Chinese government. If you took out the child-trafficking subplot, it would improve the book, because that subplot was totally unnecessary to the overall plot. It seemed like the author really wanted to write a novel about child sex-trafficking, but his agent told him they wanted a Tom Clancy novel instead, so he said, "Fine, I'll write your darn Tom Clancy novel about Jack Ryan, but I'm going to shoehorn my child sex-trafficking story inside the Tom Clancy novel just because that's what I really want to write." Why not make it two books instead, one about child sex-trafficking (nothing to do with Jack Ryan), and a second book about Jack Ryan?
Furthermore, the main plot (the spy story) suffered from numerous loose ends that were never explained and never tied up in the ending! Such as...
***SPOILER ALERT: LIST OF LOOSE ENDS AND UNNECESSARY SUBPLOTS BELOW***
Why was the Chinese container ship blown up? What purpose did it serve? Why did the bad guys do it?
Were the bad guys planning on blaming the Chinese container ship explosion on the Americans, or on foreign terrorists, or on Taiwan, or on the Chinese premier?
The author never explained, not even in the ending! Why waste so many chapters on writing details of an event that had no consequences that mattered? A few merchant sailors died in a fire, but it didn't cause an international incident, so why did the bad guys do it, what did they hope to accomplish, and what did the author hope to accomplish by wasting so many chapters on an insignificant event? Personally, I'm a U.S. Coast Guard fanboy, having served in the US Coast Guard Auxiliary, so I am happy that the author pointed out that the U.S. Coast Guard does a great job at search and rescue (SAR) operations, but to those who aren't Coast Guard fanboys, this was wasted ink.
Why did the bad guys (in this case, pirates) try (unsuccessfully) to attack a US Navy patrol boat, and why waste a couple chapters on the details? Again, not sufficiently explained, although presumably it was to make the Chinese premier look bad, but it was a whole lot of buildup that ended with no significant action (a couple dead civilians, a couple dead terrorists and one U.S. sailor, but the bad guys accomplished nothing, the good guys accomplished nothing (except rescuing one hostage), so what was the point in writing a detailed account of an insignificant event?)
Why the sub-plot about a small U.S. spy ship caught in a typhoon, and why waste a couple chapters on the details? That was a whole lot of buildup that ended with a whole lot of nothing! This was even more meaningless than the pirate attack on the US Navy ship or the explosion of a Chinese container ship, because this spy ship caught in a typhoon wasn't the actions of terrorism or piracy, nobody died, nobody was captured, so what was the bloody point of wasting so much ink writing a detailed account of a totally insignificant event?
Yes, I get the fact that it mentioned a Chinese admiral reluctant to obey orders of the Chinese premiere, but nothing happened as a result, nobody was killed, nobody was shot at, nothing happened as a result (other than a Chinese admiral getting arrested off-screen).
Why put the child sex-trafficking subplot in the story? Did someone tell the author, "It's a Tom Clancy novel, so you've got to include lots of confusing sub-plots"? Most of us who buy a Tom Clancy novel do it to read an action novel, not a child sex-trafficking novel. There is a market for crime novels about child sex-trafficking, but this subplot was just a distraction from the main plot, which was a spy story of sorts (with a lot of loose ends never tied up).
The above incidents wasted the author's ink, and wasted the time of the reader.
They used up valuable space in the novel that could have been used, SHOULD have been used, to tie together the major plots and then wrap up all the loose ends that the author never wrapped up in the ending.
Character development was lacking, for most of the characters. The characters seemed wooden. They're what's known in writing courses as "flat characters", as they never do anything unexpected. The bad guys commit crimes. The good guys track down the bad guys. Jack Ryan Senior is a US President who listens to what his underlings have to say. The women are all kick-ass hardened agents who can beat up men in a fist fight, but who have a weakness for tall, strong, and handsome American spies. There wasn't much romance, but even the little that there was seemed forced and wooden.
And the ending.... most unsatisfying. No spoilers here, as predictably the good guys win, the bad guys die, and Jack Ryan prevails as always. But the ending never explains why the bad guys did what they did, or what they hoped to accomplish with their feeble attempts to do bad-guy stuff.
Loose ends include: What happened to the Chinese premier? What happened to the traitors in the Chinese government? Did the US and China ever sort out what really happened with the Chinese container ship and why?
Why the devil did the bad guys sink that Chinese container ship, what did they hope to accomplish, what (if anything!) did they actually accomplish, and why was it important enough to waste several chapters of the book on?
You've probably noticed that the loose end that bugs me the most is that Chinese container ship, because it took up so many chapters, and at the end amounted to NOTHING, NOTHING!
Showing the virtues of the U.S. Coast Guard, that's about the only thing those chapters accomplished, but this wasn't supposed to be a US Coast Guard recruitment book; it was supposed to be a Tom Clancy / Jack Ryan action novel!
August 1, 2021
This is the best Marc Cameron has done with his Tom Clancy novels. The team chases down cartels that deal with young girls brought into prostitution in Texas and Argentina, and discover a plot to kill President Ryan and the Chinese chairman. Action packed.
August 19, 2022
4 sterren - Nederlandse paperback
Recensie volgt later.
Recensie volgt later.
March 14, 2018
The Ryan-verse works if you accept a few things going in. Jack Ryan's rise from unknown analyst to President, Jack Ryan, Jr serving in a special, off the books intel agency, the existence of said agency, and John Clark still working in the field time to time as he's roughly 70. If you can let those things go, it's a decent series of espionage/adventure/thriller stories.
Now, there are plots within the Chinese government. The Campus, that private intel group, ends up stumbling across the plot somewhat by accident as they run down one of Jack Jr's hunches about a guy who is acting oddly. They also uncover a human trafficker ring specializing in turning young girls into prostitutes and worse. This sends Clark off the deep end and he reverts to the way he was just after Viet Nam as seen in Without Remorse.
They bounce around all over the world, from South American sewers to a high level meeting between the Presidents of the United States and China. It's a decent read with a lot of action, gadgets, and this time around, some all out vigilante action. It's a fun read, nothing earth shaking.
Now, there are plots within the Chinese government. The Campus, that private intel group, ends up stumbling across the plot somewhat by accident as they run down one of Jack Jr's hunches about a guy who is acting oddly. They also uncover a human trafficker ring specializing in turning young girls into prostitutes and worse. This sends Clark off the deep end and he reverts to the way he was just after Viet Nam as seen in Without Remorse.
They bounce around all over the world, from South American sewers to a high level meeting between the Presidents of the United States and China. It's a decent read with a lot of action, gadgets, and this time around, some all out vigilante action. It's a fun read, nothing earth shaking.
November 28, 2017
I have a friend who knows how to get things, so I got an advance copy of Power and Empire a little while before it went on sale. What an awesome book! I was already a fan of Marc Cameron from his Jericho Quinn series, so I was excited when I heard he was writing a Clancy book. He nailed it. This book has all the elements of a great Clancy novel. It's filled with esoteric facts that make you feel like you could run a ship or the White House when you're done reading, but more importantly, the story grabs you and doesn't let go until the last page. And just like in real life, the world is still a dangerous place when it's done, so we can look forward to the next installment. Cameron hit his first Clancy novel out of the park. I hope it's the beginning of a long series.
December 22, 2017
Boring, convoluted, and really choppy continuity. This book could have used some decent editing. It seemed like there were four or five stories going on all at once and for the most part they weren't exciting or particularly captivating.
I keep telling myself not to buy Tom Clancy books because they have become increasingly poor since the very successful Hunt for Red October, and in the end Clancy's writings were so right wing and politicized they weren't worth reading.
Cameron has done a good job of removing the politics from the books but we are left with almost unreadable material.
I keep telling myself not to buy Tom Clancy books because they have become increasingly poor since the very successful Hunt for Red October, and in the end Clancy's writings were so right wing and politicized they weren't worth reading.
Cameron has done a good job of removing the politics from the books but we are left with almost unreadable material.
September 18, 2021
I really like Marc Cameron's work, not only as a "legacy author," carrying on the Tom Clancy Jack Ryan series, but his own work in the Jericho Quinn and Arliss Cutter series...All good stuff!...In "Power and Empire," we have sweeping international thriller encompassing Byzantine Communist Chinese internal intrigue and human trafficking in the United States...All great delicious fun!
December 9, 2017
I miss Tom Clancy.
January 12, 2021
Lots of different stories within the book. Hard to follow but interesting nevertheless. You’d need to read the prior books to understand interactions between actors.
April 11, 2021
Read but forgot to leave a comment. Lots of different "current" issues that make us wonder how this goes on in the world today.
December 11, 2017
The world seems to be shaking from seemingly desperate outbursts of terrorism. Jack
Ryan prepares for a crucial negotiation with President Zhoc's hostile China. But when a
routine traffic stop in rural Texas leads to the discovery of a stolen USB stick it becomes
clear that there is a strong connection between these attacks. With tensions rising a U.S.
spy ship gets caught up in a violent storm and is being pushed into the path of a Chinese
Navy ship with potentially dangerous consequences .As an international summit approaches
the master mind behind this violence remains at large. Jack Ryan has no choice but to face
Zhou. Little does he know that he is walking into the jaws of the dragon. Reading this you
almost believe that Clancy has returned. Marc Cameron writes in his style and this book
shows it. This is book 24 in the Jack Ryan series and I gave it a 4.5
Ryan prepares for a crucial negotiation with President Zhoc's hostile China. But when a
routine traffic stop in rural Texas leads to the discovery of a stolen USB stick it becomes
clear that there is a strong connection between these attacks. With tensions rising a U.S.
spy ship gets caught up in a violent storm and is being pushed into the path of a Chinese
Navy ship with potentially dangerous consequences .As an international summit approaches
the master mind behind this violence remains at large. Jack Ryan has no choice but to face
Zhou. Little does he know that he is walking into the jaws of the dragon. Reading this you
almost believe that Clancy has returned. Marc Cameron writes in his style and this book
shows it. This is book 24 in the Jack Ryan series and I gave it a 4.5
April 15, 2018
Very good read with a few parallel subplots in various spots around the U.S. and Asia.
January 4, 2021
Spellbinding and an excellent read!
December 28, 2017
The Tom Clancy series returns to form with Power and Empire, with espionage, politics and the ongoing threat of world war back on the agenda. A series of events with seemingly no connection triggers a chain of events that takes the Campus team to Texas, Argentina and Japan. An enjoyable read.
December 12, 2017
A new write takes over the Jack Ryan series. Marc Cameron did a good job on his first attempt to carry on the series Tom Clancy made famous. This was what I call a true Jack Ryan novel as it is complex and takes place over multiple continents. For a few years now there have been two releases in the Jack Ryan series. The one in December and a summer thriller that usually covers only one member of the campus. While I like both releases, I tend to favor this December release more. Power and Empire boils down to the relationship the US has with China with some sex traffickers thrown in. Be warned the sex traffickers part of the story is rough and tough to stomach. John Clark takes a more active role in the sex trafficker angle as it hits home with his previous stand alone novel in the Ryan series. This was probably my least favorite part of the book. I get John Clark is a bad ass, but he is almost 70. I don’t need to see him taking out people left and right. That one negative did not take away from the overall excellence of the book though. Jack Ryan is very prevalent in this book as well as Jack, Jr and The Campus. It was a fast read despite being 570 pages (smaller than previous December releases). While a lot was going on, it was pretty easy to follow what was happening. If you have read any of the series, you will love this installment. If you haven’t, it is time to pick it up.
December 9, 2017
The crew is back and Marc Cameron has proven to have the knack for writing in the Tom Clancy Style. This story is a little odd in that it attempts to intertwine child human trafficking with Chinese leadership intrigue. One other odd issue is the timeline which now has John Patrick Ryan as the president for the 22nd year, assuming the 1995 Debt of Honor was his start. Even so, the characters and pace for this story was fun. I give Power and Empire four stars.
April 2, 2019
It was a solid attempt at writing a Clancy book, but it just didn't have the depth and sophistication of a true Clancy novel. Feel like I never understood the villians' plan either. It reads kind of like Cameron just took a high-level outline and wrote it without filling in the details and nuances. The most enjoyable parts for me were some of the John Clark scenes where he "hunts" some bad guys - reminiscent of Without Remorse. Other than that, this one is pretty forgettable.
December 12, 2017
This franchise has lost a lot !
The writing is choppy and overly convoluted ! I’ve been reading “Clancy” since it was published by the Naval Institute ! These plot lines are jerky and out of synch! The Characters still have the prebuilt personae and sort of save the book. Big disappointment!
The writing is choppy and overly convoluted ! I’ve been reading “Clancy” since it was published by the Naval Institute ! These plot lines are jerky and out of synch! The Characters still have the prebuilt personae and sort of save the book. Big disappointment!
September 26, 2019
Of all the Tom Clancy books I've read since his death this one is one of my favorites because it includes a lot of the hallmarks of Clancy's own writing. Even relatively minor characters are fully developed, multiple plot lines of action intertwine, etc.
March 11, 2018
Well conceived but the Ryan series is becoming a bit "formula" and predictable- needs some new twists and imaginative writing. A bit Sino-Narco centric-there are other bigger fish to fry!
July 28, 2018
A bit of a jumbled mess. It was hard to get a sense of where things were going. The conservative politics were a bit more on the nose than normal for the series, too.
December 31, 2018
The story takes a while to pull you in and I think it's a little overboard with all the techno jargon and acronyms (you can take a good thing too far), but overall it's a good Clancy-like story.
December 10, 2019
La Dama del Bosco - per RFS
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L’ultima volta che ho letto un libro di Tom Clancy ero solo una ragazzina. Avevo trovato “Caccia a ottobre rosso” bello ma pesante da leggere. Ora sinceramente non so se il romanzo in questione lo fosse sul serio o se semplicemente non ero pronta io ad approcciarmi a una lettura tanto impegnativa, dal momento che Tom Clancy è un abile narratore di fanta-politica e i suoi libri sono strettamente ambientati nel nostro tempo.
In questa sua ultima opera lo scrittore ci narra di un Jack Ryan invecchiato e diventato Presidente degli Stati Uniti, con un figlio omonimo che invece è un agente operativo sul campo. I problemi per padre e figlio questa volta sembrano essere stati creati dal Presidente Cinese. Quale piano nasconderà quest’ultimo contro gli Stati Uniti?
Come ogni romanzo complesso i personaggi che hanno una sostanziale parte attiva sono parecchi, ma malgrado ci sia un elenco completo ed esauriente di ognuno di loro all’inizio del libro (approvo moltissimo la scelta di inserirlo nelle prime pagine, perché leggendo con l’e-reader, risulta estremamente comodo), e malgrado per motivi familiari abbia dovuto leggere in modo abbastanza discontinuo, i protagonisti sono stati così ben caratterizzati che seguirli durante le loro avventure non mi ha creato alcuna difficoltà. Intendiamoci la descrizione non è assolutamente eccessiva o stereotipata, anzi essi risultano molto realistici nella loro intera dimensione umana. Alcuni sono oggettivamente più approfonditi di altri, ma il quadro d’insieme è perfettamente bilanciato e rende il testo comprensibilissimo e scorrevole.
Un altro pregio di questo romanzo d’avventura è il fatto di essere un enorme puzzle. Succedono tantissimi avvenimenti apparentemente staccati tra loro e non collegabili, ma piano piano che le pagine scorrono ecco apparire il classico filo che ricuce tutta la situazione ingarbugliata in un unico grande piano sovversivo. Anche qua devo dire che non ho faticato a comprendere come ogni fatto finisse collocato perfettamente nella trama, senza dover leggere la spiegazione finale abilmente narrata da un protagonista, che riassume in poche parole tutto l’accaduto per facilitare un lettore più disattento.
Concludo invitandovi a leggere questo libro, se vi piace il genere, rammentandovi che le storie d’amore sono solo appena accennate e che i fatti narrati, anche se in alcuni casi sono cruenti, vengono raccontati con delicatezza, perché non è l’horror che cerca l’autore ma una bella storia di coraggio, onore, amicizia e rispetto verso i valori umani e le persone senza distinzione alcuna.
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L’ultima volta che ho letto un libro di Tom Clancy ero solo una ragazzina. Avevo trovato “Caccia a ottobre rosso” bello ma pesante da leggere. Ora sinceramente non so se il romanzo in questione lo fosse sul serio o se semplicemente non ero pronta io ad approcciarmi a una lettura tanto impegnativa, dal momento che Tom Clancy è un abile narratore di fanta-politica e i suoi libri sono strettamente ambientati nel nostro tempo.
In questa sua ultima opera lo scrittore ci narra di un Jack Ryan invecchiato e diventato Presidente degli Stati Uniti, con un figlio omonimo che invece è un agente operativo sul campo. I problemi per padre e figlio questa volta sembrano essere stati creati dal Presidente Cinese. Quale piano nasconderà quest’ultimo contro gli Stati Uniti?
Come ogni romanzo complesso i personaggi che hanno una sostanziale parte attiva sono parecchi, ma malgrado ci sia un elenco completo ed esauriente di ognuno di loro all’inizio del libro (approvo moltissimo la scelta di inserirlo nelle prime pagine, perché leggendo con l’e-reader, risulta estremamente comodo), e malgrado per motivi familiari abbia dovuto leggere in modo abbastanza discontinuo, i protagonisti sono stati così ben caratterizzati che seguirli durante le loro avventure non mi ha creato alcuna difficoltà. Intendiamoci la descrizione non è assolutamente eccessiva o stereotipata, anzi essi risultano molto realistici nella loro intera dimensione umana. Alcuni sono oggettivamente più approfonditi di altri, ma il quadro d’insieme è perfettamente bilanciato e rende il testo comprensibilissimo e scorrevole.
Un altro pregio di questo romanzo d’avventura è il fatto di essere un enorme puzzle. Succedono tantissimi avvenimenti apparentemente staccati tra loro e non collegabili, ma piano piano che le pagine scorrono ecco apparire il classico filo che ricuce tutta la situazione ingarbugliata in un unico grande piano sovversivo. Anche qua devo dire che non ho faticato a comprendere come ogni fatto finisse collocato perfettamente nella trama, senza dover leggere la spiegazione finale abilmente narrata da un protagonista, che riassume in poche parole tutto l’accaduto per facilitare un lettore più disattento.
Concludo invitandovi a leggere questo libro, se vi piace il genere, rammentandovi che le storie d’amore sono solo appena accennate e che i fatti narrati, anche se in alcuni casi sono cruenti, vengono raccontati con delicatezza, perché non è l’horror che cerca l’autore ma una bella storia di coraggio, onore, amicizia e rispetto verso i valori umani e le persone senza distinzione alcuna.
July 16, 2018
Cameron does well to capture the style and pace of Clancy's own books. Power and Empire is both thrilling and gripping. The plot explores the disturbing issues that are human trafficking and child sexual exploitation, sometimes making for uncomfortable reading. These themes are interwoven with the more usual themes including terror plots and political manoeuvring. I enjoyed the pace of the book, but as I was getting nearer the end of the book I was expecting it to end on a cliffhanger. Instead Cameron increases the pace 10x and wraps up all of the loose ends in just a few chapters. Perhaps Cameron was writing to a deadline as the ending felt rushed and did not do justice to the rest of the book.
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