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Tom Clancy's Op-Center #19

Tom Clancy's Op-Center: God of War

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In Tom Clancy's Op-Center: God of War, after the devastating outbreak of a killer super virus, the Black Wasp Team must prevent America's enemies from gaining access to the most dangerous weapon the world has ever seen.



The passengers and crew on an Airbus en route to Australia suddenly begin coughing up blood and hemorrhaging violently as the plane plunges to the ground. There are no survivors.

A luxury yacht in the South Indian Sea blows up, and a lone woman escapes the contagion that has inexplicably killed everyone else on the boat.

A helicopter whose occupants have been stricken by an unknown illness crashes into a bridge in South Africa, killing motorists and pedestrians.

The world is facing a devastating bio-terror event, and a game of brinksmanship gets underway as the major powers jockey for position: China sends a naval flotilla to seek the source of the plague and find a way to weaponize it, while Russia maneuvers quietly on the sidelines to seize the deadly prize in its quest to regain an empire. Back in Washington D.C., Chase Williams and his top-secret Black Wasp special ops team must find out who is behind these deadly attacks before war is unleashed--and millions of innocent lives are lost.

400 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 26, 2020

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Jeff Rovin

242 books224 followers

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5 stars
218 (29%)
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231 (31%)
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198 (26%)
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68 (9%)
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19 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews
Profile Image for Joseph.
732 reviews58 followers
October 28, 2020
A real page turner. The story line focuses on a bio-weapon that gets unintentionally released into the air. While the narrative is gruesome in places, it is still well balanced and evenly paced. The author introduces us to a new crisis resolution team and shows they mean business. Overall this book fits well into the Op Center franchise. A very suspenseful read.
Profile Image for patrick Lorelli.
3,756 reviews37 followers
April 15, 2020
It has been many years since I have read a Tom Clancy book. Now this one is similar to what we are going through right now. A virus is being spread, or plague with a stay at home orders and of course there is someone is going to get to the bottom of this. At times this was fast-paced high drama. Other times I found it slow, maybe it was me I don’t know. What I do know was that reading this book was or felt a lot like what we are going through now or at least that is how I took it. With that, it was at times like living the story on the pages. Though I could find fault with some of the book I think because the story is so close to what is going on now it only enhances the story. Overall a good. I received this book from Netgalley. com I gave it 4 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com
Profile Image for Gloria ~ mzglorybe.
1,216 reviews134 followers
July 27, 2020
3+ is my rating
This has taken me a long time to finish, as I’ve had to put it down here and there. The topic is bio-terrorism, and it was too believable and frightening during this Covid crisis we are in. Probably not the best time to be reading this but I ordered the ARC as my hubby wants to read it next. I generally like political thrillers, such as those by Vince Flynn featuring Mitch Rapp, and others.

This started out well, with the various countries and what they were each experiencing with this virus. The Chinese are the “bad guys” here. A dark ops team for the U.S. known as the Black Wasps are rushing to get control of this killer virus before they do and without provoking the wrath of other countries, such as Russia. It did have some very tense moments where you find yourself holding your breath. However, about midway it got bogged down for me, and hard to follow what with the technical jargon, dense military prose and the like. I found myself skimming through it.

Don’t expect Tom Clancy, but it’s not a bad job at all… maybe it’s just me being tired of all we are going through. Gladly passing it on to hubby who will probably like it more.

Get your copy at your favorite retailer on August 4, 2020. Thanks to the following for my preview copy and allowing me to post my honest opinion.
#NetGalley #StMartinsPress #Jeff Rovin
Profile Image for Mark.
2,509 reviews31 followers
September 8, 2020
Though the "Op-Center" series isn't my favorite Tom Clancy legacy, but it still is a classic Geo-Political Techno-Thriller...I much prefer the "Ryan Universe" series, but it still has that Tom Clancy aura...In this one, an incredibly virulent toxin that kills almost instantly spills out of legitimate medical research on South Africa...The race by all the Super-powers begins to secure this toxin for weaponization...Okay Read!!!
Profile Image for Jay Pruitt.
222 reviews19 followers
May 15, 2021
Fast-paced action novel about trying to stop the weaponizing of a killer virus (sound familiar?). Buried deep in the "supposedly" protective isolation of the subantarctic is the deadliest of man's creation. Now discovered, the good guys want to keep it out of the hands of the bad guys.

Although the overarching storyline is thoughtful and compelling, the writing jumps around a bit too much for my tastes. Hard to keep track of the players and their individual actions/motivations.
Profile Image for Kate.
1,632 reviews395 followers
March 7, 2020
Perhaps not the best of times to be reading a novel about a killer virus on the loose, especially when I'm unwell. A great premise and a very exciting and promising beginning but, for me, this tailed off and the book became bogged down in jargon, dense military prose and impenetrable characterisation. So not for me.
129 reviews1 follower
March 3, 2020
First I want to thank the publisher for making it possible for me to read this, the most recent of the “Op Center” series. Even though Tom Clancy died in 2013, his novels continue. Several ghost writers write the novels. “God of War” was written by Jeff Rovin and follows the Black Wasp dark ops team as they rush to the southern tip of South Africa to try to gain control over a super bug. The “bad guys” in this story are the Chinese, and the Black Wasp team must beat them to the super bug and not provoke an international incident. This story was made more interesting by the current corona virus panic. For me, the story was a little hard to get into. It did get more interesting toward the end.
In the Tom Clancy books, give me Jack Ryan and the Campus group any day.
Profile Image for Timothy Neesam.
533 reviews10 followers
September 21, 2020
A deadly super virus is released on a small South African island, prompting multiple deaths and an international chase involving the Chinese, American and South African armed forces, as well as bio-terrorist baddies.

This is the 19th book in the 'Op Center' series, but my first dip into the series. The book isn't as long or in-depth as, say, the Tom Clancy Jack Ryan series, and it's a straight-ahead good-guys vs bad guys storyline with a tight timeline. It's reasonably well-orchestrated but doesn't offer many surprises, though having the U.S. face off against China isn't new, the South African military and police force perspective was interesting.

Sorry if it seems like I'm damning this book with faint praise. It's a reasonable read but, well, there are a lot of books out there that cover similar ground with stronger characters and/or better plot.
129 reviews1 follower
March 3, 2020
First I want to thank the publisher for making it possible for me to read this, the most recent of the “Op Center” series. Even though Tom Clancy died in 2013, his novels continue. Several ghost writers write the novels. “God of War” was written by Jeff Rovin and follows the Black Wasp dark ops team as they rush to the southern tip of South Africa to try to gain control over a super bug. The “bad guys” in this story are the Chinese, and the Black Wasp team must beat them to the super bug and not provoke an international incident. This story was made more interesting by the current corona virus panic. For me, the story was a little hard to get into. It did get more interesting toward the end.
In the Tom Clancy books, give me Jack Ryan and the Campus group any day.
439 reviews5 followers
February 29, 2020
I have read the previous OpCenter book and was excited when this one became available. I was not as impressed. I thought the plot was good, but had a hard time following who was who and what each group actually want to do. Doesn't usually take me long to get into a book like this, and I had a hard time with it holding my interest. I did finish the book and felt there were definite points in the book that intrigued me, so not a total disappointment.
I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Profile Image for Jason Wrench.
Author 29 books34 followers
February 9, 2020
First, I want to thank the publisher for giving me the opportunity to review Tom Clancy's Op-Center: God of War before it was released. Although I am thankful to the publisher, the following review is not influenced by their generosity.

Second, I've been familiar with the work of Tom Clancy for a long time, but I've never sat down and read one of the novels. As such, I'm diving into the middle of the Op-Center series without having any prior background to reading Tom Clancy or this series. As a new reader, I was able to follow along with the characters pretty well even though I didn't have the previous background information to dive into this series. For that reason, I think this novel would be a good entryway into the world of Tom Clancy for those who have never read one of his books. My only concern is that there is a lack of character development in some cases, but I'm betting that's because I was lacking that previous reading experience.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I think the book read at a very fast rate. The chapters were fairly short, so reading a quick chapter was very easy to do. I don't think this book is difficult to read at all and the vocabulary level of this book should be OK for most adult readers.

As for the plot of the book itself, it's a fairly generic plot. Biocontagion gets created, biocontagion gets accidentally released and kills people, all of the superpowers try to get the biocontagion, and the US saves the day. In that respect, I didn't think this novel was overwhelmingly ground-breaking, but it was a fun read. If you like action and a little bit of suspense, then this novel will be a fun evening or even a beach read.
Profile Image for Michael .
339 reviews42 followers
August 24, 2025
This novel is a high octane thriller that focuses on the US Government's Defense Logistics Agency, a division of the Department of Defense. Or more specifically, an extremely well trained, lethal, two-person team linked to the National Crisis Management Center, informally known as Op-Center. For a variety of reasons, they avoid killing the enemy's combatants, when possible.

The story mostly takes place in South Africa and on two South African sub Antarctica islands. The narrative demonstrates the advantages of highly trained small teams compared to an equipment-burdened, conventional military platoon.

Very entertaining and highly recommended.
1,330 reviews44 followers
February 17, 2020
A generic plot with lots of technical jargon and lots of action could add up to an excellent novel, but that wasn’t the case as this book seemed re-worked. Maybe we should stop trying to find Tom Clancy in this series. I received an advanced digital copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
203 reviews10 followers
February 7, 2020
I have read a number of the Op Center books and this one just didn't work for me. I really liked the premise of this incredibly virulent toxin that kills almost instantly and the race to secure this toxin for weaponizing but the action didn't really work for me. It was well written and had strong characters but I couldn't really buy into the whole story line.
Thank you Netgalley, by Jeff Rovin, St. Martin's Press and St. Martin's Griffin
Profile Image for John Purvis.
1,358 reviews23 followers
March 31, 2020
Author Jeff Rovin published the novel “Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: God of War” in 2020 (May). He has published more than 40 novels as well as other works. This is the 19th book in the Op-Center series created by Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik.

I received an ARC of this novel through https://www.netgalley.com in return for a fair and honest review. I categorize this novel as ‘R’ because it contains scenes of Violence. There is a mysterious outbreak of a fatal biological agent in Antarctic waters. The Black Wasp Team is called back to action.
An Australian bound airliner crashes after the rapid infection of all passengers and crew. A private yacht explodes in the South Indian Sea. A helicopter crashes on a South Africa bridge.

The years of apartheid in South Africa spawned many secret projects. Among these is the discovery of a lethal biological agent. The few who knew about it sought to hide it away. They thought it would be safe. They hid it on the frozen shore of a protected island the government-controlled. Unfortunately unlawful digging on the island released the agent.

Soon there is a Chinese vessel investigating the island. The US must find the source of the outbreak and keep it from falling into the wrong hands. Dispatching the Black Wasp Team to find the source of the contagion is the US response. They must find the source and make sure that no other country gets it.

I enjoyed the 8.5 hours I spent reading this 352-page thriller. This is the second novel in the Black Wasp subsidies. I read the first “Tom Clancys Op-Center: Sting of the Wasp” and liked it. This novel is readable as a stand-alone book, but it would be best to read ‘Sting of the Wasp’ first. The Black Wasp Team is an odd collection of four characters. It is not the conventional Special Ops Team. The cover art is OK, though it is not tightly tied to the story. I give this novel a 3.8 (Rounded up to a 4) out of 5.

You can access more of my book reviews on my Blog ( https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/).
Profile Image for Gloria ~ mzglorybe.
1,216 reviews134 followers
July 24, 2020
3+ is my rating
This seemed to take me a long time to finish, as I’ve had to put it down from time to time. The topic is bio-terrorism, and it was too believable and frightening during this Covid crisis we are in. Probably not the best time to be reading this but I ordered the ARC as my hubby wants to read it next. I generally like political thrillers, such as those by Vince Flynn featuring Mitch Rapp, and others.

This started out well, with the various countries and what they were each experiencing with this killer super virus. The Chinese are the “bad guys” here. A dark ops team for the U.S. known as the Black Wasps are rushing to get control of this bad virus before they do and without provoking the wrath of other countries, such as Russia. It did have some very tense moments where you find yourself holding your breath. However, about midway it got bogged down for me, and hard to follow what with the technical jargon, dense military prose and the like. I found myself skimming through it.

Don’t expect Tom Clancy, but it’s not a bad job at all… guys will like it, probably some gals too. Maybe it’s just me being tired of all we are going through. Gladly passing it on to hubby who will probably like it more.

Get your copy at your favorite retailer on August 4, 2020. Thanks to the following for my preview copy and for allowing me to post my honest opinion.
#NetGalley #StMartinsPress. #Jeff Rovin
Profile Image for SteVen Hendricks.
691 reviews32 followers
May 26, 2023
Book Review – Tom Clancy’s Op Center: God of War – Jeff Rovin
In “Tom Clancy's Op-Center: God of War,” the Black Wasp special ops team - must prevent ‘Chinese villains’ from gaining access to a dangerous and devastating bio-terror weapon. Though not my favorite Tom Clancy series, Op-Center books are still classic geo-political, techno-thrillers – especially the Black Wasp special ops team that I enjoy reading. I do prefer the "Ryan Universe" and Jack Ryan Jr. series better, but Op-Center reads by author Jeff Rovin aren’t too bad. A fast-paced action techno military thriller, Op-Center God of War was a fair read. It’s a basic tale about the good guys racing to keep a weaponized virus out of the hands of the bad guys and provoking an international incident. Although compelling in its plot, the storyline jumped around a bit and the characters were too plentiful to keep track of and thus making them not well developed. The narrative did have some suspenseful and tense moments, but it did get bogged down into the typical Clancy technical jargon and military prose for a while. Not overly exciting but still exciting enough to appreciate the gallantry of the Black Wasp team, Op-Center God of War was a reasonable and worthwhile read. In the future, I plan to read only those Op-Center books that incorporate the Black Wasp special ops team. They remind me a lot of Clancy’s ‘Rainbow Six’ operators and ‘The Campus’ special ops operatives…
1,730 reviews13 followers
May 16, 2020
I received this book through NetGalley.

This story has the team identified as "Black Wasp" travel to South Africa to obtain a sample of the biological agent that caused an airline to crash. Their objective is to avoid attention as well. At the same time that the team is in route, a Chinese vessel enters the area to do the same thing. They have made landfall and captured the radio site where a group of South Africans maintained a presence. Two of this group had traveled to investigate the site and the pilot was overcome by the biological agent and made an emergency landing.

Once the Black Wasp team landed, 2 members went to meet with officials while the other 2 proceeded to the site to complete the mission and prevent the Chinese from obtaining the agent. Unbeknownst to the team, another group had visited the site earlier and through their sampling they wound up releasing the biological agent. They were able to obtain 3 samples and while transporting it back, all but one of the group were killed by the agent. The individual who had survived, gave two of the samples to her boss and kept one. He in turn, let the agent loose in East London town killing several people. The two individuals who went to meet with the officials now had to handle this situation as well.

The amount of action and the way the story ended definitely make this book worth reading.
Profile Image for MARK..
42 reviews9 followers
November 10, 2020
I read the original series of OP-Center, some of them to my regret. I thought I'd give the new line a chance. The first five books were not bad.decent stories, but just maybe too many Characters. So now they changed the dynamic of the organization, as an "experimental" new team. A special ops team that consists of a retired Admiral, who has no background in special operations, an Army JAG lawyer with no combat experience, the teams "conscience "and legal advisor. A Marine weapons expert, who for all his knowledge and experience is still a Lance Corporal(?), and a female Chinese -American army officer, a martial arts expert, joined the military,but disdains firearms(?), doesn't carry one(?), and choses to engage solely in hand to hand combat.
A regular female "Kwai-Chang Caine".
I realize you have to suspend portions of reality for fiction, but that's beyond absurd.
Seals,Delta, and MARSOC spend most of their training time SHOOTING. That's why Special Operators are called "Shooters". No one in their right mind wants to go hand to hand with an enemy, when they can put the enemy down from distance, Karate master or not. It just makes no sense.
But of course, the story is manipulated so she can do just that. Doing a disservice to an otherwise interesting character.
Hopefully the next book is better.
286 reviews
June 17, 2020
In keeping with the Tom Clancy tradition, this novel is full of intrigue, weaponry, and political foes. I enjoyed the suspense as the story flipped between characters and settings. A biochemical hazard used to potentially threaten the world is certainly a timely topic, not hard to envision. For the most part, I enjoyed reading, wondering what would happen next, hesitant to put down the book. There was more information about weapons than was of interest to me, but if you want to know details of the types of guns being used, you'll find it. I read an Advanced Reader Copy so some of the logistical issues I found may have been corrected in the final version. One character aged from 25 to 27 in one day. Another character knew about three canisters instead of two, even though the third was supposed to be a secret from him. These inconsistencies are minor to the story, but they were noticeable to me.
Profile Image for Nikki Brooks.
3,551 reviews52 followers
March 20, 2020
What caused an airliner to crash? Was it a missile, human error, terrorist activities, or something else. Try a super virus of an extremely toxic variety. Antarctica, South Africa and the USA are the stages for this fabulous thriller!

Black Wasp may be the secret weapon of the outgoing President but his successor may just have as much need of their talents.

I read this as the COVID-19 virus swept over the world - it was like fact meeting fiction head on. That said this was a roller-coaster to action, spread over a timeframe of only a few days. All the usual suspects are standing in the wings: China, Russia, South Africa and the USA itself.

It's been a while since I read an Op Center book but I feel a tad nostalgic and I think I'll use my self isolation time for a revisit!
Profile Image for Gosia.
167 reviews5 followers
June 20, 2020
This book was not as good as I've expected. The plot was good, short chapters, fast reading, but somehow it was hard to be engaged throughout the book the entire time.

The story starts with missing of South African airliner. Before air bus crushed, people on the plain were coughing and throwing up blood, and chocking. Everybody were killed in a minutes. Shortly after, the same incident happened to the people on the yacht. However, there was one survivor, Katinka Kettle, and she knew where the problem came from. She has a sample of it.

Chase Williams and Black Wasp are investigating what happened. Whatever happened, it killed many people very fast.

Huge thank you to Goodreads Giveaway and St. Martin’s Press for sending this book my way.
Profile Image for Maria Beltrami.
Author 52 books73 followers
September 14, 2023
The premise of this volume is quite traditional for the genre: classic supervirus that you don't know where it comes from, but everyone wants. The virtuous to get it out of the way for good, the less virtuous to make it a weapon.
The virtuous are obviously Americans, members of the fictitious operations centre that gives the series its title. The less virtuous, of course, everyone else, particularly the Chinese. Apart from being fast-paced and quite entertaining, the novel has little merit. Too many stereotypes and too many (missed) political messages. It has to be said that Tom Clancy has taken ghost writing to a higher level.
Profile Image for Craig Pearson.
442 reviews11 followers
May 4, 2020
Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. Ah, for the days of Tom Clancy written works. This is not up to the standards we have gotten to enjoy from Clancy. Seeing his name on the cover does not make it a good read. The whole scenario is pretty far fetched, not unusual in these types of stories, but not tied together very well. The whole South Africa situation is murky and the process of hiding and finding the disease on the island is hard to follow. Not a page turner.
Profile Image for Denice Langley.
4,794 reviews45 followers
May 28, 2020
When an unknown virus starts a series of deaths in far flung areas, the scene is set for an action/ tension filled thriller. As The Black Wasps deploy to suspected hot spots, they must contend with foreign nationals seeking the same information they are. With a well defined cast of characters willing to give their lives to save the United States, GOD OF WAR sets them in a series of events in some very dangerous countries. No spoilers, they ultimately save the day. Some of the situations in this story seem a little too close to current events for comfort....read at your own risk!!!!
178 reviews1 follower
September 8, 2020
I have read the rest of the books in this restarted series. However, I found this one lacking from the others. There was less action in the book but that didn't make it necessarily bad. I just am having a hard time with the last 2 books and the change of the characters. The chemistry of the team feels off and they appear to be together more for their unique skills sets than a common purpose. Perhaps future novels will build a bit more interplay between them and give them more of a team cohesiveness.
625 reviews2 followers
May 31, 2021
Another entry in the Op Center series. Not a bad book, but I miss the old days with a larger team running around and doing stuff. With this much smaller crowd, there are less characters to tell the story and, to be honest, the story suffers for it. The action flits around a bit, then the story is resolved. Maybe I'm just getting cynical in my old age, or I'm starting to hold authors more to account to give me a good story for my valuable time and money.

Overall, it was a good time-waster kind of novel. But it won't stay on my keeper shelf, either. Worth the time spent reading.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews

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