A new strain of mass destruction. The most dangerous man of this century has employed the most dangerous weapon yet. Criminal mastermind Harlan DeVane has developed- and spread- a deadly, genetically engineered "superbug" resistant to all known cures. A microscopic time bomb, it will lie dormant inside its human hosts until detonated by specific biochemical triggers. DeVane plans to auction off the triggering elements to the highest bidder, but first he'll use them to destroy the greatest threat to his Roger Gordian, head of UpLink Technologies. As Roger falls prey to the disease, his medical and intelligence teams race to find the cause and the cure- because in Roger's fate lies the fate of the world.
Jerome 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.
Bio-Strike earns its single star, and honestly, that might be one star too many. Reading this book felt less like finishing a techno-thriller and more like trudging through the wreckage of a series that no longer understands how to tell a story. I read it only because I committed myself to finishing the Power Plays books, but this fourth installment made that goal feel foolish. The premise should have carried the entire novel. Instead, the book drags itself across the page with no spark, no rhythm, and no sense of direction. It is astonishing how quickly the story abandons its strongest idea and collapses into shapeless, uninspired prose.
The only part of this book that resembles competent writing is the sequence involving Gordian’s collapse and the investigation into Palardy. For a few chapters, there is tension. There is structure. There is a hint of what this novel might have become in capable hands. Then the book forgets what it was doing and sinks back into the same lifeless drift that defines the rest of the narrative. Everything that follows is scattered, repetitive, and painfully dull. It is almost remarkable how little the authors manage to do with such a promising setup.
The plot is a mess. Scenes appear and disappear with no sense of purpose. Threads begin and dissolve without payoff. The story hops between continents not because the plot demands it, but because the writers seem terrified of committing to a single idea for more than a page. The novel constantly pretends that its characters share deep history and meaningful connections, yet nothing in the writing supports that illusion. Every major event depends on coincidence or convenience. Nothing is earned. Nothing is developed. The book moves forward only because it must fill pages.
The character work is even worse. Every person in this story feels like a cardboard cutout dragged from one chapter to the next. They speak in empty lines. They act without motivation. They vanish and reappear with no logic. The most embarrassing example is Alexander Norgard, who disappears for an entire book and then resurfaces near the end for two paragraphs of filler, accomplishing nothing. His presence feels like an afterthought thrown in to remind readers he once existed. The book treats its cast not as human beings but as disposable props that can be pulled off the shelf whenever the plot loses momentum. It is impossible to care about characters who are written with this level of indifference.
The book also reveals how little the authors understand about realism. UpLink behaves like a combination of NASA, the CIA, the FBI, NATO, and a private telecom company, depending on what the plot requires on that page. Corporate security personnel march into hospitals as if they have legal authority. Government agencies hand out access to classified systems like party favors. Executives act like commandos while trained operators stand around waiting for instructions. The entire world of this novel operates on pure fantasy logic, and not the entertaining kind. It feels like the writers have no idea how institutions work, yet insist on writing about them anyway.
By the time the novel reaches its final act, the story has collapsed completely. The bio-weapon plot loses its urgency. The tension evaporates. Scenes drag on with no weight or consequence. Emotional moments appear without any foundation and vanish just as quickly. Even Gordian’s illness, which could have added genuine dramatic impact, is reduced to a brief pause before the book snaps everything back to normal as if nothing happened. The ending tries to be triumphant, but it is empty because the novel has earned none of its emotion.
This book is marginally better than Shadow Watch and roughly on the same miserable level as Ruthless.com. That is not praise. It is a warning. Bio-Strike is a genuinely terrible novel, poorly structured, weakly executed, and shockingly dull. It wastes its premise. It wastes its characters. It wastes the reader’s time. It is not a thriller. It is a slow, unfocused drift through half-formed ideas and manufactured tension. Whatever promise the Power Plays series once had has been buried under this shapeless, tedious installment.
In the already bloody and terror stricken 21st Century, another nightmare of biological warfare is looming thanks to Harlan DeVane who wants to show off his new “product” be getting revenge on UpLink International’s CEO Roger Gordian. Bio-Strike the fourth book in Tom Clancy’s Power Plays series written by Jerome Preisler sees UpLink’s top brass and Sword security force at first figure out what is wrong with their boss then who did it and finally how to cure it all with time slowly whittling down.
Using a genetically modified hantavirus, Harlan DeVane plays to sell the bioweapon to both sides of various conflicts across the globe but wants to take out Roger Gordian for his own pleasure due to the failure of his space terror plan several months before because of UpLink’s Sword security. The Sword operative that was the unknown mole in the previous book is forced to administer the activating viral agent that sends Gordian into intensive care and doctors scrambling to find the cause, while UpLink’s Sword leadership begins their own investigation which eventually leads to the mole who directs them to his boss a southern California drug lord in league with DeVane but suddenly finding himself in escalating situation with a cross border rival. The two drug lords have a meeting where one is killed sooner than his rival wanted, but he then dies via car bomb planted by the free agent informant who set the two drug lords up against one another. The informant then hands over a copy of a conversation between the mole and the drug lord talking about the viral activator to a Sword operative who was scouting the drug lord meet up. Based on the conversation, the Sword team is able to track down DeVane’s lab in Canada and strike at it while getting the medical samples to nullify the bioweapon and save Gordian’s life from the virus. Out tens of millions of dollars and having pissed off his clients, DeVane isn’t a happy man.
Overall the book is good, however in the overall series the story in this book appeared too soon especially after how Shadow Watch ended. DeVane went with being fine with being stopped to wanting to kill Roger Gordian in a span of months, which given that the DeVane arc will continue for several more books it seemed like a big escalation since it’ll calm down over the next few books. One of the annoying things in the book was that the President-elect of Bolivia was assassinated via the virus, but later in the book he was from Brazil and later Peru so a big editor failure. Yet despite issues I talked about earlier in this paragraph, this is probably the best book of the series as the primary plot and the various subplots were well connected resulting in very good quick read that results in time well spent.
Bio-Strike is potentially the best book of the Power Plays series, even though Jerome Preisler had DeVane’s grudge against Gordian go from 1 to 10 just like that was a weird decision it didn’t undermine the overall story. After the let down of the previous installment of the series, this book really picks things up and makes you interested where the series will go from here.
Confusing at first. Many settings and characters but came together at the end. Not as good as other Clancy novels. You can tell that he did not have major hand in this.
Bio-terrorism via genetically altered virus. Good for a microbiology gal like me. Enjoyed this book. Good pace. Kept me interested and "had to read it" every night.
I enjoyed most of the Tom Clancy novels I have read in the past. This is an example of selling his name and using another author. Very disappointed in the story.
The author should have provided a foundation and background to the Uplink Organization before launching into the plot. He should have made an effort to better develop the characters of the main players. His failure to do that results in this novel being disjointed and convoluted especially in the early going. I suspect the majority of those who start this book will simply give up on it by about the half way mark.
A good break of fiction, between other reads. I like the occasional Clancy-style thriller and this filled the bill... introducing some interesting and scary new technology that I know just enough about to believe it "too close for comfort". I'm not a conspiracy theorist but if the mind can conceive it? These guys can write it.
Se questo è il famoso Tom Clancy allora mi pongo serie domande sugli scrittori best-sellers. La trama verte intorno ad un "miracoloso" virus fatto in laboratorio capace, a seconda delle richieste del committente, di infettare chiunque ma di provocare una malattia letale, meglio di un missile intelligente, solo al bersaglio. Sia che il bersaglio voluto sia un mancino, un lentigginoso, un nero, una particolare etnia del Sud Sudan infedele o ... magari uno della val Brembana (quest'ultima l'ho aggiunta io dato che immagino che Clancy non conosca la ridente valle). Al netto che da biologo molecolare (e considerando che non stiamo parlando di un libro centrato sull'universo Avatar) certe fantasie para scientifiche sono pari all'utilizzare una statuetta vudù non tanto per l'idea di un virus selettivo (quasi tutti lo sono) ma per l'aver ipotizzato come fattibile di semplificare un tratto pleiotropico/multifattoriale in un parametro monodimensionale associabile ad un virus (anche oggi nell'era Crispr/cas). A contorno di questa trama abbiamo poi le solite agenzie di sicurezza, il signor Spectre e tutta una serie di interessi e rivincite che immagino facciano parte dell'universo clancyano. Con cadute di credibilità narrativa quando in un capitolo ci viene fatto credere con tutta la dovizia di particolari del caso di essere nel bel mezzo di una operazione segreta ambientata a Green Cape (che immagino sia Capo Verde anche se la descrizione delle milizie e diamanti fa più pensare ad una Liberia o Sierra Leone) salvo poi scoprire nell'ultima riga del capitolo che si trattava di una simulazione/addestramento. Con un paese intero di comparse?!
It's been 15+ years since I last read one of the Power Plays novels. A lot time for the events and characters from past books to be filed away in the grey mists of an aging mind. Not to mention the pile on of 1000+ other books over the years.
So, before I read this book, I went back and listen to the Audiobooks of the previous adventures. And while listening to those books, I was reminded of the events- and how they seems so far fetched and in the future (2000+). Now, they are past history.
However, given the events of last year (AKA- COVID Pandemic Year 2020), this book seems almost timely. A bio-engineered virus, designed to attack a certain target population. Minorities. Those with certain genetic markers for potential illness. Rival gangs. Ethnic groups. IT is almost a chapter from the QANON conspiracy book.
One thing I did with this book is read it in real time. That is, when a certain date was given at the beginning of the chapter, I read that chapter on that date. And then waiting until the next noted date, and read the next chapter that date. Little recommendation - dont do this. It really is a stretch and a test of "I refused to read the next chapter, no matter how much I want to".
Not liking how the beginning started off (as I didn't believe it), I skipped to the middle and also didn't like how that part sounded, either.
I had read Tom Clancy's The Hunt for Red October when I was this little eight-year old girl and had adored it enough that I joined the Russian Club at my undergad school, enjoying the first couple semesters of Russian, in fact (way before the current conflict - I just understand a bit of the language). This book which I picked up from the Little Free Library down the road I couldn't understand so I did not like.
It seemed like it had something to do with a bio-chem threat?
Enjoyable thriller. I thought it was interesting that the author mentioned a few things that seemed almost prescient. For example, the book was published a year before the 11th September 2001 attack on the Twin Towers and the book does mention a major terrorist attack on one of the US's largest cities killing thousands. (That said, there had been an attempt on the twin towers a few years earlier so perhaps that was the spark for that). It's also interesting to me that obviously at the time the writer was trying to show off the best of modern technology - things that are way behind us now in tech terms. He often describes items as 'portable' or 'wearable'. I've not read any other books in this series but it stands alone.
This has been sitting on my bookshelves for many years, and I’m trying to clear them off. Although the bioterrorism angle intrigued me, it was superficial and contained several distracting minor factual errors - beyond the obvious implausibility. The author spent the first half of the book setting up the machismo of the men and his treatment of the female characters was nauseatingly sexist and dismissive. The extensive descriptions of weapons and ammunition were mind numbingly tedious. I am aware that I am not the target demographic for this kind of book, and it was a flat out play to its intended audience. I did finish it, but I skimmed most of it.
In Tom Clancy's Bio-Strike the beginning wasn't very clear and was slightly confusing this book wasn't written as well as the other books in Tom Clancy's collection this book could have used a bit more time being written and planned but i found this book very interesting.But Definitely could have used more time this book also didn't have the same "suspense" as the other books did and didn't really hold you in to read the book. But besides that it's a good book just like all the other books in tom Clancy's collection.That's why i'm giving this book 2.5 star (3 because there isn't 2.5).
This is the 1st book by Jerome Preisler that I have read but I found it a good read. The start of the book was rather long and when the action finally started it was non stop. There were many characters to follow and try and keep separate but the author did a good job of bring along the story and finished quite strong with a lot of action and left the opening for a sequel to this book which is becoming a more common theme in some of today's books I recommend this book to all those looking for a well developed story line that keeps you're attention to the end.
A bit weird reading a story about a genetically altered virus that can be targeted to specific populations in the time of Covid...Covid wasn't a weapon, but it sure got politicized! Clancy's books are always page-turners, and this one didn't disappoint. The only issue I had was with the plausabilty of the mountain scene. The time it would take to prepare and execute an operation like that didn't seem feasible, but I guess that's why it's fiction!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I just loved this story. It certainly boggles my mind to think of the advances that have been made in medical breakthroughs. But to imagine that the information could be put to such disastrous measures. RNA splicing, using Microencapsulated as triggers to awaken the virus that destroys your cellar structure, is beyond belief. I admit I was so intrigued that I really did not want to close the book.
This is by far the best of the Power Plays book to date. The story continues to get better and the development of the characters is increasing. There are times that the details and sub plots take center stage in an unnecessary fashion, but the overall flow of the story is excellent and the way the author brings it all together at the end is wonderful. Onto the next in the series.....
Possibly the worst book to ever have Tom Clancy's name on it. It lacks the complex, thrilling plots of his other books and spends half the book talking about how awesome uplink is. Jerome Preisler, this is trash
Took a while to figure out the backstories of the characters ---price paid by reading #4 in a series.. Although much is resolved by the end of the book, loose ends exist which is frustrating if you don't plan to read later books. Still , an intriguing premise.
This is the first Tom Clancy book I’ve read. While it was interesting, it wasn’t particularly believable in many ways. There was far more detail than I cared to read. I didn’t like it well enough to read another.
Didn't realise this was a book mid way through a series so was confused by all the names being thrown at me. Found on a walk during covid, was in a "free to take" stand outside a house I walked past during lockdown.
The Tom Clancy concept has been adopted well in this book. It starts slowly and author has too many threads open, however it picks up steam half way through and finishes with a bang as all of the threads come together and end with a bang.
As a fan of Tom Clancy and his unique writing style I still find it difficult to read other writer's on Clancy's themes. There is no other writer of this particular genre like Mr Clancy.
It's a good book, well paced and interesting and the detail is quite unnerving in that: it could happen.
There is definitely something missing with this series, but I'm committed at this point to finishing it (mostly because I was handed all of the books).