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Tom Clancy's Power Plays #2
Ruthless.com
Encryption technology keeps the codes for the world's security and communication systems top secret. Deregulating this state-of-the-art technology for export could put a back-door key in the pockets of spies and terrorists around the world. So when American businessman Roger Gordian refuses to put his sophisticated encryption program on the market, he finds his company the object of a corporate takeover--and to say it's hostile doesn't even come close.Only Gordian stands between the nation's military software and political extremists who want to put the leadership of the free world out of business--for good...
353 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1998
90 people are currently reading
1911 people want to read
About the author
Jerome Preisler
64 books109 followersJerome Preisler is the prolific author of almost forty books of fiction and narrative nonfiction, including all eight novels in the New York Times bestselling TOM CLANCY'S POWER PLAYS series.
His latest book is NET FORCE:DARK WEB (November 2019), the first novel in a relaunch of the New York Times bestselling series co-created by Tom Clancy. Forthcoming in May 2020 is the enovella NET FORCE: EYE OF THE DRONE.
Among Jerome's recent works of narrative history are CODE NAME CAESAR: The Secret Hunt for U-boat 864 During World War Two, and FIRST TO JUMP: How the Band of Brothers Was Aided by the Brave Paratroopers of Pathfinders Company. His next book of nonfiction, CIVIL WAR COMMANDO: William Cushing's Daring Raid to Sink the Invincible Ironclad C.S.S. Albemarle,will be published by Regnery Books in October 2020.
Jerome lives in New York City and coastal Maine.
His latest book is NET FORCE:DARK WEB (November 2019), the first novel in a relaunch of the New York Times bestselling series co-created by Tom Clancy. Forthcoming in May 2020 is the enovella NET FORCE: EYE OF THE DRONE.
Among Jerome's recent works of narrative history are CODE NAME CAESAR: The Secret Hunt for U-boat 864 During World War Two, and FIRST TO JUMP: How the Band of Brothers Was Aided by the Brave Paratroopers of Pathfinders Company. His next book of nonfiction, CIVIL WAR COMMANDO: William Cushing's Daring Raid to Sink the Invincible Ironclad C.S.S. Albemarle,will be published by Regnery Books in October 2020.
Jerome lives in New York City and coastal Maine.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews
January 17, 2020
What I thought was going to be my first Tom Clancy turns out to be the second in a series created by Tom Clancy - and written by Jerome Preisler... and it all just went downhill from there!
.
It takes a special kind of book to get One Star from me; and apparently this such a book! Thriller? Apparently so. 100% not my cup of tea, and I suspect if I read this in the 2020s it wold have quickly joined by DNF shelf, back in 2003, I was more generous with my time!
.
It takes a special kind of book to get One Star from me; and apparently this such a book! Thriller? Apparently so. 100% not my cup of tea, and I suspect if I read this in the 2020s it wold have quickly joined by DNF shelf, back in 2003, I was more generous with my time!
June 17, 2019
The new millennium started with a new kind of terrorism and now a new kind of security threat not only endangers national security but also corporations. ruthless.com, the second book in Tom Clancy’s Power Plays, written by Jerome Preisler finds Roger Gordian’s UpLink International under pressure of a hostile takeover from a longtime rival while half a world away his security team stumbles onto evidence of a union of drug dealers, corrupt politicians, and Gordian’s own rival to shock the world.
Marcus Caine’s Monolith Technologies is attempting a hostile takeover of Roger Gordian’s UpLink International thanks to a secret friendship with a longtime Wall Street expert undermining UpLink on television and newsprint while battling Gordian on encryption deregulation in the media and Congress. Half a world away in Singapore, Gordian’s employee Max Blackburn goes to met his girlfriend who works for Monolith’s Singapore division and who he convinced to spy on her employer, finding evidence of Caine’s illegal activities. However, Caine and his East Asian associates found out and attempt to kidnap both her and Max but only succeed in getting Max which leads to his death. The disappearance of Max gets his boss Peter Nimec anxious who has to tell Gordian, who doesn’t condone industrial spying, before heading to Singapore to find out what happen. Nimec saves Max’s girlfriend from the thugs looking for her and gets the information she stole while Gordian upsets Caine’s takeover bid after surviving a contract killing. Meanwhile UpLink security apprehends two mafia members attempting to steal encryption keycodes for a US nuclear submarine from a key-bank facility, which gets the Malay military to back up a similar facility from attack by rogue Indonesian military forces looking for codes for the same US nuclear submarine that has the US President and other regional leaders on it. In the aftermath of the failed terrorist attack, Caine has a mafia gunman kill him while Nimec gets revenge for Max on the man who killed him.
While ruthless.com is based on a computer game like Politika, the story elements Preisler was given to work with resulted in a better-quality story in narrative flow and how the various subplots interlinked with one another. The decision by Preisler to nix the Gordian separation/divorce subplot from the previous book was a massive improvement allowing the businessman and technologically thinking Gordian to come out more while the attempt on his life also allowed the reader to get a better insight into how he thinks. Another strong point was Preisler’s giving the various antagonists some buildup early to give them gravitas, which means when the protagonists go up against them later in the story there’s importance to the confrontation in whichever way it happens. The only downside was that Peter Nimec comes in relatively late in the book, especially if memory serves, he becomes the main action guy as the series progresses.
ruthless.com is a solid follow up installment in the Power Plays series that improves where the first book faltered. Jerome Preisler writes a nice mixture of business intrigue and international terrorism plotting that keeps you looking forward to seeing what happens.
Marcus Caine’s Monolith Technologies is attempting a hostile takeover of Roger Gordian’s UpLink International thanks to a secret friendship with a longtime Wall Street expert undermining UpLink on television and newsprint while battling Gordian on encryption deregulation in the media and Congress. Half a world away in Singapore, Gordian’s employee Max Blackburn goes to met his girlfriend who works for Monolith’s Singapore division and who he convinced to spy on her employer, finding evidence of Caine’s illegal activities. However, Caine and his East Asian associates found out and attempt to kidnap both her and Max but only succeed in getting Max which leads to his death. The disappearance of Max gets his boss Peter Nimec anxious who has to tell Gordian, who doesn’t condone industrial spying, before heading to Singapore to find out what happen. Nimec saves Max’s girlfriend from the thugs looking for her and gets the information she stole while Gordian upsets Caine’s takeover bid after surviving a contract killing. Meanwhile UpLink security apprehends two mafia members attempting to steal encryption keycodes for a US nuclear submarine from a key-bank facility, which gets the Malay military to back up a similar facility from attack by rogue Indonesian military forces looking for codes for the same US nuclear submarine that has the US President and other regional leaders on it. In the aftermath of the failed terrorist attack, Caine has a mafia gunman kill him while Nimec gets revenge for Max on the man who killed him.
While ruthless.com is based on a computer game like Politika, the story elements Preisler was given to work with resulted in a better-quality story in narrative flow and how the various subplots interlinked with one another. The decision by Preisler to nix the Gordian separation/divorce subplot from the previous book was a massive improvement allowing the businessman and technologically thinking Gordian to come out more while the attempt on his life also allowed the reader to get a better insight into how he thinks. Another strong point was Preisler’s giving the various antagonists some buildup early to give them gravitas, which means when the protagonists go up against them later in the story there’s importance to the confrontation in whichever way it happens. The only downside was that Peter Nimec comes in relatively late in the book, especially if memory serves, he becomes the main action guy as the series progresses.
ruthless.com is a solid follow up installment in the Power Plays series that improves where the first book faltered. Jerome Preisler writes a nice mixture of business intrigue and international terrorism plotting that keeps you looking forward to seeing what happens.
May 3, 2025
Trama che ho trovato essere sensibilmente più tecnica e descrittiva nei confronti dell’ambito finanziario e delle dinamiche di competizione fra società, rispetto ad altri libri dell’autore, che pur sono tutti molto precisi. Questo, forse, ha in qualche punto rallentato l’andare della storia, che però rimane comunque avvincente. Lettura positiva! :)
December 21, 2021
A fast reading. Predictable. Great for teenagers
November 16, 2021
This book is a little dated since it somewhat talks about computer/crypto stuff in 2000, but surprisingly it's not bad. It mostly avoids the typical pitfalls of mentioning very specific stats of current tech, so it didn't turn out too bad. This is still a pretty standard fare corp espionage technothriller with nothing that really stands out, but it had good pacing and was enjoyable enough to read.
I did find it interesting that nowhere in my paperback copy does it say Jerome Preisler is the author, so I feel a little cheated thinking I was reading a Tom Clancy book. It's so weird how an author's name becomes more of a brand name than anything to do with the actual writer.
I did find it interesting that nowhere in my paperback copy does it say Jerome Preisler is the author, so I feel a little cheated thinking I was reading a Tom Clancy book. It's so weird how an author's name becomes more of a brand name than anything to do with the actual writer.
February 17, 2021
Questo è l'ultimo regalo di compleanno di mio nonno materno, dunque ricordarlo è speciale.
Non è difficile (al pari degli altri Clancy), a parte gli ovvi termini tecnici.
Aiuta a capire quante operazioni segrete avvengono per proteggere la nostra sicurezza.
Agenti muoiono e noi non lo scopriremo mai.
Non è difficile (al pari degli altri Clancy), a parte gli ovvi termini tecnici.
Aiuta a capire quante operazioni segrete avvengono per proteggere la nostra sicurezza.
Agenti muoiono e noi non lo scopriremo mai.
September 18, 2012
Ruthless indeed...... a business expansion with dirty tricks, deceit, and merciless games played by Marcus Caine. An encryption technology system that keeps the world record top security secret code.
When Roger Gordian find out that his company was an object of a corporate take over. He must find a way to bring down the gang of pirates, spies, drug lords, politacal extremists and the terrorist around the world. It's a universal marketplace where greediness is not good........but it's great.
When Roger Gordian find out that his company was an object of a corporate take over. He must find a way to bring down the gang of pirates, spies, drug lords, politacal extremists and the terrorist around the world. It's a universal marketplace where greediness is not good........but it's great.
April 23, 2014
i've read better Clancy. Way better.
December 1, 2025
⭐ Corporate Espionage Without Suspense or Substance
If I could have given this book less than one star, I would have. Ruthless.com is marketed as a techno-thriller, but it is difficult to classify it as a thriller at all. It contains none of the tension, momentum, structure, or narrative coherence that define the genre. I read this because I committed to revisiting the Power Plays series after rereading Politika, but this installment does nothing to justify continuing.
The book’s one redeeming quality is its proximity to real-world themes. Issues like communication vulnerabilities, data protection, corporate espionage, and international economic competition are genuinely compelling. These ideas should anchor a meaningful story. Instead, they are treated as decorative background while the novel collapses under its own structural incoherence.
The narrative is chaotic from beginning to end. Scenes are abruptly spliced together with no clear transitions, often shifting continents mid-page with no spacing or markers to signal the change. As the book moves into its final third, this structural weakness becomes overwhelming: locations bleed into one another, characters appear abruptly without context, and simultaneous global events are presented with such poor formatting that the reader must repeatedly stop and reconstruct the action. This is not complexity. It is disorganization, and it turns what should be tension into confusion.
Characterization is virtually nonexistent. The book introduces dozens of people, then refuses to develop any of them. Gordian, Nimec, Noriko, and Kirsten Chu are all reduced to flat placeholders. Kirsten, who appears positioned for a larger role, is sidelined for most of the narrative. Gordian himself becomes an afterthought. The villains have no presence, no weight, and no psychological depth. There is nothing to connect to, nothing to invest in, and nothing to care about.
The implausibility of the security behavior is staggering. SWORD is supposed to be an elite corporate security apparatus, yet they behave with the inconsistency and carelessness of amateurs. Missing personnel are treated with indifference. Critical information is withheld for no logical reason. Police wander freely through the most secure corporate facility in the series. Operational decisions contradict even the most basic principles of real-world security. The book demands constant suspension of disbelief simply to excuse the characters’ incompetence and the plot’s arbitrary progress.
What makes this even more disappointing is that Politika, for all its flaws, at least had moments of legitimate tension rooted in geopolitical realism. Ruthless.com has none. It is a thriller without thrill, a story without structure, and a novel without a center. Even the title is misleading. Nothing in the book meaningfully relates to “ruthlessness” or to “.com.” The name functions more as marketing than meaningful thematic connection.
Ruthless.com is an empty book: empty of tension, empty of character, empty of insight, and empty of narrative purpose. It offers ideas without development, events without cohesion, and characters without dimension.
Readers deserved better. The genre deserved better. The story that could have been told here, about genuine corporate warfare and global technological vulnerability, deserved far better than this disappointing and shapeless novel.
If I could have given this book less than one star, I would have. Ruthless.com is marketed as a techno-thriller, but it is difficult to classify it as a thriller at all. It contains none of the tension, momentum, structure, or narrative coherence that define the genre. I read this because I committed to revisiting the Power Plays series after rereading Politika, but this installment does nothing to justify continuing.
The book’s one redeeming quality is its proximity to real-world themes. Issues like communication vulnerabilities, data protection, corporate espionage, and international economic competition are genuinely compelling. These ideas should anchor a meaningful story. Instead, they are treated as decorative background while the novel collapses under its own structural incoherence.
The narrative is chaotic from beginning to end. Scenes are abruptly spliced together with no clear transitions, often shifting continents mid-page with no spacing or markers to signal the change. As the book moves into its final third, this structural weakness becomes overwhelming: locations bleed into one another, characters appear abruptly without context, and simultaneous global events are presented with such poor formatting that the reader must repeatedly stop and reconstruct the action. This is not complexity. It is disorganization, and it turns what should be tension into confusion.
Characterization is virtually nonexistent. The book introduces dozens of people, then refuses to develop any of them. Gordian, Nimec, Noriko, and Kirsten Chu are all reduced to flat placeholders. Kirsten, who appears positioned for a larger role, is sidelined for most of the narrative. Gordian himself becomes an afterthought. The villains have no presence, no weight, and no psychological depth. There is nothing to connect to, nothing to invest in, and nothing to care about.
The implausibility of the security behavior is staggering. SWORD is supposed to be an elite corporate security apparatus, yet they behave with the inconsistency and carelessness of amateurs. Missing personnel are treated with indifference. Critical information is withheld for no logical reason. Police wander freely through the most secure corporate facility in the series. Operational decisions contradict even the most basic principles of real-world security. The book demands constant suspension of disbelief simply to excuse the characters’ incompetence and the plot’s arbitrary progress.
What makes this even more disappointing is that Politika, for all its flaws, at least had moments of legitimate tension rooted in geopolitical realism. Ruthless.com has none. It is a thriller without thrill, a story without structure, and a novel without a center. Even the title is misleading. Nothing in the book meaningfully relates to “ruthlessness” or to “.com.” The name functions more as marketing than meaningful thematic connection.
Ruthless.com is an empty book: empty of tension, empty of character, empty of insight, and empty of narrative purpose. It offers ideas without development, events without cohesion, and characters without dimension.
Readers deserved better. The genre deserved better. The story that could have been told here, about genuine corporate warfare and global technological vulnerability, deserved far better than this disappointing and shapeless novel.
May 14, 2018
Ik vond het moeilijk om dit book te raten: ik twijfelde tussen twee en drie sterren. Het zijn er twee geworden omdat ik het boek tussentijds eigenlijk liever niet uit wilde lezen, maar het uit een soort plichtsbesef toch heb gedaan. Een Clancy leg je toch niet weg?
Het leek een veelbelovend verhaal en omdat er in koeienletters 'Tom Clancy' op de cover staat moest het wel een spannend boek zijn (ik heb eerder boeken van hem gelezen en die waren altijd goed). Maar helaas, hij blijkt het niet alleen geschreven te hebben en dat was te merken. Zeker in het begin zijn de stukken over technologie en hoe bedrijven elkaar in de tang proberen te nemen te lang, te droog en te technisch. Ook wordt het verhaal vanuit zoveel verschillende perspectieven beschreven, dat je niet de kans krijgt om sympathie op te vatten voor één van de personen. Sterker nog: de hoofdpersonen krijgen nauwelijks meer ruimte dan de nevenfiguren en het personage waar ik het in het begin van het boek het beste mee kon vinden, overleeft de eerste helft van het boek niet!
Tenslotte merk je dat meerdere personen verschillende blokken van het boek hebben geschreven: sommige stukken lopen gewoon niet lekker terwijl het in andere hoofdstukken ineens weer een soepel verhaal is. Het laatste deel, met de ontknoping, was het beste. Toch nog beloond dat ik het vol heb gehouden.
Dit boek bevestigt een stelregel waar ik me al langer aan houd vanwege eerdere tegenvallers: geen boeken meer lezen van schrijvers nadat ze na een lange succesvolle schrijverscarrière zijn gaan 'teamen' (om het stokje over te dragen?), zoals Clive Cussler en, in de Power Plays-serie: Tom Clancy.
Tenslotte: in Goodreads staat dat dit boek door Jerôme Preisler is geschreven, maar na enig nazoeken omdat ik die naam niet terug kan vinden in en op het boek, blijkt dat niet te kloppen: het is geschreven samen met Martin Greenberg.
Het leek een veelbelovend verhaal en omdat er in koeienletters 'Tom Clancy' op de cover staat moest het wel een spannend boek zijn (ik heb eerder boeken van hem gelezen en die waren altijd goed). Maar helaas, hij blijkt het niet alleen geschreven te hebben en dat was te merken. Zeker in het begin zijn de stukken over technologie en hoe bedrijven elkaar in de tang proberen te nemen te lang, te droog en te technisch. Ook wordt het verhaal vanuit zoveel verschillende perspectieven beschreven, dat je niet de kans krijgt om sympathie op te vatten voor één van de personen. Sterker nog: de hoofdpersonen krijgen nauwelijks meer ruimte dan de nevenfiguren en het personage waar ik het in het begin van het boek het beste mee kon vinden, overleeft de eerste helft van het boek niet!
Tenslotte merk je dat meerdere personen verschillende blokken van het boek hebben geschreven: sommige stukken lopen gewoon niet lekker terwijl het in andere hoofdstukken ineens weer een soepel verhaal is. Het laatste deel, met de ontknoping, was het beste. Toch nog beloond dat ik het vol heb gehouden.
Dit boek bevestigt een stelregel waar ik me al langer aan houd vanwege eerdere tegenvallers: geen boeken meer lezen van schrijvers nadat ze na een lange succesvolle schrijverscarrière zijn gaan 'teamen' (om het stokje over te dragen?), zoals Clive Cussler en, in de Power Plays-serie: Tom Clancy.
Tenslotte: in Goodreads staat dat dit boek door Jerôme Preisler is geschreven, maar na enig nazoeken omdat ik die naam niet terug kan vinden in en op het boek, blijkt dat niet te kloppen: het is geschreven samen met Martin Greenberg.
February 19, 2020
There are so many characters and so many storylines to follow within the book it is a challenge to keep up with everything. Many of the plot lines are not obvious and some of the stories are so thin you wonder the value of some of the content. The core character is a good one and the ability to build on the core team can make the series strong, but this is definitely not a book you can parachute into the middle of - you will need to start the series at the beginning. I will keep going with the series in the hopes that it gets better.
May 10, 2017
An exciting novel. Lots of action in the ending and it lets us peek into a lot of computer cyberspace intrigue. The intellectual talk using computerese was way over my head and this is over 10 years ago technology!! I enjoyed it.
January 5, 2019
It had been a while since I had struggled thru a Clancy book. But with this book, the systematic method of settings and different themes in this book feed on each other well and keep the attention and focus growing to the end. It was a joy to read this well written novel.
April 13, 2020
Excellent thriller in the Clancy style in a battle of wills between the competing owners of two corporations involved in the same technology sphere - nicely developed plot wit diverse group pf characters and plenty of suspense with a solid ending
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 19, 2020
This book had some very unexpected twists and turns. For that reason, I was really on a string throughout this book. What fun! Clancy has a nice way of weaving characters, time, and place. Very enjoyable.
March 17, 2021
I don't know if Tom Clancy doesn't like politicians and gangs or if they are just easy to cast in a dark light, but he and his co-authors do a fantastic job. This book was both interesting and very hard to put down. And, I was entranced and repelled by the actions of the evil main characters.
June 4, 2021
This story was difficult to get into - for me anyway, but I hung in there, and at about three quarters of the way through, things began moving, and led up to a really good ending. Glad I stuck with it.
February 8, 2023
This series was much more interesting to me as a young teenager.
There are pieces there, but the characters lack depth, the plots lack any drama or real twists and everything gets wrapped up in a nice bow way too quickly at the end.
There are pieces there, but the characters lack depth, the plots lack any drama or real twists and everything gets wrapped up in a nice bow way too quickly at the end.
December 16, 2017
I felt there was something missing from the narrative of this book
January 16, 2018
For my first Clancy book I am disappointed and reluctant to pick up the others I have on hand
March 13, 2018
Not a very good timeline
May 14, 2018
Did not (at all) enjoy this book. The violence was too much for me! It was obvious that Tom Clancy had not written this book.
August 14, 2019
Strange cadence for a book.
May 15, 2020
Power Plays very good
February 5, 2021
Max should have been named Min
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 21, 2021
An interesting storyline. Not my normal type of book, but I enjoyed it.
Read
July 12, 2022Thumbs up
January 1, 2023
Political-tech-thriller. Spent far too long on the set-up, the execution was ok. Interesting to read 20 years later with advancements in tech. Good read, but not a book I would keep or read again.
September 15, 2023
This book has a few different story lines going on at once. It involves corporate take overs which is not a huge area of interest of mine so I found the book only ok.
September 17, 2023
I didn’t really want to read this but it was available when I needed to alleviate boredom. Meh kinda Clancy thriller.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews