[.ca] Power Plays 04 Bio Strike (ISBN 0425177351)

Wasn't as good as most Clancy Thrillers!:
This book was a terrible book. The content was pretty boring at most times. This was nothing like the Sum of All Fears, or Patriot Games. I only liked brief parts of it. Hey Tom! Pick up the pace!

This was a bad starter for Clancy-type novels:
Unlike most readers on these reviews, this is the first "Clancy" book I have read. I put it in quotes because it wasn't till I got home with the book that I realized a ghost writer was involved. The first 4 pages were awesome, setting up an "outbreak" type scenario. Where did that story go for the next 300+ pages? There were so many characters in this book that I got confused repeatedly, and finally gave up trying to figure them out. What was up with all the sub-plots which go nowhere...ej. The government guy and Megan, Thibideaux and Ricci..... The story dragged on and on and finally picked up at the end, but it was too late to salvage this story. If he wanted to write a thrilling series, with the backing of Clancy, it could have been done, since everything he needs is in this book. The problem is that by combining all of these story lines into one 400+ page novel, the overall product turned out to be a confusing mess.

Not very coherent:
This story seems to jump from topic to topic without any real coherence. When the end finally came I was so lost, I didnt even realize it was coming. Not worth buying.

May have been good as a short story:
Most of what is written in this book exists for no apparent reason. The characters are all poorly developed, many are just cliches, so you never really care what happens to any of them. There are countless characters and conflicts that appear, and are never mentioned again. All you really know about the villains is that they are ruthless, cold-blooded killers. You never really have any reason to fear them. The story goes like this... The villains develop a deadly bio-engineered virus. They plan to make a fortune by selling it to other villains. They also use it to infect the head of a multi-national technology firm. He just happens to be a kind, caring man from a working class background. Now his elite, world-wide private security force, known as Sword (what is this, Get Smart?) must track down the villains before their beloved leader, and perhaps the whole world, is doomed. Guess how it ends.

Absolutely terrible:
This is one of the worst books I've ever read. I couldn't finish it. After reading over 250 pages of the 430 page book, not only did I not care what happened to the principle characters, (and didn't even like or wish to understand them), but I was actually angry with the author (Preisler, NOT CLANCY), for wasting my time and writing so poorly. The story moves at glacial speed with incredibly stupid content. Example: At one point in the book two people are soaking in a HOT tub and eventually have sex. The conversation is ridiculous and aggravating. But the REAL kicker is the author is so stupid that he describes the water temperature as 180 degrees. Water boils at 212! I was also pissed at Tom Clancy for puttng his name on it. If I put my name on a book I didn't write, I'd at least make sure that the book was well written. As a general rule, book burning is a bad thing. If it must be done, I'd recommend starting with anything written by Jerome Preisler.