[.ca] Power Plays 07 Zero Hour (ISBN 0425192911)

Zero Hour:
Zero Hour is one of the worst books that I have read in recent memory. I can't imagine Tom Clancy linking his name to book. There is next to no action. There are too many characters that have dead ends. The Pakistan characters add nothing to the book except to provide some graphic violence. The Roger Cordian presence and the rock wall sequence is nearly pointless. The climax was so ho hum. The villain has been shot in a previous scene and simply dies of blood loss before triggering the laser. The whole notion that a stockpile of chemicals in New York in this day and age that could be so easily targeted seemed unlikely. The book ended with the murder of the Pakistan character left me speechless- what was the point. The main villain was dead. What was the point of the main villain's photo sensitive disease - surely the author could have developed at a least a death scene for him related to that illness rather than an octopus bite. I kept expecting something imaginative to happen but it didn't. This book seems to be a clever attempt to use Clancy's name as a selling point. This type of marketing is doomed to failure.

Zero Hour...Zero Score:
What a dissapointment. I guess I picked this one up because of the Clancy name, but after Power Plays 6, "Cutting Edge" I guess I should have known better. I only read about 40 books a year, and I'm really sorry I wasted my time on this one. This is truly one of the worst books I have ever read. Imagine 4 pages dedicated to describing a man entering a building and walking to the elevator. Or how about 5 pages describing a mother walking to her car. If this appeals to you, then by all means, invest your time in this 330 page disgrace of a novel. Tom Clancy should be embarrassed to have his name associated with such poor writing and imagination.

The book I read Part II:
To the anonymous reader from California: You crossed out all those sentences, huh? Must have lotsa time on your hands. But waitaminnit . . . wait just a gol-durn minute here! I see now that your "review" was of the AUDIO CD version of the novel. Wow, there's a really neat trick, crossing out those words on a CD, I mean! You'll have to patent that technique; bet it'll earn you a fortune. Also, I've never heard of nonessential (or "not essential", as you put it) characterization. Couldja explain the concept to us sometime? 'Cause I was kinda made to feel sorry for that woman you mentioned (whose murder -- as well as the fact that she had a kid in playschool -- was key to the plot in about a dozen ways). Yee-ee-eesh.

The Book I Read:
To D-G-S from Chevy Chase: You're right about one thing: we must have read different books because the copy of ZERO HOUR I have in front of me, which has nearly 350 pages, consists of a total of eight chapters, all of which are quite long. If the book you read, therefore, has no chapters that are "more than a couple" of pages in length, simple addition indicates its total number of pages equals ten (10).That's preschool math, Mr D-G-S. Thus it seems you are in error. Either that, or your d-g ate the other 340+ pages before you got to them. Another thing. The book does not purport to be written by Tom Clancy. Its cover credits clearly read "Created by Tom Clancy and Martin Greenberg, Written by Jerome Preisler". This is true of all seven books in the Power Plays series. The fact that you did not recognize this before making your purchase speaks of no dishonesty by the store, publisher, Mr. Clancy, or anyone else but rather shows your skills in reading the English language to be the sorry equal of your mathematical ones.

Power plays Zero Hour:
I have read all of the past Power plays and op centers and realize that Clancy did not write any of them but they still were good books. This book is the exception. I found it very difficult to read more than a few pages at a time without becoming totaly bored. I took several pages and crossed out all the meandering thoughts and not essential character "development" and found most of the page crossed out. For exammple: Several pages given to the thoughts of a character about her childhood and the importance of a play center who is immediatley killed was a waste of paper and my reading time. I could have browsed a phone book and been more entertained. If you wait for this book to reach a Clancy style conclussions you are in for a big dissapointment. Better luck next time.