The Shark Mutiny

Rating:
Summary: New category-Techno-Fantasy
Review: I am glad that I never read any reviews on the internet by amazon.com readers before I started to read all his books in a 2-3 week period.I am amazed at how much more critical and intelligent were the reviews by amazon readers than the likes of Adm.Crowe,Jack Higgins,and of course Clive Cussler. I think that Shark Mutiny is by far his worse book.I didn't notice the 1400 rather than 1600 Pennsylvania address but on rechecking it ,the reviewer was right.I am an avid watcher of JAG and I thoroughly enjoyed the review of the Captain (O-6)who wrote that the court martial was ridiculous in the extreme.For some reason Nick Nolte seems to me to be ideal in the role of Cale Dunning when he makes his amazing and ridicuolous comments during the cross exams and re-directs.I believe that the author stated there was a judge advocate "who was a former lawyer'but you never hear of him after page 430.Interesting points were brought up in the book at times but the ending annoyed me greatly.But on a larger scale and I hate to admit it especially after reading how many people thought that Robinson's books are ridiculous. I enjoyed the book.Robinson is so out of the park with his plots that they enter the realm of techno-fantasy. And once you get over that hurtle you can enjoy secretly that all SEALS are 10 feet tall and bulletproof. Little facts that M-60 (the pig) rounds (7.62x51mm) are four inches long are not true. .Actually M-2(MA deuce).50 caliber Browning machine gun shells are.(12.7x99mm).All of the other inaccuracies that I found picked up in the books by other people now were all explained by my realisation that we now have a new genre of airplane or beach fiction. Once we have gotten most of my worries about any semblance of reality I realized that I enjoyed the book precisely because it can go where other books cannot. It can have a non-elected NSA telling the SECDEF and the joint chiefs what to do.It can have this crazy admiral Morgan being incredibly politically incorrect and i just loved it.I am some what mystified that people think that 4 star officers do not use four letters words among themselves.I guess I am too insensitive to appreciate all the readers who thought that You cannot write Chinaman or towelhead if that is what Admiral Morgan called them.The point I am trying to make is that i think too many people are taking Patrick Robinson books too seriosly. If you read them as fantasy-fluff somewhat like Cussler who is a much better writer and not limited in that he doesn't pretend to be writing about a real US Navy ,you can have some fun but they are not Good clancy,Normal Larry Bond, or Regular Harold Coyle. You read them for laughs and hope Robinson doesn't break too many of the Laws of physics.you laugh at the preposterous court martial. But I kept turning the pages which scares me now because I enjoyed his screwball plots and crazy plot devices and impossible scenarios.They were a change of pace from the more realistic books and I had a few laughs in each book as we did the things I sometimes would like to do but don't have Admiral Morgan ability, charm,wit,luck.and the author's blessing. But I think in the future that Robinson will go on my B list of those authors who I wait for the paperback before I go and buy it.Now that I have figured out Robinson,I don't feel as ashamed at secretly enjoying us(USN) almost never loosing a man,and reading into the night.I thought after reading all the negatve reviews that I was loosing my grip.

Rating:
Summary: WHY DID I BUY THIS BOOK?
Review: Thank God I bought it USED!!! This was the WORST, UNBELIEVEABLE, book of Robinson's that I have read, and I have read them all!

Rating:
Summary: Should be called "Disappointed Reader's Mutiny"
Review: I was quite disappointed with this latest work from Patrick Robinson. I too have read all his previous books, and was anxoius to get The Shark Mutiny. The inexcusable error of having the incorrect address for the White House at the beginning of the book sets the tone for a VERY dull book.

I rarely lose interest in a book before I finish reading it, but, I just HAD to put this one down. If you want an exciting military thriller, check out some of Patrick Robinson's works. If you want a book to put you to sleep at night, get this one. Otherwise, don't bother.

Rating:
Summary: The Shark Mutiny
Review: Do Patrick Robinson a favor and get this book from your library, or if you must own it, wait for the paperback. If his royalties fall off, perhaps he will submit to better editing.

Robinson's characters are more properly caricatures. None of that bothered me much in his earlier works, although I always thought his national villains (especially the Chinese, who figure as modern-day Fu Manchus in this offering - more so than before) were rather one dimensional. I don't annoy easily, but this one did annoy me for a couple of reasons.

First, early in the story (p. 11) and just before slamming the incumbent president (whose "shocking self-interest and lack of judgment" were the subject of an earlier work) he refers to the "vastly experienced Senator Ted Kennedy, whose unwavering patriotism and endless concern for his country make him always a natural leader among men." Now Senator Kennedy probably is all of those things, although I've never thought of him as a Defense wonk, but the line had nothing to do with the story - particularly with the use of the verb "make" as opposed to "made" - when everyone else in the scenario was referred to in the past tense.

All I can figure is that Robinson met the senator at a cocktail party on Cape Cod (one of the author's homes according to his bio) and promised to mention him in his next book.

Second, the great court-martial scene was just plain impossible. Robinson's acknowledgments state that he relied upon legal sources in the US Navy who didn't wish to be named. I can understand why they didn't wish identification, since the description of the trial is something out of a bad 19th century novel, and the procedures from beginnig to end violate just about every article of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Note to Robinson: 1) just because someone presses charges, doesn't mean there will be a trial, that's up to the court-martial convening authority and he can say no, 2) you forgot to include the Military Judge in the trial - someone would have noticed, 3) the president of the court has dammed little authority, and he NEVER makes rulings on evidence or announces the verdict, much less editorializes (the judge handles that, and he doesn't editorialize either), 4) a court-martial never includes someone of lesser rank than the accused, so the lieutenant would't be there, and if he were, the trial would be busted on appeal, 5) ballots are secret, 6) it takes a 2/3rds vote to convict; you only had three out of five votes and needed four, 7) the court doesn't recommend a sentence, it determines one, and both the verdict and the sentence are reviewed by the convening authority and at least one appellate court in a case involving the dismissal of an officer. And 8 (just to be really nit-picky) there is only one "Judge Advocate General" in the entire Navy; he's a 2-star admiral. Every other member of the uniformed Naval legal establishment is called a "judge advocate."

Yes, we all know about literary license, but this was clueless, not to mentioned contrived.

The action scenes were good, but read it at your own risk if you're looking for plausibility. and yes, I'm donating my copy (hardcover, I regret to say) to my local library.

A JAG 0-6

Rating:
Summary: Garbage
Review: Patrick Robinson has really dredged the depths. He repeats his court martial scenerio of a single submarine (remember the president's son in previous books) as the climax of a plot that has china invading taiwan - give me a break! Poorly researched (Qantas is NOT spelt Quantas) and an insult to Australians (we do not say cobber all of the time) Definately the last time I will waste my time on this author

Rating:
Summary: Don't Waste Your Time or Money
Review: Poorly researched, only a one-dimensional understanding of US military policy. Plot is extremely weak, predicatble within the first 68 pages. Author pontificates his opinion of Senator Kennedy through the book's characters...too bad the author forgot how Sen. Kennedy so poorly treated the military during the Carter and Clinton years. Poorly edited. Characters had little or no development...what little development provided, was out of sync with the real armed services. Especially with time of service, officer promotions, time in grade for promotion, qualifiactions for Command at Sea.

I bought toe book to get me through a trans-Atlantic flight. Halfway through I put the book down an watched the in flight movie - which made more sense than this book...the movie was JOSIE & THE PUSSYCATS

Rating:
Summary: Forgotten Assets
Review: This is the latest in a line of naval thrillers/techno combat books by Robinson, and for me, the least appealing. In the past I could count on Mr. Robinson to at least study every angle of the problems he presents, and then give a plausable reason why something a knowledgable reader would expect to be done, couldn't be done. Not here.

Without giving away the storyline, there are innumerable military assets of both the US, Japan and Great Britian available today (and in 2007?)to address the "island question" in the story.

This is a gaping hole both militarily and politically for Robinson, and one can only guess that he intends to use the "island question" in a later book and it is necessary for him to ignore military and political reality to achieve that goal.

Rating:
Summary: More adventure, less politics.
Review: I wish Patrick would have kept his personal political interests out of the book. To place Sen. Kennedy so highly for no reason at all other than to promote one political party. Shame on you Patrick. Keep to what you are pretty good at and that is spinning a decent yarn.

Rating:
Summary: Send in the SEALs
Review: I was quite disappointed in the ending to Robinson's last work, USS Seawolf, but I was willing to give Shark Mutiny a shot. I was left with the exact same sense of the disappointment, however, as Robinson transposed the exact same ending into his latest novel. The plot has some promise to it initially; the Chinese-Iranian conspiracy to starve the world of oil, and the growing threat of Chinese expansion. As it progresses, however, Shark Mutiny has some pretty glaring problems. For one, the United States Navy sees fit to dispatch every carrier battle group in the fleet (save ONE) to a single spot on the globe. While this action may be convenient for Robinson's later plot twist, it's hardly plausible. The mutiny incident, too, is hardly realistic. Somehow I doubt that US Naval command would put a lunatic captian at the helm of a nuclear attack sub. I think there are some small psychological screening programs you have to pass before that step. And the ending is almost identical to Seawolf. Send in the SEALs to blow everything up (Robinson's universal solution) and then have a court-martial with a verdict that leaves the reader feeling aggravated that justice has not been served. It's almost as though he got tired of writing it after the first 300 pages. Perhaps the next book will make use of a new conclusion. If not, that'll be Robinson's third strike.

Rating:
Summary: If this is the only book on your cell block, read it.
Review: I would have loved this book if it were written by my child, a great book by a 10th grader. It is not at all believable. The weak plot is developed only to be replaced by a lamer one. Even lesser writers will admit that the U.S. has an air force and army. If this is the only book on your cell block, you should read this book.