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Rating: 
Summary: Not really a Clancy novel... maintains status quo.
Review: First of all, don't let the giant TOM CLANCY printing on the cover fool you... this book wasn't even written by Tom Clancy. Evidently, the series was a brainchild of his, but the author is another person in little print at the bottom of the cover. Poor guy, he writes the novel, and Clancy gets the credit (at least in consumer's eyes if they don't take the time to read the whole cover)... the upside of this is that Clancy will also take the hits if the book is generally considered to be a flop, which is nice for this guy too, I guess. :)I need to clarify that this is the only book in the Power Plays series that I have read. I don't believe that it is critical for you to read EVERY book in a series in order to be able to enjoy each individually. A great author will craft each book in a way that makes it possible to read any book in the series and still feel like you've absorbed a complete novel with no huge hanging plot holes or the like (i.e. Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles). This book was, in my opinion, too long-winded. Some people appreciate that style of writing, but I felt it wasn't entirely appropriate for this story... I have a limited amount of free time, and I spent about twice the time I should have reading this book. The story was a good idea, but the length of the book was taken up with inane details of the story and dialog, and too little time was spent on character development, and on the villain, especially. The villain remains an anonymous and vague character, which works sometimes, but in this book we are left wondering and wanting more details about his motives, his methods, and more real world information about his role in the story to accompany several pages of his demented psychoanalysis of a painting. Don't get me wrong... he was INTRIGUIING, but never given life. The Lathrop character was by far the most interesting... a classic double agent, but with extra ego, self-interest, and intelligence thrown in for good measure. As far as the science of the book goes, I'm not a biochemist. As a result, I don't know if the author actually knows his stuff (a la Crichton but less arrogant with his knowledge), or if he just read a few books and made it sound convincing. I don't much care, either... the story worked, even if the details clouded it. Bottom line is this: If you read the book just because you see Tom Clancy's name on the cover, you're in for a bit of a disappointment, because it's not the Tom Clancy we've all come to know and love who actually authored the book. That's not to say the author did a bad job, either... the book just seemed to drag on too long in my understanding of the story. It could've been trimmed by about 100 pages, and the ending could have been a little LESS OBVIOUS. Yes, unfortunately, the ending is not-even-a-challenge obvious long before the end of the book, but that doesn't detract from the end of the story as much as you might think. It's a good book if you enjoy Sci-Fi/Action hybrids, but if you're not a huge fan of the genre, then you won't feel it's time well spent. 3 stars because it did what was expected, nothing more, nothing less. Not outstanding in its field, but I don't think it totally sucked either, unlike other reviewers who wrote it off out of hand.
Rating: 
Summary: Horribly written!!!
Review: I have read lots of Clancy's early books and enjoyed them. This one is an absolute waste of a good plot. The author is NOT Clancy, but one of his "group of authors". He must still be in high school based on his writing and lack of ability to even structure sentences that make sense. The last Clancy book I will ever buy!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: May have been good as a short story
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Bio-Strike Made Me Sick
Review: This book from the Tom Clancy stable of pulp writers -- not from the author himself -- has an ingenious concept. It's too bad that it couldn't be translated to the book's pages. The story is so full of irrelevant characters, subplots and improbabilities that the reader can't maintain focus from one page to the next. Characters are introduced over the course of a few sentences near the beginning of the book and don't re-appear for more than 150 pages -- again for only a few sentences. Subplots come and go as if the author had a word quota to fill and many of the situations within those subplots could not be resolved in the way they were written in a million years -- let alone in the autumn of 2001, when the "novel" takes place. And the editing ... ! The story doesn't pick up any semblance of pace or rhythm for almost 200 pages. By then, the readers really don't care what's going on. They will only continue because they've invested too much time in the book to quit. Technical descriptions even flabbergast the writer who runs sentences on for 30 or 40 words trying to figure out what he's actually trying to say. Overall, the book is a monumental waste of trees. I give it two stars only because of what it could have been if a competent writer was given the keyboard. There's only one cure for this book. Don't read it.
Rating:
Summary: Wasn't as good as most Clancy Thrillers!
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: Dont read
Review: This book was simply awesome, Tom Clancy did it again. A beautiful idea with the the virus unleashed on the head of Uplink Technologies and how ricci and the rest of the team find the vaccine to save not only Roger Gordian but everyone else who has inherited the virus. a real page turner. Honestly I enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone who likes Tom Clancy novels.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely terrible
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Not very coherent
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: This was a bad starter for Clancy-type novels
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: This was a bad starter for Clancy-type novels
Review: 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.
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