Rating: 
Summary: Nimitz Class - A well told Naval/Political thriller!
Review: After seeing this particular title and Patrick Robinson's other titles in the stores last year I decided to purchase them all based on the back cover descriptions. Prior to reading "Nimitz Class," I decided to check the other reviews to see how well the book was received and was somewhat disappointed to see that the majority of the reviews didn't hold this title in a particularly favorable light. With this in mind, I opened the front cover and dove in! Much to my surprise and delight "Nimitz Class" is a well told Naval/Political thriller that is extraordinarily intriguing, the majority of the characters are compelling and the pacing of the novel is dead on accurate. As to whether Patrick Robinson is a new Tom Clancy, I'm not sure about that but he certainly holds his own in "Nimitz Class" and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of his novels. At the very core of most successful writers list of Political/Military novels is a strong set of recurring characters. With "Nimitz Class" Patrick Robinson has set the stage for his characters such as Vice Admiral Arnold Morgan, Director, National Security Agency who is the spitting image of someone in his position, gruff in a good natured sort of way, tough as nails and extraordinarily intelligent. The premise: Deep in the Indian Ocean lies an American CVBG, Carrier Battle Group, a twelve warship group centered on the Nimitz class aircraft carrier, the USS Thomas Jefferson. She is on routine patrol after successfully engaging in war games with another carrier battle group. Suddenly several of the outlying ships take a massive airburst and huge waves, nearly capsizing a couple of the ships. Once everything settles down and the captain of the USS Arkansas regains command and control he attempts to make contact with every ship in the battle group. The main player in the group, the aircraft carrier can neither be reached through communications nor seen on radar. He immediately takes his ship to the carriers last known position only to find a high level of radiation and a couple of the ships that were close to her badly damaged. A US aircraft carrier and the six thousand men and women aboard are gone... In comes the main players of the novel as the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Scott Dunsmore is notified who then takes it up to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Joshua Paul and then on the President. A meeting is called to discuss what happened or what might've happened to the carrier. The Director of the National Security Agency, Arnold Morgan and a young Naval Intelligence officer, Lieutenant Commander Bill Baldridge whose brother just happened to have been the Captain of the USS Thomas Jefferson. While the general consensus is that this was somehow an accident aboard the aircraft carrier, Bill Baldridge, a nuclear expert explains otherwise and leads them down the path of discovery... What follows is nothing short of an outstanding Naval/Political thriller that is a true page turner. At times, some of the text is somewhat clipped and the technical terminology is off a bit, both of which can be easily overlooked in the overall light of the plot which is thoroughly captivating. I highly recommend this novel to any and all fans of this genre! {ssintrepid}
Rating: 
Summary: Yes, author made mistakes -- but...
Review: All those one-star reviews miss a lot, some because the "readers" critiqued an audiotape. As a writer, Mr. Robinson is actually quite good, better than his Technical Advisors. As has been noted, he gets the ranks wrong, but nobody says HOW. The 5-star general is a minor character, and maybe Robinson imagines that if one is Chairman of Joint Chiefs, he'd get that coveted 5th star. But Bill Baldridge is THE major character, and if he were only a Lieutenant Commander, (1) That's JUNIOR rank in the US Navy, not senior; (2) As one who bucks senior authority, maybe he'd still never get promoted, but he also wouldn't still be in the Navy -- get passed over for promotion to full commander twice, and he's out, friends in high places or not, and the Big Star he's supposed to be would surely have been up for promotion. As for the A-6 being in service in 2002, the author probably wrote the manuscript in 1994-5, well before the A-6 became obsolete, and the rest of the inacccuracies are Story Telling. Some places in America, people are exactly as parochial/provincial as one reader review denies we are. Yes, too many cowboylike Kansans and Nebraskans -- those being mostly farming states, not gunfighter-cowboy states, but some American advisor or editor should've noted those errors before the book saw its release in America. It's a "good read," for the most part, and should make a fine movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Ugh
Review: Breathtaking drivel. For the record, I found exactly one accurate depiction in the book. It's where the head of the NSA is trying to figure out what's going on and brightens up at the thought that someone is lying. Intelligence officers do enjoy a good plot. They won't find it here: 1. Nobody in the military (or in any other walk of life, for that matter) speaks the way the characters in this book do.
2. Nobody in the military acts the way this writer describes them.
3. Neither do officials of the US government.
4. Neither do men and women.
5. It would take the media about a nanosecond to begin hypothesizing about the possibility of the "accident" to be the result of an attack. It would take the crowd of retired and former military know-it-alls just a moment longer to begin spilling classified information and spinning their own hypotheses.
Rating:
Summary: The book is GOOD
Review: Come on you people! What's wrong! Nimitz Class is a great book, and it's READABLE unlike some Tom Clancy novels which make me go ASLEEP. If you want a good technothriller experience, pick this one up.
And if somebody wants absolute precision, hey, the genre is FICTION. So relax and enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Flatfooted foresight
Review: History and hindsight have added a dimension to reading Nimitz Class. It's March 2002 and I've just finished a book originally published in 1997 and set in 2002. A terrorist plot that may have seemed outlandish at the time seems more plausible in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Are there people in the world as evil as the book's villain, Ben Adnam? Yes, there are, we've learned, capable of killing thousands of people in a single horrendous act and instigating war in the Middle East. Some elements of Nimitz Class presaged curious parallels in real life: a conservative and decisive President from the Southwest who makes tough and aggressive military decisions; the forming of international military alliances and actions involving the UK, Russia, Israel; the categorizing of Iraq and Iran (among others) in an international terrorist "axis of evil."
All that having been said, the execution of this book is incredibly irritating! The President's address to the nation following the destruction of the aircraft carrier Thomas Jefferson is frankly pitiful, as are numerous other monologues. I almost trashcanned the book right then were it not for the next story twist. Author Robinson saves himself by spinning a good yarn, however illogical at points. Because Robinson thinks up some interesting story lines, I'll be taking Kilo Class and H.M.S. Unseen along to read on a vacation cruise next month, but if the general sloppiness exhibited in Nimitz Class continues, those copies may end up hurled over the rail and floating in the Caribbean. The Nimitz Class manuscript deserved a good polishing. It didn't get it.
The author really needs a good editor. By rushing this book into print for a quick buck, the people at HarperCollins missed an opportunity to help the author create a best-seller in the Tom Clancy genre. Am I going to find more of the same in Robinson's future books?
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing Book
Review: I picked up this book recently, but didn't get what I hoped for. I have a mild addiction to military/espionage thrillers. I grew up on World War II novels, but it was _The Hunt for Red October_ that gave me a taste for modern settings. I greatly enjoyed reading both _...Red October_ and _Red Storm Rising_ ten years ago. Ever since then I have occasionally picked up a military thriller for fun. I see here that _Nimitz Class_ is actually the first book of a series. I can only hope that the others got better, though I don't think I'll spend the time to find out for myself. These characters were way too shallow and two-dimensional for my taste. Every time they meet one another, it's like a gathering of the gods on Mt. Olympus-every one is so admirable, experienced, capable and wonderful-they're straining their shoulders trying to pat each other on the back so much. Several of the plot developments were also made easily predictable because the writer telegraphs his moves. For example, at one point the main character's mother tells him to bring a woman with him when he moves home after resigning his commission. Just a few pages later, one of the admirable admirals says he wants to introduce his daughter. Before she even appears on the page, I know that she is going to be going to a new home in Kansas by the end of the book (sorry if I ruined that for anyone, but gosh, if you didn't see it coming...). Finally, I noticed a few technical mistakes, which didn't help the credibility of the story. For example, it is implied in the book that the current in the Bosporus always flows from North to South. I know from personal experience that this is not true. The current changes direction with the tides. Either a high tide is filling the Black Sea with Mediteranean water or a low tide is draining that water back out. To its credit, this book has a plot that moves along just as briskly as that Bosporus current. But nonetheless I found it too shallow to be really enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Kept me awake!
Review: Nimitz Class is a first class 'faction' novel written by Patrick Robinson advised by a British sub commander who is widely acknowledged in naval circles as one of the top submariners of all. First class locations and story. If Jack Higgins and Clive Cussler's high praise doesn't sell you this book, read the intro and attempt to deny buying.
Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely authentic
Review: Patrick Robinson wrote Nimitz Class with the help of Sir Admiral Woodward who single-handedly commanded the first computor war this world has ever seen. The Battle of the Falkland Islands in 1982. He was the top man in the Royal Navy and every piece of technical jargon is absolutely spot on in Nimitz Class. The book was spotted by Ed Victor (one of the most important literary agents in the world) who quickly became Mr. Robinson's London agent. Nimitz Class has paid meticulous attention to detail, and the way Patrick Robinson writes places him among the best thriller writers of this century. He blew Tom Clancy out of the water in the Italian literary awards this year, and I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It is a breath taking debut and I believe it really could be the news one day. It has provoked wide military concern, and as a direct result of this book, no foreigner will ever be trained again in England - Ben Adnam scared the Royal Navy away from that idea. Books that lack realism tend not to have the same international effect. Jengo R.
Rating:
Summary: A prequel to 911
Review: This was my first Robinson book. I heard the unabridged tape version. The narrator was very good. The plot for this book was very original. The character development was at times difficult to follow. I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in political and military affairs.
Rating:
Summary: Good premise but predictable
Review: This was the first book I have read by Patrick Robinson. While the story-line was interesting and even frighening (post Sept 11)
I thought the ending was rather predictable. ***SPOILER*** The
destruction of the subs at Bandar Abbas in Iran was a good sub-plot but was ultimately anti-climactic. And was there any doubt that Bill Baldridge would return to the Kansas homestead?
| 
