Cuba (Jake Grafton Novel)

Rating:
Summary: My first Coonts but certainly not the last!
Review: As I was browsing a local book store back in April, looking for some reading material to take along on a trip south, the title CUBA jumped out at me from the shelf. As my destination was, in fact, Cuba (I'm a Canadian), I picked up the book without further investigation, believing there is no such thing as "coincidence" and whatever happens, happens for a reason -- see "A Road Less Travelled". It turned out to be the right move. Cuba is a highly entertaining piece of fiction, mixed with a satisfying amount of non-fiction, resulting in a "good read". The situations in the book are neither implausible nor improbable, particularly in view of past and current world happenings, while still providing escape. I fell into and throughly enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone who likes adventure, suspense and action, with a touch of reality. And, I must confess, it was even more enjoyable when being read only a relatively short distance from where it all "happened". I'm going on to the other Coonts efforts.

Rating:
Summary: "Cuba" is a worthy part of the Jake Grafton series.
Review: I found this to be an exciting read, once I got past the inconsistency with Coonts's "Under Siege," in which Fidel is executed as a democratic movement takes over Cuba. In this one, we seem to be in an alternate reality, where, years later, Castro is about to die of natural causes. Whether he'll be succeeded by the brutal secret police chief or an anti-Castro dissident is one of the several plot lines of this book.

The main plot line, concerning use of left-over Scud missiles to potentially deliver deadly viruses to major cities in the Southeastern U.S., consumes most of the book.

What I liked best was the secondary plot concerning two CIA agents operating in Cuba. They were well fleshed-out characters who added enough variety to the typical Grafton-Tarkington-Moravia plot to make this more than a formulaic add-on to this series.

You can still depend on Jake Grafton to supply laconic common-sense reactions to military and political situations, as others run in circles, scream, and shout.

One final point -- the final mini-chapter climax was both surprising and satisfying.

Rating:
Summary: Not His BEST work ...
Review: I just got done reading Mr. Coonts' new Jake Grafton novel ... CUBA. While it was good read about favorite characters (Cool-hand ... Toad ... Rita) I for one wouldn't call this a 'Jake Grafton Novel."

I would have to say that our favorite A-6 driver was probably involved less than 25% of the story. While I did enjoy the story line, I also felt that it was much shorter than I would have liked. I'm sure a person of Mr. Coonts' caliber at writing stories such as (my favorites) "Flight of the Intruder" & especially "Final Flight" ... that we could've gotten a more detailed story line that what transpired in CUBA.

The other thing that bothers me is that in almost every story after "Final Flight" Mr. Coonts seems it's necessary to have Jake in the throes of deciding what to do with his career. He's always on the brink of being forced into retirement by the political-ites of Washington.

The story line of "Final Flight" was, I felt, superb with the many different characters, dialogue, flight scenes & espionage entanglements as compared with CUBA. It almost seems that Mr. Coonts was just trying to write a book for the sake of writing one.

While I still remain a fan of Mr. Coonts & his cast of characters ... Jake, Callie, Toad, Rita, and mny others, I was disappointed by this book on a whole.

If you're a FAN of Mr. Coonts from his first book "Flight of the Intruder" then you may be disappointed with this book. If you're new to Mr. Coonts' story-lines, then you will probably enjoy this book.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT BOOK!
Review: I read it in just one weekend. It's a good story, packed with action and subplots to keep the reader's interest until the end. It was great to find Jake, Toad and Rita again, after all these years. I only wish they had appeared in more central roles. I think Toad has grown as a character in "Cuba", though.

The development of the characters in Cuba, as well as all the Steve Coonts' previous novels, is the best I've ever seen.

Reading about Jake, Toad and Rita again is like reading about old friends.

A great book for all the Jake Grafton serie lovers.

Rating:
Summary: "Good not Great !"
Review: I thought "Cuba," by Stephen Coonts was a good story (not great) but still interesting enough. Military action meets political fiction. I did like the characters and the suspense.