Rating: 
Summary: Masterful Example of an Advocacy Novel
Review: Richard North Patterson is known as powerful, literate author of suspense novels which explore social, political and legal issues. Although Patterson's bias almost always shines through, he makes a valiant and usually credible attempt to explore both sides and let each proponent in his novel make the best case for their position. "Balance of Power" is neither a suspenseful novel, nor a balanced view on the issue at the core of the book, gun control and American politics. Nonetheless, the novel is a masterful, well written, page tuner. It is also an advocacy brief in novel form.If Patterson's goal in writing is to affect the public debate, he is unlikely to succeed despite the muckraking quality to the book. When Upton Sinclair and other muckrakers wrote their advocacy novels in the early twentieth century, their works were serialized in the only mass media of the day: newspapers and popular magazines. Today the mass media has already been so saturated on this issue that Patterson's work brings nothing new to the public debate. "Strict constructionalits" who believe that when the Founding Fathers made reference to a "well organized militia" they meant individual citizens or believe that the right to bear arms trumps the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" will dismiss "Balance of Power" as the work of "Nazi jackboot" who wants to take away a hunter's right to own a hunting gun. For those who believe in responsible gun control, the book is sermon directed at the choir. I cannot predict how those in the middle will react, but I suspect anybody who reads "Balance of Power" with an open mind is more likely to join the choir than the NRA.
Rating: 
Summary: Furiously political instalment in his series
Review: Richard North Patterson's "Balance of Power" continues his series featuring the young Democratic President Kerry Kilcannon. As with the other entries in this series, it contains a plot almost guaranteed to fire political controversy. Kilcannon, you see, is written as a man driven by principle. Earlier, it was this principle that made him force through the confirmation of Caroline Masters to the US Supreme Court even though she decided in favour of abortion in a landmark case. This time around, the issue is gun control. As Patterson frequently reminds his readers, Kilcannon believes in this cause passionately - having lost his elder brother to gun violence and been wounded himself during his Presidential campaign (all similarities between Patterson's characters and real-life ones are of course wholly intentional). It is, however, the First Lady who gives impetus to the debate when her family is shot. Most of the old characters from the Kilcannon series make repeat appearances here. Kerry and Lara (who marries him early in the book), Chad and Allie Palmer, even Macdonald Gage - the Republican Majority Leader who Kilcannon previously destroyed politically - appears as an "elder statesman" for the new Majority Leader, Frank Fasano. Another welcome returnee is Sarah Dash, the lawyer in the Tierney case which gave Justice Masters such headaches. Dash now, conveniently, works for the Kilcannon Center - an anti-gun violence group - and attempts to sue an arms manufacturer and the Sons of the Second Amendment (Patterson's thinly-disguised NRA) in a case which forms the backbone of the novel. Any work of political fiction which attempts to deal with such a contentious issue as gun rights will always be controversial - one need only read over the reviews here to see that. However, given the record of President Kilcannon, one can hardly accuse Patterson of hiding his bias. Likewise, to claim that the ending was predictable is to state the exceedingly obvious. With nothing more than a skim of the blurb on the back cover, anyone could tell you the rough outline of the plot. While it is fun to read this novel as an exercise in "spot the politician", that only serves part of the purpose. Especially when Patterson makes it so easy by having SSA President Charles Dane declare that the government would take his gun only "from my cold dead hands".
What this book serves as is an interesting entree into the issue of gun politics - an issue which is misrepresented by both sides of the debate. By no means is it intended to be factually accurate or unbiased (it is, after all a work of fiction). All it is intended to do is to tell a story - and that it does in spades. Critiquing it based on one's personal politics is an exercise in futility at best. That said, Patterson's novels do tend to fall down when it comes to dialogue. Perhaps as a result of his background in legal thrillers, he has an unfortunate tendency to make all of his characters orate as often as possible. While there's obviously nothing wrong with oratory in the Senate or a court room (we could probably do with more of both in real life), it somehow doesn't quite ring true in the private lives of the characters. The effect is somehow disconcerting, as the characters become less believable human beings and more simple avatars for his own views. Then again, the day I read Richard North Patterson expecting a literary classic is the day I should be committed.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent novel
Review: I found the infighting of politics absorbing. I cannot believe Republicans would oppose gun controls of weapons that are not designed for sportsmanship
Rating: 
Summary: Extraordinary tour de force on gun control
Review: Patterson has written an extraordinary tour de force on gun control. Kerry Kilkannon, recently elected President (from Protect and Defend), is back and planning his wedding to Lara Costello. Lara's sister Joan is being brutalized by her husband, and with Kilkannon's background - his father abused his mother - he can't just sit idly by. The inevitable tragedy occurs, but it takes Patterson a good fifty pages too long to get there. The tragedy and its aftermath spur political and legal maneuverings that were so repulsive, yet rang so true, that it literally turned my stomach. I had to put the book down more than once and just walk away from it to regain some emotional perspective. Patterson has an agenda here, and he is quite clear about it; he delves into tort reform, but primarily this is a treatise on gun control, for which he makes a very sound, exigent argument, although I'm afraid he's preaching to the choir. NRA members wouldn't touch this book with a ten foot pole, while former President Clinton blurbed it. The book does bog down in places and occasionally seems repetitive, but all in all Patterson does a brilliant job of explaining the intricacies and treacheries of exactly how our government works, while drawing us in emotionally with a compelling story and three dimensional characters that we can't help but care about.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Exactly a Novel
Review: I have never before read a novel by a popular author that was so totally dependent on the reader's commitment to the same political and social agenda as its' author. I have enjoyed earlier works by Patterson, but had read not the 2 prior books of this apparent trilogy; if I had, I would probably have skipped this one. It would have been more honest to present it as a clearly political tome, to warn away those who prefer not to be bludgeoned on every page by an author's attempt to "educate" the reader as to the "correct" political and social views. This made the book somewhat tedious, and far from a truly original and entertaining read. No doubt this is my own fault, in that I rarely read book blurbs. Had I been aware of its' 2 big fans, I would not have purchased it. For those who do not share the agenda of Senator Ted Kennedy, or the Clintons, I would advise that you not waste time or money on this offering.
Rating:
Summary: Falters then falls flat
Review: I've been a Richard North Patterson fan for years, so I was sickeningly disappointed with "Balance of Power". Overall it was a good story idea presented weakly and very unrealistically. I expected much more of a plot, better development and more interesting characters - and was disappointed on all points. The writing sounded forced, the dialogue like a bad movie and the action predictable and telegraphed way ahead. There were no surprises, and the ending felt like Patterson just ran out of enthusiasm for his own story.
Rating:
Summary: Ballance of Power
Review: Richard North Patterson's "Ballance of Power" is a wonderful read regardless of one's political party. I simply couldn't put it down and I'm exhausted! Thank you, Mr. Patterson for so many hours of pleasure.
Rating:
Summary: Reader Ruins Book
Review: I listened to the audio version of this book. The reader
came close to making an interesting book painfully boring.
Surely there was someone available who could have read with
more expression and given the male characters more definition
Rating:
Summary: A wild emotional ride
Review: Picking up where Laura and Kerry left off, with Kerry now as POTUS, we ride with them through a nail-biting emotional roller coaster. I have read other reviews and there seems to be some feeling that Patterson is trying to take away all peoples guns with this book. I didn't read that, I just read that some of our gun laws (or lack of) are fringing on lunacy. It has also been expressed that it is an anti NRA book. I think it may be anti leadership but not anti membership. It is a good debate. It is well-written and fast-paced. A very good read.
Rating:
Summary: Furiously political instalment in his series
Review: Richard North Patterson's "Balance of Power" continues his series featuring the young Democratic President Kerry Kilcannon. As with the other entries in this series, it contains a plot almost guaranteed to fire political controversy. Kilcannon, you see, is written as a man driven by principle. Earlier, it was this principle that made him force through the confirmation of Caroline Masters to the US Supreme Court even though she decided in favour of abortion in a landmark case. This time around, the issue is gun control. As Patterson frequently reminds his readers, Kilcannon believes in this cause passionately - having lost his elder brother to gun violence and been wounded himself during his Presidential campaign (all similarities between Patterson's characters and real-life ones are of course wholly intentional). It is, however, the First Lady who gives impetus to the debate when her family is shot. Most of the old characters from the Kilcannon series make repeat appearances here. Kerry and Lara (who marries him early in the book), Chad and Allie Palmer, even Macdonald Gage - the Republican Majority Leader who Kilcannon previously destroyed politically - appears as an "elder statesman" for the new Majority Leader, Frank Fasano. Another welcome returnee is Sarah Dash, the lawyer in the Tierney case which gave Justice Masters such headaches. Dash now, conveniently, works for the Kilcannon Center - an anti-gun violence group - and attempts to sue an arms manufacturer and the Sons of the Second Amendment (Patterson's thinly-disguised NRA) in a case which forms the backbone of the novel. Any work of political fiction which attempts to deal with such a contentious issue as gun rights will always be controversial - one need only read over the reviews here to see that. However, given the record of President Kilcannon, one can hardly accuse Patterson of hiding his bias. Likewise, to claim that the ending was predictable is to state the exceedingly obvious. With nothing more than a skim of the blurb on the back cover, anyone could tell you the rough outline of the plot. While it is fun to read this novel as an exercise in "spot the politician", that only serves part of the purpose. Especially when Patterson makes it so easy by having SSA President Charles Dane declare that the government would take his gun only "from my cold dead hands".
What this book serves as is an interesting entree into the issue of gun politics - an issue which is misrepresented by both sides of the debate. By no means is it intended to be factually accurate or unbiased (it is, after all a work of fiction). All it is intended to do is to tell a story - and that it does in spades. Critiquing it based on one's personal politics is an exercise in futility at best. That said, Patterson's novels do tend to fall down when it comes to dialogue. Perhaps as a result of his background in legal thrillers, he has an unfortunate tendency to make all of his characters orate as often as possible. While there's obviously nothing wrong with oratory in the Senate or a court room (we could probably do with more of both in real life), it somehow doesn't quite ring true in the private lives of the characters. The effect is somehow disconcerting, as the characters become less believable human beings and more simple avatars for his own views. Then again, the day I read Richard North Patterson expecting a literary classic is the day I should be committed.
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