The Run

Rating:
Summary: BUY IT!
Review: I read this book while in basic training for the US ARMY. If I could read it in a week while having absolutly personal time then you know that it's good! I'm into politics but I've loaned it to friends that aren't and they enjoyed it just as much! BUY THIS BOOK!

Rating:
Summary: Not his best but still good
Review: I've always made a habit of reading Stuart Woods books immediately. But since I wasn't interested in a novel on politics, I let this book sit on the shelf for a year. Upon picking it up, I was once again mired in the web Stuart Woods so quickly spins around his readers. I've yet to find another novelist who so quickly holds the reader. If there is a weakness with his books however, it sometimes seems he has to wrap up too many subplot loose ends at the end. Some of these subplots may not even be necessary.

Irrespective, I have always enjoyed his books and have already preordered his next one due within a month. Be prepared to take a few jabs if you are a Republican and supported the Clinton impeachment, as Woods' political persuasion is easy to pick up in this book. Read this book for enjoyment and entertainment. A perfect "read by the pool."

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time!
Review: Let me criticize this book more for the poor writing and lazy plot development. There are many plot contrivances within this story, and the four most excessive follow. First, the author tries to mix historic events with his fictional plot. Throughout the book, references are made to the Clinton presidency; yet the events take place during the 2000 election campaign with an entirely different administration. Second, the would-be assassin is able to walk onto a construction site and be given the most sensitive job of preparing the convention podium. Third, a Hollywood star is romantically involved with a convicted rapist/murderer. Finally, an incarcerated spy is able to orchestrate a campaign of misinformation form his cell. The only thing left out were aliens.

If this is any indication of the author's talents, they must be considered wanting.

Rating:
Summary: I demand a re-count!
Review: A recount of the money I spent on this book! The story was decent but contrived and forced a bit. I typically like Stuart Woods and have read just about all of his books, but this one was a disappointment and certainly the weakest of his I've read. It gave me the opinion that he was under some pressure to crank out another book and this was the best he could do. "The Run" is losely based on the 2000 Bush/Gore race. Add in an assassin (resurrected from "Grass Roots")and a Hollywood starlett with loose morals and a friend on death row (?) and you get a choppy story with little substance. Woods also used this book to inflict his personal Liberal politics on the reader. I personally disagree with those politics and don't want them creeping into my recreational reading. If you just must read it, it's worth a few nights. If you have other options, however, exercise them and vote against "The Run."

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, if shallow
Review: If you are looking to kill a couple of hours the next time your flight is delayed, there are worse ways to do it than the latest novel from Stuart Woods. But then again, there are a lot of better ways to do it as well. First a warning, if you are a Republican, you are probably going to have a hard time finishing this (although I managed to make it through). Basically most of the characters just take it for granted that the Republicans are evil. But then again, maybe that isn't so far off the way Democratic operatives think (and vice versa).

The story is entertaining, if somewhat predicatable. But not many of the characters have any real depth to them. The blurb on the cover compares Woods to Ludlum and Clancy. Although this is my first Stuart Woods novel, I have to say no way. In fact, as political thrillers go, this one is not even as good as James Huston's.

Rating:
Summary: I liked it.
Review: This is my first Stuart Woods book. I liked it. What can I say, I am a democrat! It was an enjoyable, easy read. As for the review that said Woods could teach Clancy and Ludlum a thing or two....ummmm...NO. I have read both and in my opinion he is not in that league. Still, I enjoyed the book. It was a quick read with a good ending.

Rating:
Summary: Should have written a white paper
Review: This is my first and last Stuart Woods book. I wanted to try a new author so, unfortunately, I went out and purchased this book. It was so unbalanced where the political characters are concerned (all the good guys are Democrats and all the bad guys are Republicans or conservatives) that I almost gave up in the first quarter of the book. However, I am a disciplined reader so I finished the book. I suggest that the next time Mr. Woods wants to write a book with a one-sided political viewpoint he just write a white paper for all good liberals to read and spare the rest of us from his preaching. I will gag every time I see a Stuart Woods book on the bookshelf from now on.

Rating:
Summary: My first Woods book
Review: This was my first Woods book, and I was not overly impressed.

I picked up the book in an airport to read over a weekend - definately easy to read and kept me fairly interested, but unlike The State's (SC) recommendation on the back cover of the book, I don't think Stuart Woods could not "teach Tom Clancy a thing or two".

Maybe I would have been better off reading the first Will Lee stories and moving on to this one, or maybe had I not lived through an actual close Presidential race this year would have made the book more exciting, either way it kept me occupied, just not coming back for more Woods.

Rating:
Summary: Way below par for Woods
Review: Stuart Woods introduced us to the Lee family of Delano, GA in his first book, Chiefs. Will Lee, hero of The Run is the third generation of the Lee family, and as anyone who has followed Will in several of Wood's books knows, was bound for the White House some day. There is such an enormous contrast between Chiefs, the first book, and The Run, the latest. Chiefs was more than a novel. It was a great piece of "southern literature" with full blown characters, realism in the background, and the full range of life's issues to confront. But in The Run, Woods has done with Will Lee what Jack Clancy did with Jack Ryan, Clancy's once appealing hero. Lee is now a cardboard cutout, a caricature of the perfect liberal politician, as Jack Ryan is the perfect conservative. Like Clancy, and having so hollowed out his hero, Woods needs to buttress his candidate, Lee, by demonizing the other side to the point, in both cases, of silliness. This is the major detraction of the book.

While the characterizations are not much more than cliches, the plot background is not so bad and makes for an interesting read. Woods' background in journalism serves him well here. The outcome of the fictional election is eerily close to that of the teal one which took place months after the book came out. That's what provides the two stars in my rating. If the candidates had been more life-like, and the background a bit less melodramatic, it would have been a much better read.

Woods' books are still a "must have" for me, but I'll stick to the two latest Stone Barrington novels for now.

Rating:
Summary: Not a novel
Review: Stuart Woods has written some excellent books - Chiefs, Palindrome and many others - but this is not one of them. The title is "The Run : a Novel" but, in fact, this is not a novel; it is a political diatribe. If you think Cuba has a great form of government and love Fidel, Ted Kennedy and similar communists, you may enjoy this book. If, on the other hand, you think Thomas Jefferson got it right, Rush Limbaugh is a moderate and the Second Amendment means what it says then you should pass on this one.