Cuba

Rating:
Summary: Time for Jake Grafton to Retire!
Review: I've enjoyed all of Coonts books, but this one really dragged. Now that Grafton has gotten his stars, let's retire him and start a new series with an Ensign right out of The Boat School. Life is a bit dull at the top!

Rating:
Summary: Coonts at his BEST
Review: Great book! As riveting as 'The Devil's Teardrop',with a powerful ending to rival "The Triumph and the Glory" and a style perfect for the genre, this one is a must-read for fans of military thrillers.

Rating:
Summary: Not one his better books
Review: I felt the book was a bit slow. I like his books when he writes about aviation (Flight of the Intruder, the intruders, etc.) Here, the aviation seemed secondary to the action on the land.

What I'd like to read is a prequal to his "flight of the intruders" book, maybe having him a nugget on his first combat cruise, or having a book about jake even before that, describing his naval air training, the replacement squadron he was in, etc.

Rating:
Summary: Good use of old biological threat scenario
Review: Good little story about a sudden threat from Cuba. Enjoyed the narrative on life in Cuba and the people living there. Character development was a little light - especially if you are not familiar with Grafton/Tarkington from previous novels. Addition of the CIA agents was very good. As Grafton's rank increases it's becoming harder to keep him in the action. Some of the instances where the battle group command team inserts itself in the action are like those old Star Trek episodes where the least expendable people expose themselves to the most danger.

Rating:
Summary: Good book do not buy the tape
Review: The book was good. Good story and I was a good Jake Grafton Book. I suggest reading the whole series. I read the book and then purchaed the Book on tape. The third tape in the book is screwed up and the customer service number on the box will not help you.

Rating:
Summary: dull, unintresting, did not hold my attention.
Review: did not in no way come up to the standard of any of his other books, all of his other books were outstanding, cuba read like it was written by someone else.

Rating:
Summary: Not like his others but still a good read.
Review: It was a little slow in the beginning, but the end was lightning fast. I would have like to have read a little more about Jake but the ending made up for any shortcomings.

Rating:
Summary: Stilted but otherwise enjoyable
Review: Coonts gets the politics of present day Cuba all wrong (Castro, survivor of countless assassination attempts, allows an underling to accumulate enough power to threaten him and where is Raul?) He also misses the boat on some of the cultural aspects (Casinos in Havana while Castro still lives.) Nonetheless, if the reader can get past the unlikley setup, the story is interesting though not gripping. Still, like a film shot in Vancouver, B.C. while supposedly taking place in Seattle, this reader could not put the obvious errors regarding "location" out of my mind.

Rating:
Summary: Great ending
Review: Admiral Jake Grafton commands a battle group anchored in Guantanamo Bay. Mission? To transfer stored classified chemical weapons back to America. No big deal, until the cargo ship carrying the weapons disappears. Meanwhile, Fidel Castro lies dying from cancer. A maverick, General Vargas, hustles to assume control of Cuba's government. In downtown Havana, laboratories are making biological weapons, polio viruses deadly enough to kill in seconds. Two CIA agents, Chance and Carmellini, steal classified information from Vargas' office stating that he will use six Russian ICBMs to attack the U.S. Tipped with biological weapons, each missile has a name: Miami, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Charleston, New Orleans, and Tampa. Castro dies. Vargas seizes control. Prepares missiles for final countdowns. Grafton's battle group scrambles to red alert. In an emergency National Security Council meeting, the President argues that diplomacy through the United Nations will stop Cuba. General Tater Totten, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, disagrees and offers his resignation. He debates that only military intervention will save millions of Americans from a certain death. The President relents. Totten orders Grafton to use any necessary force--except nuclear--to invade Cuba. Targets; biological lab in Havana, air fields, ICBM silos. Fighter planes, helicopters, and Marine assault troops prepare for invasion. Coonts spends half the novel setting up a blazing ending. Does it well. About the time I tired of setup, boom. He slammed the throttles to the wall and lit the afterburners. Gut wrenching tension reminiscent of the Cuban Missile Crisis followed. Major characters include; a Jesuit priest Hector Sedano, possible beneficiary of Castro's seat; his sister Mercedes Sedano, Castro's longtime mistress and Ocho, famous Cuban baseball player who attempts to defect to the United States in a small fishing boat with eighty other Cubans. And, of course, Admiral Jake Grafton and Commander Toad Tarkington, Jake's longtime companion. Outstanding characters are CIA agents Chance and Carmellini. Grafton takes a backseat to the action. Instead, he plays the cool, seasoned commander who accepts the President's impossible order to invade Cuba and stop the crisis without antagonizing her population. In Cuba, you will discover how vulnerable America is to attack from any foreign country who doesn't like us very much. Coonts, a former naval aviator and attorney, flew combat missions over Vietnam. Six of his eight novels made the New York Times Bestseller list including Flight of the Intruder (28 weeks on the New York Times and a 1991 movie), Final Flight (ranked #12 on the annual 1988 U.S. bestseller list), andUnder Siege (cited by The New York Times as a 1990 notable book). He lives in Maryland with his wife and son. His Web site is http://www.coonts.com. Publishers Weekly says, "This gripping and intelligent thriller is a standout for Coonts, taking political turmoil and military brinkmanship."

Harry Odum is a published author and president of The Literary Review Service.

Rating:
Summary: A real Thought-provoking Thriller!
Review: I could not put this book down! As a former USAF B-52 crewmember, I could visualize every facet of the master "game plan" and marveled at the technical accuracy of the author! Dynamite!