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Summary: Good Entertainment
Review: It was a good, enjoyable book. The dialog was a bit too polished for real Hong Kong. The circumstances are a true stretch from reality. But the book was a entertaining weekend distraction.
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Summary: Pox on commie apologists
Review: Look at the mewling the communist apologists engage in here! The one sentence that sums up exactly why all this vitriole is spewed at Coonts is the very last one... "Any complaints should be addressed to the Pinyin troglodyte in Peking, or Beijing, or whatever."This book is a no holds barred look at the amazingly corrupt communist regiem that now ownes Hong Kong. It is fast paced, and a great read. If you hate communist China, this book will put a smile on your face.
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Summary: A decent book.
Review: No complaints. It just never really takes off. A good addition to my Coonts collection.
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Summary: Another great read from a fellow West Virginian
Review: Nothing else needs to be said. I've read all Coonts' books and they are all very satisfying. I even got this one signed. Brother Dave from West, Virginia
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: See Storyline above. This, in my opinion,is one of those rare 5 star books. It packs a ton of action with an outstanding locale. You'll actually find yourself cheering for the good guys with enthusiasm. The two different plots in the book are weaved together with a fine touch. Jake Grafton must rescue his wife from a greedy criminal while at the same time rebels are trying to overrun the communists. This is one heck of a good read, and if action is on your list, don't miss this one. Highly recommended.
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Summary: The Ultimate Technothriller
Review: Stephen Coonts is a shining example of an author whose writing ability has not degraded over the years. Unlike Tom Clancy or Dale Brown, who began as good thriller writers but have recently degraded to being too long winded and repetitive to write good books. This book is easily one of his best, which ranks with Flight of the Intruder and Fortunes of War as one of his best. It is a marked improvement over his previous book, Cuba. It is really the first book that I was unable to put down. I read it all night. It is exactly what a thriller should be lean, to the point, action packed, and with characters that are believable. Finally, there are complaints from some critics about a technology that is used in the book; it is perfectly realistic if you read about the technology that the US armed forces are coming out with in the near future, it is just a step from what is already planned.
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Summary: Jake Grafton Makes Smooth Transition Ashore
Review: Stephen Coonts proves he is more than equal to the task of maintaining the Jake Grafton character as he ages and moves away from the cockpit and the flight deck. This story harkens back to the tone and the pace that Coonts set with Under Siege, another book that found Jake Grafton ashore. Coonts works in some old characters, an exotic locale and some pretty good observations on the looming political/cultural struggles in China. He also weaves in some good comparisons to present day Hong Kong and life the way it was under British rule. There is enough high-tech stuff here to satisfy the techno-thriller reader, but it is paralleled by some good character portraits and an expansion of the character of Jake's wife, Callie. All in all a very satisfiable addition to the Jake Grafton series.
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Summary: The Dragon Belches
Review: Stephen Coonts' latest Jake Grafton story is another good one, but different from the norm. In this story, set in the People's Republic of China's newest Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong, Jake does not operate as part of the Naval Establishment. His adventure is solo, or nearly so. In 1997, of course, the British turned the Crown Colony of Hong Kong over to the mainland Chinese. The PRC pledged that Hong Kong would be able to continue upon its capitalistic ways as a Special Administrative Region , just with a little supervision. It is to this environment that Admiral Jake Grafton comes now, officially on vacation but actually on a secret mission for the National Security Council. The US consul-general in Hong Kong is Virgil Cole, who was Jake's weapons systems officer flying A-6 Intruders in Viet Nam. Virgil was badly injured when he and Jake were shot down. After his recuperation Virgil left the Navy and became a high-tech billionaire. He supported the right politicians and was appointed to the Hong Kong consulate. Now there is some suspicion that he may be involved in channeling illegal contributions from the PRC bureaucracy to US politicians. Since Jake and he are old shipmates, Jake is sent to investigate. Jake's wife, Callie, is invited to participate in a program for Chinese students. With this cover, Jake starts out on what is officially a vacation, but which quickly, as a reader familiar with Coonts' work might expect, goes awry. Jake does what Jake always does, of course. He charges straight into the hornets' nest and makes things come out all right. This is not Coonts' finest, but it is a good, solid story. The technology gets to be a little far out, but mostly it is still believable. It is interesting that both Coonts and Clancy have their latest stories directed to and resolving difficulties with China. I wonder what people in the Chinese bureaucracy think about that.
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Summary: Not His Best
Review: The good news is that Jake Grafton is back, and that this one is a good fast read. The drag is that he's out of the cockpit, and the book stays on the ground. It doesn't soar. Grafton is in fine form, in Hong Kong, where his old buddy Tiger Cole (the Guy-In-Back in FLIGHT OF THE INTRUDER) is formenting a revolution. But we are expected to accept Jake as-is -- new readers to the series must find it hard to comprehend. There is very little back-story. Series readers know who Toad is; in HONG KONG he's just a voice on the other end of the telephone who gives information to advance the plot. The line between the techno-thriller and science fiction has blurred over recent years. But I've got to say that when you trot out killer robots, you've gone over the line. All in all, a good, fast read, better than most of what you'll come across, and hopefully the next Jake Grafton novel will find him back in the cockpit.
Rating: 
Summary: Promising start followed by steep decline
Review: This book begins as a thriller and appears to have been very well researched. At first glance, it reproduces the sights and sounds of Hong Kong as if you were there yourself. Having lived there for 6 1/2 years I believe to be a fairly good judge of that. Small mistakes such as Coonts' lack of knowledge and experience in how different Chinese dialects will affect spelling and pronunciation of Chinese names may be forgiven. However, the book soon develops into a military science-fiction farce with an unrealistic political plot and degrades at most to B-movie standard. Coonts finally demonstrates that his research has been based on hearsay rather than own travel when he makes one very important mistake: He simply omits the Eastern Harbour Crossing, the tunnel that links the north-eastern part of Hong Kong island with the Kowloon peninsula. An error of that magnitude - and it surprises me not to have read about it in other book reviews - is unforgivable and trashes any last trace of realism one might have been good enough to award Coonts. His military plot - ridiculous robots aside - hinges on there being one tunnel and simply breaks up in the knowledge that there is in fact a second tunnel that seems to have escaped his research. In the final analysis, this book is a waste of precious reading time, and of money.
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