Rating: 
Summary: Balance of political correctness
Review: Even with a skilled author, this book doesn't fulfill its' potential because it is locked into a specific political dogma. The events portrayed are unbelievable and the 'bad' characters too sterotypical. Although I agree with the author's theme that gun control in the US is a farce, it would have been much more effective to make such a case without allowing the constraints of politics to become an interference. However, if you consider yourself an entrenched political liberal or a socialist, this is your book.
Rating: 
Summary: Frustration with a Capital "F"
Review: AAAHHHHHH!!!! I never thought I'd get to the end of this one. Usually a Richard North Patterson fan, I was surprised (not pleasantly) that this book resembled the Energizer Bunny in that it "kept going and going and going". While the storyline was great and the characters were likable, I found myself saying, "just vote on the legislation and put us out of our misery". I MADE myself finish this book because I kept thinking the end would justify the means, unfortunately when I turned the last page I just cheered out of simple and utter relief.
Rating: 
Summary: European perspective
Review: As an Italian living in Switzerland, I really enjoyed this book as an insight in the american gun debate. It is very interesting to read it just after seeing "bowling for Columbine". In most euroopean countries, to buy a gun you need a difficult to obtain licence, and absolutely no way you could buy one at a show. And those bullets are non-existant. So, I was totally appalled by this mass hysteria about "gun-rights". And the book is an enjoyable read.
Rating: 
Summary: Among Finest Political Novels Written
Review: Assuming you are comfortable with theme of gun control, I highly recomend the third volume in Patterson's trilogy about his liberal crusading main character, President Kerry Kilcannon. What is extraordinary about these three novels is that Patterson captures the rich,full spectrum of modern politics and makes real the horrendous pressures that are focused on the main players in a national political drama. The cast is large (and requires patience at the start) but resulting portrait communicates more about how the system really works than a stack of textbooks or a shelf of simplistic thrillers.
Rating:
Summary: Worst book I never finished.
Review: I normally enjoy Mr. Patterson's books and am not a gun dealer, collector, or advocate. I may go buy one now. Other than the improvement Mr. Patterson has made in his overuse of the words SARDONIC, and PENNSIVE, he has written a book clearly with an idealogical agenda replacing good fiction. Once one of favorite authors, I will think twice before reading him again.
Rating:
Summary: Boring political propaganda
Review: I will never buy another book by this author.I didn't even finish this one after realizing that it was just a tedious recital of the author's ideological views with a thin veneer of fiction. Whether or not one agrees with his views, it was deceptive to promote this book as an entertaining mystery story. I feel ripped off.
Rating:
Summary: Liberals Will Love it, RIght Wingers will Hate it
Review: If you love George Bush, or the NRA, you probably won't like this book.
Me, I'm a liberal and this book was WONDERFUL. It's a novel written by a first class novelist who has clearly put a lot of time into researching how things work in D.C., in the white house, the media, the senate... This is my second Patterson book and frankly, I'm going to keep tearing through his ouvre.
The book explores the machinations of a fictious group that's a lot like the NRA, with creepy characters who resemble some from real life.
The character development in the story is excellent. The detail that describes the workings of the legislative process and all the influences involved is incredible. Patterson brings characters to life and gets you caring about them. He even includes a bit of a love story.
But mostly, this book tells a riveting, stay up half the night to keep reading story that totally revolves around an honest president who refuses to sell out to corporate or special interests. I know. It's fantasy reading. But hopefully, soon, that won't be the case.
I'm also the editor of opednews dot com, a progressive political website.
Rating:
Summary: RNP is the best political novelist of our time
Review: My first review of a book on Amazon was Patterson's "Protect and Defend" (P&D). After that, I read "Carolyn Masters" and "No Safe Place" (NSP). This is at least his fourth book of some common characters, and I understand that one other has Kerry Kilcannon at a much earlier stage in his life.Patterson's major protagonist in the Kerry Kilcannon trilogy, who eventually becomes President late in the first book, is an amalgam of the charm and chrisma of JFK, the ruthlessness and idealism of RFK, the cunning and legislative skills of LBJ, and the intelligence, and some of the personal history and political resilience of Bill Clinton. In other words, he's quite a guy; perhaps a little too good to be true even in a novel. But that being said, in "Balance of Power", Patterson has written quite a novel. I met Mr Patterson shortly after I read Protect and Defend, and he told me that he was working on and doing research for this novel about gun control. I had no idea that he would be able to treat this subject in the same way and in the same context that he had some of the most contentious issues in the abortion debate. But he has. This is a wonderful novel, fast paced, dramatic, full of fully developed characters that, especially if you've read his previous novels, (NSP) and (P&D), one can care about. I find it more than a little amusing that some of the most strident of the one star reviewers claim to be Patterson fans, but seemingly didn't know his previous novels had also called to task the extreme right wing of the American political spectrum that holds today's Rebublican party in thrall. One of the things that makes Patterson's last three novels really fun to read is the connecting of both his most admirable and more dispicable characters to their real life counterparts in public life. Perhaps the easiest to place are Senators Chad Palmer, McDonald Gage and Fasano - the Rick Santorum character. (Although Sen. Fasano is much brighter and more admirable even in his slimy manipulations of those around him than is Pennsylvania's Santorum.) Sen. Paul Harshman, the neanderthal political hack who carries a lot of the right's dirtiest wash, contains so many of the more vicious and less admirable attributes of the Republican majority in both the House and the Senate, that he could be patterned on any of scores of current and recent past members of those once great bastions of democratic representative government. I hope that now that Patterson says that he is finished with the Killcannon trilogy that he will imagine in some future novel that an unprincipaled and reactionary dominated Supreme court will replace Kilcannon with some pip squeak figurehead Southwestern governor with the character of a pimp and the morals and vision of an Enron CEO, and let us know what things might be coming down the pike under some future fictional administration. But that's too far fetched, even for Patterson's fertile mind, isn't it? Like Patterson's last two best sellers, this is one of the best researched, most intelligent and principaled political and court room novels I've ever read. But I can certainly understand why the trogolodytes of the right might be offended by his characterization of some of their positions and defenders. Rick Patterson calls an idiot an idiot, a fool a fool, and a fraud a fraud. We can't have that, now. Can we? William F. Harrison
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: Another Hot Button Fizzle
Review: Talented Novelists like Mr. Patterson could probably write a serviceable novel about gun control- but none of them have done it yet. There seems to be some ethos against learning about the subject at hand. The novelists persist in locating manual safety catches on "automatic revolvers" and chambering the Colt Woodsman for .38 Special.
In Mr. Patterson's case he insists on finding substantial differences among the various types of firearms - claiming that a sniper rifle is essentially different than a deer rifle or a sporting handgun might be different than one designed for the pure titilation of right wing Walter Mitties or criminals.
Here is a fact for him and all his readers. Any medium powered centerfire rifle made since 1892 can be used by a mediocre markmans to consistently hit a human target out to 300 yards. A telescopic sight is helpful but not necessary and a solid rest is essential. The only difference in a "Sniper" rifle and a run of the mill hunting rifle is the lable stamped on the barrel and a few ugly features thrown in for pizzazz.
Beyond 300 yards, trajectory and wind deviation require the shooter to have some knowledge about those factors. A skilled shooter can extend the effective range to four or five hundred yards or farther under ideal conditions. Mr. Patterson mentions 1.5 miles as a maximum range and this is well beyond the capabilities of even the 50 BMG rifles.
Message to novelists: Stick to subjects like Sex and greed and avoid the one's you arn't willing to study.
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