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Rating: 
Summary: Don't WASTE your money & time on this one
Review: For an author renown for his meticulous research on his previous books, Tom Clancy has definitely not done his homework on Balance of Power. His lack of understanding (& ignorance) of the present political/social situation in Spain is incredible, to say nothing about the totally unrealistic plot of the book - laughable. It is obvious to this reader that the author has never spent any time in Spain. As a Spanish reader, I found his characterization of Spaniards one dimensional & totally demeaning. As for his use of the Spanish language, I suggest he use a proper Spanish dictionary. Personally, I think Tom Clancy has confused the situation in Yugoslavia or maybe Russia & tried to apply it to modern day Spain.In conclusion, Balance of Power is a badly written book (where was the editor? ), with an unrealistic plot. DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS DOG!
Rating: 
Summary: Clancy as an example of American ignorance
Review: I had the chance to read this book during my last business trip to the States and I was very interested to see how Clancy dealt with this story about pseudo-nazi attitudes in today's democratic Spain. I've got to say that the plot is catching enough, masterly webbed; the setting though is not credible at all and, besides that, it's insulting not only for Catalans but for the rest of Spain's nations as well. In Europe, people usually have the feeling that Americans are ignorants in many matters as long as these don't relate to the US. Some of us, after knowing lots of educated American folks, changed our minds and began to think this was another old fashioned topic with no truth behind it. Unfortunately, Mr Clancy has made me change my mind again. Sorry.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book
Review: I want to begin by saying that I read not to critizice someone else's writting but to enjoy and spend some time emerged in different worlds and adventures that I could not otherwise experience :), and that because of that I do not consider any book to be GOOD or BAD, they are just different. That said, when I started this book I had high hopes based on the writters name, but I was deeply dissapointed. The story never seems to get your full attention, there is no action developed long enough to keep you turning the page, the plot seems to stall for the most part of the book, heck not even good caracter development, to the point where it is even hard to figure out who the main caracter is. As a native spanish speaker I was very amused by the many innacuracies in the "spanish" lines in the text. If you are going to use a foreign language in your dialog the least you can do is research it and have it edited with a little bit more accuracy and interest. I mention this because it is not an occasional use of the spanish language but a very frequent one, and it gets to be annoying. As I said at the start of the review, there is no GOOD or BAD book in my opinion, they are all somewhat entertaining, but this is one that is not going to make my list of memorable reads.
Rating:
Summary: A major disappointment
Review: It's a third and probably the last Clancy's book that I have read (or bought, anyways). The plotlines are more than predictable, and Clancy's trademark bad guys killing bad guys killing bad guys being courageously killed by good guys is somewhat less entertaining than it used to be in the Red Storm Rising. Even the lengthy military acronyms and denominations appearing here and there (like "each was armed with a Z-62 submachine gun or a Modelo L-1-003 rifle adapted to accomodate standard M-16 magazines") seem to be out of place. I have a feeling that any Spaniard would laugh outloud at the novel's settings and Spanish realia. Ironically, the best (or just entertaing) pieces are not the battle scenes or gadget descriptions, but the personal thoughts of an Op-center officer, whose marriage is heading towards a divorce. To sum up - I guess that Tom Clancy just couldn't deal with the collapse of the evil Soviet Union, and the best of his books are unfortunately in the past. Just where the Soviet Union is.
Rating: 
Summary: Greeat
Review: Op-Center books just keep getting better and better. Although like most Op-Center reads this starts off somewhat slow at the beginning but then when you get about halfway through it is wayn too hard to put this book down. This book has a excellent story line also. I hope Op-Center never stops.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the subtler Op-Centers
Review: Op-Center deploys to a fragmenting modern Spain and attempts to defuse a crisis by eleiminating a would-be dictator. Excellent characters and sparkling dialog. Most impressive to me is the writing -- fast-faced, yes, but with fine subtlety and deep human understanding. A good thriller, but a novel of impressive depths.
I found it increasingly intriguing as I went along.
Rating:
Summary: A Thrilling Novel!!!!!
Review: Op-Center: Balance of Power is a good book that ties up the Op-Center series(the reason I gave is 4 stars instead of 5 is because of the unecessary prejudice that Tom Clancy uses against the Spainards). Trouble arises when Op-Center agent Martha Mackall is gunned down in Spain on her way to a political meeting. This causes disturbance that turns to fear when a Spanish dictator who has gained a lot of power suddenly takes over a key part of the government and army. Op-Center is left with one obvious choice: Catch, if possible, Martha Mackall's assasins and to infilirate the Spanish dictator's base. From there they will have to try an almost futile attempt to bring the dictator out of power. Balance of Power is an excellent book that concludes the Op-Center series. The plot, though a little unrealistic, is exciting and fast-paced. I recommend this book to all of Tom Clancy's fans. Reviewed by ??????? Iceman 4 1/2 stars
Rating:
Summary: A Good Action Book!
Review: Personally, I found this book to be very entertaining. The Op= Center intelligence apparatus finds that Spain is about to begin experiencing internal problems. A potential revolution is just about around the corner. A Spanish General and his loyal troops are poised to take over the government of Spain. The general has a good following among the army units of the Spanish Army. The Striker unit is called upon to save Spain from an armed insurrection. The General and his troops are finally overcome and defeated by the Striker unit. The General is killed and his troops are defeated. The Striker unit once again saves the day. I thought that Tom Clancy used imagination is using Spain as a setting. The reading was exciting and came closed to being action packed. This was not a bad book. I was well satisfied.
Rating:
Summary: it is simply a bad book
Review: Since I read 'Clear and present danger' I have been a fan of Tom Clancy's books. Those books are usually well written, with enough details and an interesting line. They usually are believable since the author is able to unite reality and the storyline in the book. Well, this book was not another example of the above. The books reflects a situation in Spain that is just incredible. The author probably does not know anything about Spain, their political system and their military units (a list of those can be found easy in internet) The name of the non-American characters look like taken out from a cheap novel. I might remember the author than for example people have 2 last names. Another important error is the role of Interpol. Finally I would recommend the author that next time he decide to name organizations , streets and other 'details' he ask someone that: 1- Know Spanish (so he do not make those gross grammar mistakes) 2- Know Spain (so he do not make errors about politics, names and life). My conclusion about this book is that it look more like FANTASY than fictions. The storyline is not credible and it has too many mistakes that may offend an Spaniard (Spaniard = citizen from Spain) If I may say something more I recommend not to bother buying books from the OP-center and Net-force line since the quality of those is low and keep reading the other books written by Tom Clancy (that are more credible, better written and in general good)
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