It has been well over twenty years since I last read this novel. I read it on a whim, and enjoyed the reading. It had a decent plot; the basic plot is one that the author [and many others like him] has recycled over and over and over. It moved at a decent pace, I guess. It had a lot of 'talking' and not a lot of 'doing' [action] in it. The character development is so-so, I guess. Characters are introduced, but there are so many characters that there is not much room for any kind of development. It is your 'basic' kind of story in that there is some kind of catastrophe [or accident] involving some kind of advanced weapons-technology. A widget is required for the recovery operation, only the ally is unwilling to relinquish control of the widget. Eventually, the widget is shared, treachery in high places is uncovered, and 'justice' finally prevails in the end.One thing that stood out to me, though, was a conversation between the British Ambassador to the United States and the President. The President believes he must 'come clean' and 'air the dirty laundry' of what has happened for all the world to see in regard to the high-ranking treachery. The British Ambassador states that this airing of dirty laundry is not only unnecessary but counterproductive. He also goes on to give some decent examples of why this is the case. I thought it was an excellent argument, that not EVERYTHING, EVERY government mistake, needs to be revealed in the press. People most assuredly do NOT have a 'right' to 'know everything' in intimate detail. It is not necessary; it can also be dangerous to individuals when some things are revealed. Invariably, the press only gives a limited side of what they are covering and how they present the story to the general population [especially, it seems, when politics become involved]. The 'issue' of the two high-ranking traitors is quickly and quietly resolved, without any fanfare.Oddly enough, the character with the most development is the villain of the piece. He is introduced exhibiting some odd behavior, and the Royal Navy officers eventually discover his criminal background as well as how wealthy he is. We end up learning more about him than any other character in the book, which means he has the most character development. The RN captain calls him [the 'main villain'] a 'mad dog,' and rightly so. The final solution is quite final indeed.Despite the lack of 'action' in the book, it still moved at a good pace. There were some 'odd jumps' where the scenario would abruptly change between the RN vessel and the White House; that was a bit jarring. It seems like he as done a better job bouncing between locales in other stories.It did seem like, at times, he had characters repeating each other. The amount of dialogue could probably have been significantly reduced if many of the repetitive comments were to be removed, or restated so that reference is made to the prior conversation and then moving on from there, as very little 'new' information seemed to be added with subsequent conversations about the same material.His books are always interesting to read, because despite the amount of testosterone he tries to instill in his books, the hero rarely 'gets the girl' during the course of the book. There is very little if any romance, in this book. I do not think it detracts from the book; it is just interesting how romance [or seduction] rarely factors into his stories.Overall, it was still a fun read. Despite its failings and whatnot, I still enjoyed it.
I really wanted to like this book, considering it was the last book he wrote before he passed away the following year, and chronologically it was right after my favorite book as a kid San Andreas, written by himself. Alas--I was disappointed. The story itself was rock solid and a page turner, yet somehow he wrote dialogue that was so dated and repetitive it was hard to slog through. This book took forever for me to read because yet again, no first names were used, only ranks usually, so hard to figure out who was talking; and when they did talk they would go on for paragraphs repeating everything they had just said. It could have been so much better and tighter in my opinion.
