• Term Limits

  • By: Vince Flynn
  • Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
  • Length: 15 hrs and 30 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (6,850 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Term Limits  By  cover art

Term Limits

By: Vince Flynn
Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $22.46

Buy for $22.46

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

In one bloody night, three of Washington’s most powerful politicians are executed with surgical precision. Their assassins then deliver a shocking ultimatum to the American government: set aside partisan politics and restore power to the people. No one, they warn, is out of their reach—not even the president. A joint FBI-CIA task force reveals the killers are elite military commandos, but no one knows exactly who they are or when they will strike next. Only Michael O’Rourke, a former U.S. Marine and freshman congressman, holds a clue to the violence: a haunting incident in his own past with explosive implications for his country’s future.

©2009 Vince Flynn (P)2011 Simon & Schuster

Critic reviews

"A page-turning read." (Larry King, USA Today)
"Ingenious....Outpaces anything recently published, including Baldacci and Clancy." ( Florida Times-Union)
"A roller-coaster, edge-of-your-seat thriller with loads of insiders' lowdown on D.C. politics." ( Minneapolis Star-Tribune)

What listeners say about Term Limits

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4,789
  • 4 Stars
    1,502
  • 3 Stars
    407
  • 2 Stars
    92
  • 1 Stars
    60
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4,288
  • 4 Stars
    1,347
  • 3 Stars
    383
  • 2 Stars
    71
  • 1 Stars
    41
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4,312
  • 4 Stars
    1,272
  • 3 Stars
    366
  • 2 Stars
    103
  • 1 Stars
    64

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Vince Flynn's first novel

Action thrillers are my favorite novels. Vince Flynn is my favorite author and Term Limits, published in 1997, was his first book. It is also the only one of his 14 books that is not part of his Mitch Rapp series. All of Flynn's novels are in my Audible Library and I also own hard cover copies of all 14. Vince Flynn died at age 47 of prostate cancer in 2013. His foundation selected Kyle Mills to complete The Survivor, the 14th Mitch Rapp novel and to write future novels in the series. The Survivor will be released on October 6, 2015.

Term Limits is about the efforts of fa group headed by freshman congressman Michael O'Rourke l to return the government of the US from career politicians to the people. The novel introduces several characters that appear in later novels in the Mitch Rapp series. Most important is Dr. Irene Kennedy, a counter terrorism expert with the CIA (and later CIA Director). Kennedy is the only character to appear in all 14 of Vince Flynn's novels. Other characters in Term Limits that reappear in some of the Rapp series novels are ex-Navy Seal Scott Coleman, CIA Director Thomas Stanfield, and FBI agent Skip McMahon.

All of Flynn's 14 novels earn a 5 star rating, but it is unusual for ant new writer to start out with a novel of the extreme high quality of Term Limits.

Nick Sullivan narrates Term Limits and does a good job. He also narrated the first two Rapp books written. Ken Kilban narrates the third Rapp book. George Guidall narrates the other 10 novels in the Mitch Rapp series. Guidall is superb.

Although I have been an Audible member since December 2006 (yes I know that my profile says "Audible Member since 2015" - it's invalid) and I have more than 750 books in my Audible library more than half of which are action thrillers, I have only recently begun to write reviews. I doubt that I will ever have time to catch up on reviews. But I do want to mention other action thriller series authors that I really like and whose complete works I own and have read. A partial list follows:

Jack Ryan series by Tom Clancy taken over by Mark Greaney
Gabriel Allon series by Daniel Silva
Scott Harvath series by Brad Thor
Jack Reacher series by Lee Child
Dewey Andras series by Ben Coes
Pike Logan series by Brad Taylor
Delta Force series by Dalton Fury
The John Corey Series by Nelson DeMille
Tessa Leoni series by Lisa Gardner (note: Audible does not recognize this as a series. The books in order are Love You More, Touch & Go, and Crash & Burn)
FBI Profiler series by Lisa Gardner (Audible does not recognize but the books in order are The Perfect Husband, The Third Victim, The Next Accident, The Killing Hour, Gone, Say Goodbye)
The Jonathan Quinn series by Brett Battles
The Project Eden Series by Brett Battles
The John Puller series by David Baldacci
The Camel Club series by David Baldacci
The Lincoln Perry series by Michael Koryta
The Jerico Quinn series by Marc Cameron
The Jack Pendelton series by Chuck Barrett
The Nathan McBride series by Andrew Peterson
The Jon Milton series by Mark Dawson.
The Beatrix Rose series by Mark Dawson
The In the Company of Killers series by JA Redmerski (audible has only the first 4 books so you will need to get Kindle ebook versions of the 5th and the soon to be released 6th)

The list above is not all inclusive. For example, I did not mention the DD Warren series by Lisa Gardner, either of Karin Slaughter's excellent Will Trent of Grant County series, Baldacci's Maxwell and King series, either of Michael Connelly's Mickey Haller and Harry Bosch series, either of John Sandford's Luke Davenport and Virgil Flowers series, Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne series (now written by Kyle Mills), Ken Follett, etc.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

193 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

IN THE BEGINNING

First off...I know there's some who think that the only Vince Flynn worth listening to is read by George Giddal and having the complete series I can understand that, but Nick Sullivan does a pretty good job too. I found myself not even noticing the different reader once the story really got going.

As others have said this is sort of the set up for what was to become the Mitch Rapp series.....Without Mitch....Oh and it's a bit dated because mobile phones were either carried in bags or were car phones. None the less this was a great insight to the setting that eventually Mitch Rapp became part of with most of the main characters on board.

One thing I get a kick out of with Vince Flynn is that he really has a very low opinion about politicians and those who work under them. This is consistant in almost every book. They are evey bit as big of a problem as the terrorists.

Vince Flynn is such a good story teller. I'm a trucker and his books really help chew up miles because they really keep me interested in what's going to happen next. I was just looking to see if I missed any and found out I have them all...Damn good listens...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

104 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Term Limits

My first encounter with Vince Flynn was "Consent To Kill" which I found magnificent. So of course I went to his first book to start them in series IE "Term Limits". I found "Term Limits" very well written, exciting and entertaining. I also like George Guidall as a Narrator but I thought this narrator (Nick Sullivan) was just superb. I can't wait to download "Transfer of Power" which is the next in sequence.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

49 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

What A Concept! :o)

What a concept. We rid Washington of greed and coruption by killing off all the crooks but there is just one problem with that... the list is way too long ! LOL. Seems to me other Flynn fans just want Mitch. I thought this book and it's characters was just as exciting as any of the Rapp books and shows Flynn's ability to take those characters and wrap them into a well crafted plot that didnt really need Mitch. In fact, I would like to see more of Nash and Coleman incorporated into the Rapp books. Even though I am a big Mr G. fan, I thought Nick Sullivan did a great narration. The tone of his voice is very pleasing, he knows how to control his breathing, and is able to match voice pace to story flow. Having read all Flynn's work, I highly recomend this one.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

29 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Best Who Done It 5/12/23 third time I've listened

really enjoyed the book I recommend it and I really like the concept almost like it could happen today. well read by a talented narrator.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

28 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Unfortunately It's Fiction

Clearly the writer was so dissatisfied with how our federal government is being run, he chose to write this provocative story to make his point. Three high ranking congressional persons are killed by unknown assassins just to get people to pay attention to their demands. Even the President is warned that he is well within their reach. If you are one of the many who feel Washington has let us all down with their political arrogance and profligate spending. You will enjoy this book. The bad guys are exposed, and subjected to the potential of a very literal "term limit."

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Not bad for first book

I believe this was Vince Flynn's first book so it's not as concise and exciting as some of the more recent ones. Not too bad for a first attempt though. However, the narration doesn't do the book any justice. The narrator makes all the agents sound old, unhealthy and extremely boring. I almost couldn't finish listening to it. Please redo this audiobook with George Guidall as the narrator. I will never buy another Mitch Rapp book not narrated by George Guidall. Thats for sure.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Not Mitch Rapp, but just as good!

I loved the entire Mitch Rapp series and was not sure I would like a stand-alone version. Although this is not a Mitch Rapp escapade, it has many of the trappings with several of the same characters (Director Stansfield, Irene Kennedy, and several others, including Skip McMahan who plays a big role in this adventure. I found it particularly appealing given the present political climate. THe President's Chief of Staff, Garrett, is a particularly offensive person who really needed a good kick in the behind. I thought he had too much power to be believable, but I also found him necessary to the overall story.

This book gives new meaning to the phrase "Term Limits". It remind me of the old movie "Divorce, Italian Style" which refers to the fact that the only way to divorce your spouse is through his death. In this case, "Term Limits" shows that if Congressmen are not able to self-impose a limit on their terms of office, a good assassin can always show them how it can be done.

At first glance, the story appears unrealistic - killing Congressmen who aren't willing to do what is good for the country instead of focusing on their own agendas, but well into the story, I began to think "this is not so far-fetched" and "many this wold be a good solution to a lot of our country's problems." I really liked the idea that the unknown assassins went to great lengths to make sure no civilians were never caught in the cross-fire, focusing inastead on only the people responsible for the problems.

One comment - I am a person who often finds that when I get home, I want to sit in the car and continue to listen to the story because I can't wait to see what happens next. This audio book was extremely long (over 15 hours), but throughout, I found that I just did not want to stop. I found myself turning the book on while I was cooking or doing housework, just because I wanted to see what happened next,

I highly recommend this to any Flynn followers, but also to anyone who enjoys a political novel that exposes Congressmen's dirty laundry. Happy reading.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

An eye opening look at Washington Politics

Wow. What a powerful book dealing with the corruption in Washington Politics. It is down-right frightening to see what could happen if a group of disgusted American patriots could do if they decided that political lies and back room deals had gone too far. When they decided to do something about it, it was refreshing at the least. great reading as fiction, but
it could happen.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

not his best, but entertaining none the less

For the most part, I enjoyed the book. This novel had the feel of a first attempt. Fortunately for all of us Flynn has continued to grow and build on some of these characters. I had heard this novel was a little choppy but I really wanted to see where it all began. Thank you Vince Flynn, I love your books.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful