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A terrorist bomb explodes during a South Korean celebration of the anniversary of the election of its first president. Alarms are raised in Washington. No one is claiming responsibility. The first suspect is North Korea. Could it be making a power play against South Korea and unification? If so, how will the U.S. respond? Paul Hood, Director of the Op-Center, must answer these questions. The Op-Center, a largely autonomous new agency which takes on the government's toughest security problems, is only six months old, and has never been given a foreign crisis until now.
It is fall. CIA analyst Jack Ryan, historian and former Marine, is vacationing in London with his wife and young daughter. Suddenly, right before his eyes, a terrorist group launches its deadly attack. Instinctively, he dives forward to break it up, and is shot. It is not until he wakes up in the hospital that he learns whose lives he has saved - the Duke and Duchess of Kent.
On a routine intelligence gathering mission in Tehran, Jack Ryan, Jr., has lunch with his oldest friend, Seth Gregory: an engineer overseeing a transcontinental railway project. As they part, Seth slips Jack a key, along with a perplexing message.
Twenty years ago, Dr. Kathy Ryan restored the eyesight of a young Bosnian girl who had been injured during an attack in the Balkan War. Today, her son, Jack Ryan Jr. has decided to surprise his mother by tracking down the young lady. What he finds shocks them both. The helpless child has grown into a remarkable woman. Aida Curic is a self-possessed beauty who runs a refugee agency that helps the children of her native Bosnia. Jack finds himself drawn to her, but before he can act on his feelings she's snatched off the streets of Sarajevo by kidnappers.
In this factual account written with General Carl Steiner (Ret.), a commander who held responsibility for all U.S. Special Operations forces across all service lines, we get special insight into a largely secretive community whose members do not talk about their work. We hear about it only afterwards: the Achille Lauro hijacking, the "takedown" of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, the efforts to find Aidid in Somalia. These are men sent in to do the impossible - and often, they achieve it.
Minor viruses are eating away at the Net Force computers. The e-mail shut-downs and flickering monitors are hardly emergencies, but they've been keeping the tech department hopping. Same with the sudden rash of time-consuming lawsuits. No one in the Net Force has a moment to spare, which is exactly the way Mitchell Townsend Ames wants it. Because when the shadowy mastermind launches his master plan, he wants Net Force to be looking the other way.
A terrorist bomb explodes during a South Korean celebration of the anniversary of the election of its first president. Alarms are raised in Washington. No one is claiming responsibility. The first suspect is North Korea. Could it be making a power play against South Korea and unification? If so, how will the U.S. respond? Paul Hood, Director of the Op-Center, must answer these questions. The Op-Center, a largely autonomous new agency which takes on the government's toughest security problems, is only six months old, and has never been given a foreign crisis until now.
It is fall. CIA analyst Jack Ryan, historian and former Marine, is vacationing in London with his wife and young daughter. Suddenly, right before his eyes, a terrorist group launches its deadly attack. Instinctively, he dives forward to break it up, and is shot. It is not until he wakes up in the hospital that he learns whose lives he has saved - the Duke and Duchess of Kent.
On a routine intelligence gathering mission in Tehran, Jack Ryan, Jr., has lunch with his oldest friend, Seth Gregory: an engineer overseeing a transcontinental railway project. As they part, Seth slips Jack a key, along with a perplexing message.
Twenty years ago, Dr. Kathy Ryan restored the eyesight of a young Bosnian girl who had been injured during an attack in the Balkan War. Today, her son, Jack Ryan Jr. has decided to surprise his mother by tracking down the young lady. What he finds shocks them both. The helpless child has grown into a remarkable woman. Aida Curic is a self-possessed beauty who runs a refugee agency that helps the children of her native Bosnia. Jack finds himself drawn to her, but before he can act on his feelings she's snatched off the streets of Sarajevo by kidnappers.
In this factual account written with General Carl Steiner (Ret.), a commander who held responsibility for all U.S. Special Operations forces across all service lines, we get special insight into a largely secretive community whose members do not talk about their work. We hear about it only afterwards: the Achille Lauro hijacking, the "takedown" of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, the efforts to find Aidid in Somalia. These are men sent in to do the impossible - and often, they achieve it.
Minor viruses are eating away at the Net Force computers. The e-mail shut-downs and flickering monitors are hardly emergencies, but they've been keeping the tech department hopping. Same with the sudden rash of time-consuming lawsuits. No one in the Net Force has a moment to spare, which is exactly the way Mitchell Townsend Ames wants it. Because when the shadowy mastermind launches his master plan, he wants Net Force to be looking the other way.
When Muslim fundamentalists blow up a key Soviet oil complex, making an already critical oil shortage calamitous, the Russians figure they are going to have to take things into their own hands. They plan to seize the Persian Gulf, and more ambitiously, to neutralize NATO. Thus begins Red Storm, an audacious gamble that uses diplomatic maneuver to cloak a crash military build-up.
Reeling from a shattered personal life, Net Force Commander Alex Michaels is informed that top secret information from a joint air force-navy venture has been accessed and downloaded. The research involves an atmospheric weapon with the capability to drive half a country into madness using low frequency wave generation. Now the technology has fallen into the wrong hands - and testing has begun....
His work for the CIA is brilliant, cold-blooded, and efficient, but who is he? In a harrowing tour de force, phenomenally best-selling author Tom Clancy shows how an ordinary man named John Kelly crossed the lines of justice and morality to become the CIA legend known as Mr. Clark. It is an unforgettable journey into the heart of darkness, without mercy - without remorse.
Act of Valor takes audiences deep into the secretive world of the most elite, highly trained group of warriors in the modern world. When the rescue of a kidnapped CIA operative leads to the discovery of a deadly terrorist plot against the U.S., a team of SEALs is dispatched on a worldwide manhunt. As the valiant men of Bandito Platoon race to stop a coordinated attack that could kill and wound thousands of American civilians, they must balance their commitment to country, team and their families back home.
In the year 2010, computers are the new superpowers. Those who control them control the world. To enforce the Net Laws, Congress creates the ultimate computer security agency within the FBI: the Net Force. It's the rich man's drug of choice - and it's being sold on the Internet for a thousand dollars a capsule. A potent mixture of smart drugs, psychedelics, angel dust, and steroids, it can turn a 50-year-old into a raging beast of aggression and sexual desire. Now it's up to the Net Force to find the source of this dangerous designer drug.
In the year 2010, computers are the new superpowers. Those who control them control the world. To enforce the Net Laws, Congress creates the ultimate computer security agency within the FBI: the Net Force. A Union Jack appearing on computer screens all over the world is just a harbinger of the danger to come. As cyberspace is thrown into chaos, several computer experts suffer strokes while hunting the deadly hacker in virtual reality. One of them is the Net Force's own Jay Gridley.
The Op-Center team heads for Spain, where ethnic conflicts threaten to break out into a conflagration. As the novel's intelligence chief Bob Herbert puts it, this clash "will make the Spanish Civil War look like a brawl."
The intelligence team's efforts to defuse the crisis are foiled when an Op-Center representative is assassinated in Madrid on her way to a high-level diplomatic meeting. Someone very powerful wants another Spanish War - no matter what the cost.
Now the crew must delicately navigate the treacherous shoals of a planned insurrection by a popular Spanish general and his troops. As usual, Clancy delivers a memorable cast of characters, and he welcomes us into the byways of little-traveled territory in this action-packed intrigue.
Just not good, these writers should spend more time developing their own style and not try to duplicate Clancy. I would bet their own style and creativity would shine through. For me I am through with any of the Op-Center books read by M Kramer
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
I love the entire series so far. Plot is realistic and grounded. Characters are believable and quick witted. Can't wait to start next book!
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Any additional comments?
This book was way off the mark for a Clancy Op Center genre story. Must have been a contractual deadline book they threw together to meet the obligation to the publisher. Stretch the story to fill the space.... so boring.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
loved it, suspenseful, kept on edge while listening, needs more of this type of novels
or something like that is actually Ortho chlorobenzyl aguinaldo lighting well not quite. narrator gets better and better whereas the rating gets worse and worse and worse and worse and Ortho chlorobenzene melanocyte lighting or something like that
Even though I read the book in paperback some years ago. And even though I listened to some later books in the Op-Center series last month and knew who would make it back home, this audio version of the story kept me up at night! With Steve Pieczenik and Tom Clancy stories I always feel like I come away wiser in the ways of the world and with restored faith in the real life characters like these who put their lives and talents on the line to serve (and save) humanity.
What did you love best about Balance of Power?
What I like best about Balance of Power is the realism of the Op-Center characters and their interactions with each other and their enemies. All are human and die just like everyone else and everyone has an important role to play.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Maria is my favourite characters just because I love sexy, brave and courageous female spies.
I just finished this book and found the same problems with it as I found with "Acts of War" Too many characters, too much jumping around in the story line and extremely poor story. I would give it zero stars if that were an option.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful