America: A Jake Grafton Novel (Jake Grafton #9) by Stephen Coonts

Solid, but not an exceptional thriller

Originally published in 2001.

The strength of a Stephen Coonts novel is that he provides a thriller like Tom Clancy but not all of the techno-speak. Instead, he provides just enough to give the reader a taste but not enough to overwhelm.

The weakness of Stephen Coonts is that Jake Grafton, likable as he is, makes Star Trek's Captain Kirk look like an underachiever. Grafton is everywhere in this book (like all of them). Who needs specialists, like Navy SEALs or  an expert for a rocket launch? Instead, Jake Grafton is your man. Need someone to finagle a Russian spy? He's your man. How about someone to go on a raid, find a spy, fake an attack, go undercover to capture an international super-criminal? He's your man. And then, he gets to beat up the bad guy and pretty much save the world all by himself (his faithful sidekick Toad Tarkington joins in, too!) - again.

Stephen Coonts

Beyond that, America is a perfectly readable and entertaining book. The premise is that America's newest submarine, the America has been stolen. America is remarkable in that it is the quietest submarine ever built and it has the most sensitive sonar of any sub as well. So, it cannot be found easily and it can easily see everyone who is searching for it. It also comes with a detachable mini-sub as well

Why was it stolen? Well, I figured it out right away, but no one else does until the end of the book. The book starts out with the attempted launch of an advanced "Star Wars" type satellite. The launch fails and the satellite disappears into the Atlantic. Can you figure out why someone would want a submarine with a mini-sub now?

Anyway, America is chock full of advanced computer hackers, corrupt currency investors, mercenaries and advanced weaponry and it makes for a very readable thriller.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: America by Stephen Coonts.

Reviewed on March 22, 2011.

Cuba (Jake Grafton #7) (audiobook) by Stephen Coonts

Good thriller plot overcomes other issues

Originally published in 1999.
Read by Benjamin L. Darcie
Duration: 14 hours, 44 minutes
Unabridged

Just so you'll know, I am reviewing Cuba as an audiobook - I listened to it as an audiobook and as an audiobook it was pretty good, meaning that I never really wondered if there was something else on the radio that was better.

As to the plot - I found it to be especially interesting to have the book focus on the presence of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Cuba, considering our situations in Iran and North Korea and the famed search for WMD in Iraq. The descriptions of the power of these weapons and the reasons that tin-pot dictators and superpowers possess them was informative.

As always, Coonts writes wonderful action sequences. His characters are sometimes a bit stiff, especially with his American cabinet officials.

Quibbles I have with the book:

-Sometimes there's so much tech-speak that it bogs the story down. At times, Coonts seems more interested in showing us cool gadgets than moving the story along.

-Why is Rear Admiral Jake Grafton personally leading the invasion of a Cuban prison and checking out abandoned freighters with Toad Tarkington? 

-Why is Toad Tarkington leading military mission after military mission? 

Both Tpad and Grafton are in their 50s! Are there no Junior officers in his entire carrier group? Very Captain Kirk-ish. It seems to me that this would have been an excellent time to have passed the baton generationally and introduced the readers to a couple of new, young, enthusiastic officers who could do some of these rough and tumble adventures. 

Reviewed on September 10, 2004.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Cuba (Jake Grafton #7).