This is the third fictional book written by Patrick Robinson. I see on Goodreads it is indicated as being a part of a series called 'Admiral Arnold Morgan'; it is a nice indicator, I suppose, for this batch of books. I thought it had a good plot and flowed well, overall. It did not grip me quite as much the second time around reading it; I think I mixed parts of this storyline up with Scimitar SL-2 when I started reading this again. This book focused more on the villain, per se, than it did the 'heroes', but I did not feel that this focus took away from the story. It did keep my interest the second time around reading it; I was not quite ready for it to be over when it ended.One nice trick the author did was (view spoiler)[ to focus on the villain by making him a 'sympathetic character' for the first chapter or two of the book. Unless one skipped ahead throughout the book or read the ending, or one had somebody 'spoil' the identity of the villain, one does not necessarily realize it is the villain from the first book, still alive. I felt like he really fleshed the character of Ben Adnam out really well. However, I could not say I was horribly disappointed with final closure of Ben's story within these stories. It is hard to see how he could have topped his prior efforts/feats from this book and Nimitz Class in any future stories. I realize some other reviewers already revealed this 'spoiler', but that is by and by as far as I am concerned (hide spoiler)]
Robinson is a master at creating a frightening and compelling plot. He excels at describing naval operations and military hardware and technology. However, in the midst of a fast-paced thriller he begins to suffer as he moves towards a conclusion. As in the first novel ,Nimitz, he begins to stumble forward like a runner who trips and runs forward without really regaining his balance. Robinson also slips into silly and ignorant ideas as he writes. For example, he has his villain address a high ranking ayatollah as "old chap" which is entirely out of character. He describes a Kansas rancher as wearing spurs when the rancher had never been near a horse. To be fair the English author may think cowboys always wear spurs, obviously something he knows nothing or very little about. Finally the author suffers from the curse of villain worship. He creates a bad guy who is so clever and skilled that he cannot stand to have him captured by some type of mistake or error. He also feels the need to grant the villain some form of honorable death. As usual, this author grabbed on to me with a gripping story that was a real page turner for the first 2/3 Of the book but fell Flat in the last 3rd. The epilogue/conclusion was utterly stupid.
What do You think about H.M.S. Unseen (2000)?
I am very much enjoying this series. One point, however: I find it hard to believe that the general public would be so dense as to not even think that the sinking of a nuclear aircraft carrier and then a few years later the downing of THREE aircraft were not accidents! PLEASE!!! And one other thing: I find it unusual and a little freaky that the first three books in this series were written in the late 1990s, but the author chose to write them as occurring in the 2000s. If 9/11 had not taken place, then these stories would have been good, but since there is obviously no mention of 9/11 I find them a little unsettling.
—Cynthia
This is another of a series. I read Kilo Class earlier. Ben Adnam is an Iraqi terrorist and submarine captain. He defects to Iran, and steals a diesel-electric sub from the British Navy. He has the sub fitted with a surface-to-air missile system and uses it to shoot down the Concorde and two other airplanes over the North Atlantic. Arnold Morgan is the US National Security Adviser trying to catch Adnam and the submarine.The reader is George Guidall. He does pretty well at catching all the various accents and tones of voice.
—Frederick Bingham
