Book Review — Tom Clancy’s “Op-Center”
Today I finished reading the first book in Tom Clancy’s thrilling series, Op-Center.
Written and set in the mid 1990s, Op-Center is a brand new and experimental government agency that has the skilled operatives to handle those jobs deemed too risky or too controversial for other agencies. If there’s an imminent crisis involving the United States or its allies, then the Op-Center crew will be there to monitor and solve it.
This first Op-Center book begins with an outdoor speech and rally for reunification between North and South Korea. The event itself gathers a large crowd and even a former U.S. ambassador. And just when things seem to be running smoothly, a car bomb is detonated, killing scores and injuring hundreds more. It’s complete carnage. Amongst the dead is the ex-ambassador’s Korean wife.
Initial evidence places the blame on North Korean terrorists, but as the evidence grows, it becomes clearer that the real enemy behind the attack may be a lot closer to home. But the attack at the reunification rally was just the start. Another target is in sight, and if the terrorists aren’t stopped, then the whole Korean Peninsula may explode in all-out war.
Op-Center races along and the entire story takes place in about a day as the Op-Center team studies and attempts to solve the terrorist problem. From the initial attack to tracking the evidence to catching a spy, Op-Center cruises along at a brisk but still believable pace. The story does have a few plot holes that could have been further explained.
A minor issue I had with the book dealt with a scene involving an airstrike on a North Korean airfield in retaliation to the North Koreans firing upon a U.S. aircraft. The aircraft used in the airstrike was a naval version of the F-117A Nighthawk. Although the Air Force version of the ground-attack aircraft was made famous during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, that was it. There was no naval version of the aircraft capable of carrier operations. Such an aircraft was proposed by Lockheed in the early 1990s, but the project was never given the green light for production.
When you have the whole U.S. arsenal of aircraft, it’s rather odd that the author chose to use an aircraft that wasn’t even in consideration for production at the time.
The first thing to note about this Op-Center book is that it actually wasn’t written by Tom Clancy. While Clancy was still writing blockbuster novels back in the mid 1990s, Op-Center was penned by a different author. Instead, Clancy’s name dominates the cover and he receives partial credit for the creation of the story.
As it was stated earlier, the short chapters and quick pace keep the story going along at a quick pace. It took me just over a week to read Op-Center and that was at a casual pace. The characters and most of the scenarios are believable, and most of the action was interesting. Most of the story is set in Korea, but the author doesn’t go into a whole lot of detail with the setting. The interest is kept on the Op-Center crew operating in Washington, D.C. along with the operatives in North and South Korea.
Do take note that Op-Center follows the usual setup for most of today’s modern military / political thrillers in the book stores. It starts with action, builds a sense of doom as two organizations prepare for war, there’s a skirmish or two, and in the end the war is prevented. While this makes for great storytelling, it’s also predictable and can get repetitive and even boring after a while.
In the end, Op-Center was a short but pretty good novel. Soon I’ll tackle the next one in the series.
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