- Hardcover: 464 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; First Edition First Printing edition (April 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0060193158
- ISBN-13: 978-0060193157
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16.5 x 3.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 850,222 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Synopsis
A British submarine, presumed lost at sea, mysteriously reappears, shooting down two commercial airplanes and Air Force Three with the American vice-president aboard, and security advisor Arnold Morgan begins a desperate race to stop the next attack.
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First Sentence
THE LIGHT WAS FADING ALONG HAIFA STREET, and it was almost impossible to spot any Westerners in that seething, poor section of Baghdad. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
THE LIGHT WAS FADING ALONG HAIFA STREET, and it was almost impossible to spot any Westerners in that seething, poor section of Baghdad. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
First the good points:
- an exciting story involving high intrigue and the world's most wanted terrorist
- confrontation between the USA and England on one side and Iraq and Iran on the other side - how topical can you get?
- a techno-thriller about an undetectable submarine and lots of other modern military hardware
- an exciting story involving high intrigue and the world's most wanted terrorist
- confrontation between the USA and England on one side and Iraq and Iran on the other side - how topical can you get?
- a techno-thriller about an undetectable submarine and lots of other modern military hardware
With all that going for it, H.M.S. Unseen should have been a great read. But what did we get? A book that makes the exciting moments (stealing the submarine, the shooting down of the Concorde, etc.) sound dull, and makes the in-between parts positively sleep-inducing.
On top of that, the ending is really poor. (Spoiler alert - don't read any more if you want to avoid learning how the book ends.)
The President of the United States decrees that the government of Iraq (i.e., Saddam Hussein) is to be punished. The President's national security advisor implements an attack which results in a major portion of Iraq becoming flooded. The national security advisor proudly reports to the President that Iraq's economy has been dealt a major blow from which it will take them 10 years to recover.
So it's apparently considered legitimate to cause major suffering to the entire population of a country just to "punish" the dictator at the top. In reality, Saddam is presumably totally unconcerned with his people's suffering and will probably find himself in a strengthened position, since he and his people now have proof that they have a common enemy with no moral scruples.
Of course, reality has now bypassed this portion of the book. So although the story is supposedly set in the near future, it must now be considered a total fiction which isn't even remotely possible.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
109 reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Good beginning, terrible end...
10 Jun 1999
Format:Hardcover
I loved Robinson's two previous books, and liked that one... until page 200. Then the story grinds to a halt and proceeds at snail's pace to a very disappointing end. I read the second half of the book by skipping 9 pages out of 10 and didn't miss anything important. There are already too many bestselling authors (Cornwell, Clancy, Follet to cite a few) that are currently writing books way below the standards of their beginnings... I just hope that Robinson didn't join the lot. I guess I also just got sick of buckshot in Admiral Morgan's coffee and of his racist habit of calling muslims "towelheads"... also Robinson seems to have a love for series (sinking 11 Kilos in the previous opus and shooting three airliners in this one) that doesn't help with the predictability of his plots. A good editor could have (should have) taken care of that.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Ending Weak
21 Dec 1999
Format:Audio Cassette
This is for the recording. The action in Patrick Robinson's "H.M.S. Unseen" moves at quite a pace. Robinson introduces techncial issues rapidly and efficiently to show how a submarine could shoot down airliners (including one with the Vice President of the United States). The motivation of Commnader Benjamin Adnam is understandable, but the author does not make a good case for Adnam's conversion into a distressed penitent ...attempting to make admends for all his crimes against humanity. The characterization of the American Admirals suffers in the recorded version. I listened to David McCallum (of "Man From Uncle" fame) on my daily drive. McCallum failed to convert his educated British accent into a reasonable facsimile of an American twang. Further, the author puts too many "F---this" and "holy sh--" and "Jesus H. Christ" into the admiral's dialogue. I found it offensive. American admirals have long since passed the stage of bumbling colonials, unable to make a coherent statement under stressful situations ---- especially admirals who are supposed to be giving daily briefings to the U.S. President. (By the way,"stewardess" is out and "flight attendant" is correct.) Finally, the ending is weak. It is difficult, based upon the characterization of Muslim Commander Adnam, to believe that he would end it all that way.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
This dude grew on me...
20 Mar 2000
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This book is the third in what I hope will be a long series. But you know, when I bought "Nimitz Class" because the concept almost intrigued me, after the first read, it almost wound up getting contributed to my church's book sale table. Speaking as a Tom Clancy fan, Robinson was an acquired taste. To compare him to Clancy is a mistake--Robinson concentrates heavily on ships, where Clancy only did one book which spent that much time on the water: "Red October". If you picture somebody who falls between him and Clive Cussler, you've got Patrick Robinson. Where he's like Clancy is that his characters are plain ole life-size, not Homeric like Cussler's Dirk Pitt. The only problem I see is that his American characters aren't always that convincing. In "Kilo Class", he had a Yank using a Brit vulgarism my countrymen would never do unless we were doing a Michael Caine impression. But don't let that stop you from buying this book--in the same way the Colonel does chicken well, Robinson does Navy well.
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