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The Jakarta Plot by R. Karl Largent from Books In Motion.com
political thriller
927 pages, Audio CD
First published January 1, 2002
2 people are currently reading
21 people want to read
About the author
R. Karl Largent
25 books10 followersR. Karl Largent, a.k.a. Robin Karl or Simon Lawrence, is an author, lecturer, and columnist who teaches writing at Tri-State University. Before launching his writing career, he spent 30 years in industry, the last 17 as VP of Marketing for a Fortune 500 multinational. A former horse show judge and trainer of youth horses, he competed in SCCA road racing events, flew as a weather observer in the USAF, completed a tour of duty in the Arctic and served with the U.S. Weather Bureau.
R. Karl Largent is the author of over 600 columns. He has also authored nearly two dozen novels including the bestselling "Red" series. He has also written six non-fiction books as well as numerous articles for magazines, newspapers and other publications.
R. Karl Largent is the author of over 600 columns. He has also authored nearly two dozen novels including the bestselling "Red" series. He has also written six non-fiction books as well as numerous articles for magazines, newspapers and other publications.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 22, 2022
China tries to stop a Pacific countries' alliance. Sounds like it would be true to life, but it seems like something from out of the 70's.
May 11, 2019
I originally read this in 1999 and never reviewed it until now, in 2015. R. Karl Largent is one of my favorite authors and I really miss him. This was another one of his one-off stories and the plot involves a meeting of world leaders in Jakarta to give the Chinese an ultimatum on nuclear testing. Mayhem ensues.
While some have debated technical issues with the story, I could care less. I’m neither versed, nor that picky about details like that and have a fairly high suspension of disbelief unless it’s particularly egregious. I didn’t find any of that.
Thankfully told in his usual third-person point of view, I was able to enjoy every page and had a great time while closing the book with a smile on my face.
Can’t ask for better than that. Highly recommended.
While some have debated technical issues with the story, I could care less. I’m neither versed, nor that picky about details like that and have a fairly high suspension of disbelief unless it’s particularly egregious. I didn’t find any of that.
Thankfully told in his usual third-person point of view, I was able to enjoy every page and had a great time while closing the book with a smile on my face.
Can’t ask for better than that. Highly recommended.
August 19, 2018
IokOk
May 16, 2022
It was written in 1999 so although you wouldn’t expect social media and mobile telephony you would expect a credible plot and some local empathy. But no. A threadbare plot, a central character who can do everything and an unconvincing local narrative. Rubbish. I seem to recall Tom Clancy already setting the standard for such thrillers and this one is not in the same league.
March 15, 2024
This was a pretty fun vacation read. It’s sort of in the lines of a classic Clive Cussler adventure but with a few more horror elements and a bit more graphic violence. But it wasn’t too much to ruin the story and the writing is quite good.
April 26, 2019
Clearly a gem for defence lovers
October 20, 2022
This was an ok book about an attempted coup in Jakarta by communists backed by China. The opening was interesting involving a retired operative brought out of retirement to undertake a deep sea dive to locate documents proving China was backing the rebels. This was reminiscent of other Largent novels involving deep sea salvage. But the salvage plot was quickly dropped, which made the book less interesting going forward.
April 16, 2010
When you read these books you have to wonder how many ex-CIA agents are running around. Also, why does it seem the Agency always has to bring them back in to perform actions the current crop can’t seem to accomplish? I’m just asking.
Largent’s book is quite good, even though his hero, former agent Gideon Stone does seem to question himself a bit more than necessary. Stone is likable and I’m assuming that Largent will be bringing him back, if he hasn’t already (as the book was published back in 2006). One of the weaker elements is that some of the secondary characters, and there are dozens, never seem to really have any back-story, or any that we learn. We feel sympathy for them when they are injured or killed, but that’s because of how it affects Stone and not because we genuinely care about them. An odd thing is that this is truer of members of Stone’s team than of individuals on the opposing side. For instance, we know more about a native crewmember on a barge, used in a later mission, than we do about several servicemen who accompany Stone on his first rescue attempt.
When a group of Communist terrorists capture and hold captive U.N. delegates of an international meeting on the island of Java, including the U.S. Vice-President, the CIA is asked to attempt a rescue, while not admitting it publicly. Led by the popular Bojoni Sawak, the Bandung rebels demand that the current leader of their country step down and recognize the Bandung as the legitimate government, otherwise, the hostages will be executed one by one. With Stone already in the area, working to recover some documents lost when a civilian airliner is blown up, it’s an easy move to have him head up the assignment. Since he is an expert diver and former black op, you know that the ultimate rescue will involve at least some of those skills. When the initial attempt goes badly wrong, leading to the death of two of the group and the VP still hostage, the stakes rise. Stone has to get his team into the terrorist base, perform his mission and get everybody out alive. Complicating matters is the threat by China that any overt American intervention would be considered a provocative action and might lead to that country becoming involved.
As is typical of this type of book, Largent brings in a lot of technical information on the equipment Stone and his team uses. Interesting to a point, but it does make this reader skim over paragraphs of this stuff in order to get to the main action. If you are more into this Tom Clancy sort of thing and especially if you are interested in deep-sea vehicles and helicopters you might want to tack a half-star onto this.
Largent’s book is quite good, even though his hero, former agent Gideon Stone does seem to question himself a bit more than necessary. Stone is likable and I’m assuming that Largent will be bringing him back, if he hasn’t already (as the book was published back in 2006). One of the weaker elements is that some of the secondary characters, and there are dozens, never seem to really have any back-story, or any that we learn. We feel sympathy for them when they are injured or killed, but that’s because of how it affects Stone and not because we genuinely care about them. An odd thing is that this is truer of members of Stone’s team than of individuals on the opposing side. For instance, we know more about a native crewmember on a barge, used in a later mission, than we do about several servicemen who accompany Stone on his first rescue attempt.
When a group of Communist terrorists capture and hold captive U.N. delegates of an international meeting on the island of Java, including the U.S. Vice-President, the CIA is asked to attempt a rescue, while not admitting it publicly. Led by the popular Bojoni Sawak, the Bandung rebels demand that the current leader of their country step down and recognize the Bandung as the legitimate government, otherwise, the hostages will be executed one by one. With Stone already in the area, working to recover some documents lost when a civilian airliner is blown up, it’s an easy move to have him head up the assignment. Since he is an expert diver and former black op, you know that the ultimate rescue will involve at least some of those skills. When the initial attempt goes badly wrong, leading to the death of two of the group and the VP still hostage, the stakes rise. Stone has to get his team into the terrorist base, perform his mission and get everybody out alive. Complicating matters is the threat by China that any overt American intervention would be considered a provocative action and might lead to that country becoming involved.
As is typical of this type of book, Largent brings in a lot of technical information on the equipment Stone and his team uses. Interesting to a point, but it does make this reader skim over paragraphs of this stuff in order to get to the main action. If you are more into this Tom Clancy sort of thing and especially if you are interested in deep-sea vehicles and helicopters you might want to tack a half-star onto this.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 18, 2013
The story premise is shaky from the start with a UN delegation including the US Vice President being kidnapped in Indonesia. The US response is much more muted than is likely in the scenario, but it is what it is. Accepting the storyline setup, the concept is relatively interesting and thought provoking.
The dialog is somewhat stilted, verbose, inconsistent, and too cliché-riddled for the characters being portrayed. It also contains an overabundance of unexplained military acronyms which struck me as odd or less than genuine. The characters use small arms throughout the story, but the author seems to have a tenuous grasp of proper terminology and tactical application. Some weapons were clearly fabricated by the author and do not exist in real life. His Jeep scene tells me he’s never been in one. His hand to hand combat scenes are laughably naive and unrealistic. The gasoline lighting scene tells me he’s never poured gas on the ground and lit it with a match. The technical aircraft and naval terminology is beyond me so I don't know if the military-speak information is accurate or not. One thing is sure; there is far too much unexplained acronym-laced language for me . . . and that makes me wonder how accurate it is, especially when I don’t relate to it as a military (Army) veteran and find his small arms and close-combat descriptions unrealistic. Kind of made me wonder if I was being blasted with BS to cover the fact that the author didn't really understand what he was talking about.
Still, it kept me just engaged and entertained enough to finish, although the story ran out of gas at the end. It was as though the author tired of writing and just rushed to an ending to be done with it. Kind of a letdown because I can think of many more satisfying conclusions for his characters.
The dialog is somewhat stilted, verbose, inconsistent, and too cliché-riddled for the characters being portrayed. It also contains an overabundance of unexplained military acronyms which struck me as odd or less than genuine. The characters use small arms throughout the story, but the author seems to have a tenuous grasp of proper terminology and tactical application. Some weapons were clearly fabricated by the author and do not exist in real life. His Jeep scene tells me he’s never been in one. His hand to hand combat scenes are laughably naive and unrealistic. The gasoline lighting scene tells me he’s never poured gas on the ground and lit it with a match. The technical aircraft and naval terminology is beyond me so I don't know if the military-speak information is accurate or not. One thing is sure; there is far too much unexplained acronym-laced language for me . . . and that makes me wonder how accurate it is, especially when I don’t relate to it as a military (Army) veteran and find his small arms and close-combat descriptions unrealistic. Kind of made me wonder if I was being blasted with BS to cover the fact that the author didn't really understand what he was talking about.
Still, it kept me just engaged and entertained enough to finish, although the story ran out of gas at the end. It was as though the author tired of writing and just rushed to an ending to be done with it. Kind of a letdown because I can think of many more satisfying conclusions for his characters.
June 21, 2016
Action packed book.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews