Term Limits in SSG: Spy/Spec-Ops Group

May 03, 2013 Samuel rated it really liked it

MR FLYNN GOES TO WASHINGTON.

"In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress."- John Adams.

Public Service. A dead term, for a reviled profession. The stature of politics always rises and fall. But let's face it, right now, it's in free fall. In this day and age, "politician" is basically another word for "smug, narcissistic megalomaniac". Vince Flynn, creator of the counter-terrorist sub-genre of spy fiction under MR FLYNN GOES TO WASHINGTON.

"In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress."- John Adams.

Public Service. A dead term, for a reviled profession. The stature of politics always rises and fall. But let's face it, right now, it's in free fall. In this day and age, "politician" is basically another word for "smug, narcissistic megalomaniac". Vince Flynn, creator of the counter-terrorist sub-genre of spy fiction understood this. His first book, Term Limits went out of its way to shred the very concept of "public servant", taking us inside the beltway bubble and exposing the horror of modern politics to his readers. Though time and technology has changed, and even with his untimely passing, Mr Flynn's first book is still horribly relevant due to the issues it focuses on, issues that still curse us to this day. Now to the review. What happens when some well meaning people begin to retire their nation's politicians....permanently.

The story starts with a unnamed man burning the planning documents of an operation he is about to initiate on American soil. We cut to Washington, where we're introduced to Michael O'Rourke, Congressman. It's the budget period, and as we know all too well from recent experience, it's do or die time for any Presidential Administration. Hence, the administration in this book, led by a man named Stevens, deploys a vicious little cocktail of threats, promises and a lot of discrete bribery through appropriations in order to convince enough Senators and members of Congress to get his budget passed. Congressman O'Rourke however is one of the outliers. Despite several threats, he refuses to vote on the budget. However, such resistance proves futile and the administration manages to acquire the necessary votes. Later that night, a series of unfortunate events happen. A Senator gets his neck broken. The Chairman of the House Appropriation Committee ends up on the wrong end of a Remington M-24. And to cap things off, the Senate Banking Committee Chairman receives a good old fashioned double-tap to the back of the head. By the time the sun has come up, the administration's budget passing campaign is in shambles. They then receive a message from the perpetrators. Get the country in ship shape by passing a decent budget and several languishing pieces of legislation or the guns will be turned on America's remaining Politicians. As the investigation commences, with bureaucratic vultures circling, and the killers plotting to go after their next targets, Congressman O'Rourke gets sucked into a nightmare which he believes may be of his own making.

In terms of plot, "Term Limits" is surprisingly good for a first novel. The embryo of future greatness that Flynn brought to the Rapp saga is visible here. There's always something going on, whether it may be a military veteran kidnapping a security consultant from his lakeside Virginia mansion, to bureaucratic snake dancing in the White House situation room, Flynn did his best in ensuring the plot didn't hit any snags. While the writing style in this book is far more clunky and bloated compared to his later work, Flynn made up for it with what would become a hallmark of his books. Research. When writing this book, he did a lot of networking which paid off when he hit the mother load, namely getting the founder of DEVGRU to give him pointers, and it shows. From the finer points of sniping, infiltration tactics and surveillance, all the details Flynn wove into the narrative of Term Limits helps throw you into another, more dangerous and exhilarating world that's lurking below the surface of everyday life.

Now to the characters. In the early books, before he gained more experience with the Rapp series Mr Flynn noted that characterization wasn't really his thing, plot and pacing was. I've seen worse, but lets say that quite a few of the main characters of "Term Limits" are of the "stock" variety, drawing upon templates, with very little in the way of making them compelling. This is to be expected as it was his first book. However, there are a few standouts. First, we have the secondary character who stole the show from Congressman O'Rourke, the enigmatic former Navy SEAL Scott Coleman, Mitch Rapp's future partner in crime. Sure, he's badass, but its his planning skills which make him one heck of a operator. Systematically dialing up the pressure on his targets, he finest hour is when he coordinates a large scale prank involving flares, several electronic beacons and the unwilling participation of Marine One and its escorts. In second place, we have the dynamic duo of Irene Kennedy and CIA Director Thomas Stansfield. Between the blundering idealists and cynical arseholes, they're the most savvy people in the room when it comes to the political backstabbing sections of the book. While the others destroy themselves, they wait, build a picture of the situation and when the time comes, save the day. Finally, we have Stu Garett, President Stevens' Chief Of Staff. Narcissistic, vain, one of the biggest control freaks I've had the pleasure of seeing in the thriller genre, despite ultimately playing second fiddle to the real antagonists, he steals the show from them due to having a personality despite being an utterly unpleasant man. He's an oil refinery that's set to be destroyed by timed explosives. Much of the fun comes in seeing his gambits get smashed, and him coming to the realization that he may be out of his depth.

So "Term Limits". It's a cautionary tale about modern politics that's still relevant to this day even with the passage of time. The plotting is solid and will suck you in. The research is brilliantly woven into the plot. And while some of the characters who feature aren't as compelling as Flynn's future creations, there are a few who manage to earn their future appearances in the Mitch Rapp saga. If you're a new Vince Flynn fan who is interested to see where he started, check this out. ...more

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