St. Martin's Press Tom Clancy's Op-Center: Sting of the Wasp

Practically, I read “Sting Of The WASP” twice. Jeff Rovin’s plot of disbanding Op-Center took me aback a little bit. The new Op-Center series, five episodes relayed by three writers so far, have become one of books to spend my leisure time with. Why shutting the center down now? I re-read “Out Of The Ashes.” Has the president Midkiff practiced on Chase Williams with a phony agreement when Midkiff offered his idea to Chase? Is Chase, even a leader of Op-Center, one of expendable staff to the president? I thought about subcontract factories, suddenly dissolved a contract with a parent company, and about employees, who’s company was recently merged by a big firm. The episode itself is dramatic and suspenseful. I felt somewhat relieved to what the WASP has accomplished. While reading “Sting Of The WASP” for the second time, Jeff Rovin’s intention of reshaping Op-Center gradually goes down with me. During the past five episodes, without knowing, Op-Center has turned out to be a behemoth. To fight savages like Salehi we need to lose the regulations and a lot of traditions. To create a lean, mobile version of the personnel-heavy, office-bound operation team becomes a pressing issue. An adaptable, fluid, and run by a situational command team would be unfailingly a certain solution to this problem. Jeff Rovin lets major Breen makes a prediction of Chase’s future as “he was lost but now he is found.” And he concludes the episode with writing “the warhorse would not be hanging up his saddle.” Looking forward to reading the next action on the second phase of Op-Center, actually on the third phase from the first series.

I read the Prologue and a character was described as having been a corporal in the US Navy, and this from an author who writes about the military. It is obvious that he is entirely ignorant of the military rank system since corporals are to be found only in the Army and the Marine Corps. Such a major lack of knowledge on the author's part turned me off completely and I am returning the book unread. Astounding that such "experts" are successful, and I fail to understand how your editors didn't notice this glaring error. Undoubtedly, they are similarly ignorant of things military. One needs basic knowledge of the subject as well as correct English.

I liked the book pretty well. It had quite a few twists and turns in the plot development and the constant threat of being banished from the job and profession kept the main character on a rollercoaster ride throughout the book. I have not read any other OP-CENTER books I have bought as they have become lost in the tangle or unread books at our house. It is somewhat difficult to accept that the black wasp characters are as good as they seem to be, but I guess we will see how they develope in subsequent offerings. Being successful 95% of the time is a bit unrealistic to me. But I still enjoyed the book and look forward to the next I read.

Story keeps you turning pages

Book Review – Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Sting of the Wasp – Jeff Rovin“Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Sting of the Wasp” by author Jeff Rovin reminded me of a Marvel Comics story more so than a Tom Clancy covert operations military thriller. Instead of taking almost believable characters and putting them in an imaginary story, this narrative took the comic book approach of farfetched exaggerated characters – putting them in somewhat improbable situations – but eventually having them ending up saving the day. In this tale, the White House orders the Op-Center disbanded after an intelligence mishap resulted in a major terrorist attack aboard the Air and Space Museum on the USS Intrepid in New York City. Remarkably, the Op-Center is consequently radically transformed into a groundbreaking, top-secret mobile strike force known as ‘Black Wasp’. Its members, each chosen for their unique set of specialized black-ops skills, were assigned to seek out the Iranian terrorist who masterminded the terrorist bombing at the museum, thus leading to ample military action and suspenseful clandestine operations activities. Not totally up to Tom Clancy standards and short of Tom Clancy excellence, Sting of the Wasp was a satisfactory covert ops military thriller. The story ended up being entertaining and compelling and overall it was an appealing and engaging read…