The President is Missing

Good book with unpredictable twists and turns.

Excellent plot. Interesting regarding the politics in the White house.

It reminded me of Designated Survior... I liked the plot a lot. My first time reading a book by [a:James Patterson 3780 James Patterson https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1468347205p2/3780.jpg]. I will continue to read his books, I'm definitely a fan now of his.

: https://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-186-the-president-is-missing/

Let me start by admitting I like former president Clinton. But that has nothing to do with my review of this book. I loved it. I listened to an audio format of this book. Oh, it was so very long, but I didnt want to stop listening. It was a great story. Intense with just the right amount of detail. The story is scary because it could be so true. Great book!

I think the audiobook killed this for me.

Dennis Quaid handled the bulk of the narration and nearly ruined it. He sounded like an ancient catcher's mit with a voice box being obstructed by a paper bag. Also, Bach's character was repeatedly diminished by the damn orchestral and operatic chaos behind the narration. I LOVE both classical orchestral music and opera, but I already knew it was her because they switched the narrator for her parts anyway. Blech. It was kitschy and gimmicky and ... Blech.

The only thing going for this was a pretty decent story. Diplomatic thrillers are hard to get right, especially through a novel, but this kept up the pace. A few plot devices were not my favorite but they're also easily excused.

First Patterson book I've dared to read (this and the Mary Higgins Clark attempt this week have had ... interesting results). These characters: shockingly cliché. The plot: mostly cliché. The number of chapters: annoyingly many, and so short. The book is very average for the most part EXCEPT I really enjoyed the whole concept of the computer virus. It was code named Dark Ages and I really got a kick out of imagining the US without internet. It's science fiction really, I don't believe the technology exists, and I certainly love science fiction. A lot of hand waving regarding this virus because it is so far fetched, but such an interesting concept to imagine. Also enjoyed the discussion about how reliant we are on the internet. And the politics were fun too. Mostly not great plot, stereotyped characters to the max, but a few interesting ideas meet in the middle at a 3 star rating.

My first and probably last James Patterson. I hated how much italics were used to show that another character was speaking, it felt really patronising to the reader. The plot was okay, if a bit daft. But President Mary Sue got on my nerves, he was such a hero you expected girls to swoon wherever he went. I think the reason why I quite like Bill Clinton is that he is a complex character, so I would have hoped that a character in a book he'd supposedly contributed to would be more human and less fan flippin' fantastic!

I actually enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. Wasn't a fan of the political speak but with a past President as co-author I guessed there was going to be some. I thought it was a great story line and it had me guessing for awhile who the traitor was, but I did figure it out before the end.

I've never read James Patterson but I was mostly intrigued by this Clinton partnership. It's your regular potboiler pulp fiction novel where the world is about to end and the public doesn't know that. You can clearly see the parts where Bill Clinton contributed and there are plenty of similarities and callbacks to his presidency. He relishes the opportunity to bash the House Speaker while upholding the goodness of the President in standing alone against the nation's enemies. Perhaps it doesn't ring true in 2018 but keeps the readers' attention. The pace is decent and plot twists are believable. Overall, it is a better page turner than Dan Brown's more recent works.

Look, I have a to-read list that realistically, I already won't finish in my lifetime unless the singularity occurs, and that's without adding any impulse reading to the list. But I was in the bookstore Bern train station, looking down the barrel of 12 hours of travel to get back home, all of my books AND all of my library ebooks that I'd brought with me already read and this was the only English language book that they had I'd ever heard of.

So. I didn't really have high expectations. And, you know, it kept me occupied for most of my flight, so that's a plus. But it's DUMB. So, so dumb. First of all, Clinton should not have written a book with a focal point of an impeachment scandal. Especially in which the impeachment scandal is apparently caused by the president trying to be a national hero. Also, the monologuing. So much monologuing. Most of which I ideologically agree with, but, still.

All of which would be forgivable if the action/adventure part of this show were good. Or lukewarm. It's 12 hours of travel time – good is unnecessary. But it wasn't. It was dumb: first of all, there was very little action. Second of all the Surprise!Traitor was so obvious I called it 500 pages in advance. No exaggeration.

So, I guess, in conclusion, if you too have nothing to read and half a day of travel time and this is the only English language book you can find, go for it! In any less extenuating circumstances, do yourself a favor and find something else.

I would have given the book 4 if it wasn't for the stereotypes of Saudi and Russia.

Pretty interesting. I'm personally a fan of Patterson's books and personally believe he must have written a big part of the book as for the unmistakable thriller atmosphere. Even so, I was surprised and amused, and recommend this reading.

I'm experimenting with reviewing at the moment. Reviewing what I've read so far at 50% (well, 45, but close enough) and then reviewing again at the end to see how my opinion might differ.

I'll start by saying I've never read any political books before. Unless you class Feed by Mira Grant, but that's also a post-apocalyptic book with zombies so I'm not sure I count it! I love The West Wing, so figured I'd give this a try.

I actually pre-ordered the book back in March, so was pretty excited when it arrived. The book design definitely added to that excitement, but I daren't judge a book by its cover! I know a lot of people hate Clinton, but you can't say he's not got an interesting story of his presidency. I hoped he'd bring that drama, but also the knowledge with him.

I loved the start of this. I've read other reviews that say it was too slow, but that's exactly why I love it. You get the sense that the president screwed up in the first sentence, or maybe the second. You've got the house select committee and the metaphor of sharks. I feel like the beginning of the novel is all Clinton. This is where his insider knowledge comes in, and I enjoyed it. Although I wouldn't say it's that inside. I've seen things like that before. It's nothing overly new. You have got immediate questions about what's going on, and how that's going to affect the plot.

A little later on, you've then got where I stared to lose faith a little. The action starts, and it's... I don't know. I love myself some good action, but when you've got the President shooting bad guys. It just seems... wrong? The whole plot of the President being the only one who can fix the impending cyber attack is over the top to me. Stretches my ability to believe it. I get that it's fiction, but is fiction not grounded in truth somewhere. Wouldn't the president simply get the top CIA operatives on it, rather than himself? Getting away from his Secret Service agents by ordering them not to follow him, and meeting someone who he's got zero background information on, and could quite easily have killed him multiple times? Maybe it's explained more later on why he's so willing to do this. Why it can't be anyone but him, but right now, it's not sitting too well with me. I find the secret code word to be a little stupid too “Dark Ages”. I don't know the answer yet, but I'm assuming someone hacks into the energy grid and cuts the power across the entirety of the US? And that's the big bad the president has to stop. Maybe he needs to stop being secretive and start informing at least a few more people about the threat, so they can sure up defences and begin planning for events if the worst did happen. I'm not talking about telling the public to great mass hysteria, but come on!

I'm still going to continue reading. I'll be back when I finish.

I'm back, after finishing it! So I was a little off with my theory of Dark Ages being just about electricity. I won't go into it too much because spoilers, but that's one hell of a virus! I think the big reveal of the traitor was obvious. I don't know if it was supposed to be, but it seemed obvious from back when the traitor was first discussed. So the big reveal didn't pack as much punch as expected. I'll admit the way the President goes about catching the traitor, is pretty cool, and brings the tension levels to a critical level.

The character of the President was a tad cliche. Ex-military, adding depth with a wife that passed away, no thought to his safety, much to the annoyance of the secret service. Seemed a little cliche.

The characters I did like were Carrie and Augie. I don't know how to talk about them without spoilers, but how they're portrayed is much more interesting to me.

Whilst I know I've been pretty critical, I did actually really enjoy the book. It was well-paced, and there was enough slower parts to catch my breath without the pace dropping to a crawl.

Overall, I'd recommend it. It's not the first book I've read with a character like President Duncan, or the first I've predicted the ending. It is entertaining and fast-paced, which makes up for it. And the design with the red page gilding on the edition I had.