Patrick Robinson wrote Nimitz Class with the help of Sir Admiral Woodward who single-handedly commanded the first computor war this world has ever seen. The Battle of the Falkland Islands in 1982. He was the top man in the Royal Navy and every piece of technical jargon is absolutely spot on in Nimitz Class. The book was spotted by Ed Victor (one of the most important literary agents in the world) who quickly became Mr. Robinson's London agent. Nimitz Class has paid meticulous attention to detail, and the way Patrick Robinson writes places him among the best thriller writers of this century. He blew Tom Clancy out of the water in the Italian literary awards this year, and I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It is a breath taking debut and I believe it really could be the news one day. It has provoked wide military concern, and as a direct result of this book, no foreigner will ever be trained again in England - Ben Adnam scared the Royal Navy away from that idea. Books that lack realism tend not to have the same international effect. Jengo R.

"Nimitz Class" A most excellent "fiction". I read it prior to 9/11 & walked away wondering if an Islamic radical could carry it out, and that an aircraft carrier is in fact a juicy target. Way too many hard-nosed military's gave their misguided reviews here. It's called fiction for a good reason! I'm military savvy, & I never saw it containing military "flaws." Also reminded me of the good partnership the U.S. & British military share & rely on. A co-worker, a former WWII diesel submariner loved it. I also passed it on to a West Point graduate & likewise he really liked it. I passed on a tradition my dad started: read it & pay it forward.

Nimitz Class is a first class 'faction' novel written by Patrick Robinson advised by a British sub commander who is widely acknowledged in naval circles as one of the top submariners of all.

First class locations and story.

If Jack Higgins and Clive Cussler's high praise doesn't sell you this book, read the intro and attempt to deny buying.

I have read all previous novels by Patrick Robinson ("Nimitz Class", "Kilo Class" and "HMS Unseen")and I found them excellent. I've just finished his latest book, "USS Seawolf", and I must admit, it was a major disappointment. First what was good: You learn quite a lot about American military and the naval forces (particularly about submarines). On the other hand, the way Robinson dealt with his characters wasn't all right at all. People participating in the story were complete cliches without any connections to reality. The American staff was highly professional, failureless, overly patriotic, not selfish at all, everybody were close friends to each other and had the same opinions, whereas the Chinese, the "enemy" in this novel, were described as personificated evil we know from children's stories. Additionally, it seems that every second Chinese in this book was an idiot and was completely unable to carry out the simplest assignment. The Americans, for their part, seem to be able to easily destroy the Russian and the Chinese Navies at the same time. I really doubt that the USA are so strong. If they are, why did it take the West some 40 years to win the Cold War?

Arnold Morgan, the National Security Advisor, is indesputably the main personnage in "USS Seawolf". This fact doesn't explain though why it's him who makes all difficult decisions. Though I don't know every paragraph of the American Constitution by heart, I am quite sure that it is the President who ultimately decides whether to start a war or not. Actually, I think even the President mustn't do it on himself; there is a Congress after all. This was one example of an obvious logical mistake in the novel. I assure you, there are many, many more.

At the end a few words concerning story and style. The plot of "USS Seawolf" offered nothing new; it was mainly the same stuff as in "Kilo Class". The only difference was the emprisoning of the crew of the US submarine. But then there were once more the SEALs who liberated the "brave Americans", in the same fashion as in "KIlo Class". Robinson's writing style isn't the most ideal either. His storytelling is very monoton; it has remained the same since "Nimitz Class" (with the only exception in "HMS Unseen"). He describes his characters in a very one-dimensional way. We miss important parts of them, like how they spend their freetime or something like this, and that's the reason why we never quite understand them.

So, I repeat it, I was quite disappointed by this book. I can only hope the next one will be comparable to "HMS Unseen", Robinson's finest yet.

Like so many other authors, Mr Robinson has trouble nailing the endings of his books. Too many loose threads were left hanging about; Crockers' suicide?, the presidents son not having his treason revealed, the Chinese C in C... I enjoyed the book, until the last 50 or so pages. Too bad the ending of the book couldn't have been as tight and satisfying as the action in the middle!

The book was fabulous! It was, at times funny, gripping, and realistic. The unabridged audio version is also very good. You can't go wrong if you're looking for a military thriller with a sense of humor.

My "bad book" antennae were alerted on page 1 of this tome when I noticed a rather pathetic typo (Mississippi is misspelled), and nothing on the succeeding 400 pages allowed them to relax, even though I went into "skim for big events" mode about halfway in.

This is a bad novel, with all the authenticity of hair in a can, and as flat as the troublesome slider thrown by the nominal hero of the story. The baseball action is described in aimless, excessive, and error-prone detail, almost every plot line is preposterous and full of holes, and the dialogue reads like something out of a Chip Hilton story. Examples beyond what has been offered in other reviews:

- Hard luck mother of catcher despairs of his ever getting started with a law career if he wastes a couple of precious years trying to play baseball. Yep, those law firms hate to hire former athletes...

- A pitcher from a college baseball powerhouse goes from summer league MVP to being essentially cut from his team, AND NOBODY KNOWS ABOUT IT. Did Einstein predict the presence of media black holes, too?

- A pitcher (from Stanford, no less) continues to pitch through pain; apparently the lure of the Ted Kennedy Trophy (I'm not making this up) is far greater than the $2 MM+ signing bonus he'll get for being a first round draft pick.

Ugh. Even the "local color" of the summer league scene, which was the reason I picked up the book in the first place, is trotted out with a sort of Truman Show kind of gloss, and goes nowhere. No runs, no hits, and too many errors.

I'm somewhat taken aback by the negativity of some of the reviews that other readers have posted regarding this book. Yes, there are inconsistencies but this isn't Bill James and the Baseball Abstract. At its heart it's kind of a romantic novel that uses baseball as its backdrop in writing about setting goals and reaching them.

Focusing on the baseball content of this book and then criticizing it for it's lack of accuracy, would be about as stupid as watching Get Smart to do research on the CIA.

Instead, I would suggest that readers focus on some of the relationships between the characters in this book. The interplay between star pitcher Jack Farber with his father and catcher make for great reading. The same is true for the descriptions of the Northeast and some of the some small cities the Cape League plays their games.

Where the book does tend to fall apart is at the end. The writer attempts to make a negative statement about the attitudes of professional athletes by concocting an unrealistic ending that is far too predictable.

Still, I enjoyed reading the book and would recommend it to most people. In fact, I would even it recommend it to most baseball fans with the exception of those geeks that spend way too much time with box scores rather than with real life.

Finally, another recommendation for a fun baseball book would be Summerland by Michael Chabon.

i totally agree with jeff reardon when he says "this is the best book about baseball...ever!"

i have never read anything better than this book and i 100% reccommend it

Class refers to a generation of ships named after the first ship of that generation. In 'Nimitz Class', a fictitious US aircraft carrier of the Nimitz Class is vaporized in a nuclear explosion. Signs point to a carefully planned act of terrorism involving a rogue submarine with a nuclear-tipped torpedo. Unable to prove the theory at first, US military leaders stick with an embarrassing cover story (it was all an accident) while sending a brilliant expert in nuclear weapons on an international hunt for the skipper of the rogue sub. In an intelligent move, the handsome and brilliant analyst sets off for Scotland, where the RN trains prospective skippers for command of her subs and those of other nations (called the 'perisher course' because it's the greatest single health hazard to the career of would-be submarine commanders). Scotland is the best place to start because, unlike the US, the RN trains skippers for diesel-electric subs which are more likely to have been involved in the carrier attack than nuclear subs. (Diesel subs, due to their electric drive are inherently quieter than nuclear boats; there are also more of them in the hands of 'rogue states' than nuclear boats). While a lead is pursued in Scotland, US forces zero in on an Iranian naval base housing 'Kilo' Class submarines ' the Kilo, a Russian designed sub being one of the more modern diesel subs ' and strike it. (This is a common trend in Robinson's books ' in which America's military leadership has no trouble committing rash, boneheaded or simply irresponsible courses of action ' like attacking the military hardware or personnel of other countries - and neglecting to even consider holding themselves responsible; this wouldn't be a such a problem were Robinson not as enamored with American military leaders as he makes obvious that he is). Back in Scotland, our hero suffers a run of great luck (actually, it's we who suffer since the book bombards us with the following coincidences:) ' our heroic investigator hooks up with the one of the RN's legendary submarine-command trainers (the 'Perisher in-Chief') and his lovely daughter. Looking through report cards of prior trainees, the investigator zeros in on a likely suspect who, lucky again, was also courting the Perisher's ravishing daughter. The trail points to Israeli submariner, but then takes a sharp swerve when it appears that the culprit is not all he seems. Back on our side of the Atlantic, military leaders hit a brick wall while trying to trace the rogue sub to Russia's Black Sea fleet: it's 'impossible' to cross the shallow waters of Turkey's Bosporus submerged. Before the President will authorize the USN to form his nuclear-powered attack subs into modern-day wolfpacks to hunt the rogue down, he wants proof that the navy's theory isn't as implausible as it sounds. Instead of joining the hunt then, our hero joins a team of elite RN submariners who aim to prove the case, and sail submerged from the Med into the Black Sea.

This was a horrible book ' much more fun to write about than actually read. Besides the laughably bad dialog (are we yanks so alien to the British? There's an African-American character who sounds like he walked off an episode of the 'Little Rascals'.) and the license the author grants to the American military to take whatever overt action it wants on the most scant pretext, it's just an incoherent yarn. The author seems more in love with the intricacies of military hardware than actually fastening them into a plot anybody can follow. The author devotes so much time telling us about the workings of a Nimitz Class carrier, that you half expect him to use another one in the story once the first one is destroyed. Instead, once the author has shown us how much he knows about aircraft carriers, any other use (like advancing the story) is unimportant and can be discarded. The story throws twists and turns in your direction (the rogue submariner is Israeli ' then he's not; the attack was orchestrated by Iran, then Iraq) but never bothers to flesh any of them out before changing track. None of the characters are remotely convincing ' Robinson eagerly makes them sound brilliant without making them all that smart, and lets them talk tough without being very responsible. The plot is full of implausible ideas. The story could survive these leaps of logic if Robinson gave us any reason to, but he seems to take for granted that we'll believe the vaunted Israeli military would being tricked into accepting a hardcore Iranian (or Iraqi) agent into its ranks. Robinson doesn't appreciate that technothrillers are all about that ' taking a technically implausible idea and showing how impossible it's not. Unlike most mediocre technothrillers which lamely avoid this challenge, 'Nimitz' tries to elude it twice. Robinson not only ducks the Israeli-Iran (or Iraqi) dilemma, but doesn't begin to explain the rogue Kilo managed to sneak past defenses of a USN carrier battle group geared by design and training to find it. (failure to address that is not just a plot lapse, but one of many technical errors which abound in this book which hails itself as 'frighteningly realistic'. 'Nimitz' puts technical correctness over plot, but doesn't even get that right.) The moral of this story is simple ' avoid sneak attacks by poorly written books.

The book is interesting however you relay must like description to last through this. The author Patrick Robinson spends a lot more time on detail than he does story. He loves lots of dialog and still has time to describe expressions.

The primes and the technology are not new but it is accurate. And the scenario is not a surprise ether as this has been accounted for in numerous History Channel programs. Basically a diesel submarine lays in wait for the aircraft carrier to pass and nukes it. The mystery is who and why. The speculation is mostly based on real facts and history.

I do not know what the author was trying for this book to be but he blundered horribly whatever it was. All semblance of reality is gone before the book is barely begun. I kept reading thinking it might get better. I was wrong; it gets worse.

This was my first introduction to this author. It will be my last. There are too many good authors to take a chance with another mediocre book.

I have read all of Patrick Robinson's previous novels and have noticed a steady trend towards the ridiculous. It would seem that after reading The Shark Mutiny he has reached it.

Enough of the Chinese and the Iranians already, please. Even Tom Clancy has different enemies from time to time. The characters are unbelievably cliched, the Australian Intel officer, give me a break, no one in Australia really speaks like that. From an Australians point of view it was embarassing. It doesn't end there, the Chinese leaders are portrayed as insane, but inept meglomaniacs, while the US leaders and military characters are seemingly invincible.

The way he portrays the SEALs is almost embarassing, boy does he love these guys. I think the author is masquerading as a SEAL recruiter! If I read one more description of their zero body fat physiques or their superior intelligence I was going to put the book down for good.

Through his characters the author portrays unbridled racism through the use of offensive and derogatory remarks about the Chinese and the Iranians. Does he really think that the senior military and poltical leaders of the United States speak like this?

The plot generally is confused and like most of his previous works, reminds me of an old episode of Batman, the old villain comes back, hatches a dastardly plan but the good guys come to the rescue and all the villain can say at the end is "Rats, foiled again!" If you don't believe me, read all of his other books as well. The ending is incredibly rushed and distorted when compared to the rest of the book. He wraps up several plot developments in a couple of paragraphs at the end of the book which took well over half the book to evolve.

Overall, he has managed to hide a good idea for a story behind poor plot decisions, poor characterisation and an inability to see beyond his own right wing views.

I really like this author but for his latest 2 books, Unseen and Shark Mutiny, I was very disappoointed in how he resolves the conflict. I probably will not read any more by him. the writing is great, as is the story -- I just did NOT like how he chose to end either one. And -- I cannot find any way to contact him from his website.