World Famous Comics: Private Wars (Queen & Country Novels)
Private Wars (Queen & Country Novels)
By: Greg Rucka Publisher: Bantam Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: Bantam Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 432 Publication Date: October 25, 2005 Release Date: October 25, 2005
Product Description: Only Greg Rucka, the thriller genre’s most fearless writer, would dare create a spy so edgy, so explosive, so extreme, she should be rated X.
Tara Chace was once the most dangerous woman alive. And now that the international spy network thinks she’s as good as dead, she’s even more dangerous than ever.
Only one thing could coax Tara back into the game: a chance to vindicate herself. The torture and execution of Dina Malikov has set off a cutthroat grab for power in strategically crucial Uzbekistan. Tara’s job is to slip into the country and extract Dina’s pro-Western husband and their young son before they are murdered—by his ruthless sister.
But there are a couple of wild cards in the deck, including a missing mobile weapons system that can bring down a commercial airliner, not to mention powerful political careers. Now, as she vanishes into hostile territory with a man who may or may not be what he seems, Tara is going to find out that the war on terror is more terrifying than anyone knows. For in a battle where betrayal is a conventional weapon, loyalty is a weakness, and anyone—even a child—is a legitimate target: it’s every spy, every woman, for herself.
Combine a thriller that defies every expectation with a heroine for whom nothing is out of bounds, and the result is Private Wars, a suspense novel so explosively realistic, it should be classified.
A good yarn, sloppily researched I agree with others that this is a readable yarn, but not an earlier reviewer who said it was well-researched. In fact, Mr. Rucka seems to have spent very little time doing research for this novel.
I am more than willing to allow for "literary license," but I have problems with authors who are simply too lazy to do some basic research to give authenticity to their novels.
Obviously, in choosing Uzbekistan as a setting for "Private Wars," Mr. Rucka picked a very obscure country about which very few readers would have any knowledge. Perhaps he did this purposely, assuming that readers wouldn't know he had virtually done no research.
I lived in Uzbekistan for a number of years, so I did know, and Mr. Rucka's errors and mistakes in this novel went well beyond artistic license. He got just about everything wrong about Uzbekistan - locations, the structure of the government (on even the most basic level), culture, etc. To me, this was very jolting and ruined the story.
It is clear Mr. Rucka has never set foot in Uzbekistan and, apparently, hasn't even spent a couple of hours on the Internet researching it.
Mr. Rucka can spin a yarn, and produce a good read. I've read one other of his books (Gentleman's Game) and consider him a slightly-above-average writer. At the same time, I personally have long believed novelists owe their readers some allegiance to fact. In "Private Wars," Mr. Rucka demonstrated an intellectual laziness that has caused me, personally, to decide not to purchase any more of his works.
Nicely Researched Story - Plot Full of Holes I read Private Wars after Tara Chace was referenced in an article about smart, human spies. I give the book 2 stars for being a fast read and hard to put down, it could be adapted for a spy movie. Unfortunately Rucka's research detailing the story in Central Asia was wasted with holes in the plot or implausible occurrences. This disappointment keeps it from getting more stars. Rucka's editor should have challenged him instead of letting him get away with such sloppines. Perhaps the graphics make the comic version better.
Tara acted smartly and humanly, though we learn somewhat crazy; everyone else in the story was incredibly stupid or failed tests of realism. Afghan warloard General Kostum lets BBC reporters into visit him for an interview after the Taliban assassinated a fellow warlord under similar pretenses before 9/11? The head of the secret police does not have a guard detail, even after the first attack on him? Ruslan lives in a dictatorship oblivious to people being killed around him and naively not taking steps to protect himself. I could list more, but don't want to spoil the story.
The plot had huge gaps in credibility when Tara was simply released after capture and later when the main villain was simply found and killed. I was unsatisfied with major events happening without reason; especially after investing so much time in a detailed plot. Once again I could list more, but don't want to spoil the story.
Back in the Chace Greg Rucka's "Private Wars" picks up precisely where "A Gentleman's Game" left off, with an exhausted and depressed British spy, Tara Chase, returning to her intel job as "Minder One" (aka chief assassin). But not for long. Denied a leave of absence when she becomes pregnant, she quits. But within a year, despite her new motherhood, she returns to the game to try to set things right in Uzbekistan, where an evil sister contends with a self-righteous brother for the job of President (probably for life) as their father lies dying.
Betrayed by her own agency as well as the U.S. CIA, she . . . well, read it for yourself. To say more would be to spoil things. Suffice it to say here that nothing goes as planned.
The book is, in addition to a great suspense novel, a great character study. Tara Chase (and I hope Mr. Rucka has more tales to tell about her), despite her graphic-novel origins, emerges in the novels as a living, breathing character. She's flawed, of course (maybe half crazy), and maybe you'll wonder at the morals of a woman who would leave a 16-month old child with caregivers while she goes off on missions that perhaps she will not return from. And her intel bosses seem more interested in scheming for power than in righting wrongs. (The whole mission begins because of the attempt by one British intelligence officer, who wants to keep his job, to bring down another.)
The ending is beyond cynical.
Rucka's best! In an age where one might think that the spy novel is a thing of the past, Rucka scores with a timely, action packed, intense read that will keep you up until the wee hours. You've already read the details......too much detail if you ask me....suffice to say that Rucka's Tara Chase is a compelling, enviably well conceived character, who leads us careening through a fascinating and exhilarating insider's view of a modern day female James Bond. This is undoubtedly Greg Rucka's best novel to date, and that's saying something.
Tara Chase is back and as tough as ever!!! In the sequel to Greg Rucka's A Gentleman's Game, British SIS agent, Tara Chase returns for one of the most challenging and dangerous missions of her career. In the newest novel of this stunning series, Private Wars begins with Chase finding out that she's pregnant with her dead lover's (Tom Wallace) baby. When she puts in a request for a temporary leave of absence with her boss, Paul Crocker, the request is denied and she quits her position as Minder One in anger. Not knowing what else to do, Chase tracks down Wallace's mother in England and tells her that she's having her dead son's child. Chase then moves in with Val Wallace and spends the next year-and-a-half having the little girl and raising her. Everything comes to a halt when Crocker suddenly appears at her doorstep, needing her expertise for a secret mission into an East European country to rescue the son and grandson of its dying President. It seems as though the President's daughter is determined to take over after her father anyway she can, even if it means killing her brother and young nephew. Her lover, who's the head of the country's secret police, has already raped and murdered her brother's wife and now wants to take out the sibling. Chase's job is to get the President's son and grandson out of the country before they can be murdered. The problem is that Chase must do it with little help from her superiors and without the American government finding out. Also, she must find a way to get through twelve armed men who have the son under house arrest, waiting for orders to kill him. Chase, however, manages a miracle and just about succeeds in her mission, until there's an unexpected betrayal from the American side. She's captured and then faces a slow, torturing death at the hands of the secret police. Nothing has prepared her for what she'd have to endure and nothing will ever be the same. Private Wars takes the "Tara Chase" series to a whole new level. It's an even faster read than the first novel with unbelievable action and suspense. The characters are more developed, the plot richer in context, and it's a very difficult book to put down even for a minute. The ending will leave you feeling empty, wishing there had been another alternative and knowing that governments seldom care about the suffering of one individual. Along with the "Atticus Kodiak" series, author Greg Rucka has another winner in Tara Chase. I hope Mr. Rucka will keep this new series alive because I want to read more novels with Chase as the lead character. She's one tough lady who's not afraid to kill, or to call her boss an idiot. This is great reading and a lot of fun!
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