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(More customer reviews)Patrick Robinson really started his fiction career with a bang with "Nimitz Class" and "Kilo Class". Since then, he has seemed wildly erratic. The quality of his output has evened out somewhat in the last three or four outings, into a pattern that is almost maddeningly mediocre. As with most every one of his naval-themed novels, the plot summary seems that it should be wildly entertaining and at least partially plausible. Mr. Robinson has delivered on that promise on a few occasions, and other times he has not. "Hunter Killer" seems to have fallen into the latter category.
One hang-up in some of Mr. Robinson's earlier works is that he got bogged down in trivial detail; every meal and wine tasting that every character had was described down to the most minute detail, at the expense of the storyline. Fortunately he curtailed these descriptions, though they pop up a few times throughout "Hunter Killer", and - despite the obvious fictional content - one can't help but wonder how naval officers can afford such extravagant feasts. In reducing the gourmet play-by-plays, Mr. Robinson kept the story very tight. However, that has led to another problem in the past several stories. Where he has reduced that unnecessary detail, it seems that he has not adequately filled out certain components of the plot and storyline. Everything seems to play out just a little too cleanly or awkwardly, or the action sequences are minimally detailed, while the discussions fill up three or four chapters.
In "Hunter Killer", this pattern holds. So much is devoted to discussions about carrying out the operations, recruiting the participants, and so on. Several chapters occupy the reader's time to these details. But then the actual execution of the operations and the ensuing U.S. response occupies a very small percentage of the book. The result, to this reader, is a lot of buildup to a resultant sequence that elicits a sigh in response. There is also the continued annoyance of how Mr. Robinson keeps writing the escapes of the antagonist Ray Kernan; I had a hard time fathoming in "Hunter Killer" how he could walk up to a team of SEALs who have targeted him for years and still be able to slip away. It is a somewhat lame way of trying to keep your foil for future novels.
The characters in Mr. Robinson's books - "Hunter Killer" included - also fail to ever do much for me. I find the Jimmy Ramshawe character slightly annoying, and Arnold Morgan - for all his bluster and kick-ass attitude - pretty boorish and obnoxious. That doesn't say much for the protagonists of your franchise. Even in reading fiction as escapism, one can't help but wonder how these two would continue to run roughshod over the Washington political establishment and leaving the President completely impotent. To his credit, though, Mr. Robinson did introduce a character with some potential in Jacques Gamoudi. He could be what John Clark was to Tom Clancy's franchise, but something tells me that this potential may not be tapped, or at least not fully exploited.
One last pet peeve that shows up in "Hunter Killer"; that of the stabs at humor through overused lines that Mr. Robinson tries to pass off as funny. He'll use it throughout the entire book, or take the "shock-and-awe" approach and use it dozens of times in the course of one or two chapters. To cite one example from "Hunter Killer", he usues a line about Jackie Gleason doing a French accent at least four or five times in the course of twenty pages. It wasn't very funny the first time, and got worse as the same line repeated itself in that short a space. I don't mind humor, but it has to be funny, and the reader doesn't need to be repeatedly hit over the head with it.
All those annoyances aside, "Hunter Killer" does have its interesting and somewhat entertaining moments. It is clear that Mr. Robinson possesses a great deal of naval knowledge, and so the descriptions of the battles and naval operations are among the best in the fictional realm. Again, though, it just raises the sense that there was a lot of unfulfilled potential. Readers of this genre can do a lot worse than "Hunter Killer", but they should expect better. In that regard, then, I rate it three stars to reflect the latest in a line of mediocrity that has found its way into Mr. Robinson's writing.
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