Ice Station Nautilus

In the tense opening of Campbell’s third thriller featuring American national security adviser Christine O’Connor (after 2015’s Empire Rising), the Russians are refusing to allow their new Borei class of submarines to be covered by a nuclear arms treaty being negotiated with Washington. In Moscow, Christine gets nowhere in her meeting with Russian president Yuri Kalinin, who tells her unequivocally that Americans will never set foot on a Borei to inspect it. Against this diplomatic backdrop, things under the ocean come to a head when one of the Borei subs, the Yury Dolgoruky, collides with an American sub, the USS North Dakota, under the North Pole. With the crews of both vessels in dire straits, the U.S. launches a desperate rescue mission. The plot becomes less credible as it progresses, undercutting the suspense. Still, Tom Clancy fans willing to accept Christine as an active field operator in the mode of Jack Ryan should be satisfied. Others may disapprove of the way she uses her feminine wiles in desperate situations. [em]Agent: John Talbot, Talbot Fortune Agency. (May) [/em]