The cold barrenness of Antarctica is about to become a battleground as an international uranium consortium aims to take out UpLink’s research base to hide their illegal activities. Cold War is the fifth book of Tom Clancy’s Power Plays series written by Jerome Preisler as UpLink security chief Peter Nimec journeys to Antarctica when a prototype Mars probe and recovery team goes missing only to find himself battling mercenaries employed by consortium with tentacles stretching to such places around the world like Scotland and Switzerland.

Three personnel from UpLink’s Antarctic base, Cold Corners, are attacked by an unknown group while searching for a missing Mars rover prototype, prompting Roger Gordian to Peter Nimec to the base to find the missing people. Having to quickly get use to the living conditions, Nimec deals with a storm that also contains a group do mercenaries that attack the water usage plant making Nimec want to strike back and find their missing people. A huge solar flare storm interferes with communications with both the Sword assault team and the mercenaries, but Nimec’s team was able to overpower the mercenaries. In Scotland, a series of accidents, murders, and suicides gets the attention of a detective that gets a tip from UpLink security after following a hacker and finding suspicious emails about a hit on one of the dead individual’s from the head of the UK’s nuclear authority. In Switzerland, Gabriel Morgan the head of the consortium whose mercenaries attacked UpLink is looking to take out Cold Corners, get rid of his UK partner for her mishandling of the events in Scotland, and arranging to buy Picassos the world didn’t know exist after verification from his favorite forger.

All three subplots are interesting and slowly threads connect each one of them making this a very intriguing book until suddenly it was over, all three plots cut short. Of the three subplots, the Scottish plot was the best even though it ended abruptly (not counting the tacked-on Epilogue) and frankly due to how it was cut short the Morgan subplot was worthless. Given that the previous installment was over 100 pages longer, this book was too short and really hurt the overall product of the book that was shaping up to be a great page turner.

Cold War is probably the most disappointing book in the series so far, Jerome Preisler’s creation and set up of all three subplots were great and as they slowly twisted together the book was hard to put down then suddenly it ended with a thud and empty feeling. While this book isn’t the worst in the series, it was a major letdown given how it started off. ( )

This is an interesting story of action, adventure and mayhem on the cold and lonely Antarctic continent. The tale begins with the disappearance of an experimental Mars rover and its research team. The narrative then takes the reader around the world as we try to find out who and what is behind this drama. Who lives and who dies, and will come out on top, is a question everyone is struggling to find out. So, put on a warm coat, grab your gun and hope that the weather does not kill you before the bad guys get to you… ( )

This is an interesting story that takes place in antartica. I'm always drawn to the colder regions and enjoy the different enviornemnt. It's about a coporation who has a team disappear in antartica research station. The company must then send in it's top security agent to try to solve the puzzle. This didn't seem to be up to complete clancy par. it had some smoothe detailed writting he has but overall it was a bit lacking. I'm not saying to pass it up, this is just an obervation. issue two seems to be a common one for me lately but the ending is rushed and a bit lacking. not a tremendous amount of thought was put into it and i'm a bit tired of reading 4 or 500 pages to have the end thrown together in a few pages. This book at least tied up most of the loose ties. The few they didn't really or didn't well were parts that were touched on more towards the center of the book and what? forgotten? or throw one or two lines at it to finish it. I'm not sure whether it was the environment that got three stars or it entertained me enough for them. either way, there you are. ( )