This book works really well as the first book of the series. We quickly establish the plot, and characters are added quite neatly as the book continues. It helps that the main antagonist, Henry St Clair, is not a mustache-twirling type villain, althro the Russians depicted come very close to this, but considering that the book was published during the Cold War before the Reagan presidency, this could probably be seen as just a product of the times.
The only issue with the book comes from what happens in later books, as the two main characters, Sam and Claudia, pretty much just cameo in all the following books of the series, if used at all. It is also blatantly obvious from the beginning that they will eventually fall in love with each other, but often it is far better to be predictable than to do something stupid in the writing just to swerve the reader.
Literature A fine start to the series
This book works really well as the first book of the series. We quickly establish the plot, and characters are added quite neatly as the book continues. It helps that the main antagonist, Henry St Clair, is not a mustache-twirling type villain, althro the Russians depicted come very close to this, but considering that the book was published during the Cold War before the Reagan presidency, this could probably be seen as just a product of the times.
The only issue with the book comes from what happens in later books, as the two main characters, Sam and Claudia, pretty much just cameo in all the following books of the series, if used at all. It is also blatantly obvious from the beginning that they will eventually fall in love with each other, but often it is far better to be predictable than to do something stupid in the writing just to swerve the reader.