The Scorpion's Gate

October 31, 2005
At its most simplistic, the plot of Clarke's fiction debut pits an American intelligence analyst, a British station chief, a Manhattan newspaper reporter and a former Al Qaeda leader\x96turned\x96democracy lover against an evil oil-grubbing U.S. secretary of defense and his Saudi pals whose sinister plan could plunge us into WWIII. Preventing it from becoming a James Bond\x96style knockoff is the former White House adviser's seasoned knowledge of Middle Eastern geopolitics and his insider's understanding of how things work in the intelligence communities. Unabridged, it poses the daunting aural task of trying to keep track of dozens of characters; a multiplicity of political agenda; constantly shifting locations, schemes and counterschemes; not to mention the deciphering of presumably authentic yet perplexing wonkspeak. A judiciously abridged, less complex story may have made for a more accessible audio version. Reader Dean's eloquent locutions help to clear things up a bit, and he does leaven some of Clarke's more weighty didactic passages. But the author has painted his heroes and villains in primary colors, and Dean follows the numbers a bit too closely. His analyst protagonist speaks in resonant tones that echo truth, justice and the American way. The station chief delivers his plucky Brit lines through a stiff upper lip. Dean's voice develops a harsh edge for the ill-tempered, arrogant defense secretary, twists into a whining mew for his unctuous assistant and slips into a slithery near-hiss for the smarmy Saudis. Too bad the characters' personae aren't a little less obvious and their machinations a little more.Simultaneous release with the Putnam hardcover (Reviews, Aug. 1).

September 1, 2005
Clarke, of course, is the controversial former national coordinator for security and counterterrorism who criticized President Bush's decision to attack Iraq and was heavily criticized in turn. This fictional justification of his stance takes place in the near future, when the Middle East is exploding. A radical new government has taken over Saudi Arabia and renamed it Islamyah; an oil crisis looms; and Iran, Iraq, and China prepare to invade Islamyah while a power-mad U.S. secretary of defense plots his own invasion and the reestablishment of the corrupt Saudi monarchy. Only a few intelligence operatives from the United States and England are aware of what's happening and work desperately to forestall an unnecessary war. Unfortunately, Clarke's political bias materializes clearly and often, such as when he blames the novel's mess on "the Bushies." The multiple characters are shallowly drawn, the dialog is trite, and events are not always well clarified. Too bad this promising premise wasn't written by Tom Clancy. Recommended for larger collections. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 6/1/05.] -Robert Conroy, Warren, MI

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2005
In the Reagan administration, Clarke was the deputy assistant to the secretary of state for intelligence and served as the assistant secretary of state for politico-military affairs in the first Bush administration. He served for eight years as a special assistant to President Clinton and served as national coordinator of security and counter-terrorism for Clinton and for President George W. Bush. With that experience and probably counting on name recognition, Clarke has written his first novel, a geopolitical tale set five years into the future. It deals with a coup that overthrows a number of Saudi Arabian sheiks, the frantic need to procure oil, and the threat of nuclear war by both the U.S and countries in the Middle East. The large cast of characters includes members of British intelligence, the U.S. National Security Agency, the Secret Service, Navy SEALs, and Iranian Revolutionary Guards--an equal number of good guys and bad guys. With a large print-run planned, the publisher is expecting big sales; and librarians can expect high demand.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)