The premise of this volume is quite traditional for the genre: classic supervirus that you don't know where it comes from, but everyone wants. The virtuous to get it out of the way for good, the less virtuous to make it a weapon.
The virtuous are obviously Americans, members of the fictitious operations centre that gives the series its title. The less virtuous, of course, everyone else, particularly the Chinese. Apart from being fast-paced and quite entertaining, the novel has little merit. Too many stereotypes and too many (missed) political messages. It has to be said that Tom Clancy has taken ghost writing to a higher level.

Great thriller that kept me engaged from start to finish. Fabulous plot and characters, and author I will definitely read more of!

This was much slower paced with a more confusing plot than other Op-Center books. I can’t really recommend this one.

3+ is my rating
This has taken me a long time to finish, as I’ve had to put it down here and there. The topic is bio-terrorism, and it was too believable and frightening during this Covid crisis we are in. Probably not the best time to be reading this but I ordered the ARC as my hubby wants to read it next. I generally like political thrillers, such as those by Vince Flynn featuring Mitch Rapp, and others.

This started out well, with the various countries and what they were each experiencing with this virus. The Chinese are the “bad guys” here. A dark ops team for the U.S. known as the Black Wasps are rushing to get control of this bad virus before they do and without provoking the wrath of other countries, such as Russia. It did have some very tense moments where you find yourself holding your breath. However, about midway it got bogged down for me, and hard to follow what with the technical jargon, dense military prose and the like. I found myself skimming through it.

Don’t expect Tom Clancy, but it’s not a bad job at all… maybe it’s just me being tired of all we are going through. Gladly passing it on to hubby who will probably like it more.

Get your copy at your favorite retailer on August 4, 2020. Thanks to the following for my preview copy and allowing me to post my honest opinion.
#NetGalley #StMartinsPress #Jeff Rovin

Ha! The timing of this book… I didn’t read the description closely enough when I started reading this book several months. All I knew was that it was a Tom Clancy/Jeff Rovin military thriller and I was all in! So imagine my surprise (and maybe discomfort) when the story reveals that the threat is a new, unknown supervirus. The story was good so I kept going, but eventually real life and my hobby (reading) were colliding a little too much so I had to put the book on hold.

My favorite part about these books is always the build-up. The ‘unknown’ happening over and over again with everyone scrambling to figure it out. This particular ‘unknown’ starts in multiple locations – a plane in mid-flight and the South African navy on a surveillance mission among some other instances. Although I’ve just met the characters in the story, the narrative still gave me enough to care about their survival or situation. It’s this part that keeps me hooked on the story and God of War did this part well. Then add the the political dynamics between the U.S., South Africa, China….it all made for a very entertaining story.

In the end, I enjoyed the book very much and found it a good way to escape even if it did mirror real life a little too closely this time around.

Rating: 4 stars

Good premise but uneven pacing. I found the groups of characters and their intent a bit confusing. A decent amount of action and suspense kept it interesting but not as good as some of the other Op Center books.
Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC.

When an unknown virus starts a series of deaths in far flung areas, the scene is set for an action/ tension filled thriller. As The Black Wasps deploy to suspected hot spots, they must contend with foreign nationals seeking the same information they are. With a well defined cast of characters willing to give their lives to save the United States, GOD OF WAR sets them in a series of events in some very dangerous countries. No spoilers, they ultimately save the day. Some of the situations in this story seem a little too close to current events for comfort....read at your own risk!!!!

I received this book through NetGalley.

This story has the team identified as "Black Wasp" travel to South Africa to obtain a sample of the biological agent that caused an airline to crash. Their objective is to avoid attention as well. At the same time that the team is in route, a Chinese vessel enters the area to do the same thing. They have made landfall and captured the radio site where a group of South Africans maintained a presence. Two of this group had traveled to investigate the site and the pilot was overcome by the biological agent and made an emergency landing.

Once the Black Wasp team landed, 2 members went to meet with officials while the other 2 proceeded to the site to complete the mission and prevent the Chinese from obtaining the agent. Unbeknownst to the team, another group had visited the site earlier and through their sampling they wound up releasing the biological agent. They were able to obtain 3 samples and while transporting it back, all but one of the group were killed by the agent. The individual who had survived, gave two of the samples to her boss and kept one. He in turn, let the agent loose in East London town killing several people. The two individuals who went to meet with the officials now had to handle this situation as well.

The amount of action and the way the story ended definitely make this book worth reading.

Jeff Rovin's Tom Clancy's Op-Center: God of War was just an okay read for me. I was exciting at times and confusing at others. I would give it three stars.

Ripped from today's headlines, this book is intelligently written and definitely thought-provoking. There were enough diabolical twists to keep a fast pace, and with characters who are vividly portrayed. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride!

*My thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy for review, and with the author and publisher for making it available to them.*

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. Ah, for the days of Tom Clancy written works. This is not up to the standards we have gotten to enjoy from Clancy. Seeing his name on the cover does not make it a good read. The whole scenario is pretty far fetched, not unusual in these types of stories, but not tied together very well. The whole South Africa situation is murky and the process of hiding and finding the disease on the island is hard to follow. Not a page turner.

Jeff Rovin keeps the legacy of Tom Clancy alive in this new installment of the Op-Center series.
A good tale to dive in as a summer read.
A bit of a warning. The novel does deal about a killer virus and amid the Covid-19 pandemic in the real world, the topic might scare readers, or on the contrary reel them in, depending on each person's taste.

It has been many years since I have read a Tom Clancy book. Now this one is similar to what we are going through right now. A virus is being spread, or plague with a stay at home orders and of course there is someone is going to get to the bottom of this. At times this was fast-paced high drama. Other times I found it slow, maybe it was me I don’t know. What I do know was that reading this book was or felt a lot like what we are going through now or at least that is how I took it. With that, it was at times like living the story on the pages. Though I could find fault with some of the book I think because the story is so close to what is going on now it only enhances the story. Overall a good.

The scene is a couple uninhabited islands midway between South Africa and Antarctica. Prince Edward and Marion Islands. Only a small research station is present. On a corner of Marion Island, a small yacht that ferries mineral poachers around in search of rare gemstones goes digging around in an easily accessible chasm of a coastal rock pillar. A combination of drilling and acid breaks open a chamber containing multiple storage vesicles. The lead geologist, Katrinka, grabs three intact vesicles thinking if someone went to such extremes to hide whatever is inside, the contents must be worth something. Breaking open the reinforced concrete vault damages a number of the other containers releasing contents into the air.

Minutes after opening the vault, Katrinka is back on o board the yacht. As she works to secure her discovery in the ship’s lab, she hears the crew erupt. Blood and internal viscera are being vomited up, flesh is being singed from the inside. With 20ish minutes, the entire crew is dead. Katrinka sees this through the lab door window and immediately dons her personal protective gear, boards the yacht’s small helicopter to escape. But not before arming the ship’s self-destruct device sending a ball of flame into the atmosphere and sinks the yacht, the heat of which helps send the emancipated contents into the atmosphere.

A commercial flight falls out of the sky over the southern Indian Ocean crashes nose-first into a remote corner of Marion Island. The research station head and his helicopter pilot go over to investigate. The helo pilot becomes ill, but not fatally. The station head was mostly sealed in his cold weather gear at first, but quickly pulls on his PPE, just in case.

The two explosions do not go unnoticed. Air traffic over the south Indian Ocean is locked down. South African military and intelligence organize to investigate. But so do the Chinese as they are keen to expand their influence in that region. As do the Russians, because they have connections with South Africa in part to stymie the Chinese.

And the Americans.

The President can’t send anything in publicly unless asked by Pretoria. But that doesn’t mean they’ll sit idly by. You never know.

The traditional Op Center morphed into mobile strike force in Sting of the Wasp (2019), previously reviewed by the MRB boys. Black Wasp is a single, small, mostly autonomous group that avoids the military bureaucracy and Congressional oversight by answering only to the President and funded by a non-existent budget line. They are tasked to find out what’s going on.

The Chinese have a navy vessel in the area and are the first to arrive. Katrinka has managed to get back to the mainland and hands over two of the containers to her boss. From what she saw, she’s sure they contain some bioweapon and other countries might be interested in purchasing it. Her boss, a native South African whose political views are exceedingly anti-white, has other more local ideas.

The bulk of this book is the speculative research into the what, how, and why of the contents of the find and then what to do about it. The source of the contents is quickly uncovered. A treatment for HIV gone bad. A virus had been engineered years ago to hit HIV, but it turned out that the cure was worse than the disease. Not knowing exactly the best way to destroy the creation, it was sealed up tight and buried in one of the most remote locations on the planet. Dumb luck that it was uncovered. The dang bug has a short, but deadly life span when exposed to the atmosphere. It rose rapidly in the air when released and the jet flew right through the cloud. Within 15 minutes, every person on board was dead and the plane crashed.

Consistent with anything having Clancy’s name attached, this techno-thriller is told at a breathtaking, breakneck pace. Two-thirds of the book is planning and speculation. Once Black Wasp arrives in South Africa, the whole issue is contained within maybe 24hrs. But not before a mainland release of the toxin creates South Africa’s own version of 9/11. Love Clancy? You’ll love this.

The story turns out to be more current, than the authors anticipated. Another solid book in the op-center series, while not as good as Clancy himself, but still OK. This time the team has to deal with a deadly virus.

Thanks ARC for the free copy to review

A sure sign of "book death"is the arrival of the ghost writer. Not so here as a virus attacks runs rampant and heroes emerge. TC may have died in 2013 but his foundations live on thru installments like this one that prove the line between fact and fiction is blurry and not just in DC.

Lots of action and violence without being gratuitous, still they come close to falling off the technical jargon cliff at the expense of the story. Even still I hope you enjoy because sure did.

(See all of my Book Reviews) - Author Jeff Rovin published the novel “Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: God of War” in 2020 (May). He has published more than 40 novels as well as other works. This is the 19th book in the Op-Center series created by Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik.

I categorize this novel as ‘R’ because it contains scenes of Violence. There is a mysterious outbreak of a fatal biological agent in Antarctic waters. The Black Wasp Team is called back to action.
An Australian bound airliner crashes after the rapid infection of all passengers and crew. A private yacht explodes in the South Indian Sea. A helicopter crashes on a South Africa bridge.

The years of apartheid in South Africa spawned many secret projects. Among these is the discovery of a lethal biological agent. The few who knew about it sought to hide it away. They thought it would be safe. They hid it on the frozen shore of a protected island the government-controlled. Unfortunately unlawful digging on the island released the agent.

Soon there is a Chinese vessel investigating the island. The US must find the source of the outbreak and keep it from falling into the wrong hands. Dispatching the Black Wasp Team to find the source of the contagion is the US response. They must find the source and make sure that no other country gets it.

I enjoyed the 8.5 hours I spent reading this 352-page thriller. This is the second novel in the Black Wasp subsidies. I read the first “Tom Clancys Op-Center: Sting of the Wasp” and liked it. This novel is readable as a stand-alone book, but it would be best to read ‘Sting of the Wasp’ first. The Black Wasp Team is an odd collection of four characters. It is not the conventional Special Ops Team. The cover art is OK, though it is not tightly tied to the story. I give this novel a 3.8 (Rounded up to a 4) out of 5.

You can access more of my book reviews on my Blog ( https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/).

My book reviews are also published on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/31181778-john-purvis).

What caused an airliner to crash? Was it a missile, human error, terrorist activities, or something else. Try a super virus of an extremely toxic variety. Antarctica, South Africa and the USA are the stages for this fabulous thriller!

Black Wasp may be the secret weapon of the outgoing President but his successor may just have as much need of their talents.

I read this as the COVID-19 virus swept over the world - it was like fact meeting fiction head on. That said this was a roller-coaster to action, spread over a timeframe of only a few days. All the usual suspects are standing in the wings: China, Russia, South Africa and the USA itself.

It's been a while since I read an Op Center book but I feel a tad nostalgic and I think I'll use my self isolation time for a revisit!

Tom Clancy's Op-Center: God of War by Jeff Rovin

Perhaps not the best of times to be reading a novel about a killer virus on the loose. A great premise and a very exciting and promising beginning but, for me, this tailed off and the book became bogged down in jargon, dense military prose and impenetrable characterisation. So not for me.

First I want to thank the publisher for making it possible for me to read this, the most recent of the “Op Center” series. Even though Tom Clancy died in 2013, his novels continue. Several ghost writers write the novels. “God of War” was written by Jeff Rovin and follows the Black Wasp dark ops team as they rush to the southern tip of South Africa to try to gain control over a super bug. The “bad guys” in this story are the Chinese, and the Black Wasp team must beat them to the super bug and not provoke an international incident. This story was made more interesting by the current corona virus panic. For me, the story was a little hard to get into. It did get more interesting toward the end.
In the Tom Clancy books, give me Jack Ryan and the Campus group any day.