Hong Kong – by Stephen Coonts
Hong Kong
Plot Summary: (taken from the back of the novel)
Something is going badly wrong in Hong Kong. A CIA agent is dead; a Chinese fixer is dead. And Rear Admiral Jake Grafton, his Chinese-speaking wife Callie, and CIA agent Tommy Carmellini are sent to find out what is going on.
The dead fixer had close associations with Virgil ‘Tiger’ Cole, the US Consul-General in Hong Kong, who had also been Grafton’s bombardier-navigator during Vietnam. Before long Grafton realises that Cole is involved in a conspiracy, code-named ‘The Scarlet Team’, to overthrow the Chinese communist government.
Then Callie is kidnapped by members of The Scarlet Team and, as a revolution unfolds, Grafton faces a race against time to rescue his wife …
Personal Review:
Hong Kong is my first Coonts novel and after I read it, there is no doubt that Coonts is a great writer, although at the same time, I’m not sure if I am ever going to read any of his novels again.
This novel’s main plot is about a revolution trying to overthrow the Communist Chinese government in Hong Kong. While it is probably only meant to be a fiction and Coonts might not have any propaganda agenda whatsoever, I do think the way he portrays the Chinese government is too negative and too far from the reality. Don’t get me wrong, I know that this is a fiction, but it’s like … he’s trying too hard promoting that a Communist government is really really bad and corrupt – that’s the impression that I get, at least. I have not lived in Hong Kong before, but I did stay in Beijing for about a year and most Chinese are really proud of their government. Yes, this might not probably be the case during the time when Coonts wrote the novel, but still … his portrayal is a bit too negative for me, even for a fiction.
I did, however, really enjoy the way Coonts build the suspense in this novel. I couldn’t put the novel down and he made me wonder how the story will end, amazingly without making me feel bored and open the last page to know the ending.
Another thing noteworthy is that the characters in this novel are really interesting, those who play major roles in the book and those that do not. I think I have never been so absorbed by the characters in a novel as the ones in Hong Kong.
So, all in all. I would recommend Coonts, but not the case with the novel. I personally, would probably try his other novels, but I would stay away from those that have anything to do with politics, at least for now.
Cheers!
PS: I might need to warn anyone who is interested in buying this novel. If you’re not into robots, you might want to reconsider. Some high-tech robots, a bit too advanced for our time I guess, are involved and in a way become an essential element in the main plot. A bit too far-fetched, but then again, in a fiction anything is possible.
The difference between fiction and reality?
Fiction has to make sense. – Tom Clancy
