By now, Robinson's fans realize that the novels follow a certain formula. It starts with evil terrorists inflicting some damage with a submarine. It ends with the US making things right with our submarines. Along the way, the fictitious Admiral Morgan cuts through the red tape, politics, and every other shred of BS to get the job done despite a wuss for a President, and an ineffective administration. Oh, and lest we forget, the Navy's SEALS get to blow something up.
Quite frankly, Hunter Killer sticks to the formula; the underlying plot was engaging though. France helps to stage a coup inside of Saudi Arabia so they can get an exclusive deal on rebuilding the country, and distributing the Saudi oil. Along the way, General Ravi Rashood, the fictitious military chief of Hamas plays an active role. He has been a recurring character in the last few novels and is a well developed terrorist villain. This all takes place in 2010 so as to not offend the French too much (although I wouldn't put something like this beyond them...).
The prose is well written, with rich descriptions of the scene and time. Other than the date, Robinson's vision of 2010 is pretty much identical to today; this could have been developed a little further. At least he used the newest Virginia class submarine which replaced the overpriced Sea Wolf subs.
Fans that want to read an undersea battle will be disappointed to a small extent. On the other hand, Hunter Killer is a solid political and military thriller.
Overall Grade: B+
Also by Patrick Robinson:
Scimitar SL-2
The Shark Mutiny
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