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too many characters...too many plots (not twists, just plots...no intrigue...confusing...not much fun...kinda a waste of time
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Christian Gillette #3
The Power Broker
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Exposing high-level governmental corruption, conspiracy, and murder has garnered plenty of attention for Christian Gillette, the young dynamo chairman of the famous New York private equity firm Everest Capital. Now the reputation he has built taking Everest to the top has been noticed beyond the boardrooms of high finance–by powerful people with potentially devastating agendas.
Christian’s own attention is on Las Vegas, where he means to stake out a piece of the action by opening a new casino and launching an NFL franchise. But Sin City didn’t get its nickname for nothing, and the mob soon makes it clear that Christian’s company will have to pay if it wants to play in the nation’s gaming capital. Christian has already taken on corporate pirates and cold-blooded assassins and lived to tell about it, but crossing the underworld could do more than just kill his brilliant career. It could crush his chance to fulfill his late father’s political legacy.
Dynamic U.S. senator Jesse Ford is the odds-on favorite to make history as the first black president. And the man he wants beside him in the red-hot race for the White House is Christian Gillette. But Samuel Hewitt, a Texas mogul with billions to burn, has another fate in mind for Christian: to be part of a shadow organization, powered by wealth and bound by dark secrets that has manipulated the course of American history for generations.
As the pieces of Hewitt’s plot fall into place, and a twisted chain of intrigue, treachery, blackmail, and death gets tighter and tighter, Christian realizes–maybe too late–that in a grudge match between kingmakers hell-bent on victory at all costs, he may be the last pawn sacrificed.
With The Power Broker, bestselling author Stephen Frey unleashes an ever-accelerating thriller that breaks the suspense barrier–and never stops.
From the Hardcover edition.
Christian’s own attention is on Las Vegas, where he means to stake out a piece of the action by opening a new casino and launching an NFL franchise. But Sin City didn’t get its nickname for nothing, and the mob soon makes it clear that Christian’s company will have to pay if it wants to play in the nation’s gaming capital. Christian has already taken on corporate pirates and cold-blooded assassins and lived to tell about it, but crossing the underworld could do more than just kill his brilliant career. It could crush his chance to fulfill his late father’s political legacy.
Dynamic U.S. senator Jesse Ford is the odds-on favorite to make history as the first black president. And the man he wants beside him in the red-hot race for the White House is Christian Gillette. But Samuel Hewitt, a Texas mogul with billions to burn, has another fate in mind for Christian: to be part of a shadow organization, powered by wealth and bound by dark secrets that has manipulated the course of American history for generations.
As the pieces of Hewitt’s plot fall into place, and a twisted chain of intrigue, treachery, blackmail, and death gets tighter and tighter, Christian realizes–maybe too late–that in a grudge match between kingmakers hell-bent on victory at all costs, he may be the last pawn sacrificed.
With The Power Broker, bestselling author Stephen Frey unleashes an ever-accelerating thriller that breaks the suspense barrier–and never stops.
From the Hardcover edition.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1,2006
This edition
- Format
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320 pages, Hardcover
- Published
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July 25, 2006 by Ballantine Books
- ISBN
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9780345480606
- ASIN
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0345480600
- Language
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English
About the author
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For the last 15 years I've been lucky enough to be a novelist. Until recently the books were set in the worlds of Wall Street and Washington. In addition to writing, I've also had a career in finance with specialties including merger & acquisition advisory and private equity at firms like J.P. Morgan in New York City and Winston Partners just outside D.C. in northern Virginia.
So, it seemed natural to write about those two worlds and, fortunately, the publishing industry agreed. My first book was published in 1995, The Takeover; about a secret group of men who were trying to destroy the U.S. monetary system by engineering a massive corporate takeover. I have followed The Takeover with 13 more novels all set in high-level finance and national politics.
Recently, I decided to alter the theme. The novels will still have a financial focus, but Wall Street won't be the backdrop. We'll get out into the world more. And there will be a man versus nature element for the hero in every novel. Hell's Gate, available August 2009, is set in Montana and involves forest fires and why many of them start.
I live in southwest Florida with my wife, Diana, and we have since 2004 after moving down here from northern Virginia. Given the new direction of my books, it seems like a hurricane ought to make an appearance in a novel sometime soon.
So, it seemed natural to write about those two worlds and, fortunately, the publishing industry agreed. My first book was published in 1995, The Takeover; about a secret group of men who were trying to destroy the U.S. monetary system by engineering a massive corporate takeover. I have followed The Takeover with 13 more novels all set in high-level finance and national politics.
Recently, I decided to alter the theme. The novels will still have a financial focus, but Wall Street won't be the backdrop. We'll get out into the world more. And there will be a man versus nature element for the hero in every novel. Hell's Gate, available August 2009, is set in Montana and involves forest fires and why many of them start.
I live in southwest Florida with my wife, Diana, and we have since 2004 after moving down here from northern Virginia. Given the new direction of my books, it seems like a hurricane ought to make an appearance in a novel sometime soon.
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Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 60 votes)
5 stars
16(27%)
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24(40%)
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20(33%)
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I liked the first two books in this series. This one was OK - kind of hard to follow because I thought it was very chopped up - switching back and forth between all the characters. I will be interested to see what happens in the next and currently final book of the series.
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The Power broker by fray concerns high finance, politics, social/economic issues, and buckets of drama/intrigue surrounding Christian Gillette, the chairman of a New York private equity firm.
The main issue with this book is that there's no character inside of it that you can really root for connected with, or even care about; as 90% of the cast are cardboard cutouts bonking around into each other in illogical or nonsense ways, paired with shock value interactions which lack any depth, since as stated before the characters do as well.
Then when the work touches on sociopolitical issues, said issues are never fully realized or explored beyond surface level exposition and cheap motivation to make x character do x thing.
So if looking for a high stakes, intrigue bleeding modern tale set in the financial world, Id look elsewhere. As this work overall is just meh.
Note: I was seeking to read the Power Broker by Robert Caro and mistakenly read this(the third book in a series no less), so that might have something to do with my dislike of the work >_>
The main issue with this book is that there's no character inside of it that you can really root for connected with, or even care about; as 90% of the cast are cardboard cutouts bonking around into each other in illogical or nonsense ways, paired with shock value interactions which lack any depth, since as stated before the characters do as well.
Then when the work touches on sociopolitical issues, said issues are never fully realized or explored beyond surface level exposition and cheap motivation to make x character do x thing.
So if looking for a high stakes, intrigue bleeding modern tale set in the financial world, Id look elsewhere. As this work overall is just meh.
Note: I was seeking to read the Power Broker by Robert Caro and mistakenly read this(the third book in a series no less), so that might have something to do with my dislike of the work >_>
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A financial thriller. Christian Gillette, from The Protégé now powerful business man, plans to be nominated as VP for African American presidential candidate. Behind the scenes, is a group of men who run the financial world–stocks and Wall Street–buy-outs and mergers.
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This is another Christian Gillette novel which picks up roughly where The Protege left off. Christian is on the short list to be the Vice presidential choice for Jesse Wood an African American running for president but he has been targeted by a super secret power group known as The Order, think Skull and Bones. Like many of Frey's novels this would have benefited from an extra 75-100 pages as the plot seems rushed and the ending happens quickly.
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My first Stephen Frey novel and it was so, so. Too many characters, sub-plots and plot lines to keep track of in the first 100 pages or so. It picks up the pace thereafter and moves to a quick finish. Overall, it failed to really impress but I will give another novel by this author a go.
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A readable story about a group of wealthy, connected men who take it upon themselves to keep America 'pure', i.e. white. Politics, race and big business are all intertwined in this novel which is easy enough to read altho' not exciting or fast-paced.
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*1.5 stars
Finally, it's over! That sounds overly harsh, but this was a bit of a trial to get through, still I wanted to know what the end would be, so...
It's just too much of everything. There are SOOO many characters, it's hard to keep up. Also, there are several plot lines, not one of which appealed to me. There are secret societies, corporate espionage, romantic squabbles, business deals, political planning, etc. It's just too much.
Further, Christian Gillette, the main character, has gotten to the point where he is only a caricature, and a bad one at that. By this I mean he is the perfect 'hero' still he falls completely flat, with no softness, no weakness, nothing to make him remotely appealing or even human. He is extremely handsome, so handsome every woman fawns over him(except his lesbian receptionist- who he made sure was a lesbian, so there would be no chance he or she would be interested in the other- talk about EGO?!?). He went to Princeton, then made zillions on Wall Street and he's only forty, oh my! He is presented as this shiny example of a man, yet what I perceived was a dull, waxy figure with no personality and rather little in the way of common sense.
The plot...I can't even go there. It's just absurd. Constant killing, gun-fighting rubbish that seems utterly contrived (at least I rather hope it is...)
Be that as it may, I did finish, so I will give it 1.5, instead of 1 star. I hate writing bad reviews, because writing a book is hard work. But this book really disappointed me and I have to be honest. Perhaps I am not the right audience, because other people clearly enjoyed it, still I think this will be it for my and Christian Gillette.
Find more reviews and bookish fun at http://www.princessandpen.com
Finally, it's over! That sounds overly harsh, but this was a bit of a trial to get through, still I wanted to know what the end would be, so...
It's just too much of everything. There are SOOO many characters, it's hard to keep up. Also, there are several plot lines, not one of which appealed to me. There are secret societies, corporate espionage, romantic squabbles, business deals, political planning, etc. It's just too much.
Further, Christian Gillette, the main character, has gotten to the point where he is only a caricature, and a bad one at that. By this I mean he is the perfect 'hero' still he falls completely flat, with no softness, no weakness, nothing to make him remotely appealing or even human. He is extremely handsome, so handsome every woman fawns over him(except his lesbian receptionist- who he made sure was a lesbian, so there would be no chance he or she would be interested in the other- talk about EGO?!?). He went to Princeton, then made zillions on Wall Street and he's only forty, oh my! He is presented as this shiny example of a man, yet what I perceived was a dull, waxy figure with no personality and rather little in the way of common sense.
The plot...I can't even go there. It's just absurd. Constant killing, gun-fighting rubbish that seems utterly contrived (at least I rather hope it is...)
Be that as it may, I did finish, so I will give it 1.5, instead of 1 star. I hate writing bad reviews, because writing a book is hard work. But this book really disappointed me and I have to be honest. Perhaps I am not the right audience, because other people clearly enjoyed it, still I think this will be it for my and Christian Gillette.
Find more reviews and bookish fun at http://www.princessandpen.com
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