too many characters...too many plots (not twists, just plots...no intrigue...confusing...not much fun...kinda a waste of time

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.

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 >_>

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.

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.

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.

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.

*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.

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Listening to this book was like watching bad television. A farsically unbelievable plot, with unidimensional characters and predictable events/ending. I can understand that someone would feel the urge to write, even if it's going to be a poor work but why would you publish this? Because people buy titles? Because the ignorant read? Who knows?

04-09

Fast moving, good plot. I will keep reading Stephen W. Frey novels.

Not even close to being one of Stephen Frey’s stellar books. I gave up after 150 pages. Tons of characters and sub plots to remember. I had to keep going back to figure out who was who and why they were relevant and I didn’t like the racial overtones in the plot.
In the end I just gave up. I just couldn’t get into the plot. It just took too much energy to read and I wasn’t getting any excitement or suspense in return.