Patrick Robinson (1) (1940–)

Robinson's a good writer, so it would be nice to believe the jingoism, racism and imperialism, etc. that permeates the book is the author rendering true 80's era military swank. And then you get a chapter where he extemporaneously goes off on the gloriousness of the Koch brother empire and you realize he's not rendering depth and flaws of his protagonists. Rather Robinson and his ilk of techno-thriller fanboys are too blinkered by American exceptionalism and the like to realize how stuff show more like this comes across as Team American World Police without being in on the joke. show less

Larry McDonald refers a number of times in this book to his capacity for hindsight and he certainly uses it here.

But he uses it very well in this extraordinary insider account of the spectacular downfall of Lehman Brothers, a venerable old investment bank whose demise, caused by greed, shortsightedness, arrogance, and stupidity at the very top, came close to taking the world’s economy with it.

The writing is excellent. Patrick Robinson takes the “vast jumble of thoughts cascading show more undisciplined and unchecked through [McDonald’s] mind” and turns it into an enthralling story. There were dozens of places where I marked what I thought of as good writing. If I had to pick a favourite, it would be on page 308: “The whirling, bloodstained god of galloping inflation danced mockingly across the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.”

Some passages are very technical, perhaps unavoidably so in a book like this. But I least I know the difference between stocks and bonds now.

Thoroughly recommended. If the subject interests you at all, you shouldn’t miss this. show less

Excellent story about the 1987 Oxford Cambridge Boat Race and the disruption caused by American rowers who tried unsuccessfully to take over the OUBC (Oxford University Boat Club) because they felt that they didn't need to train for the event and went on to prove that they were unsuccessful men. Topolski proved to be one of the best coaches in the world.

Wow. This book was bad (and I don't mean baaaaad, but bad)! I'd warn you of of spoilers, but read Amazon's description and you can figure out what happens. And that's only part of the problem. There are many more:

Author Patrick Robinson obviously has great respect for Navy SEALS and has done a lot of research about them. But protagonist Mack Bedford's abilities are so overblown and cartoonish, it's hard to take him seriously. He's pretty much described as Superman without the cape. He's show more bigger, badder, stronger, faster, more ruthless than...well, anyone. Absurd. And just because Bedford was a commander in the special forces, doesn't mean he can devise what ends up being a totally foolproof plan to take out a heavily protected person, complete with multiple disguises, superhuman feats, and horrendously unbelievable coincidences.

For what is such an obvious plot line and result, it takes a helluva long time to get there. This is in part because of all the wasteful description of food preparation and news stories Robinson litters the story with. As to the latter, the reader is treated to two rather long reporter investigations into the crime. Problem is, we already know everything the reporter's uncovering, so there's absolutely no reason for it to be there. Robinson's portrayal of how the story is covered around the world is ridiculous too. Sure, the US media would cover it, but it wouldn't be wall-to-wall as he describes it.

The audio version suffers from typical melodramatic male narration (which seems to be typical of audio books). Here, Charles Leggett delivers mundane sentences like he's amped up with adrenalin. To his credit, however, he does a slew of accents quite well.

Diamondhead is awful. Don't read--or listen--to it. show less