Chapter By Chapter> Tom Clancy’s Op-Center> Mirror Image chapter 12

Chapter by Chapter features me reading one chapter (or possibly multiple chapter for this one) of the selected book at the time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as read-along book club.

We had to do two chapters last time. This time we only have the one.

I would love one or more of the novelists out there in the readership (I know you’re there) to explain how you decide on chapter breaks on long stories like this. I’ve done my share of prose, but only in short story form. Not just in the Op-Center books but in a few other novels I’ve done for this series I’ve found chapters that were too short, chapters that to me as a reader felt like they should have been one chapter, and of course chapters that feel like I actually read something without reading more than one chapter. I doubt it’s an exact science, and every author has their own way of deciding. That’s why I’m curious. Do an article if you have a site or just mention something in the comments.

Well that, and the way chapters are done in this series confuse me. At least we have chapter numbers in this book, and I’m guessing the scene changes are a factor, given that each chapter starts with a location and time, like a movie or TV show would do. To my knowledge there wasn’t an Op-Center series, but there was one based on Net Force, a novel series of which I actually own a book from and will tackle when this and the next novel in the Op-Center series are tackled. That will be a while given how I review books, and this one will probably go into the new year at this rate. Whatever the case it’s time to see what happens in this chapter.

Monday, 6:00 AM, St. Petersburg

So we’re back in Russia, though if they do a chapter in St. Petersburg, Florida, I hope they note the difference or that will be confusing.

And I see we’re doing this again, Op-Center. Spending a ton of time on a character’s backstory. At least with the first Op-Center they were trying to establish the series regulars. We didn’t need to know the press agent chased married men because her husband ran off with another woman, and thus far it hasn’t mattered to anything. So points to this book for trying to establish Paul Hood’s counterpart, Sergei Orlov, general and former cosmonaut, and his dedication to Commie Op-Center, but I think there’s more information than we need about his cosmonaut days, where he was part of some shady tests while out in space.

We do learn that he has a lot of injuries from those days, his family history going back to previous wars, the fact that he has a loving wife who still agrees with Dogin’s plans for Russia, their ritual to ensure there are no regrets if something happens to him before any assignment (or if something should happen to her while he’s gone), that her cousin also works for Commie Op-Center, and that he gets along with his second-in-command about as well as Hood does with Rogers. There is some interesting comparisons and contrasts with Paul, also a family man and patriot, but for both men “patriot” means committing different kinds of acts.

That’s really all to talk about with this chapter, seven pages of flavor text, some of which does admittedly benefit the character examination and may reflect his actions later, and some of which is probably unnecessary. We’ll find out how much of which when the book continues…though not next time. It’s still one chapter as we check back in with Capitalist Op-Center, or just Op-Center. Your call.