Chapter By Chapter> Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Mirror Image chapters 53 & 54

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.

Yes, two chapters this time. Chapter 54 is like two pages while 53 is around five. I might as well combine them here.

Last time we checked in on Peggy and George’s side of the mission. This time we’re following the rest of Striker and for some reason going to Japan. I didn’t skim much because I want to enjoy the story. Or try to. You know my history with this book and series by now. And we’re still so far away from finishing this 78 chapter book even with all the really short chapters combining.

So by now I’m totally out of ways to pad this for the homepage. Let’s just get into the story.

Chapter 53: Tuesday, 10:07 PM, Khabarovsk

The chapter starts with that unnecessary information that bothers me so often, unless they’re trying to use Squires week with Israeli forces as some explanation about his mountain descending skills. The bit about how the goggles fog up didn’t need a science lesson with how much time this book wastes on useless trivia. I’ll even give one member getting frozen to the side of the snowy cliff, if only because the last name “Pupshaw” for a special forces operative isn’t the most embarrassing thing about his life. It could have been a nice dramatic tension moment but with so much unnecessary baggage in this book it just feels like another stop to the story.

From there he gives his orders to his men. DeVille, the new girl, starts to ask about a different role but Squires shuts her down immediately not out of anger or being a jerk but because he doesn’t have time to debate, and to her credit she doesn’t take it as a “shut the girl up” act and immediately accepts her orders to help provide cover fire. She’s still a rookie here, but she’s a soldier. The train is coming (and I thought it had stopped) and they have to make it look like a tree fell on the tracks, at least long enough for them to move in.

For the most part it’s a solid chapter, with decent pacing after the “foggles” bit.

Tuesday, 11:08 PM, Hokkaido

It is hard for me to keep track of the timeline with all these time zone changes. I don’t what’s meant to be happening at the same time as the previous chapter or if it’s a few hours before it.

We get more useless trivia, though if it wasn’t for all the rest of the useless trivia I might not be bothered. Mostly it’s just here to tell you about how the “Mosquito” works, the difference between the name “stealth aircraft” and more accurately name “low-observant”, and how it could be detected if you really, really wanted to find it. We also meet pilot Steve Kahrs, but unlike so much of this book we don’t spend too much time going over unnecessary backstory, just that he likes the idea of giving the Russian military a black eye by pulling this off.

The only interesting information is that the Mosquito had to be so stripped down it doesn’t even have armament, and how it’s going to (hopefully) get in and out with the team. I can see why the chapter is so short, and the only real issue I have with the trivia is how so much unnecessary worldbuilding is in this book.

I think we’re back to one chapter next time, as we go back to Commie Op-Center. I did check the chapter after and both seem decent length on their own, but I think it’s about to get interesting here.