Like Politika, the first installment in the Tom Clancy's Power Plays series created with Martin Greenberg, ruthless.com offers the international scope and techno-thrills of the Jack Ryan-John Clark novels--but, importantly, without Jack Ryan and John Clark. For many Clancy fans, that means that ruthless.com will be a disappointment. The hero is again Roger Gordian, and Gordian's claim to fame is his ownership of UpLink Communications; he was also the man who struggled (with his Sword security team) to avert a global nuclear war in Politika. This time Gordian's concerns are slightly more modest. As a champion of encryption technology, Gordian has fought the shifting political winds that have tried to deregulate his industry. But now, he faces attacks from within: UpLink is the subject of a hostile takeover bid that threatens to put the highly sensitive codes that secure military communications into the hands of international terrorists. While it is more violent than the usual Jack Ryan fare, and Gordian and others in the cast are left underdeveloped in the complex shifts and turns of the plot, ruthless.com has many moments that recall the best of Clancy (Gordian, for example, maintains a highly ethical streak despite his corporate panache). --Patrick O'Kelley
