This book probably deserves a 4 for the writing quality and overall storytelling, but I do have to place a personal cap on how highly I rate books on subjects I don’t align with. 

Follett did a good job at making this book as neutrally patriotic as possible, but the subject matter makes that difficult. This book is very masculine. All of the important people are men (which I fully understand this is a true story, therefore that’s just a simple fact as to how these events took place), there’s a slight bias placed toward traditional values, there’s obviously pro-military and America-centric overtones, and a bit of xenophobia. Not to mention we’re talking about a billionaire pulling strings that of course no normal person could pull. Many parts of this book feel like a “puff job,” and I would’ve liked an unbiased perspective on WHY Iranian-American conflict was heightened. This story read like “America good, Iran bad,” which is dangerously hyperbolic and quite frankly offensive to the readers intelligence. 

I understand the phenomenal loyalty exhibited by Ross Perot to his employees that he felt personally responsible for. I think in general this recon mission is phenomenal and amazing, when you don’t consider how incredibly dangerous it could’ve been for the thousands of other Americans attempting to flee Iran at the same time. Also, just personally didn’t love the whole “I’m going to leave my wife and small children behind because I want to be a hero with my boys” level of decision making.