Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I read "Punk's War" a year or so ago and really enjoyed it, though it seemed to me that some of the senior officer characters were treated a bit too stereotypically (but maybe not - maybe there are less talented, showboating officers who become leaders in spite of the fact that they care only about their own careers - or maybe because of it - I hope not but I was never in the military so...).
This time the author has created characters that seem more real, with talents, flaws, fears, and doubts. Of the many military and techno-thriller novels I have read where "women in combat" is played up as a central conflict, I think this is the best. "Muddy" has problems becoming an F-14 pilot, and she gets special attention from a crusading senator, but her problems could happen to anyone, and special attention (which she doesn't even want) actually creates more problem. The personal, professional, and political worlds intersect in complex ways. Flying an airplane requires multi-tasking, as I learned in my own pilot training in slow-moving Cessna's. I admire anyone who can manage the learning curves and high intensity juggling acts required of military pilots. The training stuff in here is really good, not just filler before the combat scenes.
The combat scenes are good too, and they show that Afghanistan was no cakewalk for our carrier-based flyers. Missions with 3-5 aerial refuelings were the norm, and that stuff isn't easy even under the best conditions, which these were not.
A good book with excellent action and characters I could relate to as real people. There is a mystery through the book concerning an intermittent problem with flight controls that causes the accident that kills Punk's best friend. Punk suspects that the manufacturer and their representative are covering up known problems to avoid a profit-killing "recall", and the civilian rep is a pretty cartoonish character. But this is worked into the plot in a reasonable way and doesn't detract from the overall success of the book.
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