Showing posts with label military thriller. Show all posts
Showing posts with label military thriller. Show all posts

The Tiger Cruise Review

The Tiger Cruise
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Truly an exciting, spellbinding book. This author's style of writing is imaginative and unique. I loved the way he explains the "technotalk" to the reader within his characters. For example, when the professor at the seismo lab explains to his students what a deep focus earthquake is or how GPS is used to track earthquakes, he is, at the same time, explaining it to the reader.
The book takes off right from the start and keeps your undivided attention to the very last page. This is difficult for any author to do, much less a new one, and I commend Mr. Thompson for captivating his audience and not letting go. Just when I thought I had something figured out, a new twist or turn would pop up and I was again trying to figure out where the story would wind up. Believe me, it kept my attention where I did not want to put the book down. There are some very famous authors out there who tend to bog down the reader with too many intrinsic, technical details that can "break a story apart." Not true for Thompson. While there are plenty of technical details to go around in The Tiger Cruise, they are handled in such a way to just give you enough - and keep the story moving.
This is not a great novel, but it's damn close. I'll be looking for Thompson's next book, which is sure to come. Great job by a new, and yet unknown author, but not for long. Like the DJ in Tupelo said about Elvis after his first record, "this boy's going nation wide." So too is The Tiger Cruise, and Thompson.

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The nuclear attack submarine USS WOODBRIDGE prepares fora Tiger Cruise, in which 14 civilian guests of the crew will get tospend the night on board. Among the civilians are the Captain's twoyoung sons and a retired computer programmer. The USS WOODBRIDGE isalso spending this time testing a new state of the art SONAR system.In the dead of night, Iraqi Republican Guards sneak several canistersof the deadly anthrax virus across the border. The CIA learns of theirplans, when the Iraqis are forced to kill a NATO inspectionofficer. The CIA sends a helicopter to stop them, but the Iraqis plowone of their trucks into the helicopter, enabling the truck carryingthe anthrax to slip into Jordan.Meanwhile, seismologists on the East Coast are puzzled by the curiousreadings their instruments are giving them. Could there really be anEarthquake brewing on the East Coast? When the earthquake hits, theseismologists are at first relieved, only to realize that the quakewould create a series of catastrophic tsunamis. Shortly thereafter,portions of the East Coast are severely damaged.The USS WOODBRIDGE, rocked by the deep-sea earthquake, surface to findthat the naval base at Norfolk is unreachable. The new SONAR they weretesting had been rendered useless by the shockwave. To make mattersworse, their reactor is leaking. The Captain must send his own tenyear-old son deep into the engine room to seal the reactor, whileanother one of the Tiger Cruise guests, the retired computerprogrammer, tirelessly examines the SONAR's computer code to fix thebug.The Iraqis evade NATO officials and sneak the anthrax aboard a retiredSoviet submarine, captained by a disillusioned Communist who longs forthe good ole days. The CIA use everything in their power to track theSoviet sub, only to realize that the anthrax was actually stored on astealth mini-sub. The three-man mini-sub, headed the long way aroundAfrica, is undoubtedly headed for the United States...but the questionis: where?A game of cat and mouse ensues with the CIA, the Russian Sub, and theIraqi piloted mini-sub. After missing the mini-sub with a Tomahawkmissile, it's now up to the damaged USS WOODBRIDGE to save theday. Fortunately, the civilian programmer fixes the SONAR intime. Unfortunately, the mini-sub is equipped with the latestdefensive technology and eludes every torpedo the USS WOODBRIDGE canthrow at them. In a race for the coast, the Woodbridge must doeverything in its power to stop the Iraqi invaders.

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Punk's War Review

Punk's War
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For one interested in modern Naval Aviation, Commander Carroll has written a fascinating volume for your information and pleasure.
The book is a novel about aircraft carrier operations in the post Desert Storm era, enforcing the no-fly zone over southern Iraq.
Here the reader is treated to an insider's look at the workings of an aircraft carrier at sea; launching and recovering jets, night flights, and living conditions aboard ship. But more importantly, Commander Carroll pulls back the cover of glitz and glamor of jet fighter pilots to reveal the inner workings of the mirad of inter-personal relationships that exist in a modern jet fighter squadron, aboard a nuclear aircraft carrier, and ashore in the Pentagon and other command-and-control headquarters that supervise and manage Naval Aviation.
The reader is shown how the decisions of one man in a pressure situation can affect the delicate balance that exists between war and peace.
But there's more. Commander Carroll has also entertwined throughout the entire 224 pages of this story the stuggle of character that is present at all levels of leadership. We see the difficult tension that always exists between honesty and deception, between integrity and pragmatism. There are many valuable lessons about ethics and leadership in these pages.
Don't let the title fool you; this nations needs men like Punk. May his tribe increase!

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Top Hook Review

Top Hook
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Everything looks great to Alan Craik and his spouse Rose Siciliano. The CIA appears ready to tap him for a highly regarded espionage position and the astronaut school has accepted Rose. Much faster than their rise to the top is their collapse caused by the machinations of someone else.

A woman in Venice blackmails CIA treasonous mole George Shreed. Panicking and already over the edge with his wife near death from cancer, George needs a fall guy who would have been on the project but not quite visible and with little protection to dub as the double agent selling secrets to the Chinese. He selects Rose. His covert actions lead the CIA to stop the promotions of Craik and Siciliano pending the results of an investigation into the activities of the duo. Their careers come to a halt but refusing to idly sit by as the taint of treason is painted on them, Alan and Rose begin their own inquiries into what short circuited their lives.

The third Craik-Siciliano thriller is loaded with action, action, and more action somewhat at the cost of character development. The story line emphasizes the shoot em up thrill a paragraph that never slows down, but for new readers Alan and Rose never seem quite real. Strangely the double agent is probably the most complete player in the tale as the audience understands his fears, doubts, and motives. Fans who enjoy an energizing espionage thriller will want to read Gordon Kent's latest global stimulating novel.

Harriet Klausner

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Tomahawk (Dan Lenson Novels) Review

Tomahawk (Dan Lenson Novels)
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I have read the other David Poyer novels featuring USN officer Dan Lenson. They are THE MED, THE GULF, THE CIRCLE and THE PASSAGE. I liked all of them because Poyer, a Naval Academy graduate writes well about men and the sea.
I had trouble with TOMAHAWK mainly because Poyer turns Lenson into (in my opinion) a very unbelieveable character. While I will grant the possibility of a career naval officer falling for a peace activist, I think the way Poyer writes about it is unrealistic and I think readers who buy the premise are simply naive romantics.
For those who have never served in the officer corps of any of the armed forces, let me say this. Dan Lenson's misgivings about the TOMAHAWK as a then new weapons system would have caused him a lot of trouble. Since the system gave him a moral dilemma, it follows that those doubts would reflect in his performance. The doubts did and his OER (Officer Efficiency Report) suffered.
To be sure, there is an incredible amount of waste in military procurement but, I really think that if LT Lenson had or developed moral qualms about the weapons systems the US Navy was seeking to develop and procure, he owed it to himself, his service and his nation to resign his commission and find another way to make a living. Most officers who leave the service do so for a variety of reasons. Some of them hate the OPSTEMPO, the deployments, separation from family, living conditions/low pay, etc. All of these are reasons retention of personnel in the military today is heading SOUTH!!!
I served on active duty and am now a member of the reserves and I found Dan Lenson unbelieveable in this book. If I served with a fellow officer like Dan Lenson, I would probably sit down with him and recommend that he find another career path because he was deliberately shooting himself in the foot. Well educated Annapolis grads like Dan Lenson don't do that. If they have a problem with the system, they make their recommendations for improvements; if they go unheeded, they either shut up and press on or they request a transfer. If the navy itself is what's getting to them, they generally put in their resignation papers and head off to greener pastures.
I just couldn't find any sympathy for Dan Lenson. If Poyer writes another Dan Lenson novel and I read that he has become an Admiral, I think I'll be sick. Dan Lenson is not Flag Officer material, not even with all the fictitious license in the world.The way it was written tells me that TOMAHAWK should probably be the last installment in the continuing saga of Dan Lenson, USN.

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Force Protection Review

Force Protection
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I'd dearly love to give this novel five stars. Four hundred of its 403 pages are a pure delight. Taut, gut-wrenching, can't put it down thriller. The last three pages, unfortunately, take a lot of the wind out of the sails. They don't ruin the experience: just kind of diminish it.
Alan Craik finds himself in Kenya, sneaking a gun through customs while his colleague, a female special Navy Criminal Investigation agent blows through customs carrying drugs. A naval vessel making a port call is bombed and Craik is very much in the middle of things.
Kent is a superb writer; no doubt about that. He relentlessly builds the tension as the tentacles of an international plot envelop his wife, an astronaut in training in Houston and a Carrier Battle Group.
There are no flaws in the characters. The good guys and gals are good: humans, not super-heroes. Sometimes they catch a lucky break or think their ways through a dicey situation. Sometimes things don't work out and they wind up very dead. Above all, they are believable. You suck in your breath when they're in a tight spot - and there are lots of tight spots.
The bad guys are believably evil- and you hope they'll all suffer for their evil ways.
The plotting is just plain great. Nothing unbelievable, no jars that make you swallow your credulity. Except for the last three pages. I don't know if Kent needed to keep some characters alive for another book (many of the characters have appeared in his other novels) or if an editor slipped or what. But the last three pages just don't fit with the rest of the story.
But that shouldn't stop you from reading it, if you're a lover of thrillers. Like I said, this a five-star story. The only reason I knocked it down is because of the last three pages. Still a very enjoyable read.
Jerry

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Deep Sound Channel Review

Deep Sound Channel
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This book, which is the author's first, offers both a vividly realistic look at how war might be fought at sea in the not-too-distant future, plus a tightly edited, fast-paced, exciting story that's often brutally violent, always action-packed and always full of suspense. The often highly technical prose displays a dazzling level of knowledge of submarines on the part of the author which actually makes the reader feel as though he is ON the submarine, but at the same time does not make the basic story line too hard to follow, which can be a risk with this kind of writing. Plus, Joe Buff provides a glossary which is extremely helpful. I now know a lot more about nuclear subs and about tactical nuclear war than I used to. Though I rarely read fiction, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can hardly wait for Joe Buff's next one.

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Hostile Contact Review

Hostile Contact
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This was an exciting and enjoyable read. Although I read it before I read the preceding three novels, I had no trouble following the story, although I would obviously recommend prospective readers to start with the earlier novels first! A US Naval Intelligence officer, Alan Craik, has been wounded on a mission that went very wrong, in a which a fellow officier, George Shreed, was killed. Shreed was supposed to have been captured alive, since he is a suspected traitor. Craik is held responsible for the mission going bad, and has not met with much sympathy from his superiors, in spite of his injuries. Craik is given a chance to redeem himself, and the story takes off from therem with sizeable measures of intrigue and manipulation, both on the behalf of Craik's own side, and that of the Chinese, who were "running" Shreed when he was killed. I very much enjoyed the way that this father-son team of authors dealth with the Chinese in this novel! Oh man, Patrick Robinson could learn a ton and then some from this duo! And unlike Vince Flynn, these two get their airports and airlines right! While the characters are not particularly well developed, the plot is clever, action-packed, and fast paced, and remains exciting to the end. I recommend this novel with three-and-a-half stars.


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Ghost Force Review

Ghost Force
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I personally lost count as to how many times the SEALs (in enemy territory) were quoted as 'yelling'. That personally amazed me. Then we have the same SEALs and SAS operators using 'flashlights' in enemy territory again. Then they placed explosive charges in 'Both' A4 Skyhawk engines, when they only have one. Then they placed their initiating daisy chain for all the explosives on the tarmac connected to each other on a four hour time delay. Wrong Wrong Wrong. You just do not do that. Next you have the SATCOM communication gear being 'direction finded' by the enemy radio operators. That doesnt happen. They use a narrow satellite beam and it is directed directly at the satellite. Another big wrong situatio was when one of the operators was wounded, and they are ripping shirts and other items to dress the wound. Nope! the SEAL corpsman would have broke open his London Bridge trauma bag and dealt with it.
There were just too many errors in the technical and tactical operations of this book, they simply distracted from the story (over and over again) I usually run through a book in a day or so, but this one, I had to put down over and over until I forced myself to get through it.
I am ranking this 3 stars based upon Patrick Robinsion's past novels. If it was a stand alone, it would rate 1- 1.5 stars, max.

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The year is 2011.

An oil-hungry world is starving . . .

. . . and Argentina, with Russia's help, is determined to brutally wrest the petroleum-rich Falkland Islands from British hands. Enraged over this brazen act of international piracy, Great Britain dispatches a battle fleet to the islands for the second time in thirty years—unaware that Viper K-157, a lethal Russian Akula-class submarine, lies in wait, stuffed to the gunwales with ship-killing torpedoes.

America cannot sit idle as hell explodes in the South Atlantic and, under the stern eye of Admiral Arnold Morgan, the military's most powerful weapon is unleashed to hammer Argentina into submission: the U.S. Navy SEALs. The outcome of the unforeseen war that's igniting in America's backyard ultimately depends upon her awesome "ghost force” and their successful execution of two remarkable clandestine missions—while the consequences of failure may be too terrible to consider.
--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

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Punk's Wing Review

Punk's Wing
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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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China Sea (Tales of the Modern Navy) Review

China Sea (Tales of the Modern Navy)
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David Poyer is a master story teller and in China Sea he continues his saga of Dan Lenson in much the same fashion as C.S. Forester with his Hornblower series and Patrick O'Brian and his Jack Aubrey works but with a modern twist. His storm scene descriptions are real and to this sailor who has sailed through several typhoons in small naval vessels as well as his own small sailboat, the power of the sea comes crashing through. For ten years my wife and sailed the waters of the South China Sea, the Sulu Sea and the western Pacific. The attacks by pirates are real, we having been through two ourselves and have had friends and acquaintences injured and killed, their possessions stolen, boats stripped or sunk. Poyer describes the village life in the Philippines as it is today on the some 1700 inhabited islands of that archepelago, islands so remote the people draw their water from wells or are forced to get it by banca from a larger island; where electricity is unknown or is supplied by a small generator. The tension of a small, nearly mutinous crew and the doubts and uncertainties of Dan Lenson learning command leadership is brilliantly laid out. I can't wait for Poyer's next story of the greening of LCDR Dan Lenson.

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The Navy Times Book of Submarines: A Political, Social, and Military History Review

The Navy Times Book of Submarines: A Political, Social, and Military History
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While much of any history of submarines will focus on things mechanical, this book goes much farther and more than justifies its sub-title, "A Political, Social and Military History." I was fascinated to see that the political and social aspects of military systems -- or strategies -- have not changed much over the four hundred or so years covered by this book. A comment on comments of "Reader from Rochester" who offered an unflattering review -- where Reader found "superior attitude," I found (and enjoyed) sardonic humour. Be that as it may, Reader ought to hire-out as a professional copy editor, because the irritating errors he spotted (i.e., typos) obviously slid by the publisher's fact-checkers and proofreaders. As for the 3"/50 caliber deck gun -- that's a designation used for naval guns, where "caliber" is the length of the barrel measured as a multiple of the diameter of the bore. Thus, in this instance, a 3" bore and a 150" tube. Obviously, the publisher's copy editor didn't understand this, either, and stuck a period in front of the 50.

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Here is an engaging, informative, and sometimes startling history of the men and the machines that dared to go beneath the surface of the water to enter combat.In his careful reconstruction of events, Brayton Harris combines his extraordinary sense of humor with intensive research, to present a compelling history of the submarine, from conception, to gestation, to birth during World War I, to the genesis of the mighty nuclear submarine.In his excursion through the political, social, and military history of the submarine, Harris refutes many popular myths that grew out of eyewitness accounts and copies of copies-and sets the record straight with wit and insight.A fascinating exploration of the steps and stumbles during development, a rousing tribute to the heroes who fought and died, and a powerful study of the submarine's impact on America, The Navy Times Book of Submarines is an unparalleled source for understanding the great equalizer, the beguiling boat, that decided the outcome of World War I-and changed the face of warfare forever.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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