1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining Military Jargon, September 26, 2010
SETTING/TIME FRAME
Razor's Edge is a bit dated at this point, set in 1997 after the first Gulf War, before the second.
SETUP
Sadam Hussain has been acting out, shotting down US/UN patrol flights agreed to in Iraq's surrender treaty. Suddenly, a mysterious new weapon is cutting down aircraft without warning. It is quickly discovered that the weapon is a high energy laser.
COMMENTS
The first few chapters introduce at least 2 dozen characters, making them impossible to remember. Fortunately, most are never heard from again, and none are really significant to the story. Fortunately, Brown makes no attempt to flesh out these non-entities with "human interests"---which inevitably fails in novels of this kind.
The basic (silly) premise is that "Dreamland"---the super secret aircraft development facility in Nevada, also has a private commando arm of its own.
There is plenty of action, and endless military jargon, sure to delight any teenage boy (up to 40 years old) and bore any woman out of her skin.
Fortunately, there is no plot to get in the way of the action and jargon. Pilots get shot down and rescued, and of course the laser gets destroyed. That's about it.
CONCLUSION
The opposite of a dramatic mystery where the reader has to strain to remember characters and plot details. A very entertaining read which places no demands on the reader whatsoever.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Brown Bores with Rich Military Details, Poor Characters, November 5, 2003
This is a review of the book on tape. The plot was solid and brought with it a sense of authenticity, especially in terms of how problems arose and were solved. To a degree the details about military hardware were fascinating, but they soon overran the book and distracted from the characters. There was only one character who truly mattered, and he was a side-show for most of the novel. The rest of the book was filled with people whose only purpose seemed to be populating the chain of command or demonstrating prowess under fire. A good example of this is Dog. He is some sort of Colonel, and his only role is to talk to the Whiplash team, pace around the room, and then relay the information to some General. Then he gets back on the phone with Whiplash. For all I know this type of exchange may be a normal part of military operations, but its appearance not once but several times in this novel was baffling. Ironically the character's name was well-suited to his part. As my sarcastic girlfriend fake-narrated: "Dog paced around the room and pissed on the carpet."
The cheesiest line of the book: "If the pilot was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen - and she was - then she was second."
C'mon.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Worth persisting through the slow start for an action packed finish, July 29, 2011
I found the first 20% or so of the book rather off-putting - very little action and so many characters (though I have to admit that that does add to the realism). The frequent acronyms (often dropped in with no nearby full description) make the start a bit of a slog to get through and unfortunately never let up throughout the book. Thankfully, the future technology throughout the book is interesting and well described, the action picks up and towards the end of the book the missions become so full on it is hard to put the book down.
A few extra pages in the book would have made it much more enjoyable to a wider audience (particularly those without a military background or strong interest in military aircraft):
* Acronyms deciphered
* Key features of the principal aircraft and anti-aircraft missile categories mentioned in the book
* At least two pages describing the key characters. One of supposed main characters gets only a few sentences in the book, whereas others far more important to the plot aren't even mentioned!
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