Dead Hand [Hardcover]

Harold W. Coyle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2001

When Harold Coyle sits down to write a novel, you know the story will have a prophetic quality coupled with the ominous ring of todays headlines. From the New York Times bestselling Team Yankee to the frightfully realistic Gods Children Coyle has written novels that have rightfully earned him the title, the master of military fiction. He more than lives up to this reputation with Dead Hand, a novel of apocalyptic proportions about a world that waits on edge as mother nature triggers a relic from the Cold War. At the height of the Soviet Regime, the Russian leadership believed they faced potential nuclear strikes, capable of knocking out their counterstrike capacity. To foil this threat, they designed a system called Dead Hand, a method of retaliation that could be relied upon even if every person in Russia was incinerated. The perfect Doomsday Machine, except every system has a flaw When an unforeseen asteroid strikes Siberia with the force of a thousand Hiroshimas, Dead Hand is triggered, its fail-safe controls commandeered by ultra-nationalist General Likatchev. Likatchev threatens to topple the government in Moscow and his loyalists block all attempts to stop him. In a hair-raising effort to prevent a global holocaust, a NATO special operations unit is dropped into Siberia, a region ravaged by freezing snow and the hellish aftermath of the asteroid impact. Simultaneously an action-filled adventure and a study of the excessive Russian national pride, which continues to hamper US/Russian relations, Dead Hand once again proves Coyles mastery of military affair, and his ability to see tomorrows headlines today.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

With occasional references to "the Kursk incident" and to Vladimir Putin's unpopularity with the Russian people, and with a plot centered around the antics of an ultra-nationalist Russian general, Dead Hand positions itself as an up-to-the-minute thriller with significant political resonance--and even throws in a natural disaster for good measure. Ever wary of being caught off-guard by a nuclear strike, Russia has carefully cultivated a retaliatory system capable of launching its own missiles: mordantly dubbed Dead Hand, the system will activate without a central command. When an asteroid hits Siberia with enough force to trigger the system, Moscow finds itself faced with both unspeakable environmental chaos and General Likatchev's bid to subvert the disaster to his own anti-Western purposes.

Politics makes strange bedfellows, and Russia must ask the U.S., NATO, and the French Foreign Legion (to name but a few of the players) to invade its own borders and destroy the missiles before Likatchev can get to them. Confronted by mass destruction and a Russian squadron led by one of the general's former protégés, the motley group of Western soldiers races against the clock toward the bevy of silos--but at what cost?

Harold Coyle is anything but subtle: his characters can't cross a room without the author pausing to reflect on the glory of the soldier's calling. His pedantic asides often bring the plot to a screeching halt, and he has an unfortunate tendency to present his characters in the manner of an announcer at a beauty pageant: heavy on the platitudes and light on meaningful revelation. That said, Coyle has built up a loyal following, and these readers will no doubt be pleased with the obvious au courant sincerity of his latest offering. --Kelly Flynn

From Publishers Weekly

Never one to spare readers his personal insights into all things military, Coyle (God's Children; Team Yankee; etc.) goes overboard in this uneventful, didactic thriller about a NATO-led assault to destroy Russia's nuclear missile silos. The title refers to an automated Russian doomsday system designed to retaliate against a first strike, even if the country's whole population has been wiped out. NATO launches its raid after an enormous asteroid hits Siberia. The resulting shock waves, whose seismic signature is identical to that of a nuclear explosion, activate Dead Hand, bringing the world to the brink of a nuclear exchange. The person who now has his finger on the button is renegade Gen. Igor Likatchev, who views the situation as his opportunity to throw the country into such turmoil that it will allow him to stage a coup. Moscow, fearful that Likatchev may be crazy enough to activate Siberia's network of nuclear missiles, dispatches its own contingent of commandos to assassinate the exiled general. NATO forces, on the other hand, aim to destroy the missile silos, neutralizing Likatchev and disabling Russia's nuclear capability. Coyle, who usually delivers gritty, hard-driving (and bestselling) war novels, founders with his latest. A former army officer who spent 17 years on active duty, he shows a deep understanding of power politics and fighting techniques, but his exposition-heavy plot spends far too much time describing commandos readying themselves for battle, explaining military procedures and examining the specific qualities of the soldier mindset. When the action finally begins about two-thirds of the way through the book its course is predictable.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Forge; 1st edition (May 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312879199
• ISBN-13: 978-0312879198
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 1.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,202,043 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Losing his touch, April 28, 2001

By 

David L. Lewis (Norman, OK United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dead Hand (Hardcover)

Dead Hand is an example of what happens when a good author runs out of ideas.

The plot is appealing enough - we Americans LOVE renegade Russian generals - but even that may be starting to wear a little thin. Unfortunately the characters need lots more work, the story line seems to be jumbled collection of disconnected scenarios, and the small unit combat actions - the passages which Harold Coyle has always been so good at - are pretty much absent from the book.

Mr. Coyle's musings on the nature of military leadership are borrowed from Ted Fehrenbach's study of Korea, "This Kind of War" and the description of the meteor strike reminds me a little too much of Niven and Pournelle's "Lucifer's Hammer".

Dead Hand leaves me with the feeling that the book was written in a great rush to meet a contract date. It also leaves me feeling that a good writer has become burnt out.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Terribly disappointing, June 25, 2001

By 

Gunfighter (Northern Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dead Hand (Hardcover)

It has been a long time since I have been this disappointed by an author whose work I used to love.

In DEAD HAND, Mr Coyle produced an indifferent plot, paper thin characters, no focal point, and an awful ending.

There appeared to be no particular main character, the combat scenes were nowhere nearly as descriptive as they have been in his other novels, and he ended the book leaving numerous loose ends.

No need for me to go on, other than to say that I recommend passing on this book. It was awful.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Disappointment, August 29, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Dead Hand (Hardcover)

I have read all of Harold Coyle novels todate and eagerly looked forward to his latest. Unfortunately , this one is not up to his usual high marks. His characters lack depth and it is almost as if he had tried to put too many into too small a book. It reads more like an outline than a novel.French Foreign Legion, SAS, Special Forces, Russian Commandos,Falling Comets, Political Upheaval, all too much for such a short book.Coyle should go back to writing about what he knows best," Soldiering!"
Anyone of the characters that he describes , so briefly, would have made a great story. I do hope his next is back up to par with his earlier novels.