Customer Reviews

Fatal Terrain

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

This is fairly typical Dale Brown fare. Start with some global tension, add a sprinkling of improbably stealthy B52 bombers, throw in some political intrigue, a dash of air combat, and you have a fairly standard techno-thriller.

The basic premise is that Taiwan declares independence. Mainland China tries to invade. Zany antics, of course, ensue.

The ubiquitous megafortresses (nuclear weapon capable strategic bombers that somehow a private company has modified to become stealthy) are sent to Taiwan because the US routinely makes a habit of sending privately owned experimental modifications of obsolete aircraft to hotspots around the world. Bad things happen. Our heroes are blamed. Our heroes defy the government. Our heroes save the day. Our heroes are not sent to Leavenworth, since the President thinks "Boys will be boys".

Politically improbable - Taiwan independence is a complex issue. Taiwan is more likely to erupt into civil war than declare independence.

Technologically unlikely - While refitting B52's with air to air missiles is certainly possible, making them stealthy is pretty unlikely.

Fiscally impossible - The idea that a private corporation could somehow rebuild, finance and run a fleet of B52 bombers is ludicrous. Most small nations would find it a strain on their defense budget.

Despite the liberal posters and armchair military experts, I loved this book! Sure, many of the weapons and situations are fictional (as far as I know).
The excessive military jargon was almost humorous and actually fun to read. Brown makes sure you know what all the acronyms mean. The situations and flight duals with jets and missiles were great. The plot had some great twists.
It had me looking up all the different aircraft used. A fun and hard to put down book, I would highly recommend it!

Two retired US Generals, the President of the US, the entire Chinese Communist leadership, and dozens if not hundreds of career military officers go bonkers, break discipline, disobey orders and international law to start a nuclear war over minor perturbations in a 50 year old standoff.

I used to be a major Dale Brown fan. Books like Day of the Cheetah, and Night of the Hawk were not bad, and Flight of the Old Dog was excellent. But his last two novels have been terrible (Shadows of Steel and Fatal Terrain). I think the main problem is the simplistic plots, wooden characters, and unrealistic events that Brown seeks to portray. There are too many to go into detail, but one that has continued to annoy me in both novels - the character of Brad Elliot. The man is totally insubordinate, and in the real world would have been cashired out of the USAF in disgrace. But in Brown's novels, he is allowed access to highly advanced weapons and plays a central role in everything. Very unrealistic. Also of amusement is the way that the Chinese (in several novels now) have been able to fling nuclear weapons around willy nilly, and no one seems to really care. In spite of being a former USAF pilot, Dale Brown does not seem to have understood that crossing the nuclear threshold is something no-one wants to do - apart from the most insane rogue state leader - and even Saddam Hussein thought twice about using weapons of mass destruction during the Gulf War. It is certain that the Chinese would have more control over their commanders than to let them use nukes whenever they feel in the mood. Fatal Terrain clearly shows how bad Dale Brown novels have got in recent years - its unrealistic, unbelievable, and generally poorly written.

Fantastic Audio Book by Dale Brown. He is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.

In this story the US is about to retire the B2 and other large heavy artillery bombers from service as many see they are no longer needed...At the same time China has decided that it finally wants Taiwan back and is going to go after it. Mostly with the plans of one man with a few outrageous ideas, making it seem like the US is helping Taiwan and is sabotaging many different Chinese events etc. When in fact it is all just part of the Chinese plan. In this one you see the retired McClannahan as well as Gen. Brad Elliot. They along with some of their new toys from Sykmasters Inc. and a few pals you have seen before or in the future stories, help to turn the tide of the on slot. In addition the Chinese actually use Nukes much to everyone's surprise. This is a fast paced audio with lots of information coming at you.

One this that was sorta annoying was that the narrator used the same voice for a few of the characters which confused me at first.

Dale Brown's Fatal Terrain is one of the best military novels of our generation. I have read several of his novels, and thought this was the best by far. He really goes to lengths to make sure you understand what's going on and this makes for a great read for anybody, knowledgeable of the military or not.

Even though I have for the most part given up on reading Dale Brown's "techno-thrillers" since the god-awful "Chain of Command," I bought "Fatal Terrain" anyway because I thought he might have regained some of his earlier touch and because I am a native of Taiwan and am interested in Asian geo-politics. Boy, do I ever regret wasting my money!

In this novel, Brown has settled into a pattern of bad "formulaic writing." Brown has, once again, disguised the lack of plotting in his book with layers upon layers of techno-jargon that would make even the most jaded among us cry out for mercy. The scenario he painted, though based on a real-world hot-spot, is patently unbelievable. A President who is so easily manipulated by an ex-Air Force general to conduct foreign policy as John Wayne or Clint Eastwood would? A company (Skymasters Inc.) waging war in the place of the U.S. military? An unproven test-bed bomber (or "flying battleship") employed as front-line aircraft in order to bypass Congress and the American public in an illicit, private foreign policy? Just what kind of fantasy world does Dale Brown live in anyway?

As the recent Kosovo campaign proved, even with great success airpower can only go so far. Brown seems to want us to believe, like many top brass in the USAF no doubt, that wars can be won with airpower alone. Or more accurately, with one or a small handful of EB-52s. Who needs the other three branches of the military when you have such a wonderful superweapon as the Mega-Fortress! Brown's simplistic-to-the-point-of-childish advocacy of airpower is further evidenced by the sheer contempt with which he treated the U.S. Navy in this novel.

I'll admit, I used to be a big fan of Dale Brown. I thought his first three books, "Flight of the Old Dog," "Silver Tower," and "Day of the Cheetah" were three of the finest techno-thrillers ever written. Their premises may be fantastic to believe, but Brown somehow managed to make them believable through a mixture of suspense-building, character development and sheer old-fashioned story-telling that you tend to overlook such shortcomings, or that he borrowed ideas from others (such as "Day of the Cheetah" imitating "Firefox").

Perhaps with his success, Brown has become one of those writers who lost his initial zeal for writing as has settled into just going through the motions. His works have devolved from realistic techno-thrillers into flights of sheer fantasy. War has become nothing more than "fun and games" in his books, the kind of thing you expect from Mack Bolan and Mack Maloney. There is little suspense left as the outcome is already a foregone conclusion.

Mr. Brown, I implore you, take a long break for the sake of the art.

To start with, this book is not a thriller. It's science fiction, pure and simple. You have to be able to shut down your thought processes to enjoy it. On a sensual level, it works. But anyone who has read and enjoyed the earlier works of Robert Ludlem and his mastery of being able to mix the truth with fiction will have trouble with this book. I found it to be the literary equivalent of a World Wrestling Federation match. Lots of noise and glitter but nothing of substance.

It's too bad. I would have thought that Brown's style would have improved over the years. His science is usually pretty good but the geo-politics and characterizations are cartoon-like. Take some writing courses, Mr. Brown

In Fatal Terrain, Dale Brown plays out an all-too-real scenario...Communist China trying to retake possession of Taiwan. And unfortunately, the US response is just how I imagine it to be, complete with interservice rivalry and backroom backstabbing.

No doubt, Brad Elliott is a maverick, and he doesn't always lead with his head. But he is the leader of this group, after all, a group that has done everything from knock out a Soviet laser sight to patrolling America's woefully unsecure borders. He reminds me a lot of General Mackenzie Hawkins (from Robert Ludlum's The Road to Gandolfo and The Road to Omaha). You hate him too much to get rid of him.

Overall, it's everything a fan of Dale Brown could want...Lots of action, lots of drama, and gadgets out the wazoo...If you're a Dale Brown fan, you owe it to yourself to get this one...

The first and last Dale Brown novel I will ever struggle through. The characters and dialog are idiotic; the story line is inane and unevenly developed (especially as you get closer to the ending); and the technical details are only mildly interesting. I am convinced that Brown himself was heartily sick of it by the time he got to the ending.

If you're a fan of the genre and not Dale Brown skip right on by this stinker. I can only hope that Brown's early efforts were better than this one, but I will not spend any more money to find out.