Customer Reviews

With Hostile Intent

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Robert Gandt takes us into the bowels of the USS Ronald Reagan where some of the ugliest of battles are played out between the best and worst of fellow Naval Aviators. Killer Delancey typifies the hotshot, blowhard pilot who ruthlessly works the promotion system and dares anyone to stand in his way. Spam Parker is like the unwanted, unsolicited piece of e-mail crammed into your mailbox, only she is the Navy's Poster Girl for Political Correctness post -Tailhook and she is not going to let anyone forget it! Gandt sets the stage perfectly for the reader to hate these black hats. An absolutely riveting account of air combat in the Persian Gulf and a behind-the-scenes look at the lives of fighter pilots. The lead-in for #2 in the series is palpable! Can't wait!

Wow! After reading all of Gandt's previous non-fiction works, I was pleasantly surprised to see that he was releasing a novel to complement his preceding books.

This book is set aboard the United States Navy aircraft carrier U.S.S. Ronald Regan. Tensions are high after an Iraqi Mig-29 is splashed by an F/A-18E Super Hornet while approaching the no-fly zone. The Mig-29 pilot just happens to be the nephew of an infamous tyrannical leader......and the battle is just about to begin.

Enter the lead character "Brick" Maxwell. Brick is privy to certain information about the engagement that the United States Government would rather remain unknown. His commanding officer, "Killer" Delancey is somewhat of a loose cannon when under pressure, and will do damn near anything to become the first "Ace" since Vietnam.

Without ruining the rest of the book, lets just say that it is quite action packed, with great character development, and real-world fighter pilot tactics.

Pilots and non-pilots alike will appreciate the exceptional authenticity that can only be provided by an experienced Pilot (30,000+ hours of flight time, 300+ carrier landings, trained F/A-18 pilot, aerobatic pilot, and retired Airline Captain) like Gandt. In the words of another reviewer, Gandt also happens to possess the "...pen of a poet".

I absolutely can't wait to read the next "Brick" Maxwell adventure!

Robert Gandt's first fictional book is very good, and I'm looking forward to reading the other books about "Brick" Maxwell, the U.S. Navy pilot who is the hero of "With Hostile Intent". I'm a sucker for techno-thrillers that focus on naval aviation, and Robert Gandt does a great job of writing about life on an aircraft carrier and what it's like to be a pilot of an F/A-18 Hornet.

The story takes place in the Middle East, with the U.S. Navy (and U.S. and British Air Forces) enforcing the "no fly zone" over southern Iraq. The year is 2000, 10 years after Desert Storm but before the Iraq war in 2003, so Saddam Hussein is still in power and playing the role of super bad guy.

The major conflicts in "With Hostile Intent" are, however, not the ones between the U.S. and Iraqi forces. Instead, we have several members of the U.S. forces who are so egotistical and ruthless that they provide the greatest threat to the "good guys". (I don't know how realistic this is - for the sake of the U.S. Navy I would hope that people like that would be weeded out very early in their naval career.)

One of the things I liked best about this book were the descriptions of aerial dogfights between the F/A-18 Hornets and MiG-29 Fulcrums. Sidewinders are flying, high G turns being done to evade missiles, chaff and flares being ejected and there's lots of excited chatter between the pilots. "Fox two!" "Bandit on your six!" "Splash one!" Great stuff for us armchair warriors!

So why the lack of a fifth star?

Mostly because the plot is a bit too contrived and thus not very plausible. In order to maximize the conflict between "Brick" Maxwell and "Killer" DeLancey it's necessary for Brick to refuse to reveal something he knows about Killer, but without a reasonable ground for this refusal. Then at the end of the book there's an even more contrived situation, which I'll refrain from talking about here.

Also, the characterizations of the people in the book are rather "wooden", especially in the first part of the book.

Still, I'm definitely looking forward to following "Brick" Maxwell in his further adventures, as chronicled by Robert Gandt.

Rennie Petersen

Naval aviation thrillers aren't just for guys anymore. I'm a twentysomething woman, and a lot of my favorite books have to do with the men and women who fly high-performance jets off of U.S. Navy aircraft carriers.

'With Hostile Intent' is the first book in the Brick Maxwell series. Commander Sam "Brick" Maxwell, USN, is an F/A-18 Hornet pilot who is loathed by his commanding officer "Killer" DeLancey because Brick knows the truth about a kill that Killer claimed to get during the first Gulf War, has a mentor in the ship's CAG (Commander of the Air Group and the highest-ranking pilot aboard) Captain "Red" Boyce, and has to deal with two female pilots joining his squadron, Killer's attempts to get him transferred to shore duty, and the return to his life of his old flame Claire, now a journalist separated from her Australian journalist husband. (Brick was widowed when his wife Debbie died in a space shuttle launching accident.)

Killer is a pain in the six (or tail), but Brick juggles the demands of piloting the Hornet, Killer's rotten attitude, his seesawing emotions about Debbie and Claire, a tragic accident involving his friend and squadronmate Commander Steve "Devo" Davis, and the arrival of the two women pilots, one of whom is hellbent to cause as much trouble as possible and the other of whom just wants to fly Hornets for the Navy.

Brick is a great protagonist and likable hero. He is not infallable and doesn't pretend to be. He makes mistakes and owns up to them, but he's also not afraid to take charge and be accountable for his actions when necessary. The flying sequences are some of the best in-the-cockpit descriptions I've ever read, and they're understandable and make sense to civilian laypersons like myself. The aboard-ship actions and port calls provide just the right counterbalance to the aviation sequences.

And for my fellow romantics, Brick and Claire start to explore future possibilities in this book, and there's nothing rushed or phony about their issues, questions, and hopes.

Being a former naval aviator himself, Mr. Gandt knows whereof he speaks. If you're interested in naval aviation fiction and good, solid storytelling, pick up 'With Hostile Intent.' You won't be disappointed, and you'll be headed back to the store to get the rest of the Brick Maxwell books as soon as possible.

Former US Navy aviator Robert Gandt's first work of fiction is a superb, unpredictable roller-coaster ride through the inner workings of a fighter squadron on the USS Ronald Reagan. Though Gandt has previous writing experience with his five nonfiction books on aviation, he greatly exceeds expectations by his mix of three-dimensional characters in truly intense and unheard of situations. Though the premise of a strike on Iraq is nothing new in military fiction, Gandt separates himself from other first-time military novelists by continuously building up his characters and leaving out pertinent bits of information in the numerous subplots so the reader is forced to finish the entire novel. While everything is tied up at the end, Gandt does a great job of keeping predictability to the absolute minimum by not rehashing conflicts found in previous novels in the genre. With Hostile Intent is an original and sometimes brutal novel of men and women at war with the outside world and with their own personal demons. There is no doubt that with this debut, Gandt has the potential of becoming one of the top writers of military fiction. I wish him the best on his future novels, and I very much look forward to reading them as soon as possible.

Gandt starts his fiction career wonderfully. He takes his first hand knowledge of life for F/A-18 pilots, tactics and naval life in general and composes a great story with several subplots that allow for the story of Brick Maxwell to continue in future volumes.

Keeping it simple, the main character, Maxwell, returns to a carrier squadron after several years test piloting and as a NASA astronaut. He must deal with a hot-shot commanding officer with something bordering personal hatred for him, gender politics of the new Navy, and an Iraqi threat following the first Gulf War. Gandt neverloses focus despite having so much to contemplate.

If you like this one, try Punk's War and Punk's Wing by Ward Carroll for similar life and battle stories in the Navy.

With the ease of a former fighter pilot and the style of a Hemmingway, Gandt takes his readers into the cockpit, across the forbidden land and, yes, even into the bedroom of the brave men and women who patrol the 33rd parallel.

The book captures the very soul of aerial combat and is an absorbing read for anyone who treasures the excitement of aviation.

First book I've ever bought and downloaded from Kindle and I loved it. Great story line and had me wanting to keep reading and not put it down til the very end. Now I'm gonna look for more Robert Gandt and "Brick" Maxwell. Love being able to have my books with me wherever I go.

First, let me say that the views I am expressing are strictly my opinions and I'm not looking to debate anyone. I have been an avid reader of action/adventure, military and WWII/aviation history as far back as I can remember. This is one of the best books I have read in a long time! I found it to be a fast-moving high-flying adventure. The characters were easy to identify with as they spoke and acted like people you would come across in your (almost) everyday life! As for the villian 'Killer' DeLancey, three-fourths of the way through this book I was so into this story that I was tempted to look in the phone book for someone named DeLancy and pop him a good one in the mouth! I knocked off this book in only 3 days. Bob Gandt's style of writing was, to me, reminiscent of early Tom Clancy (before he got verbose) and early Dale Brown and early Clive Cussler. He knows his military flying and weaponry. I was so impressed I immediately got online and ordered his other 5 books. If you like true fast-moving action/adventure then strap on 'With Hostile Intent' and hit the throttle! You won't be disappointed.

Bob Gandt writes with authority about naval aviation. Hostile Intent is tightly written and once started is difficult to put down. It's a real page turner. The development of his characters is very well done, and the plot finely tuned and topical. I look forward to reading further adventures of Brick Maxwell and his antagonists.Highly recommended!