Customer Reviews

Plan of Attack

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Dale Brown, master of the techno-thriller, presents one of his most frightening scenarios in "Plan Of Attack" - nuclear destruction so devastating that the mere thought of its scope causes tremors of fear. It would be the end of our country as we know it.

Voice performer J. K. Simmons imbues his reading with a somber sincerity which makes this threat plausible whether it's through the vengeful voice of Russian President General Anatolly Gryzlov or determined hero Major General Patrick McLanahan.

When it comes to aerial warfare, McLanahan knows it best. But, he's no longer in charge - demoted to a job pushing papers at a desk. However, that doesn't mean he doesn't know what's going on, and he's fully aware that Russia's bomber bases are very active. Getting the higher-ups to pay attention to this is another story.

Gryzlov is relentless; he'll not be satisfied until he makes McLanahan pay for bombing a Russian base. His first move is a sneak attack. McLanahan knows what's going on, but what can he do about it?

Therein lies a terrific tale of techno-terrorism. Hang on to the seats of your chairs when you listen to this one!

- Gail Cooke

After reading PLAN OF ATTACK, I felt that Dale Brown loaded this novel with entirely too many characters and technical jargon. Entire paragraphs were consumed by weighty and unnecessary acronyms; describing a seemingly endless array of conventional and unconventional weapnry and aircraft.

The story arc, too, seemed sketchy and jumpy; taking the reader from the USA to the Middle East and to Russia without ever fleshing out the details of the events unfolding in those regions.

I was also disappointed by the fact that the climax didn't occur until the last one-hundred pages. Far too much time is spent on the shenanigans of the Air Force brass and the games of intrigue they play with Patrick McLanahan's career.

Dale Brown is, in my opinion, the best military-adventure writer in the genre today. Compared, however, to one of Brown's earlier masterpieces like FLIGHT OF THE OLD DOG or STORMING HEAVEN, PLAN OF ATTACK seems sub-par. If Dale Brown had confined the technical aspect of the story to a back-of-the-book index, (charts of Western Russia would have been nice, too) he could have fleshed out the story alot better.

I rated this book "Three Stars," because:
+1) It is an entertaining book.
+1) It is obviously the prequel to a new series.
+1) McLanahan (Brown) doesn't pull ANY punches here.
-1) It could have and should have been better.

I think this will catch me up on my book reviews over the last week... :-)

For some recreational reading, I picked up Dale Brown's Plan Of Attack. This is one of those military war thrillers involving the use of hi-tech weaponry to defeat the enemy. Overall, a pretty good read.

In the latest episode of Patrick McLanahan's adventures, he's been demoted a rank for once again skirting a direct order given to him for defending a certain area by having and using some offensive weapons when they are attacked. He ends up tucked away at a desk top with strict orders to mind his own business and just do his job. But he ends up getting intel that points to Russia preparations to launch a full-scale nuclear attack on the US. His direct superiors won' t listen to what appears to be an outlandish conclusion, so he goes over their heads and ends up facing a court martial. But of course, he's right and the attack takes place. His small group of hi-tech commandos are one of the few resources left to counter-attack, and he has to once again disobey some orders in order to make his plan happen.

Since this book uses characters that have appeared in other Dale Brown novels, there is not a lot of background character development. If you haven't read the previous novels, you might be a little lost as to why McLanahan is viewed in such a negative light. The story moves along at a decent pace, and the different weaponry is interesting to think about. While I didn't see it as a "can't put it down" book, I did enjoy the read.

this kind of story line (us vs russia) and charachter development (the main charachters are the weapons and weapons systems) went out of fashion 15 years ago. this book is boring, the plot ridiculous, the authenticity incredulous - in short, I might read this book if the cable was out, it was raining, i had run out of wine, the cd player was broken, and it was the only book on the shelf.

"Plan of Attack" hints at being the last of Dale Brown's mil/aviation techno-thrillers. (A coming book hints a new franchise; like Coonts, Brown seems ready to jettison the genre of military aviation fiction for something closer to earth.) The war here is much closer to home. Iran, Korea and China? Nowhere near the fray. "Plan" is a direct sequel to Brown's last book - which I missed - in which hero Pat Mclanahan, roasted a large chunk of Russia's strategic bomber fleet. Russian leader Anatolyi Gryzlov is a former bomber-driver, and seems eager for revenge.

The story starts with Americans and Russians in an uneasy ceasefire. Mclanahan heads "Air Battle Force", an elite USAF unit using next generation hardware - including "Tin Man" commandos and remote-piloted aircraft. When Mclanahn attacks a Russian SAM task force he suspects of planning to violate the fragile ceasefire, he's demoted and exiled from ABF, and consigned to a ground position in intel. Worst of all, his new boss is actually his old boss: General Houser - the B-52 pilot last seen giving Mclanahan orders in the first chapter of "Flight of the Old Dog" 18 years ago. Houser, a professional pilot in "Dog" seamlessly transitioned to flying desks, and will become the latest in a long line of USAF staff-weenies determined to cure Mclanahan of his maverick streak and make him a team player.

Meanwhile, the Russians revamp their bomber fleet with new weapons and logistics. Though signs of a major Russian strike are everywhere, only Mclanahan is capable of explicitly interpreting them as pointing to a major attack. When Mclanahan circumvents USAF protocol, with its devotion to channels of authority, he's stripped even further by his capricious superiors - certain that Mclanahan has become another loose-cannon like his mentor, the late Brad Elliot. Even after the Russians do strike, vindicating Mclanahan, his bosses still want to cream him. It's only by force of will that Mclanahan re-claims control of the ABF, "surges" with enough aircraft to neutralize the Russian threat and manages to save the day.

This was a very good - though not quite great novel. On the one hand, there is a compelling threat. Also, the danger here isn't some exotic new technology, but a more conventional kind, as our heroes scramble to locate every ICBM unit capable of threatening America. There's a compelling villain here as well - with Gryzlov as a former pilot who may have Mclanahan's smarts and seems most capable of checking him. We even have some good shots of Russian bomber crews at work. There's even an honest-to-god surprise ending.

Unfortunately, while still a good read, Brown fans will find much of the stuff that makes it hard to enjoy one of his books. The story junks Russian aircrews who looked more interesting than their American counterparts - having them easily fall victim to Yankee hi-tech. American high-tech magically annihilates the opposition. It's hard to tell if the Russians fail because they aren't following Gryzlov's advice for countering ABF's stealth aircraft, or if they're just doing it badly. The story never stays in one place long enough or with one character or character set long enough to make anybody interesting. Gryzlov seems to have enough know-how to obviate his being the latest in a long-line of psychotic villains in Brown novels - but he's miscast as the Russian President. (Wouldn't a guy who knows so much about warplanes have been a better choice to actually lead them? Here, he's stuck advising his generals about how to destroy the ABF rather than taking charge himself.) Thorn, Brown's whippy-dippy President, also goes out badly. In previous novels, he was interesting and more importantly, decisive. Best of all, he was perhaps the only Brown only character who was neither a hero, villain, bureaucratic or political opportunist or simply raving lunatic. Here he's just petulant. As for the technology, the book's selling point - as in Brown's latter books, it's a bit too high-tech, with pilotless bombers, insertion aircraft and drones behaving way too smoothly. Brown never attempts the otherwise impossible challenge of human drama when there's no humans involved - he just describes what's going on matter-of fact. Brown has seldom brought much humanity to the flightdecks of his warplanes - and only cements that fact by enhancing the use of human-less warplanes. Also, the concentration of all that high-tech to a single unit makes you wonder why some of it hasn't made its way to regular line units. There are man-portable rail-guns capable of knocking down cruise missiles and high-performance aircraft - but there are no fixed rail-gun sites replacing Patriot missiles, and F-16 fighters are still stuck with a handful of sidewinders and their guns. StealthHawk drones can only be carried, launched, refueled and reclaimed by special, purpose-built ABF aircraft - but no expendable versions that can be launched by existing planes or ships. Lastly, Brown never constructs believable characters, even though so much of "Plan" is character driven. The USAF brass that sneers at Mclanahan's initiative seems capriciously anal - military versions of the police brass seen in countless and dated cop shows. Never mind that Mclanahan correctly predicts every Russian move, his compulsively bureaucratic superiors will not abide an officer who's not a team player - even though hounding "Muck" will force his superiors to publicize how they goofed. Never mind how much of "Plan" boils down to the war between "Muck" and his annoying supervisors - making the officers of "Plan" the least convincing of their kind to be found outside a Pat Robinson novel. Much of the story is burdened by Brown's trademark leaden style - full names, titles and responsibilities for characters repeated during the story; full operational dossiers of characters, regardless of lack of relevances; full run-down on inventories of weapons and technology, even when not relevant - all interrupting the action. To its credit, "Plan" has fewer than normal references to Brown's earlier books.

In short - a great Brown novel, but still a Brown novel.

Well I just bought this 16th novel by Dale Brown in finished it in about 7 hours. Compared to the last 3 books, this one is more similar to Brown's earlier works. Lots of action and less background info. Kinda short too, less that 400 pages. But the basic story is McClanahan is demoted to Brig. General and reassigned with the Air Intelligence Agency in San Antonio, TX. Just so happens his boss there is Gary Houser, now a Maj. Gen, Pat's old aircraft commander before he went to Dreamland. Well McClanahan discovers a Russian plan to launch an attack on US bomber bases and missle bases. He tells his plan to the higher ups and is promtly ignored. Then is threated with a court martial, again. The rest is pretty much easy to guess, the attack happens and McClanahan comes in to save the day, again. There are a few twist which I won't mention. But the ending of the book defently sets up the next one and probably the 3 or 4 after that. Overall its a bit redundant but still a good read. Nice way to kill a Sunday afternoon. And its a techno thriller, its supposed to have all the military jargon and whatnot. So give it chance, you should enjoy it.

If you've never read Dale Brown before, I must point out that it may be best if you go back to, say, SHADOWS OF STEEL to get the timeline into this one through the books in between. Dale constantly refers to previous novels' exploits through the eyes of his characters and may spoil it, but this latest instalment in the Patrick MacLanahan series is explosive in every sense of the word.

MacLanahan is back, and is busted down a rank when he launches unmanned combat air vehicles over Russia and Turkmenistan in self defence. His Air Battle Force bombers - unmanned B1s, B52s and Dale's old favourite, the EB-52 Megafortress, upgraded with an assortment of armaments - are attacked by Russian surface-to-air missiles. A mission to get a former Taliban general, Jalaluddin Tarabi, out and safely to the US to ally with MacLanahan's forces against a rogue Russian general, Anoloty Gryzlov, who has seized power and invaded Turabi's country, goes awry. MacLanahan, in the eyes of the President and joint chiefs, has disobeyed one order too many and is forced to work for the Air Intelligence Agency. His subordinate, David Luger, is promoted, but where does his loyalties lie?

Working with the AIA, MacLanahan gathers intelligence that Gryzlov is planning a nuclear strike against the US in revenge for stopping Russia taking over Turkmenistan, but nobody will accept his findings because of his service history. But then it's to late, before you know it, nukes are striking missile silos and command facilities in Alsaka and the Midwest. When MacLanahan's AIA boss is killed by a missile strike against Offut AFB in Nebraska(SAC hq), he is authorised to take command. This is where the action really takes off! Fancy flying bombers over Russia to strike Moscow? This book is for you! You also get the Tin Man battle armour and performance-enhancing exoskeletons at work by ABF commandos, old favourites Chris Wohl and Hal Briggs, who feature in many of Dale's previous books. Although such technology - combat battle armour that can instantly harden when impacted by a bullet or shrapnel - might have seen farfetched some years ago(read THE TIN MAN, it's ahead of its time), such gadgetry is now in actual development and could well be in use in many years to come.

Once again, Dale Brown has come up with the goods - blazing action scenes, the ultimate nightmare scenario of an attack on the US mainland, awesome weaponry which is very well explained so as anyone can understand how it works and some memorable characters - as well as the usual bunch - MacLanahan, Wohl, Briggs, David Luger, you get a host of younger aircrews and some interesting political struggles from the Washington end of the story. I would also recommend you read his all-new novel ACT OF WAR if you like this sort of story, which has just recently come out in the UK.

big name tech thriller authors, Brown has gotten to be soooo bad IMHO. They think just their name (Clancy etc) will be enough. Luckily I get it at the library!

Plot is bad, characters lifeless, I didnt even care who won by the end!!!!!

This book is a very good story. I personally have never enjoyed High-tech battle books, but this book along with Air Battle Force are two very good High tech battle books that I recommend as a good read.

Someone who is not very interested in the subject, or who doesnt have a very good imagination cant really enjoy this book.

In this book, the author describes all of the weapons, and weapon systems very very much, which kind of got a bit tedious and dull. But overall the story was very good.

As many others have already said, I agree that it is probably time for this storyline to be put to rest.

...big enough to fly a Backfire bomber through. I've read maybe one other Dale Brown, years ago, and I did a lot of Clancy until I'd had enough of the pathetically implausible female characters and smug lectures by Jack Ryan... Good news: Those aren't problems with Plan of Attack - women are confined to supporting roles, but they don't wring their hands, and their delicate female natures don't crack under the strain of doing a Man's Job. Yes, I'm an engineer - if you don't care about things making sense, skip the rest of this review! Just.. don't think too hard about Plan of Attack while it's rolling along. It's the script for a Hollywood action B-movie, like Commando. There's a lot of technical detail (a page to arm a Minuteman missile) - but when people die - 1, or 1,000 - one sentence, poof, they're gone. In this book, war isn't hell at all, even with nukes - war is a video game. And the US technology - wow! Laws of physics? We don't need no stinkin' physics. And what could be *less* plausible than violating the laws of physics? That's right: American prototype weapon systems all work when needed! Or how about: The nut-case Russian Premier finds the money and technology to massively revamp and upgrade the Russian air force, arming bombers with nuclear-capable ultra-precise hypersonic air-launched cruise missiles, so that's what, 15-20% of the Russian defense budget for 5 years, and a massive change of nuclear strategic posture? But - nobody in the US has picked up on this. "We thought they were mothballing them." If you can't find 12 more goofy things like that in this book, you must be skipping whole chapters. But I did finish it, to see what would happen, so it gets 3 stars. Take it to read on vacation. Or maybe try "Sharpe's Eagle".