Prometheus's Child: Harold Coyle's Strategic Solutions, Inc. [Hardcover]

Harold Coyle (Author), Barrett Tillman (Author)

Book Description

Series: Harold Coyle's Strategic Solutions, Inc. | Publication Date: October 16, 2007

In this explosive series from New York Times bestseller Harold Coyle and noted military author Barrett Tillman, a new type of war is being fought by private paramilitary companies at the beck and call of the highest bidder. With the military and intelligence agencies spread thin, the United States is constantly calling upon the services of these organizations--and Strategic Solutions Inc. is among the best.    

 

What begins as a relatively simply military-training mission in Chad turns into a high-stakes game of nuclear brinkmanship as the men and women of Security Solutions, Inc. stumble across a plot to extract and ship yellowcake--the base fuel for a nuclear weapon--to any number of countries hostile to the US. The in-country force tracks the operation to a supposedly abandoned remote mine in the desert.They strike, but a convoy carrying the yellowcake shipment escapes their trap. 

 

With time running out, the SSI teams must pull together like they never have before to find a ship in international waters and recover its deadly cargo--by any means necessary.   

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The gripping second Strategic Solutions Inc. military thriller from Coyle and Tillman (after Pandora's Legion) details the workings of a PMC, or private military contractor. The U.S. government, which wants plausible deniability if things go wrong, hires SSI to send a team to a corrupt, unstable Chad to train its army in counterinsurgency techniques. The authors dig into the contract negotiations, move through the operation's organization and planning stages, and open out into training and the operation itself. Things begin to fall apart when stopping a secret shipment of yellow cake uranium destined for Iran takes precedence over the SSI team's original mission. An overabundance of characters leaves little time for development, but the operational minutiae are absorbing (even the contract negotiations), and the action, which ranges from the desert to the high seas, explosive. The authors keep reader interest high from the intriguing beginning to the final promethean twist. (Oct.)
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Review

"Coyle is best when he's depicting soldiers facing death . . . He knows soldiers and and he understands the brotherhood of arms mystique and transcends national boundaries."--The New York Times

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; 1st edition (October 16, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765313723
• ISBN-13: 978-0765313720
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,552,245 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Barrett Tillman (b. 1948) was born into a NE Oregon ranching family and developed an early interest in aviation history. He learned to fly as a teenager, was first published at age 15, and graduated from the University of Oregon with a journalism degree in 1971. He has worked as a newspaper reporter, book publisher, and magazine editor, but has been self employed all but seven years since graduating from college. Though best known for his histories of US naval aviation, he also has published six novels plus short stories, and has sold a screenplay.

Tillman continues writing nonfiction books and has written more than 550 articles in the US and abroad. He frequently appears as a commentator on TV documentaries in addition to his speaking appearances. The recipient of six writing awards, he lives with his wife in Arizona.

Tillman's web site and blog are found at www.btillman.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A convincing view into the world of private military companies, October 23, 2007

By 

Check Six (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Prometheus's Child: Harold Coyle's Strategic Solutions, Inc. (Hardcover)

Private contractors are much in the news, but despite all the attention (most of it negative) these days, I found that Harold Coyle sheds interesting, informative light on PMCs. While some contractors seem to cross the line on occasion, Coyle's team plays it straight, even when it's dangerous to do so. In that regard, his characters are typical of the security firms I know of. They're well trained, well paid pros in a very dangerous game. (Last I heard, about 1,000 have been killed in the war on terror.)

Another thing I like about this series is Coyle's description of how the operators get hired. After so-called "right sizing" in the 1990s, the US military was caught short handed on 9/11, and private contractors were needed as never before. That's part of the plot in this book, and Coyle and Tillman deserve credit for showing that aspect of the business as nobody else has done, to my knowledge.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Administrative Military Fiction, July 21, 2008

By 

Bobcat (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Prometheus's Child: Harold Coyle's Strategic Solutions, Inc. (Hardcover)

Surprisingly banal and plodding, there was very little combat in this offering by Coyle and Tillman. Much of the novel focuses on the administrative minutiae of running a mercenary organization -- do we need ex-SEALs or - Rangers? Should we trust the Dept. of State or the NSA? Can we afford to do this or that? These conversations drag on, page after page. A new genre is born: Administrative Military Fiction.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Prometheus's Child, October 23, 2007

By 

William Lander "Sgt., Retired" (Post Falls, Idaho) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Prometheus's Child: Harold Coyle's Strategic Solutions, Inc. (Hardcover)

The release of the second book in this series is well timed. As the world looks to question the rolls of Private Military Contractors for world governments, this novel gives us a second look at the men and women of Strategic Solutions, Inc and the jobs they under take to protect and serve the interest of the United States when politics and Armies can't make do.This fictional look at a real subject may give you insight into the truth of the real world of the PMC. It is not James Bond, or the Bourne spy series but it is not trying to be. It is a look at a very real way of solving problems through the eyes of fictional PMC's.