Customer Reviews

Razors Edge (Dale Browns Dreamland 3)

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

 

 

SETTING/TIME FRAME
Razor's Edge is a bit dated at this point, set in 1997 after the first Gulf War, before the second.

SETUP
Sadam Hussain has been acting out, shotting down US/UN patrol flights agreed to in Iraq's surrender treaty. Suddenly, a mysterious new weapon is cutting down aircraft without warning. It is quickly discovered that the weapon is a high energy laser.

COMMENTS
The first few chapters introduce at least 2 dozen characters, making them impossible to remember. Fortunately, most are never heard from again, and none are really significant to the story. Fortunately, Brown makes no attempt to flesh out these non-entities with "human interests"---which inevitably fails in novels of this kind.

The basic (silly) premise is that "Dreamland"---the super secret aircraft development facility in Nevada, also has a private commando arm of its own.

There is plenty of action, and endless military jargon, sure to delight any teenage boy (up to 40 years old) and bore any woman out of her skin.

Fortunately, there is no plot to get in the way of the action and jargon. Pilots get shot down and rescued, and of course the laser gets destroyed. That's about it.

CONCLUSION
The opposite of a dramatic mystery where the reader has to strain to remember characters and plot details. A very entertaining read which places no demands on the reader whatsoever.

This is a review of the book on tape. The plot was solid and brought with it a sense of authenticity, especially in terms of how problems arose and were solved. To a degree the details about military hardware were fascinating, but they soon overran the book and distracted from the characters. There was only one character who truly mattered, and he was a side-show for most of the novel. The rest of the book was filled with people whose only purpose seemed to be populating the chain of command or demonstrating prowess under fire. A good example of this is Dog. He is some sort of Colonel, and his only role is to talk to the Whiplash team, pace around the room, and then relay the information to some General. Then he gets back on the phone with Whiplash. For all I know this type of exchange may be a normal part of military operations, but its appearance not once but several times in this novel was baffling. Ironically the character's name was well-suited to his part. As my sarcastic girlfriend fake-narrated: "Dog paced around the room and pissed on the carpet."

The cheesiest line of the book: "If the pilot was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen - and she was - then she was second."

C'mon.

I found the first 20% or so of the book rather off-putting - very little action and so many characters (though I have to admit that that does add to the realism). The frequent acronyms (often dropped in with no nearby full description) make the start a bit of a slog to get through and unfortunately never let up throughout the book. Thankfully, the future technology throughout the book is interesting and well described, the action picks up and towards the end of the book the missions become so full on it is hard to put the book down.

A few extra pages in the book would have made it much more enjoyable to a wider audience (particularly those without a military background or strong interest in military aircraft):
* Acronyms deciphered
* Key features of the principal aircraft and anti-aircraft missile categories mentioned in the book
* At least two pages describing the key characters. One of supposed main characters gets only a few sentences in the book, whereas others far more important to the plot aren't even mentioned!

is what this book is all about. I had a very hard time putting it down and could not wait to pick it up again. This is the 17th book of Brown's that I have read. To you first time readers of Dale Brown my suggestion is read his earlier books first because they are like a soap opera and it will be much easier to follow and enjoy. His books are not outstanding but they are always entertaining. In fact this book is between good and very good.

This is your typical hero and heroine Dreamland book. All the usual suspects, Zen, Dog, Danny, etc. Iraq is knocking our planes out of the sky. First they have to determine what is knocking out our planes. It turns our to be a lazar which does not come up on their sophisticated radar. Now they to locate it and then they go in and bomb from the air and attack by the ground. Normal stuff for Dale Brown but it keeps an action junkie like me interested.

All in all I enjoyed it and was entertained again by Dale Brown.

this is just another outsatnding audio book if you are in to The dreamland books I just wish there were more of them.

I made it through the first Dreamland novel due to fast paced, well described aerial combat, an offering of terrific high tech weaponry, good solid plot, and for the most part, interesting characterization; however, by the end of book one I was praying for the slow horrible death of Jeff "Zen" Stockard. A guy who is not only a main character, a romantic lead, but, I think, one of the heroes of the series. Who also happens to be a Class A Schmuck.

We are told Zen was an ace pilot, then a crash causes him to become wheelchair bound. Not a bad concept, could have made for some excellent twists. And indeed, in the beginning of the first book, the anguish/anger/mistrust/fear that Zen illustrated felt real. However, after reading 2/3 of the book I was getting just a tad grumpy that Zen was still piloting the pity pot plane. And his engine was in full whine mode. Well, I finished the book. Forgave the writer. Bought the 2nd Dreamland book.

Guess what? Pain-in-the-ass Zen is still around - kinda like the whine of that mosquito in the middle of the night that won't let you sleep. He detracts from the book. He has caused me to forego the rest of the Dreamland books. A damn shame.

Dale Brown's still the champ, and he proves it in this latest thriller. The weaponry, as usual, is top notch, and the story moves along faster than ever. I think, though, that he should consider giving Col. Bastan a promotion - he really has a lot of responsibility for that rank. Besides, he's conceited enough to be a general.