Customer Reviews

Retribution (Dale Brown's Dreamland)

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

 

 

First of all let me start by saying that I have read most of the books by DB but Retribution was not something that totally had me at the edge of my seat. I am an aviation buff and have a great deal of respect our stuff but portraying the Indian and Chinese airforce as dumbos is plain ridiculous considering that some of the IAF flight jocks scored more than us in joint air events. I would have expected some shoot down scenarios etc in this but it was like an invincible force on the prowl. And as another reviewer pointed out, too many names which added to the distraction of remember who is who, especially brining in the Iranians again when in the previous book (Strikeforce) the Ayatolah and the General have already been dealt with. I would give it a 3 Star becuase I am biased towards aviation otherwise from a story line it would have been a 2.

To say that the "Dreamland Team" is futuristic probably is correct but I am sure that many of the weapons and equipment that are part of this novel do actually exist. This is the sixth Dreamland novel that these two authors have written. If you like military action involving soldiers with nerves of steel, modern, and futuristic airplanes, and drone-like weapons along with electronic equipment that boggles your mind, you will love this book.

Lieutenant Colonel Tecumseh "Dog" Bastien is the leader of Dreamland. The Dreamland group respects and admires Dog's leadership. There are those above his rank that think the leadership of such a powerful group should be commanded by a higher ranking officer but for now, Dog is it with all the pressures that come with that leadership. The love life of this group is one that evolves as the story progresses as members do have some loved ones in the same group they are in making military objectives extremely hard at times. But things flow quite well under Dog's command.

Twenty-five nuclear warheads have been lost during warring factions involving India, Pakistan, and China, with the United States caught in the middle, supposedly friendly with all three nations. On paper that works out well, however, in practice it becomes a game of tag and war to get those warheads before anyone else can. Dreamland was assigned to find the warheads before a nuclear war got started. Using all the modern technology possible, the Dreamland team starts their search, a search that becomes a very dangerous "game" for all involved. Airplanes, ships, drones, and land troops all search the areas that the latest technology has given them as the most likely scattered locations where these warheads might be found. The battles are carried out in a state of war at least for those on the Dreamland team and the searchers for the other nations, who all are intensely trying to find the dangerous warheads before anyone else does or they get set off and do some extreme damage.

You will be on the ships, the airplanes, in the sea trying to get rescued, or on the ground guided by your fellow countrymen and women. There is death on all sides even though there is not a war in progress at the time, but the action and out-guessing your opponents move to get the weapons is as stressful and dangerous as a full out war.

You will feel as though you are with these soldiers in their personal and group battles mentally and physically. You will feel every bullet that one of them takes. You will wish you were there to assist in their medical care. You will feel like you are a part of their family, happy when things go properly and hurting so terribly when things go wrong.

Thought it was too disjointed and tedious. Too many character names to keep up with and the entire story is fragmented and skips to different scenarios too often. Got tired of reading it. Just my opinion...

fOR A dALE bROWN BOOK WAS NOT UP TO par. Had to many stories going at one time and were not alll that exciting.

I read another Dale Brown book a while back - picked this up for a light, casual read, and that's what I got. His "Dreamland" flyboys and their fabulous (also in the strict sense of the word!) technology are achieving wondrous feats on the borders of India, Pakistan, and China, in a world where it seems completely uncertain who is really allied with whom, and who may suddenly try to shoot you down.

Some nice touches about inter-service rivalries and the antics of power-grabbing senior officers. But overall the story was a bit bit too fragmented and disjointed (others have complained of this in his books too). It got hard to remember who was where and what they were doing. Some plot aspects were rather obvious - we just *knew* that the couple marooned on the tiny rock island would get rescued somehow...

Why are the place-time stamps all set in the 1990's? Was the book written then and only now published? don't think so. Is he suggesting an alternate universe? I would have expected to see 2015 or some such year. Just an oddity.

The story was pretty good, as far as the idea goes, so I gave it 2 stars. The blurb on the back, though, is very misleading about the plot. From sergeants to generals, the author uses the same tired and false military stereotypes that had me rolling my eyes dozens of times.

A good book if you want to kill time. Tom Clancy (earlier books) it is not.

The first and last of Dale Brown books I will read. This novel was close to going into the trash each time I picked it up. The ridiculous nicknames Brown attached to each character in the story was the first tip that this was a jr hi level piece of work. Any semblance to realistic military standards was ignored. Should any of these characters behaviors actually existed in the military, they would be back in the kitchen scrubbing spuds. Plot line, if you can call it that, was almost impossible to follow. Our heroine who lay seriously wounded and unconscious on the beach for four days, with her papaplegic officer husband,[ believe that if you can]without medical care or water, of course recovered spontaneously.Our hero pilots of course were able to fight their way victoriously through dogfights with scores of the enemy, with maneuvers that were impossible to understand. For some strange reason I felt compelled to finish this book, but immediately tossed in into the trash to spare any one else the pain of reading it. Probaly the worst book of its type I have ever read!

This book should have been named as End Game, part 2. As a story, it is somewhat below Dale Brown's average level. In the same time it tries to be traditional techno thriller and personal drama (from Zen Stockard's view). But does not succeed in mixing those.

Not to say that the Dreamland series is bad or anything, Dale Brown is one of the top 5 authors I read, but this line of books seems repetitive. By no means does that mean they can't put you on the edge of your seat, but in each it seems simply that the people at Dreamland come up with a new weapon system...an opponent comes up...they use the new system to attain victory. I just had to call it quits a third way through Razor's Edge. Personally I found the books that are follow ups of Flight of the Old Dog (with Brad Elliot, Patrick & Wendy MacLanahan) more interesting, but thats just me. Fatal Terrain was QUITE the page turner.

If you are new to Dale Brown and like military techno-trhillers, by all means get this and any of the others from this series. They don't disappoint in and of themselves. Just it my opinion it got a bit monotonous. I've never read THIS book, but I give the series a strong 3-4 stars.