Customer Reviews

Rogue Angel

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

 

 

This is the kind of book that gives techno-thrillers a bad name. The technical concepts piled high one atop another throughout the book are laughable to anyone with a basic understanding of physics and enginering (perpetual motion, fuelled by the nitrogen in the atmosphere). It is apparent that the book was written in a great crashing hurry with little effort at any serious research (the "woods and fields" surrounding Miramar?) and less editorial scrutiny (I spotted at least 6 typos and the irksome phrase "is comprised of").

The characters are plastic, their actions and attitudes usually at odds with the preposterous situations the author hocks up for them. Perhaps worst, I get the feeling that the book was hastily rewritten to include the tsunami scenario. Poor taste, there.

The only enjoyment I found in reading this came from the frequent guffaws at ever increasingly silly plot developments and the occasional but sparce strings of nicely put technical narrative. The best I can say of it is that it's not a yawner.

I bought and read this on the stength of Coonts' remark on the cover. After reading the book I figure Rovin must be his brother-in-law or something. If you can suspend your belief in the laws of physics you may like this book. Previous negative reviewers have made a point of commenting on the silliness of the tech and the 'military' conversations. The outright ignorance of naming conventions for ships and shooting off an RPG or even TOWs at an aircraft the shooter is hoping is traveling above the speed of sound is too much to take. The facts would have been so easy to check. Rovin is too sloppy to support. I won't be buying in more of his 'work'.

Attempting to pull myself through this supposed piece of fiction was like sitting in a classroom with a million chalkboards, and Edward Scissorhands raking over all of them at once, from beginning to end of the literary un-sensation.

The story was difficult to follow, plain and simple.

The characters were cardboard, plain and simple.

Yes, this is a work of fiction, but the author put no substance in his words. The author used plain-speak vanilla to describe almost all of the events, with the few exceptions of going on and on about the technology about a pilotless plain, though the technology wasn't all that impressive either which was described.

This book was as bad as the movie just released called 'STEALTH'. Don't waste your money, even on a used book.

I bought this book with Tempest Down. I was lulled by the reviews on the cover. Tempest Down was a disappointment. This book, Rogue Angel, was worse.

Mr. Rovin has, once again, seen fit to dispense with actual research and veracity, substituting lame plot points and actual idiocy for a story.

The forms of address are once again incorrect. Rear Admirals are not called "Rear Admiral" by anyone unless they are in deep trouble and getting reamed out. Likewise Lieutenant Commander. Just a jarring bit that made the story grind to a halt.

As far as the LASER team, let's leave aside the fact that there are already teams formed for rescues under adverse conditions. The LASER team seems to delight in doing training that will likely kill its members. No one trains for missions by parachuting into a live volcano. What utter nonsense. If they wanted to practice extracting people from fires, they could do what every fire department does, and simulate the fire. But that would not give us an opportunity to see just how inept the LASER team is at executing what is supposed to be their main job. Poor writing.

The aircraft are complete nonsense. Aside from using non-military aircraft for military missions, and having subsonic aircraft being considered for sustained supersonic flight, the flight sequences are poorly done at best. Radar is a super detection device, able to see from Sakhalin Island by Japan all the way to California, or it can't see another aircraft a short distance away. Even backscatter over the horizon radar can't do what is in this story.

The Angel itself is tested off an aircraft carrier, the USS Hidalgo. USS Hidalgo? When did we have a president or military hero named Hidalgo? Must have missed that class. The Angel itself is described as being the size of a Boeing 737. Flying off a Nimitz class carrier? And then being able to land back on the same carrier? No wonder Rovin had to decide to make the Angel be able to flap its wings to hover. Ridiculous as that sounds, it is no more ridiculous than landing a 737 sized aircraft on a carrier.

Let's look at the Chinese. At first I thought Rovin was writing about Taiwan. Why? Because the two main Chinese characters have first names of Bruce and Christine. Last name of Chan. Born in mainland China. Bruce and Christine? Well, at least the book had a laugh in it.

Then we have Chinese fighter aircraft flying across the Pacific ocean, refueling from a tanker, making an incursion into American airspace, with the end intention of landing on the Brazilian aircraft carrier Sao Palo. A simple look at Jane's All the World's Navies would have told Mr. Rovin how idiotic that idea is.

Lastly, Mr. Rovin seems to think that if he needs an acronym, why just make one up. After all, SOP might mean Standard Operating Procedure in the real world, and in every other military techno-thriller in the world, but Rovin just tosses out ridiculous phrases and keeps going, much like an 8 year old making up military sounding words while playing soldier.

Please don't waste your hard-earned money on this. If you want it that bad, e-mail me your address, I'll send you my copy. Normally I'd give the used book to the Veteran's Hospital nearby, but I figure the Vets have suffered enough.

Definite don't buy/don't bother reading.

Pretty decent story from an author with a track record for being imaginative. The beginning is a little slow and the ending was a little too quick and clean, but there were lots of tense "scenes" that made it worthwhile. Glad they didn't just make the Chinese military characters stereotypical... LTCMR Chan actually has some depth. Overall, a nice way to kill a few hours.

Detailed without being boring and most imaginative. It's obvious the author cares about this one. The rescue team members are very likable and quite human. I plan to read it again and hope the series continues. Both Rogue and Tempest are great reads.

Rogue Angel is a remarkable story in only one way as it assembles the most implausible series of events in one place since the book of Genesis.

I have so many gripes with the whole package that my neck burns every time I consider the $7 I wasted on the darn thing. In no special order, the ones that keep coming to mind are:

Constant referrals to previous stories with the same cast. It's bad enough when Clancy, Cussler, or Flynn try and hook you into buying a previous publication. At least they will be fun to read. The fishing this guy does is intolerable.

Forms of Military Address: Why do all of the characters insist calling each other by their full rank? Hey, Lieutenant Commander, whatup? That is a swell idea Rear Admiral. Not once, but over and over, and buy people who allegedly work together day in and day out.

Names: While there are one or two folks in this story with surnames longer than five letters, almost all of these guys, (and gals), have punchy, single or double syllable names. Scott, Bryan, Parks, Cobb, Flynn, Oaks, Ocean, Kodak, (honest, there is someone named Kodak here). You get the idea after about 60 pages this guy has been writing primers for new readers too long.

Leave alone the unlikely science, political and military decisions which wouldn't make any sense to anyone except Teddy Kennedy, and stunning feats of daring do which stagger the imagination. If you have to, look this book over in the Library, but save your money.

I used to read Tom Clancy novels around his Cardinal in the Kremlin book era, and I stopped reading his books when he began doing the joint book efforts. I was looking for a selection of new authors to read at the beach, so I picked up Rogue Angel. It was a wonderful book to read; I was totally engrossed in the story.

I enjoyed that his characters weren't perfect in every way - it made them much more believable, and I appreciated the patriotism that both the military and civilian characters displayed.

It's a great book, and now I'm looking forward to reading other Jeff Rovin books!