Customer Reviews

Shadow Flight

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

 

 

This is such a marvelous book, even though I read it over three years ago! A B-2 stealth bomber is hijacked and the U.S. strikes back! It has some excellant narrative and some of the most intense dogfight and action scenes I've read

After reading Defcon One (Joe Weber's first book), I was hoping that his excellent keep-the-pages-turning writing style would continue with Shadow Flight. I was not disappointed. This book grabs you from page one and immediately you are thrown into the non-stop action. I took the book with me on vacation and caught a little flak (no pun intended) from the kids who wanted me to put the book down to join them in the pool. The action just keeps coming and the ending is great. Can't wait to read the next one.

For non-military people, or non-machine people in general, this book may be a little confusing. On the other hand, if read with an open mind, there is much to learn.

Did I know what a Stealth bomber was? No, I didn't, but now I do, thanks to this book. I also learned a little, as much as I could digest with my limited experience, about the flight controls in such a plane, altitude differentials, the effect of weather conditions, and such. It was an educational experience, in that respect.

The plot was a little dated, in that the KGB was still trying to pull this thing off, hijacking the bomber and recruiting operatives from disgruntled (or puzzy whupped?) citizens of the U.S.

Cuba going to war with the U.S.? The U.S. bombing Cuba? These were more pieces of the plot that lacked a little in credibility, but then who knows?

Another thing that bothers me about all these military-oriented novels, or most of them anyway, is the jumping around among what seems like too many protagonists. It's really hard to keep track of all the people. Maybe these authors could write in the first person sometimes, so that we slow people without military experience could "get with the program" a little better. Diximus.

I started the book because I really liked Defcon One. I only read about 50 pages and quit because the plot didn't make any sense. How could anyone hijack a B2 at gunpoint, threatening to kill the pilots and blow up the aircraft if they don't fly it to Cuba. I'm sure that the pilots (if they were any kind of Americans) would have rather died and lost the aircraft then to turn it over to the Russians. Especially since they mention that they were all going to die anyway when trying to talk the defector out of it.

A true patriot would have gone down with the ship!