A new Gulf War is erupting and this one will be far bloodier than the first. A newly powerful Iran is flexing its military muscle in the Middle East. The Iranians have declared the Persian Gulf their territorial waters - and an American ship has just been sunk to prove the point. With a military wracked by budget cuts and a public reluctant to fight, the president must end the crisis before it escalates. He calls in the Intelligence Support Agency, a super secret arm of the C.I.A. The solution: Project Future Flight, a surgical stealth campaign to silence Iran's modern weapons. The personnel: Colonel Patrick McLanahan and the surviving crew of the Old Dog. The stakes: success or full-scale war.
"State-of-the-art action in the air, on land, and at sea from a master of the future-shock game." (Kirkus Reviews)
One of the special pleasures of constructing a techno-thriller seems to be the opportunity to predict one's own version of world affairs. In an unusually thoughtful entry set in early 1997, shortly after the events of his novel Day of the Cheetah (1989), Brown (Storming Heaven) takes time to explore such issues as the thin line separating special operations from terrorism and the role of the warrior in a supposedly peaceful world. The Iranians are at it again, attacking a U.S. spy ship. When American personnel are taken captive, President Kevin Martindale (a Brown regular) realizes he must act. As is usually the case with this genre (and perhaps real-life politics), the president and his military advisors decide to rely upon high-tech aircraft and weaponry to destroy the enemy's war-making capabilities, some of which, in this case, have come by way of China. A B-52 stealth bomber flown by returning Brown hero Patrick McClanahan is the center of the action that whirls from prison cells through a coup d'etat, climaxing in air encounters of the radar kind. Brown is a master of this school of fiction, bringing life to his characters with a few deft strokes. More than just a military thriller, this novel offers disturbing descriptions of possible political developments that are worthy of discussion. (June) FYI: In an author's note, Brown says he will welcome e-mail with comments on the novel, at OldDog01@aol.com. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
This military suspense novel, Brown's ninth, pits a secret U.S. military operation against an increasingly aggressive Iran in a race to prevent global chaos. The author lends the book a sense of topicality by using real news excerpts at the beginning to show how a conflict with Iran may be possible. When Iran builds up a carrier fleet and tries to close off the Persian Gulf to foreigners, the United States sends in a secret B-2 "Stealth" bomber to prevent a full-scale war through preemptive force. While this is a generally gripping military thriller, the pro-military/anti-budget cut rhetoric can be distracting at times. Characters from Brown's earlier works, such as Flight of the Old Dog (Donald I. Fine, 1987) are brought back, which new readers may find confusing. Still, Brown's many fans will love this book. Recommended for libraries with existing Brown novels or wherever military suspense is in demand. -?Peter A. Leggieri, "Library Journal" Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Former U.S. Air Force captain Dale Brown is the superstar author of 21 action-adventure "techno-thriller" novels: FLIGHT OF THE OLD DOG (1987), SILVER TOWER (1988), DAY OF THE CHEETAH (1989), HAMMERHEADS (1990), SKY MASTERS (1991), NIGHT OF THE HAWK (1992), CHAINS OF COMMAND (1993), STORMING HEAVEN (1994), SHADOWS OF STEEL (1996), FATAL TERRAIN (1997), THE TIN MAN (1998), BATTLE BORN, (1999), WARRIOR CLASS (2001), WINGS OF FIRE (2002), AIR BATTLE FORCE (2003), PLAN OF ATTACK (2004), ACT OF WAR (2005), EDGE OF BATTLE (2006), STRIKE FORCE (May 2007), SHADOW COMMAND (2008) ROGUE FORCES (2009), EXECUTIVE INTENT (2010) and A TIME FOR PATRIOTS (May 2011). Fourteen of his novels have been New York Times best-sellers. He is also the co-author of the best-selling DREAMLAND techno-thriller series and writer and technical consultant of the Act of War PC real-time strategy game published by Atari Interactive and the Megafortress PC flight simulator by Three-Sixty Pacific. Dale's novels are published in 11 languages and distributed to over 70 countries. Worldwide sales of his novels, audiobooks and computer games exceed 12 million copies.
Dale was born in Buffalo, New York on November 2, 1956. He graduated from Penn State University with a degree in Western European History and received an Air Force commission in 1978. He was a navigator-bombardier in the B-52G Stratofortress heavy bomber and the FB-111A supersonic medium bomber, and is the recipient of several military decorations and awards including the Air Force Commendation Medal with oak leaf cluster, the Combat Crew Award, and the Marksmanship ribbon. Dale was also one of the nation's first Air Force ROTC cadets to qualify for and complete the grueling three-week U.S. Army Airborne Infantry paratrooper training course. He was also an Air Force instructor on aircrew life support and combat survival, evasion, resistance, and escape.
Dale supports a number of organizations to promote law enforcement, education, and literacy. He is a Life Member of the Air Force Association, U.S. Naval Institute, and National Rifle Association. He is a command pilot for Angel Flight West (www.angelflightwest.org), a group that donate their time, skills, and aircraft to fly medical patients free of charge. He is also a mission pilot with the Civil Air Patrol, flying a variety of missions in support of the U.S. Air Force and other federal agencies. He is a multi-engine and instrument-rated private pilot and can often be found in the skies all across the United States, piloting his Piper Aztec-E airplane. On the ground, Dale enjoys tennis, scuba diving, and soccer. Dale, his wife Diane, and son Hunter live near Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
Dale Brown almost always writes gripping stuff. Shadows of Steel is no different. While Dale Brown certainly takes quite a few creative liberties and some of the scenarios in his books may seem far fetched, Shadows of Steel is generally realistic. Iran is the key country in this book, and Brown gives them the military might to hold all the power in the Persian Gulf. It's up to Brown's hero Patrick McLanahan to destroy the Iranian threat using America's finest, the B-2 Bomber.
The only real problem I had with the book was its cover. If you read Cyrillic and know your Russian navy, the aircraft carrier on the cover is the "Kiev". Brown's carrier in the book is the "Varyag", a totally different ship than the cover, and which was not completed and currently remains in dry dock in the Ukraine, rusting away indefinitely. Despite the incorrect cover, I praise Dale Brown for his originality in predicting the sale of the carrier to China, something which is very likely to happen.
Another good book by Dale Brown that every serious military techno-thriller enthusiast should have on their bookshelf. For people who don't like all the technical information that is critical in a book in this genre, stay away! Dale Brown puts all the technical information in his books for a reason, to make them realistic. People who get overwhelmed by these kinds of books shouldn't write negative reviews just because of that. If you don't like technical information, don't read techno-thrillers. But don't put down the author for authenticity. Still, serious fans will enjoy this book.
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In "Shadows of Steel", It's the "United States Air Force of Patrick McLanahan" v. Iran. Having previously duked it out with Soviets, Red China and a KGB mole, maverick flier McLanahan is tagged to fly stealth missions into Iran. The covert war is spurred by Iran's defacto nationalization of large pieces of the Persian Gulf and their acquisition of an ex-Russian aircraft carrier (betcha can't guess the name). Obviously the Iranians will have none of McLanahan's airborne warfare, but they get help from some allies in America - liberals, bureaucrats and a pissed-off Navy Admiral who's around to remind us that inter-service rivalry is alive and well in the future of Brown's books.
This was a middling novel. Like most of Brown's books, its hampered by its need to get the look, sound and feel of air combat. Unfortunately, we get so much data, there's no room for the story, or even the idea that the book has a plot. "Steel" never feels like it's working towards something - instead it's basically a sting of scenes with flight jargon, political back-talk and scheming villains. Even the feeling of being in the pilot's seat is spoiled - our characters engage in the same easygoing dialog that you expect to hear from people schmoozing on the ground but never from people strapped into a high-performance fighter jet flying over enemy territory. The realism is debatable, but its drag on the plot is painfully obvious. Some howlers however aren't so much technical but fall into that realm of he human conscious for which there is no on-line directory. For all pretensions of being a maverick, McLanahan is a textbook hero, while a thinly veiled versions of real-life liberals make this less a technothriller than a high-tech Alan Drury novel. I should have realized something was wrong when Brown created as a love interest, a beautiful Saudi female soldier - this from a country where women aren't aloowed to drive or show their faces.
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I read "Day of the Cheetah" about 8 years ago, and have been a devout Dale brown fan every since. "Shadows of Steel" was yet another great book by a great author. Dale gives us Characters that pull you into the story. A Chinese Built aircraft carrier, and Patrick McLanahan in a B-2 Stealth. What more do you need? I must also strongly recommend "Tin Men", this might be my favorite so far.
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