Customer Reviews

Shadows of Steel

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Shadows of Steel was my fourth book from Brown's Aeoro techno thriller. This time, the story took me to the mid east...after the B2 had its experiences in South East Asia (Sky Masters). The story is very good and I really enjoyed reading it. But damn! I felt myself sitting as a CO Pilot with Patrick in B-2 again..! Although it's not that heavy thriller written in previous 'Sky Masters', But Brown is still genious with story writting! He is still the best Pilot! So everyone who is in flight enthusiast, don't miss it!

It's America's ultimate nightmare. Iran has an aircraft carrier, and they're not afraid to use it. "Shadows of Steel" doesn't waste time getting to the action. The Gulf nations launch a pre-emptive strike against a heavily fortified Iranian island on page one. In response, an American spy ship is sunk, and the crisis snowballs from there.

The combat scenes were written very well, and Brown uses lots of very interesting hi-tech weapons to fight Iran. However, this book was shorter than his previous works. Brown also seemed to be lacking in character development, something he has immensely improved on in his last few novels. More focus should have been given to McLanahan and his relationships with his wife and his co-pilot, Colonel Jameison.

Gotta love it! Dale Brown's 9th novel, Shadows of Steel features a battle-scarred B-2A stealth bomber countering the threat of an Iranian aircraft carrier and an Iranian military coup. The novel did a tremendous job of conveying the dark fascination of carrying out precision strikes unseen by your enemy. In fact, the only complaint I could have was that in the dialogue everybody kept saying "B-2A", whereas it seems to me they would usually just say "B-2". But what do I know? Maybe the story relied a little bit too much on non-lethal weapons, and there was a minor innacuracy involving the maximum speed of the AIM-54C Phoenix missile, but these minor problems don't take much from the story. A must-read if you're a Dale Brown fan and a stealth bomber fan. Enjoy

I think this book is very good, it tells in detalil how everything works, not like "The bomb droped and it blew up its target"

Book was excellent as I enjoy Dale Brown in 99.9% of his books. Outstanding reading and a good story that could come true in the near future.

If you want to read a something that has controversy and action wrapped up into an exciting, fast pace moving plot, then you should read Shadows of Steel by Dale Brown.
This realistic fiction book starts you off in the Persian Gulf aboard a U.S. secret carrier that is attacked and sunk by the Iranian Khomeini carrier group. Some survivors were taken hostage from the ship. The President of the United States, in response, turned to former Air Force Captain Patrick McLanahan. McLanahan - if you've ever read some other Brown books - has saved the day more than once before. An aggressive offensive plan is devised to attack Iran and to prevent another Gulf war from erupting. Targets in the plan are strictly military and industrial only and McLanahan wants to do most of this with non-lethal force. Their weapon is the new B-2 Spirit Stealth bomber that is state of the art. Can McLanahan pull off another successful mission? Check out this book for guaranteed action and suspense.
I would recommend this book to those who are interested in the middle-east and problems over there. Also to those who enjoy suspenseful thrillers with smart action. An example of some of the action from this book that was actually kind of funny was when McLanahan was confronted by the Secret Service and was going to be asked whether he wanted to do the mission or not and McLanahan, not knowing who it was, knocked the guy out with his computer and put him in a tight lock. If you want a read that won't let you down if you're somewhat interested in this stuff, possible even if you're not, then pick this book up now.

Alright,

this was the very first book of Dale Browns' I have read. Now, I have 5, with another 5 on order.

This book is excellent. This one talks about the B-2 Bomber, and modifying it. Although I recomend you read Sky Masters first, you can read this before Sky Masters, like I did. This one has Patrick suiting up on a B-2 and going to fight the Iranians.