Customer Reviews

Starstrike: Operation Orion

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

 

 

This story is writen for 12 yr olds. The good guys always win. The bad guys always lose. You have the inevitable good guys that get killed or hurt that cause the rest of the good guys to push on and win. This happens in almost all the "encounters". If you want a quick feel good story go ahead and read it. If you want a developed story line and characters, save your money.

This is one of the exceptionally rare books that is just so badly written that I put it down without finishing it. I plowed through about a third of the book, but just couldn't take any more of the cookie cutter dialogue (one of the worst attempts at a bombastic military "dressing down" I've ever encountered), embarrassingly bad attempts at justification of technology, odd and inconsistent terminology (SEALS, SEALs, SEALSs? Yuck.), and just plain bad plot lines. This book reflects the sort of writing I'd expect from a 14 year old amateur author writing stories in his class notebook.

If you never read a book before and you think that military men have a great and profound rapport and are all saints and that in every fire fight the good guys beat the bad guys and are barely wounded you might enjoy this. Else not. and by the way there are no women in this group.

Reads like it was written by a 6th grader and then edited by chimps. I gave up on it half way through because of weak plot, lame shallow characters, typo's etc. If Dan Simmons is a 10 this is a minus 3. It's awful.

As other reviewers have pointed out, this is no Robert Heinlein novel. It's SF Candy - light on plot, light on character development, but a good relaxing light read if you don't want anything serious, like a good bit of action where the good guys always win and don;t want to bother with the women that so many SF writers seem to find obligatory theses days in action novels. Hey, it's lightweight, but it's entertaining. I liked it - made a good fun read for the train commute home :)

While the book's about a US Space navy SEALS Team (SEa Air Land Space) in space, keep in mind that one of the two authors, Kevin Dockery, is the author of a number of very good histories of the US Navy SEALS and has a great deal of knowledge in this area which translates into some pretty good "shoot 'em up" action sequences. he's certainly got the special forces psychology down pat - a few other reviwers have critiqued this part of the book, but to be honest, in my (somewhat limited and out of date) military experience, thats how it works with a good team. You take the losses and mourn them and move on. Nothing to criticise there.

And if you think this one's bad, take a look at some of the real cr@p in the SF section of your local bookstore. This is great by comparison. Another footnote - I borrowed this from the local library, I probably wouldn't have forked out to buy the book so my somewhat positive review is in a slightly different context to those who paid cash for the book and felt disappointed. In my case, I paid nothing and expected to read some lightweight brain candy - so I got my money's worth.

This is a great book if you like non-stop action. The SEALS are a great bunch of guys in this book. I cant wait for more of these books. Well worth your money.

I sometimes wonder what on Earth it is that entrances an editor to buy drek. There's no telling. Perhaps they are related to the author. In any case, this author has only the slightest idea how SEAL operators actually work. In a future that includes travel to the stars, this crew hasn't a clue. In any real Universe, they'd be freeze-dried toast in short order. I sympathize with the author--I'd sure hate reading a review like this. But, maybe he'll learn to write. I won't be buying the rest of the series.

Starstrike Operation Orion by Kevin Dockery and Douglas Niles

The Great Escape does not refer to other books or movies, it is my feeling that this book is a great escape from the mundane activities which surround our daily existence. It serves no purpose but to entertain and that is just fine with me.

Just as Starstrike Operation Mars was a military shoot-em-up so is this. SEALS, the extra S is for Space, strike terror in the hearts of our world's enemies.

Regardless of the time frame and setting, it still is a somewhat simplistic and far fetched saga of a group of SEALS. The new SEALS as opposed to the original Navy Seals are space faring commandos. This rendition of the story has them facing some old enemies and reuniting with some old friends.

This is a quick, non-taxing read. It is chock full of action and heroics. It is the ideal intermezzo for deep thinking or long books. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. Au contraire, I breezed through it with a grin on my face.
Although none of the characters are memorable as individuals as a group they prove themselves ferocious warriors. The arrogant aliens grossly outnumber, out gun the SEALS. The alien technology is superior. In spite of this the SEALS show the Aliens that we may be backward technologically but our spirit and ferocity are not to be underestimated. The story like the first one is a very entertaining, small unit combat novel.

I recommend the book.

Predictable.
Juvenile.
Sci-fi like I read back in grade school, only without the teenage heroes.
Really should be in the science-fantasy genre as it reminds me of the Hardy Boys and Tom Swift novels where some gadget, invented only the day before with no prior mention of it, saved the day just in the nick of time.

These aren't the novels you're looking for.