Customer Reviews

Warrior Class

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I like this guy better than Clancy. I have read every book he has written. The early books, starting with The Flight of the Old Dog were first rate and very believeable. As time has passed, the technology involved in his tales has started to stetch one's ability to believe, but one gets the impression that he really knows what he is talking about and he doesn't bore you to death with technocrat explanations.
In this book, the US has elected an isolationist President who is not a member of either major political party. The character is interesting, but he never could have been elected holding the beliefs that he does, so we have to fudge our way past that and just declare him elected. Once that is accomplished he skips his Innauguration, gets sworn in privately at Blair House and walks across the street to the White House and goes to work. He also decides not to do a State of the Union speech, which isn't a bad idea. When you think of it, maybe he could get elected after all.
In any event, the new president starts withdrawing US forces around the globe which leads to predictable instability in the geopolitical situation. Into the chaos walks Pavel Kazakov, a Russian gangster with a desire to build an oil pipeline to the Baltic, millions of dollars at his disposal and his very own stealth-bomber which was left over from the breakup of the USSR. He sets about to wreak havoc in the Balkans and to take advantage of the void in NATO's ability to respond to get the oil flowing to the Black Sea and millions of dollars a day flowing into his bank accounts.
Standing in the way of his plans are Patrick McClanahan and his usual support staff from Dreamland and Skymasters along with some very brave Turkish and Ukranian pilots. I thought the action was first rate and you really look forward to the final confrontation as the bad guys are about to get theirs. For no matter how difficult the assignment, or how many obstacles are thrown in the path of our heroes, you can take it to the bank that the bad guys will get theirs. How they do it if most of the fun.

"Chains Of Command, Flight Of The Night Hawk, And The Tin Man", all lend past events and technology to Mr. Brown's newest work, "Warrior Class". The balance of the content is what I believe his readers have always enjoyed in his books, and further, this latest work also diverges a bit from those that came before. It adds uncertainty and questions the most fundamental reasons why the wizards from Nevada exist and what justifies their conduct. This book is a departure from previous works, not because the previous work had become stale, rather Mr. Brown appears to be giving a new direction and extending the life, legitimacy, and reader interest for the characters in his previous 12 Novels. I think the integrity he shows and the respect he demonstrates to his readers is something that many other Novelists who just turn out repetitive modifications of their previous work should take note of.

My personal issue with this book is the reappearance of, "Tin Man Technology". The original book was my least favorite, and this time all was well until they literally started jumping. The technology used in the book is fascinating, and fun even when it gets a bit outrageous, but the Tin Man stills really strains credulity. The same can be said for some of the other technology, however there performance is more plausible.

It would be interesting to know how far ahead Mr. Brown plans these books for they neither have continuity issues, nor do they resort to outrageous filler to make the stories work. The next book should be very interesting if it continues this time line, for as I mentioned Mr. Brown has radically altered some fundamental premises going back to, "The Flight Of The Old Dog".

If you have enjoyed any of his previous books you will find much to like with his latest. The Tin Man is an aspect I could do without, but I'm sure other readers love it. Some of the past masters of this genre are either gone or have just become imitators of their early and best work. Mr. Brown has reached a, "Baker's Dozen", and he shows no sign of letting his readers down.

The reason for the 4.5 star rating is that blasted Tin Trooper, and the initials of a new political player!

Enjoy, well worth the time!

For the first time since Washington, an independent wins the election for president of the United States. Thomas Thorn owes nothing to either the Republicans or the Democrats. The former Desert Storm hero believes in isolating America. He orders the ground troops home from Europe, as he has no desire to use the Armed Forces as peacekeepers.

With the Yankees returning home, old rivalries flare up throughout Europe. Many of them are orchestrated by the avaricious Russian druglord Pavel Kazakov, who wants to build an oil pipeline to the Baltic. He needs the cooperation of several former Soviet Republics. To accomplish his goal, Pavel devices a deviously clever plan that keeps the area filled with minor skirmishes and battles. This would lead to the Russians returning to take control and rebuild their former empire. Only General Patrick McLanahan stands in his way and he must defy his Commander-in Chief.

Dale Brown is one of the best writers of techno-thrillers on the market today. Fans of Clancy will love WARRIOR CLASS especially with the radical change in American foreign policy and the world reaction to the withdrawal of the only superpower. The story line is loaded with military action that supports the theme of "My country, right or wrong, my country" vs. the value of doing what the individual believes is the right thing.

Harriet Klausner

Once again Dale Brown has Patrick McLanahan in the middle of it all again. He keeps to his traditional style and makes it almost impossible to put the book down. I highly recommend this book.

Dale Brown, the man who started me reading books and got me away from the TV and video games, has done it again and writen another book that will keep you on the edge of your seat. The technology in this book is absolutely outragous, but he tells you how it's done, and shows you that not only are these weapons not from "Star Treck" but that they most likely exist today. On top of this he lets us in on just how possible it is for certain things to happen out in the world and shows us just how real the possibility of a mad drug smuggler/terrorist practically taking over a foriegn country can be. He also shows us that if we don't watch out, our government won't do anything if someone like Paval Kazakov really does exist. With all this on top of his amazing ability to tell a story, the book probably couldn't get much better (unless it was longer, I hate it when a good story ends). So, like I said, I hope he keeps it up, and I can't wait for his next book.

In "Warrior Class", an evil Russian tycoon, Pavel Kazakov, manipulates the fragile politics of the Balkans to serve his sinister financial plans. Already rich on the strength of his drug smuggling enterprises and his 3rd world petroleum sales, Kazakov triggers a war in the Balkans as a ruse to building an oil pipeline through Albania. With the Balkans disintegrating, the Russian army pours across the border, ostensibly for peacekeeping, but mostly to pacify those who'd stand in Kazakov's way. Once complete, the oil pipeline will guarantee the Russians millions of dollars in petro-income daily. Kazakov, who's despised enough by his own countrymen, relies on back-room deals in general and in particular (because this is a Dale Brown novel) on a fantastic and mysterious stealth warplane that swoops without warning and unleashes destruction. (Rival Balkan factions blame each other for the attacks). The mystery plane is the Metyor-179, a sort of descendant of the Fisikous-170 of the earlier Brown novel "Night of the Hawk". In the US, a new president (who makes his habits clear by skipping such traditional functions as the public inauguration and traditional state of the union address) abruptly cuts military ties with the rest of the world - pulling out everything but a shell of the American presence from Europe and leaving a power-vacuum the Russians are only too happy to fill. At Elliot Field, site of the high-technology aero-weapons training center (HAWC), Pat Mclanahan (Dale Brown's perennial hero) is working hard not only training his own combat unit but also foreign units who will now be expected to defend themselves without overt American support. Ukrainian units in Backfire bombers train alongside Turkish F-16's and HAWC's very own EB-1c Vampire bombers. The situation is tenuous enough, but when a deep-cover CIA agent in Russia uncovers proof of Kazakov's links to the Mystery Plane and the escalating violence in the Balkans, HAWC is sent in on the rescue. The catastrophic results set off an international incident and lead to a near court martial of Mclanahan.

It's a big, complicated story, one that manages to elude Dale Brown's story-telling talents with every page. Besides his usual faults (giving greater depth to machines and combat elements than the people) is a glaring new one: most of Brown's books are linked in a rough series based on the exploits of Mclanahan and others at HAWC, and Brown has no problem freely revisiting past events of those older books in the newer ones. Tossing around references to books like the original "Flight of the Old Dog: and "Night of the Hawk", reading a Dale Brown novel is like reading another issue of some superhero comic book where every other plot reference has an asterisk reminding you to review last month's issue of Avenger's or X-Men. Even so, Brown leaves some threads untreated, as if he were sure he'd have time to deal with them in his next book (the torment of ex-POW Dave Luger and his interaction with a Ukrainian officer who had victimized him in a prior book is such an example).

That said, Brown manages to repeat his typical mistakes - putting techno-jargon and other meaningless minutiae above the action, and disrupting the flow with more meaningless details. Brown can't so much as have a tilt-rotor MV-22 land (deep inside Russia to extract the spy) without going into an extended treatise on where its unit is based and who builds it, and providing a dossier about the crew. A Ukrainian Backfire bomber can't turn on its radar without triggering a volume of information on how the American pullout from Europe will leave Russia free reign over much of Europe. Brown will repeatedly refers to a character by his full name and title as if he wasn't sure he'd made them memorable enough when first introduced. (Colonel-General Smoliy of the Ukrainian Air Force is repeatedly referred to by that full title and his position). Many details are flat-out unnecessary - does a Dale Brown fan need to be told that F-16's are being launched with AIM-9 missiles and shells for their internal guns? Brown gets some good jibes in with his new President - a former war hero turned new-age hippy (he extols meditation). Brown's new pres manages a great twist in an outrageous bid to win freedom for American fliers captured during the botched spy-extraction, and he leaves enough room for readers to argue both sides on the subjec of the continued worldwide American military presence. The rest of the book doesn't live up to that promise. The Russians sneer, while our heroes' bureaucrat superiors rant about how the heroes aren't team players. The villain is just another overly-ambitious sleaze. There's plenty of action, but little coherent plot to stitch it on. There's a great action sequence involving the futile attempts to escape Russian airspace after the nearly ruined rescue, but it's hobbled. I don't care how experienced Brown is at military flight - his flight sequences are horrible - he barely establishes POV for his characters, frequently allows his characters to engage in full dialogue that doesn't hint to the stress of their high-performance flying and often merely summarizes what should be a heated and fleshed-out battle, but in Brown's flat prose, comes off as detailed and vivid as some late-1980's style flight simulator game. Although Brown pushes his reputation for "realism", he includes some exotic new stuff that makes his writing look as unrealistic as ever (electro-ray guns, cybernetic armor) and has yet to make the more real stuff (existing hardware like airplanes) seem realistic. Brown has got to realize that techno-thriller fans are more savvy than they were in 1987 and has got to do more than recycle the same plot over and over again.

Author Dale Brown always writes a solid story, and it is
crammed with technical details that most readers will have to
actually study in order to follow his story-line. If a reader
tries to skim through this one, he will lose most of the feeling, and his time will be largely wasted. Brown's books
are meant to be delved into, and some time is required. His
books would benefit from a glossary of terms, because so much
military jargon is used.
In this one, the heroes, US military men, some current, some
with that in their background, have to fight a lackluster
US President while they engage some Russian thugs intent on
cornering a large portion of the non-Arab oil in the world.
The Russian is a modern Russian mafia-type, who is a murderer
who is enthralled by the concept of more and more power, and
all the money he can corner. He has been a "white-slaver,"
drug lord, enforcer, and all that is bad, but he has also
been successful in making much money and being able to bribe
officials of many countries on a large scale. His scheme is
to use geopolitics on a world scale, with all that extremely
large bribes and the promise of more, and to get access to
several former Soviet republics so he can built a very long,
protected, oil pipe line, so he can sell oil to Western Europe
and corner that market.
He is so ruthless and without scruples, he attracts the attention of the new-age US warriors, who have to use the very
latest in US weapons, including those not officially in use
by the US military. Those new warriors dazzle their opponents
with modern technology unknown to most, including the reader,
but the author makes it all very interesting. We keep wanting
to learn more about the most modern weapons being developed, because we hope our US forces will actually have such weapons
available for their use in the near future.
Brown has a lot of access to the most up to date information,
so perhaps his writing forecasts the future of weaponry.
An interesting story with a lot of detail that moves along
and keeps the readers' interests.

My problem with this book is that the story is completely unbelievable. Not the pipeline business, the premise showed promise, but the actions taken by the main characters in response to the pipeline business. And since their reactions are the driving force behind this story, the story was unbelievable.

Techno-Thrillers are best when they are accurate. Not just as to technology, but in the response to and application of that technology.

Example: At one point, the US Government must try to rescue one CIA agent hidden in the woods in the middle of Russia. We are supposed to believe that the appropriate application of force is to send an extraction team in a "stealth" tilt rotor aircraft(?) guarded by 2 "super-mega-do-everything" stealth B1 Bombers?

During the rescue, why aren't all of the people on the tilt rotor aircraft wearing the "super-mega-do-everything" bullet-proof suits? This would have prevented at least one casualty during the rescue (did anyone besides me notice that there were no attempts to rescue that poor crew member . . . what was her name? Oh yea, Disposable Crew Member #3, Female). Was there any reason the guy in the "super-mega-do-everything" bullet-proof suit with the "super-mega-do-everything" helmet couldn't just let the tilt-rotor pilot wear the helmet so he could see where he was going? Why didn't the tilt-rotor pilot have the "super-mega-do-everything" sub-cutaneous cell phone/GPS unit? With that he could have been directed out of the danger area. This also would have relieved us from one of the more poorly written parts of the book, namely the confusing "flashlight tag" join-up flight sequence.

Also, if operational doctrine called for 2 super-mega stealth B1 Bombers, why weren't there 2 "stealth" tilt rotor craft? The second tilt rotor could have gone back instead of the more unbelievable "stealing a Turkish helicopter" scene. Are we really supposed to believe that the Turkish helicopter crew was happy to fly into Russia at "rail-gun" point in the middle of a Russian air force mobilization?

Later in the book a chapter ends with a late night escape from the FBI. The next chapter starts "months later." What was the rogue team doing all that time? This is undeveloped story-line.

As I read this book I never felt that any main characters were in danger. Was this because I didn't care about all of these recurring characters or was it because the "super-mega" stealth B1 Bomber, like a 21st centry deus ex machina was always on the scene to save the day....

Okay! I admit it. I'm a technothriller junkie. I like Dale Brown's work, most of it at least.

Warrior Class isn't his best work. It was good reading, but it just wasn't a page turner in the "I don't care if it's 5am...I'm going to finish this book!" genre. At times, I had to force myself to read. The basic plot premise was believable, even if President Thorn wasn't. Pavel Kazakov, the bad guy, is believable. The hardware is getting less believable as time goes by. I still don't understand Russian.

I finally slogged through the book to get to the ending, and I was let down. I kept asking, "Where's the beef?" I'll inspect the goods more carefully next time before buying. Now it's off to the store to buy some beef. Three stars. That's it.

"Warrior Class" is Brown at his best.This is one of those rare novels that forces me to put work deadlines aside and forget about sleep. Having read his previous 12 titles, the characters seemed like old friends and even a few enemies. One of Brown's great gifts is transparently overcoming your credulity, so you accept without notice the occasional flight into another universe. Brown uses one device repeatedly to give his "white hat" characters a human side while relentlessly destroying the enemies of humanity: continual thoughts of and flashbacks to spouses, children, family, all those things that make us melt. The bad guys, of course, never think this way: they just plain enjoy murder and mayhem. Makes no difference to me because Brown's depictions of military action in the air are superb. Hard to believe in this era when wars are fought for real on your TV screen, that any author can get your pulse and to beat faster, but this is precisely what Brown does. He's a great writer of military adventures. Put "Warrior Class" on your reading list - and consider his other 12 books as well.

Jerry