Air Battle Force (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Captain Wakil Mohammad Zarazi deployed youngest,most inexperienced-and therefore most expendable-troops right beside the road for the ambush, promising them promotions and high honors if they..." (more)
Key Phrases: tilt jet aircraft, supercockpit display, center bomb bay, United States, Battle Mountain, Air Battle Force (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This absorbing techno-thriller follows the author's established pattern of fast action in the air and on the ground, its hard-driving protagonists equipped with an arsenal of futuristic hardware. Patrick McLanahan is back again, this time as air force major general in charge of the First Air Battle Force, a secret experimental unit with the controls to a jackpot of high-tech toys, among them air-retrievable bomb-carrying drones, venerable B-52s packing brand-new, high-powered lasers, and B-1s (called Vampires) capable of carrying out unmanned missions. Supporting McLanahan are a respectable company of the other continuing characters in the author's air force saga, which has acquired (like Clancy's Jack Ryan volumes) some of the attributes of an alternate history. These include Rebecca Furness, with her first star; maverick Daren Mace, still under a cloud and still in love with Rebecca; cigar-smoking acting Secretary of State Maureen Hershel; and charismatic ex-President Kevin Martindale. All collide when a Taliban raid into Turkmenistan leads to the overthrow of the Russian-backed Turkmen government. Eager to set things right, the Russian chief of staff engineers a military coup in Russia, pumping up the threat of war between Russia and the U.S. At the end, Brown (Wings of Fire, etc.) has deftly set up his next book, with Turkmenistan ruled by Jalaluddin Turabi, a former Taliban bandit and now a budding statesman, while the Russians bare their fangs over the not-unexpected destruction of their bombers by the Air Battle Force. Brown fans will declare this a page-turning delight.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

'Clancy's got serious company.' New York Daily News 'When a former pilot with years of experience turns his hand to writing thrillers you can take their authenticity for granted. His writing is exceptional and the dialogue, plots and characters are first-class... far too good to be missed.' Sunday Mirror 'Dale Brown is a superb storyteller.' Washington Post 'The best military adventure writer in the country.' Clive Cussler

Old Dog Brown brings back his favorite technothriller heroes for what will likely be their 15th consecutive assault on the bestseller list, despite ever more unwieldy plots, laboriously detailed fantastic weapons, and bombastic action sequences. Forcibly retired US Air Force General Patrick McLanahan (Wings of Fire, 2002, etc.) and his unsanctioned Night Stalker special ops corps of freelance commandos (who work outside the government) have saved the world several times over from total destruction and always win the biggest stakes on the table. What is an Air Battle Force? Well, former child prodigy aeronautical and space engineer Jon Masters has devised the Vampire bomber, which carries StealthHawk Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles within it. McLanahan leads the 1st Vampire Squadron, and StealthHawks are the leading edge of the force he and Wing Commander Rebecca Furness use to launch a counterattack against Afghan Captain Wakil Mohammad Zarazi's Taliban troops, who capture a UN Afghan Relief and Rehabilitation unit in Northern Afghanistan. Air Battle Force is the future of air warfare and in part consists of robot warplanes launched from the Vampire bomber. Flying a B-1 over air space congruent to Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Turkmenistan, McLanahan loses a robot plane and goes searching for it through various hostile radars and air defense systems while running almost on empty. As it happens, the Turkmenistan oil fields have become the prime target of Taliban and Al-Qaeda forces no longer safe in Afghanistan. The novel bomber makes a pancake landing, skipping off the ocean onto a beach. The technoclimax comes with the Vampire in a dogfight while attacking an airbase in the Russian Federation. Tense pages hard-focused on aerial hardware as Brown pumps it up for fans-who know what they're getting. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 426 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1st edition (May 13, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060094095
• ISBN-13: 978-0060094096
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #890,644 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not the best but still good, October 7, 2003

By	Patrick (Abilene, TX) - See all my reviews

I've read every single one of Mr. Brown's books and this one is by far the weakest. Still good though but not his best. It was nice to see old characters like General Furness and Colonel Mace. But Thorn has to go. Hopefully he gets ousted from office in the next book. The plot in this one is kinda a weak but it seems to set up the next book nicely. (A war with Russia?) The robot planes are totally unbelieveable though. It breaks my heart to see Mr. Brown, a former navigator himself, take the real heros out of the picture. Whats the fun in flying if your gonna do it from the ground? A lot seems to be missing from Air Battle Force. But hopefully its just a set up for the next one.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Air Battle Force is too much tech, too little plot, October 18, 2003

By	Jacquelyn K Sinclair (Mahomet, IL United States) - See all my reviews

Having read several Dale Brown novels now, I'm tiring of his incredible attention to technical detail and seemingly too little effort in developing a story line. Air Battle Force takes way too much time telling us every detail of every tank, fighter plane and computer system while leaving the reader waiting and waiting for something to develop amongst the characters.

I'm also wondering how much more he plans to wring out of the Dreamland story with its fancy, tech-stuffed bombers and Tin Men.
If you want a far more intriguing read still full of lots of airplane and fighter action, read James Huston.

G Sinclair

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Really the same plot, October 6, 2003

By	"jilmar" (Burlington, Wi USA) - See all my reviews

Like many reviewers I have read all of Dale Brown's books. But these last few seem to be the same thing over and over. General Patrick McLanahan disregards orders and saves the day. I am just getting a little tired of the plot always involving The President and his administration threatening/demoting/giving McLanahan a cold cup of coffee or whatever.

I also agree with a previous reviewer that there really isn't much suspense at the end, you know the high tech weapons will easily save the day. Its hard to connect psychology with high tech weapons, the humans seem to play second fiddle. Finally I have a really hard time with a Taliban hero.