Space Battles! Book Review: Starfire

Starfire by Dale Brown
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I remember reading some of Dale Brown's earlier Patrick McClanahan stories, and thinking they were a tighter, leaner version of Tom Clancy-esque stories. I only read a few of those earlier novels, but only because I got behind and didn't want to try to catch up.

Starfire continues the Patrick McClanahan world though, and gives it over to the next generation of heroes, including Bradley McClanahan. He's the son of the famed General from the other stories. The narrative does a good job of catching the reader up on major events that lead the world and characters to where they are currently. That was good for me, since it had been some years since I had ready anything in this series.

I remember this series being very real-world military fiction. Cutting edge technology featured heavily in the stories I remember. Starfire goes beyond the cutting edge technology firmly into the near-future science fiction. A near-death character is kept alive inside of a robotic suit of power armor. College students develop an orbit-to-ground power-transmitting device and test it from a military space station, only to realize it makes a really good space-based weapon. And in this story, a new cold war has started over space-based weapons and vehicles.

On the whole, this was a good, fun book. Fans of previous installments will enjoy where the story goes. Fans of Tom Clancy or similar political/military fiction will enjoy this, though it's not as heavy on the political as a Clancy tome.

To nitpick, the narrative is very heavy on detailing the technology and sometimes spends way too much time describing in excruciating detail what is happening. In fact, the opening scene with a character going into space on-board a spaceplane, and docking and boarding a spacestation is one of those too-much-detail scenes. I almost didn't make it through that opening passage. But once I did, the action and actual story-telling picked up. Later sections that went into detail weren't nearly as in-depth as that opening passage and were easily skimmed over. I don't really need to know all the specific manufacturing and deployment history of certain missiles, jets, or whatever, just give me a nice quick overview if what is absolutely relevant to the narrative.

Overall, a good action/military story with a strong space element to the story.



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Book Review: Apocalypse

Apocalypse by Dean Crawford
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Very interesting premise: the ability to see forward in time using a man-made black hole, and two detectives on retainer with the DIA must find out why a man suspected of murdering his own family knows things before they happen.

The story is believably executed in a great action/adventure style reminiscent of Clive Cussler or James Rollins at their best.

Good stuff!


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Book Review: Wayback

Wayback by Sam Batterman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a fun book, but the setup felt rushed, and the inclusion of a terrorist plot felt tacked on and unnecessary. That particular plot added absolutely nothing to the story.

Wayback is about time travel based on Nazi experiments. A US research company working with the US military going back in time to see the Biblical Flood because missions to way back before Genesis didn't work. The initial setup, with the scientists being recruited, having the mission explained to them, and the secular scientists coming to grasps with a government-funded and backed mission based on proving Biblical events seemed to happen to fast. The plot could have used more antagonism from the main non-Believing scientist.

The descriptions of the the antideluvian world were interesting and it would have been fun for the characters to get to explore that world more, but they arrived at the wrong time for that. (And that wasn't really the point of the book. There are other novels that take the time to explore the pre-Flood world and life in it that are very good, though.)

This is a pro-Biblical, pro-young-Earth, pro-Creation action/science-fiction novel. If you're okay with that (I am), it's a good read. If you're not okay with those topics or points-of-view, give it a try anyway: it's a good book.