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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... McMinnville Public Library | Brown, D. | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Dale Brown is the author of fourteen New York Times bestsellers, and now he soars to new heights with this outstanding, realistic thriller of warfare and global politics.
On America's newest combat base, U.S. Air Force Major General Patrick McLanahan and his crew of daring engineers are devising the air combat unit of the future -- known as Air Battle Force.
After being chased out of Afghanistan, Taliban fighters invade the neighboring oil-rich Republic of Turkmenistan. Now it's up to McLanahan and his team to win a war in which everyone wants them to fail.
Fast. Explosive. Impossible to put down. Air Battle Force is the perfect Dale Brown combination -- spellbinding suspense and cutting-edge military technology.
Author Notes
Dale Brown was born on November 2, 1956 in Buffalo, New York. He graduated from Penn State University with a degree in Western European history, where he wrote a column for the University's newspaper, The Daily Collegian. He went on to freelance for computer magazines, such as Run and Compute's Gazette for Commodore.
He received an Air Force Commission in 1978 and while there, he received the Air Force Commendation Medal, the Combat Crew Medal and a Marksmanship Ribbon. He also wrote for several military base newspapers while he was still enlisted. He left the Air Force as a Captain and remains a multi-engine and instrument rated private pilot. He is a director and volunteer pilot for AirLifeLine, a nonprofit national medical transport for needy people who cannot afford to travel for medical attention.
He is the author of several series including Dale Brown's Dreamland and, Patrick McLanahan. Dreamland. His title Tiger's Claw made The New York Times Best Seller List for 2012.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
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. (One-day laydown May 13) Forecast: The ins and outs of high-tech war are of particular interest now, and Brown's latest effort-his first novel with Morrow, which is launching a major ad/promo campaign-should have no trouble scaling bestseller lists. Simultaneous Harper Audio and Harper Large Print editions; film rights sold to New Millennium. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
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. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
These two works show Brown at his best: lots of technical detail and action, though not as solid in character and plot development. But who cares? It's all a lot of fun. Silver Tower concerns a space defense station that helps the U.S. respond to a Soviet invasion of Iran. Air Battle Force brings back Major-General Patrick McClanahan and his crew in an experimental high-tech plane that is equipped with an amazing amount of high-tech gadgetry, including a wide array of stealthy precision-guided munitions. This new system is called into action when the Taliban invade the former Soviet republic of Turkmenistan, which gets the Russians involved. Richard Allen reads Silver Tower in a deep, rich voice; he is full of expression and quickly engages the listener. William Dufris is very energetic in his performance of Air Battle Force; his clear voice gives the characters a wide range of accents and expressions. Both books should do well in public libraries.-Michael T. Fein, Central Virginia Community Coll., Lynchburg (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.