Shadows of Steel($13.50Value)

Description

When a nuclear Iran begins stirring up trouble in the Persian Gulf, the newly elected president of the United States calls on a top-secret cell of the CIA's Intelligence Support Agency, codenamed Future Flight, to find Iran's key command centers and destroy them. This military suspense novel, Brown's ninth, pits a secret U.S. military operation against an increasingly aggressive Iran in a race to prevent global chaos. The author lends the book a sense of topicality by using real news excerpts at the beginning to show how a conflict with Iran may be possible. When Iran builds up a carrier fleet and tries to close off the Persian Gulf to foreigners, the United States sends in a secret B-2 "Stealth" bomber to prevent a full-scale war through preemptive force. While this is a generally gripping military thriller, the pro-military/anti-budget cut rhetoric can be distracting at times. Characters from Brown's earlier works, such as Flight of the Old Dog (Donald I. Fine, 1987) are brought back, which new readers may find confusing. Still, Brown's many fans will love this book. Recommended for libraries with existing Brown novels or wherever military suspense is in demand. -?Peter A. Leggieri, "Library Journal" Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. The high-flying Captain Brown returns in his ninth technothriller, which once again features Patrick McLanahan. This time, McLanahan and his cronies are working to rescue a U.S. spy ship crew from some particularly thuggish Iranians and also keeping an Iranian aircraft carrier (acquired from the former-Soviet-armaments yard sale, so to speak) from catastrophically destabilizing the Persian Gulf region. They have available to them the resources of the CIA, a B-2 bomber (clearly one of Brown's favorite birds), and some lengthily described and ingenious weaponry--for instance, cluster bombs that dispense an acid sludge that dissolves key components of enemy aircraft. The action is fast (despite a slight surplus of subplots); characterization is subordinate to the many excellent flying scenes; and altogether, the yarn is more of what Brown has done before and most likely will continue doing, to his profit and the satisfaction of technothriller fans. Roland Green Gulf War II, albeit without the Coalition and with latter-day Persia as the foe, in this red-meat technothriller from old pro Brown (Storming Heaven, 1994, etc.). Three years short of a new millennium, Iran is rattling space- age sabers in an effort to gain dominion over the Strait of Hormuz, a choke point in the world's oil-supply line. At odds both with Arab neighbors allied to the US and with the Great Satan itself, the Islamic republic is armed, dangerous, and under the military command of a rash ultranationalist: General Hesarak al-Kan Buzhazi. Hostilities begin when Iran sinks an American spy vessel. In assessing response options, the new US president is all too aware that budget cuts and ill-advised peacekeeping missions have greatly weakened America's armed forces. Accordingly, the Chief Executive calls in the Intelligence Support Agency, a supersecret arm of the CIA. With a blank check from the White House, ISA quickly goes operational with a B-2A Stealth bomber. Under the expert guidance of Patrick McLanahan (an ex-USAF weapons officer), the all but undetectable aircraft and its on-board array of ordnance and electronic countermeasures raise merry (if deniable) hell with the Mideastern theocracy's defenses. Although down, Iran (which has concluded a mutual-assistance pact with Red China) is not out, and Buzhazi's air arm nearly figures out a way to shoot the lone shadow of steel from the sky. The B-2A's can-do crew rises to the occasion, however, and Tehran's officer corps pays a stiff price for its extremism. While the Yanks believe themselves clear victors at the close, there's reason to believe they may have to take on the PRC and its nukes in the next round. State-of-the-art action in the air, on land, and at sea from a master of the future-shock game. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. A CIA intelligence agency working hand in hand with Arab nations tries to force Iran's hand and finds instead a nuclear force which threatens the entire Gulf region and world stability in this action-paced military-oriented novel. Espionage, military attacks, and high-level politics are satisfyingly realistic in this tense thriller. -- Midwest Book Review