Storming Heaven (ISBN 1590071700)

This is one for the trash.:
Review of "Storming Heaven" by Dale Brown. It seems almost impossible to buy a well-written action novel. They all seem to be written by people who haven't learned how to write a book with characters, real characters who stand up off the page. "Storming Heaven" is, regrettably, no exception. "Storming Heaven" is yet another of those books written by men who like to have their photos taken standing on military vehicles wearing baseball caps. This book is written in 'head hopping' mode, which is usually reseved for romance novels. The writer hops about from character to character. After a few pages the unfortunate reader feels quite dizzy. One might hope that the publisher could advise this writer on learning how to write in a focussed viewpoint. This would be a slim hope as the book seems to have been published from its first draft and without benefit of an editor. An example of the nonsense: (The viewpoint for the moment is supposed to be with Vincenti, a fighter pilot) The stress in the controller's voice was painfully obvious and Vincenti knew why. As soon as he heard a break, Cazaux interjected . . . In the above, it should be 'Vincenti interjected' not Cazaux, who is fleeing from the fighter. Evidently the writer can't remember which viewpoint he's in, so there's not much hope for the reader. The text is chock full of acronyms, all of which are lovingly explained - not once, but over and over. 'The Air-Force E3 Sentry AWACS (Airborne Warning And Communications System)' . . . 'The WAO, or Weapons Assignment Officer, was the overall supervisor of the section of the command center that controlled the fighters from takeoff to landing and monitored the entire intercept." . . . (yawn) and if I see one more time, 'The HUD (Head Up Display) I shall scream. Boring, boring, boring. If the author really needs to soak in acronmys then let him include a glossary of terms. Better still let him write nonfiction. He should have had plenty of practice since this book is written like a stuffy nonfiction weapons manual. Apart from the above, the writing style is extremely dull. When Brown introduces a character he stops the story dead, with large passages of exposition concerning who this is, where they went to school, and so on, instead of gradually releasing such information a little at a time while keeping the story alive. E.G: ' Hardcastle was tall and lean, with gray hair, a bit longer than he wore it in his Coast Guard days, swept gracefully back from his forehead. "Character lines" were deeply etched around his narrow blue eyes, giving him a hawklike image to match his politics. He wore lightly tinted glasses now . . " - and on and on and on, nearly two pages of this boring tripe. This description begins on page five. You'd think that Hardcastle, from his two solid pages of yawn-making, 'was', and 'were', and 'what he was wearing' must be a crucial character, but Hardcastle then disappears as a character and still hasn't reappeared by page 105, which is the point I was unable to continue reading this pulp and consigned it to the trash. Which is where it belongs. 'Nuff said.

Exciting, but...:
I was glued to my chair by this book. I thought it moved well and I liked the military technology and jargon. However, I was turned off my Mr. Brown's thinly veiled dislike of the Clinton administration. Mr. Brown should keep his politics out of his books.

Dale Brown's best book by far:
Reading this now five years on from 9/11, I can see why a reviewer might have thought Bin Laden had read this book, and it's also worth checking out Dale's blogs on airbattleforce.com, as a writer myself I know all too well the responsibility an author has to society - in my first book, published a year before the 7/7 London attacks, a terrorist takes a rucksack bomb on to a London tube train and is stopped at - wait for it King's Cross! Scary. But fictional events coming true - its happened this weekend in Marmaris, turkey, as well - is part of being an author, one of the risks you take. Dale Brown is one of the best at his game and I think with all his knowledge of military and geopolitical affairs he should run for President, he would do a better job than, say, Bill Clinton, whose administration he rips into in STORMING HEAVEN. Hilary, named only as the Steel Magnolia in his narrative, however, he always portrays very well as strong-willed and full of guts. Way to go! I'd vote for her. In the story, set in 1995, American airport and border security is under threat when a Belgian terrorist Henri Cazaux, out for blood after he was abused by American soldiers as a child, gets assistance from ex-SAS commando Gregory Townsend to launch a bloody attack on America's airlines by crashing planes laden with fuel and explosives into air terminals. First, he strikes Oakland International at San Francisco and causes massive loss of life. Then Cazaux goes for Memphis International in Tennessee, wiping out a cargo terminal. Panic sets in all across the States and reaches the White House. Action is taken by Rear Admiral Ian Hardcastle, who first appeared in HAMMERHEADS - read this, this book is ahead of its time - Patriot missile launchers at airports, talk of chaff (defensive countermeasures to distract surface to air missiles) on airliner wings, unauthorised flights shot down by F-16s or ordered to land, which has happened recently, and then terror hits Washington as Cazaux decides to attack the White House . . . Dale Brown did reuse this scenario well for ACT OF WAR too recently though the strategy was a bit different. The ending as well is not what you think - paved the way for character continuation in THE TIN MAN, which is also well worth a read. Brown surpasses himself here - this book now was not speculation, it seems like a prediction of events to come. With recent security scare threatening air travel and the tourism industry in general, it all seems like essential reading now. I would love to see this book made into a movie, but I think it might be too shcoking for the nanny state we are forced to live in. But overall, this is a MUST READ. Especially if you are an aspiring author and/or historian! If you are new to this author, then this is a great place to start.

The Most Thrilling Action Story:
When it comes to the real thriller rather than aero techno thriller, Another Brown's perspective took the side inner country where the enemy have been there planning what we were not expecting. The Most Thrilling Action Story. Brilliant!

Entertaining, though a little too violent:
So, I haven't reviewed a book for nearly a year. And what's the first genre I review after a year's break from Amazon? Yes, it's a military book. Storming Heaven is a tale of how one very evil mastermind, the Belgian Henri Cazaux, abused as a child, and with overwhelming hatred for fellow humans, invests every breath in his body into finishing the USA's infrastructure with sheer firepower. In fact, the ex-B52 navigator Brown goes into such explicit detail of the savageness of Cazaux's attacks that I will, for once, let the reader find out what happens. Of course, the retired military chief Ian Hardcastle, being the typically macho hero Brown describes him as, tries to go in all fires-blazing, with helicopters and weapons of small-scale mass destruction, with the aim of finishing Cazaux once and for all. As is natural in such shocking, though entertaining novels, the military soon enough falls out with the security services, thinks that they have killed Cazaux when he actually is planning his worst atrocity yet... If you really aren't into bloodthirsty military novels, I sincerely recommend you to stay away from Storming Heaven. I've read and reviewed many books in my time on Amazon, and this is easily the most dark and deadly novel yet. Mr Brown, have three stars, on the basis that you lay off from the violence and gore you have shocked me with!