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Rating: 
Summary: The aircrew banter was so real, I was immediately homesick.
Review: I can't wait for John Nichol's next book. It was so real that it felt like he was telling his life story. I was in the South African Air Force and this is the first "airforce" book that I have read that actually felt like the author was "there". The story was not so racy as to make it unbelievable and yet fast-moving enough to make it real hard to put down. Technically it was detailed enough to satisfy the boffins and yet it could easily be read by the "man-in-the-street" without confusing him with the essentials. A good mixture of jargon and story-telling has made this first novel, in my opinion, a raving success. Please, John Nichol, write us another and another and another. It feels like I have discovered a brand new author who has all the potential to rise to the heights of the Tom Clancy's and Dale Brown's of this world especially as the book is far easier to read than most who delve in this area of novel writing.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice story...nasty character
Review: I read this book full of hope - it looked like it would be technically accurate, and would fill in a lot of the gaps in my knowledge about the RAF.And it did. What I really dont' like about the book is the unsympathetic main character. This guy goes around wrecking lives and careers, and he doesn't seem to care in the least. Now okay, he's trying to uncover an RAF conspiracy, but he doesn't even care that one of his friends gets reassigned to the Falkland Islands, he just tries to get the friend to help him more. I have great difficulty sympathising with a character like that. Another problem is the conspiracy itself...I talked to an RAF pilot about this book, and he said that the accident investigation people are the most uncorruptable people in the RAF. On the other hand, bits of the book are hugely enjoyable - such as when the reaction of the British press when the hero breaks the rules of engagement and shoots down a Serb bomber :) As I mentioned before, the book is technically very good, very accurate. I just don't like the hero.
Rating:
Summary: Nice story...nasty character
Review: I read this book full of hope - it looked like it would be technically accurate, and would fill in a lot of the gaps in my knowledge about the RAF. And it did. What I really dont' like about the book is the unsympathetic main character. This guy goes around wrecking lives and careers, and he doesn't seem to care in the least. Now okay, he's trying to uncover an RAF conspiracy, but he doesn't even care that one of his friends gets reassigned to the Falkland Islands, he just tries to get the friend to help him more. I have great difficulty sympathising with a character like that. Another problem is the conspiracy itself...I talked to an RAF pilot about this book, and he said that the accident investigation people are the most uncorruptable people in the RAF. On the other hand, bits of the book are hugely enjoyable - such as when the reaction of the British press when the hero breaks the rules of engagement and shoots down a Serb bomber :) As I mentioned before, the book is technically very good, very accurate. I just don't like the hero.
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