Skyhook

Rating:
Summary: strong action thriller
Review: A black ops operation is in effect called the Skyhook Project, a way for pilots on the ground to control military aircraft that won't or can't return to base. The system is being developed by Uniwave Industries but one of their final tests fails and the system locks in to place at fifty miles above ground. The pilots manage to regain control and another test is scheduled for Friday. When Ben Cole, the designer of the software for Skyhook, looks at the code, he sees several strings that don't belong.

While he is trying to figure out who put the extra code in, a seaplane goes down in the same area where the military operation takes place. After the coast guard rescues the pilot and his wife, a very prejudicial FAA examiner revokes the pilot's license. His daughter April and her lawyer friend Grace are prepared to use any means to expose this injustice. The American government knows Skyhook is responsible for the seaplane's mishap and will do what is necessary to keep the real goal of the project secret.

John J. Nance does for action thrillers what John Grishan has done for legal thrillers. The story line is fast paced with plenty of action scenes, but it is the characters who make this book a tremendous hit. April and Grace are two mid-twenties women willing to take a risk and fight the federal government to see justice prevail so their loved ones don't suffer. They make the novel though Ben is heroic in his own way.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: A real yawnfest
Review: A top-secret computer program is on the verge of going live--but could wreak havoc on the nation's aviation routines--in this timely new thriller.

I think Skyhook is one of Nance's best works yet. His knowledge in the airline field, as well as computers and the law, make this a well rounded thriller that should please all of Nances' fans.

Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Another Enticing Read
Review: Another enticing reader by aviation journeyman, John J. Nance, is scripted against the format of that ever-present military/industrial complex we are in the grip of wherein an improbable plane accident occurs. The establishment firmly resists an investigative intrusion into the unthinkable but the author uses deft characterization to sort myriad personal complexities into not only the probable but the possible.
The occasional use of a quirky feline personage, Schroedinger, who gets impatient with loss of priorities by the human clan, will foster recall of similar relationships by readers who are owned by a cat lends a now-and-then break from the mind-numbing attention this book of suspenseful travail demands. Another Keeper!

Rating:
Summary: Airline Not High Tech
Review: First off, you should throw to my comments a bucket or 2 of salt since I have not read this book nor I intend to do so. I just happenedd to hear this author on the Radio today and was hoping for some insider's view of things, but this book turned out to be fiction and a gargantua one at that.

Tom Clancy's are so mesmerizing 'cuz what he writes is so plausible. The airline insdustry is not high-tech, and it's not thrilling. Not when the technology used today was created when you thought digital watches are the coolest thing. Not when just asking an airline employee where your bag is gets you a blank stare (he doesn't know, the system doesn't track it like Fedex does), not when the U.S. system still fly planes single-file fashion so when there is a simple delay with one flight, the whole column is messed up. Not when you request a simple change and it takes the agent 1/2 hour to accomplish the task (what are they doing back there you wanna ask?), and planes can't fly through fog - huh? They get you there more or less on time, be grateful about it, but thrilling? well, I have a few jokes about that... for another time.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Held my interest from cover to cover.

Rating:
Summary: What a bore!
Review: John Nance has given us several lawyer/aviation stories, beginning with the excellent Pandora's Clock about disease spreading quickly worldwide through airline travel (SARS anyone?). Many of his books have been suspenseful and gripping. Some have not been as good as others. Skyhook, unfortunately, tends more to the latter than the former. The first half is a very slow read, and I came close several times to putting it down. I persevered, however, and was satisfied at the end.
This book is more lawyer than aviation, and the protagonist is neither. April Jensen is a cruise line executive based in Vancouver. Her best friend and almost-sister is a young, rising lawyer with a prestigious Seattle firm. Her father is an airline captain who owns a restored, made into a recreational vehicle, WWII flying boat. When her parents disappear while flying in Alaskan waters, April practically has to force authorities to make a search. When they find her parents afloat in a life raft nearly dead from exposure, her pressure appears to have been justified. Then a belligerent FAA inspector accuses her father of all sorts of violations, including drinking, and gets his license revoked. This is serious, because flying is not only his occupation, it is his life. The lawyer friend becomes involved to try to save his career.
Meanwhile, there is a secret Air Force research project going on, to create the computer software and links to enable a ground-based pilot to take control of a plane in flight, ostensibly so that a plane with incapacitated pilots can be landed safely. The civilian applications post 911 are obvious, but not stated until later. The project is in trouble, and the chief software developer is having real concerns about sabotage. These two plots just avoid a midair collision, and merge into a common trajectory, with a smooth three-point landing. You may have to buckle your seat belt to get to the ending, but on the whole, this is a good read.

Rating:
Summary: The Hook Gets Set Slowly
Review: John Nance has given us several lawyer/aviation stories, beginning with the excellent Pandora's Clock about disease spreading quickly worldwide through airline travel (SARS anyone?). Many of his books have been suspenseful and gripping. Some have not been as good as others. Skyhook, unfortunately, tends more to the latter than the former. The first half is a very slow read, and I came close several times to putting it down. I persevered, however, and was satisfied at the end.
This book is more lawyer than aviation, and the protagonist is neither. April Jensen is a cruise line executive based in Vancouver. Her best friend and almost-sister is a young, rising lawyer with a prestigious Seattle firm. Her father is an airline captain who owns a restored, made into a recreational vehicle, WWII flying boat. When her parents disappear while flying in Alaskan waters, April practically has to force authorities to make a search. When they find her parents afloat in a life raft nearly dead from exposure, her pressure appears to have been justified. Then a belligerent FAA inspector accuses her father of all sorts of violations, including drinking, and gets his license revoked. This is serious, because flying is not only his occupation, it is his life. The lawyer friend becomes involved to try to save his career.
Meanwhile, there is a secret Air Force research project going on, to create the computer software and links to enable a ground-based pilot to take control of a plane in flight, ostensibly so that a plane with incapacitated pilots can be landed safely. The civilian applications post 911 are obvious, but not stated until later. The project is in trouble, and the chief software developer is having real concerns about sabotage. These two plots just avoid a midair collision, and merge into a common trajectory, with a smooth three-point landing. You may have to buckle your seat belt to get to the ending, but on the whole, this is a good read.

Rating:
Summary: a well written little gem
Review: Nance, as in his other novels, creates credible scenarios with sufficient techno-whiz that he is not forced into plotting that relies solely on Hollywood special effects to carry the drama. Nance starts with a plausible premise, then fleshes out the technical details - be they aviation or legal - to lead the reader toward a pleasantly surprising end. And to his credit, his use of language is, even with the more technical details. natural, unforced, yet still with considerable verbal style. It's a short, sweet read, from an author who respects his audience enough to research details and get them right without resorting to superficial treatments that annoy the more knowledgeable. The least credible detail? I don't believe his fictional software team would have made the mistake ascribed to them, although I defer to Nance's Gulfstream avionics that may have caused their mistake.

Rating:
Summary: Just "OK," I am afraid
Review: This was very slow to start for me, and as the book progressed from the cockpit, to the Pentagon, to the ocean, to the courtroom, to the White House I kept thinking "So what?"

Its a little implausable that a pilot who "just happens" to be flying in a top secret military test zone gets wrapped up in the plot they way he does, and that it gets elevated to the level it does - just for the sake of reinstating his pilot's license?

Pretty far fetched in terms of the story, but I enjoyed the technical side of the plot - as flawed as it was.

A decent read, but I never really did buy in...