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Summary: The Best of Bob Gandt
Review: Bob Gandt has found his forte: riveting fiction, combining his extensive experience as a naval aviator with a highly imaginative mind. He's up there with Clancy with this gem. I could't put it down and can't wait for the second in this compelling and timely series.
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Summary: A Compelling Page Turner
Review: Bob Gandt writes with authority about naval aviation. Hostile Intent is tightly written and once started is difficult to put down. It's a real page turner. The development of his characters is very well done, and the plot finely tuned and topical. I look forward to reading further adventures of Brick Maxwell and his antagonists.Highly recommended!
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Summary: A real page turner
Review: Excellent story as told from a fighter pilots point of view. The action scenes are easy to imagine and are obviously told by someone who knows how to fly. I couldn't put the book down and stayed up half the night ot finish it.
Rating:
Summary: A real page turner
Review: Excellent story as told from a fighter pilots point of view. The action scenes are easy to imagine and are obviously told by someone who knows how to fly. I couldn't put the book down and stayed up half the night ot finish it.
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Summary: Technothriller Debut of the Year - 2001
Review: Former US Navy aviator Robert Gandt's first work of fiction is a superb, unpredictable roller-coaster ride through the inner workings of a fighter squadron on the USS Ronald Reagan. Though Gandt has previous writing experience with his five nonfiction books on aviation, he greatly exceeds expectations by his mix of three-dimensional characters in truly intense and unheard of situations. Though the premise of a strike on Iraq is nothing new in military fiction, Gandt separates himself from other first-time military novelists by continuously building up his characters and leaving out pertinent bits of information in the numerous subplots so the reader is forced to finish the entire novel. While everything is tied up at the end, Gandt does a great job of keeping predictability to the absolute minimum by not rehashing conflicts found in previous novels in the genre. With Hostile Intent is an original and sometimes brutal novel of men and women at war with the outside world and with their own personal demons. There is no doubt that with this debut, Gandt has the potential of becoming one of the top writers of military fiction. I wish him the best on his future novels, and I very much look forward to reading them as soon as possible.
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Summary: A quick, easy to understand story
Review: Gandt starts his fiction career wonderfully. He takes his first hand knowledge of life for F/A-18 pilots, tactics and naval life in general and composes a great story with several subplots that allow for the story of Brick Maxwell to continue in future volumes. Keeping it simple, the main character, Maxwell, returns to a carrier squadron after several years test piloting and as a NASA astronaut. He must deal with a hot-shot commanding officer with something bordering personal hatred for him, gender politics of the new Navy, and an Iraqi threat following the first Gulf War. Gandt neverloses focus despite having so much to contemplate. If you like this one, try Punk's War and Punk's Wing by Ward Carroll for similar life and battle stories in the Navy.
Rating:
Summary: A quick, easy to understand story
Review: Gandt starts his fiction career wonderfully. He takes his first hand knowledge of life for F/A-18 pilots, tactics and naval life in general and composes a great story with several subplots that allow for the story of Brick Maxwell to continue in future volumes. Keeping it simple, the main character, Maxwell, returns to a carrier squadron after several years test piloting and as a NASA astronaut. He must deal with a hot-shot commanding officer with something bordering personal hatred for him, gender politics of the new Navy, and an Iraqi threat following the first Gulf War. Gandt neverloses focus despite having so much to contemplate. If you like this one, try Punk's War and Punk's Wing by Ward Carroll for similar life and battle stories in the Navy.
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Summary: A Smart and Timely Novel That You Cannot Put Down
Review: Let me start by saying that my brother has been trying to spoon feed me Tom Clancy books for years and I have made it through only 2 earlier works, Clear and Present Danger and Patriot Games, without bogging down in Clancy's ridiculously long passages of technical jargon. Robert Gandt's With Hostile Intent, on the other hand, strikes a satisfying balance between military expertise and technology, geo- and sexual-politics, character development, and most importantly STORY, that sets it apart from Mr. Clancy's Encylopedias. It says something that I read this book cover to cover in one day. This is not to insinuate that Gandt's action-packed novel of aerial combat, and the people and politics that propell its narrative, is lacking in technical and military reality. There are hair-raising moments which show us in detail the technical challeneges of landing a fighter plane on an aircraft carrier. Equally so the considerations pilots make when matching their combat skills to the myriad of hardware they engage. But it is refreshing to learn more about the lives and emotions of the pilots in today's Navy than, say, the electrical wiring of the instrument panels they face. The cast of characters, male and female, American and Iraqi, from the Navy's top fighter pilots to the LSOs that babysit them, are painted with fairness and empathy. I also liked some of the more subtle elements of the book: that we do not immediately know the good guy from the bad guy; that the journalists leftover from the Gulf War are still swaggering around Baghdad causing trouble; and the way Saddam's volcanic temper and viscious rule still resonate through his ranks. A great first book (in a series?) that sets up a hero for more adventures to come. Should be a solid read for any fan of military fiction-- it certainly created a fan of this impatient civilian who normally whets his appetite for a good read among the King and Koontzs, the Bukowskis and Chabons, of the world.
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Summary: A Great Start to a Stellar Series
Review: Naval aviation thrillers aren't just for guys anymore. I'm a twentysomething woman, and a lot of my favorite books have to do with the men and women who fly high-performance jets off of U.S. Navy aircraft carriers.
'With Hostile Intent' is the first book in the Brick Maxwell series. Commander Sam "Brick" Maxwell, USN, is an F/A-18 Hornet pilot who is loathed by his commanding officer "Killer" DeLancey because Brick knows the truth about a kill that Killer claimed to get during the first Gulf War, has a mentor in the ship's CAG (Commander of the Air Group and the highest-ranking pilot aboard) Captain "Red" Boyce, and has to deal with two female pilots joining his squadron, Killer's attempts to get him transferred to shore duty, and the return to his life of his old flame Claire, now a journalist separated from her Australian journalist husband. (Brick was widowed when his wife Debbie died in a space shuttle launching accident.)
Killer is a pain in the six (or tail), but Brick juggles the demands of piloting the Hornet, Killer's rotten attitude, his seesawing emotions about Debbie and Claire, a tragic accident involving his friend and squadronmate Commander Steve "Devo" Davis, and the arrival of the two women pilots, one of whom is hellbent to cause as much trouble as possible and the other of whom just wants to fly Hornets for the Navy.
Brick is a great protagonist and likable hero. He is not infallable and doesn't pretend to be. He makes mistakes and owns up to them, but he's also not afraid to take charge and be accountable for his actions when necessary. The flying sequences are some of the best in-the-cockpit descriptions I've ever read, and they're understandable and make sense to civilian laypersons like myself. The aboard-ship actions and port calls provide just the right counterbalance to the aviation sequences.
And for my fellow romantics, Brick and Claire start to explore future possibilities in this book, and there's nothing rushed or phony about their issues, questions, and hopes.
Being a former naval aviator himself, Mr. Gandt knows whereof he speaks. If you're interested in naval aviation fiction and good, solid storytelling, pick up 'With Hostile Intent.' You won't be disappointed, and you'll be headed back to the store to get the rest of the Brick Maxwell books as soon as possible.
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Summary: A spell-binding, " real-life" account of naval flying...
Review: Robert Gandt takes us into the bowels of the USS Ronald Reagan where some of the ugliest of battles are played out between the best and worst of fellow Naval Aviators. Killer Delancey typifies the hotshot, blowhard pilot who ruthlessly works the promotion system and dares anyone to stand in his way. Spam Parker is like the unwanted, unsolicited piece of e-mail crammed into your mailbox, only she is the Navy's Poster Girl for Political Correctness post -Tailhook and she is not going to let anyone forget it! Gandt sets the stage perfectly for the reader to hate these black hats. An absolutely riveting account of air combat in the Persian Gulf and a behind-the-scenes look at the lives of fighter pilots. The lead-in for #2 in the series is palpable! Can't wait!
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