Rating: 
Summary: Pure Nance
Review: A lot of fiction. A lot of "last minute", hard to believe and unexplained events. Otherwise, good page turner. Could be a good movie, "Airport" style.
Rating: 
Summary: And don¿t call me Shirley
Review: As I read this book, I kept on flipping back to the covers and inside plates to the book review excerpt blurbs for some sign that this was some sort of dark comedy, but nope-it's supposedly a straight thriller. Some other reviewer suggests that there's movie potential for this story, but I'd say only with Leslie Nielsen as one of the pilots. Or if they think he's too old, maybe David Spade, saying; "Buh-bye" to hasten someone's departure from the flight deck. And we can have Mad TV alumna Nicole Sullivan do her Vancome Lady shtick as one of the flight attendants. That would greatly aid this caricature of a troubled airline in the aftermath of 9/11's transition to the big screen. Just don't look for me at the box office, okay? Here we have an airline whose personnel take it out on the passengers, and each other. Like a skipper who makes an undergrad-level crude pass at a senior stew. Like a feud between that same stew and her bitchy crew leader-their enmity goes back to when their respective ranks were reversed and she wrote her later-to-be-boss up. So now that the shoe is on the other foot (and the whip is in the other hand), there's warfare between the two that can't help but spill over onto the passengers. But this can't be a comedy, you say. Look at the passengers, for example. A doctor whose wife died on another flight on this same airline is suing the line but is now stuck by circumstance with having to fly with them this time. A nice young African college student having to fly back to Soweto because he can't raise his mother on the phone and God knows what might have happened to her. A middle-age couple whose daughter in school in Switzerland has been critically injured in a car-versus-truck accident and might not live long enough for her folks to get to her side. Okay, but you're forgetting the passenger who's been asked not to use his cell phone, and just because the flight attendant can't explain the rules against that to his satisfaction, goes the Brat Libertarian route and throws a tantrum--after all, anybody who has rules about anything is by definition Big Brother (both B's capitalized, mind you), I've got my rights, I'm a free American, yuh know, yadda-yadda-yadda. Nance is trying to make a point here, but I'm not sure what that point is. And he comes across in this one a lot like a Robin Cook with wings on his collar rather than a stethoscope. You remember Doc Cook, right? He's always been on a soapbox to some extent, but his story quality has declined gradually over the years to where nowadays you get nothing but polemic. Nance is showing signs of that here, but the good news is that he can learn from Cook's mistake. Troubles with any business's solvency can indeed affect the morale of that business's workforce, an airline as much as any other business. That can indeed manifest itself in said employees' attitudes. But I think Nance is wide of the mark when he blames that for passenger attitudes. Flying isn't all that a passenger ever does--they're people, after all. The cell phone incident is a symptom of a much larger problem. Have you ever noticed the growing tendency of people in the aftermath of 9/11 to get petulant about just about everything they don't agree with. The Attorney General takes steps to bolster security and gets called the "New Heinrich Himmler". No matter which party controls the White House or the Hill, the people who voted for the other party repudiate that government--"those blankety-blanks ain't MY government!"--yadda-yadda-yadda. Most of the loudest voices in that "Poor Me Blues" number are of my Baby Boom generation, and sociologists have some theories about us that make me wince. Since 9/11, I've flown two different carriers, one of which had filed Chapter 11 before I showed up at the gate, and I never had any grief with either of them. And none of my fellow passengers on any of the flights acted up either. Maybe that's because we were adults, not overage adolescents dedicated to rooting out rules so as to defy them. Listen up, Nance--you can't blame the airlines or their recent troubles for "concourse Marxism" in certain of the passenger base--they're that way in more places than at high altitude, dude.
Rating:
Summary: Nailbitting but overdone with detail
Review: I don't want to fly with John Nance, but I can't put his books down once I begin to read one. He knows enough about the frightening events that take place on airplanes or makes up enough new ones to scare a timid soul into taking the bus. In Turbulence, the setting is post 9/11 and Meridian Airlines is dealing with internal problems. Meridian is a mirror image of any airline that flying passengers have been on with poor service, too little space, lack of good information, and passengers traveling with personal problems. Add to the mix a captain who had been a good domestic pilot of super big airplanes
who had bid on an international flight route and was not given enough training on the differences of international and domestic flight. The pilot was insecure and working on an ulcer; the copilot was hostile towards him and trying not to worry about his own problems at home. The lead flight attendant was hostile and hated the passengers she was supposed to be serving. Several passengers with problems of their own had experienced problems with Meridian before takeoff to South Africa. The delay is long and uncomfortable with no acceptable explanation.
During the flight the pilot mistakes a mechanical signal for an engine fire and lands in the middle of a civil war in Nigeria. With no confidence in the pilot, the passengers revolt in a rage, the lead flight atttendant hides in the cockpit, and the plane moving through the skies becomes a threat to the controllers on the ground who have no idea what is actually going on inside the plane. The suspense is almost unbearable. Read the book, but not on a trip that involves waiting in airports, boarding airplanes, or sitting close to people that are strangers.
Rating: 
Summary: Road Rage at a new Altitude
Review: I don't want to fly with John Nance, but I can't put his books down once I begin to read one. He knows enough about the frightening events that take place on airplanes or makes up enough new ones to scare a timid soul into taking the bus. In Turbulence, the setting is post 9/11 and Meridian Airlines is dealing with internal problems. Meridian is a mirror image of any airline that flying passengers have been on with poor service, too little space, lack of good information, and passengers traveling with personal problems. Add to the mix a captain who had been a good domestic pilot of super big airplanes
who had bid on an international flight route and was not given enough training on the differences of international and domestic flight. The pilot was insecure and working on an ulcer; the copilot was hostile towards him and trying not to worry about his own problems at home. The lead flight attendant was hostile and hated the passengers she was supposed to be serving. Several passengers with problems of their own had experienced problems with Meridian before takeoff to South Africa. The delay is long and uncomfortable with no acceptable explanation.
During the flight the pilot mistakes a mechanical signal for an engine fire and lands in the middle of a civil war in Nigeria. With no confidence in the pilot, the passengers revolt in a rage, the lead flight atttendant hides in the cockpit, and the plane moving through the skies becomes a threat to the controllers on the ground who have no idea what is actually going on inside the plane. The suspense is almost unbearable. Read the book, but not on a trip that involves waiting in airports, boarding airplanes, or sitting close to people that are strangers.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Nance Novel I've Read
Review: I have finally faced the fact that a Nance novel can't be put down, and so I plan a special day for one. My "Turbulence" day was great - and, like the rest of his novels, I was captured. He taps that fear of being trapped five miles above the earth with no way out except a safe landing. Most of his plots involve political intrigue or seriously disturbed crews. Turbulence, however, hits very close to home for anyone who has recently flown on "Cattle Chute Airways" (and there is a lot us). Customer neglect and now the stress of terrorist fears, pack airplanes with passengers on the dangerous edge of revolt. Nance crams his plane with believable characters and builds the story to a gripping peak. Turbulence carries a definite message. It is like Blind Trust (Nance's nonfiction book about air safety) but in a very pleasant tasting pill. I hope that airline operators and passengers get the message. This experience is much more pleasant as a novel.
Rating:
Summary: A great read with a strong message to the airlines
Review: I have read all of John Nance's novels and several of his nonfiction books. This is my favorite novel by Nance. Like all his novels I was unable to put it down. I have learned to set aside and entire day to reading one of his books. In this book Nance not only did his normal incredible job of making you feel like you are actually in the cockpit, but he also did a wonderful job of showing how bad some airlines are treating the flying public. Nance is an airline captain for a major airline and I applaud his clear descriptions of how badly the flying consumer is often treated. While this book is fiction it deals with a real problem - air rage. Air rage is a real and frightening problem that is only going to increase as the airlines continue to overcrowd us and hire poorly training personnel. In this exciting story Nance shows us a realistic portrayal of humans caught in a failing greedy corporate system. As a human factors professional, private pilot, and a person that loves a good story based on facts I highly recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: This book should be grounded!
Review: I have read all of John Nance's previous books and enjoyed each of them. This one breaks the string. The Meridean Airlines that is fashioned by the author is such a dysfunctional company and many of the people that work for it are so screwed up that the concept which is being put forth simply has no credability. The story is fashioned around Flight Six of Meridean which starts in Chicago and is flying to Johannesburg, South Africa, with a stop over in London. You have the usual personal stories which make up any flight, but to spice things up once the flight gets to London, we have a Chief Flight Attendant that is a certified lunatic and the Captain of the flight is insecure, overbearing and only marginally comppetant to handle an international route. Of course getting to London was a small hoprror show of it's own, so that by the time the flight finally gets there, you have all of the ingredients among the passengers for "air rage." There is a sub-plot to the book where the US Government has determined that terrorists are planning to take over an international flight using air rage as their motivator and will then deliver the plane as a weapon to some European country. The detailing of this part of the story is somewhat tedious. Well, as luck would have it, Meridean Six manages to blunder its way into becoming the scenario that everyone is afraid of and US Navy Tom Cats are dispatched to verify that the plane is being flown by highjackers and to shoot it down if it will not change course to a base in Algiers. This part of the book is the only part where Nance dredges up his considerable writing skill and puts together a fairly interesting few chapters. That effort is far too late and far to little to save this book. As a private pilot who enjoys books on aviation I was sorely disappointed by this one and suggest that there are better books out there to spend your money on.
Rating:
Summary: So much for subtlety
Review: In his zest to make the airline in this book as detestable as possible, Nance has fashioned a company that is so universally infuriating that he destroys any believeability in this novel. I fly relatively often and have seen poor airline behavior, but the consistency of the antipathy towards passengers and between employees that Nance describes is just ridiculous and completely uncredible. This novel would have been less heavy handed in its approach to the airline, then it would have been less humorous and more foreboding.
Rating:
Summary: So much for subtlety
Review: In his zest to make the airline in this book as detestable as possible, Nance has fashioned a company that is so universally infuriating that he destroys any believeability in this novel. I fly relatively often and have seen poor airline behavior, but the consistency of the antipathy towards passengers and between employees that Nance describes is just ridiculous and completely uncredible. This novel would have been less heavy handed in its approach to the airline, then it would have been less humorous and more foreboding.
Rating: 
Summary: Talk about miscommunication!
Review: In the fashion of other John J. Nance novels, this one keeps you turning pages. "Turbulence" is an exciting adventure that takes place on an airplane of Meridian Airlines. The flight attendants are contemplating strike, the customer service agent hates passengers, Meridian, and his job, while the pilots seem to be lacking in sufficient training. There are many angry people within the pages. In "Turbulence", both the action and the inaction of various characters in the story brings about bizarre and dangerous interpretations by other of the story's characters. Incredible danger aboard an already malfunctioning airline is the result of such far-fetched translations. Not only is the cockpit crew lacking in qualities usually attributed to those flying passenger airplanes, but this flight has a "nurse Rachet"(from Ken Keysey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest") as the head flight attendant. Add some terrorists, paranoia and undisciplined behavior from disgruntled passengers and you have "Turbulence". Nance's novels are quick to read because you don't want to put them down and "Turbulence" follows suit in this respect.
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