Rating: 
Summary: Combat #3-Good War Stories!
Review: Combat #3 offered up four good stories by four good authors.
The first story was written by Harold Coyle.He told of a special Army unit made up of cyber warriors. They are recruited to combat the growing attacks by hackers whocause online terrorism around the world. The next story is by Ralph Peters. His story takes place in the Balkan states. A U.S. Army observer is taken hostage by the people he is sent over to observe.James Cobb tells of a U.S. calvary unit that does combat with an Algerian recon division that is attempting to attack a helpless African country.R.J. Pineiro,one of the rising stars among today's authors tells of a Russian terrorist seizes a space station
equipped with nuclear warheads.It is up to Marine Diane Williams to stop him.Four good stories for the price of one. Read this. You will enjoy it.
Rating: 
Summary: Combat is a great concept with great authors
Review: Coonts, Brown, Coyle, Hagberg have long been favorites of mine. In Combat I got the chance to visit each of them and to gain some new favorites as well. If a full novel by any of these authors is a complex seven course meal with the 'right' wine, the concept of this smorgasbord with its varied tastes is a delight to the mind as the buffet is to the palate.I would never want these authors to abandon their full-flavored works with complex plots and characters. However, the approach of Combat i.e., giving us a taste of each with a straight-forward, unity story line is a REAL treat. I hope that these fine authors enjoyed the exercise in writing and mixing these novellas. Beyond the creative process, they each added to their fans club introducing themselves to the admirers of the others. Let's hope there are more anthologies of this kind in the future. The NEAR future. GOOD JOB, GUYS. Put me down for release date delivery of any redux of the concept.
Rating: 
Summary: 2 Direct Hits and 1 Huge Miss...Groundbreaking? Hardly
Review: Few books live up to the hyperbole of their backcovers. The first installment of the Combat series edited by Stephen Coontz is no exception, "Groundbreaking Landmark" sounded suspicious...and the first story in the first volume, by Larry Bond, confirmed my suspicions. A huge fan of Bond's first novel, Red Phoenix, I've never been very satisfied with his subsequent material. This is probably the worst I've seen from him. A plot that's hardly engaging, card-board characters (with cheesy dialogue) that aren't the least bit interesting, and some of the poorest editing I've ever seen combine to make his installment a chore. At one point he refers Vietnamese flashpoints between the U.S. and China (that have no bearing on the story's plot) but offers no set up for them. We're just supposed to assume that the U.S. and China had been at odds over Vietnam for a long time...it made no sense. Bond's contribution was just dull dull dull. Then we get to Dale Brown's installment, "Leadership Material". This one succeeds in many places where Bond's installment failed. Its characters are instantly likable. And, while the combat passages are brief, they are harrowing. I found the shennanigans that surround Air Force promotions boards (the primary plot devise herein) to be extremely entertaining - I doubt many others will, though - I'm going up against a board soon myself, it was nice to have an inside scoop. The back cover of the book suggests it portrays war the way it is or soon will be. Brown's novel takes place back in the early 1990's...another strike against the jacket hype. Great story, though. The story that will have the broadest appeal (its an absorbing read!) is the entry from the always-reliable David Hagberg. Hagberg (who recently wrote the novelization of the Terminator 3 film) has made a name for himself over recent years penning submarine thrillers. The brief installment in this series is part submarine plot and part espionage thriller. It may not be the most accurate but it is by far the most entertaining of the lot. Brown's and Hagberg's work here are worth 4 or 5 stars. Bond's installment and the ludicrous hyperbole on the cover knock it down to three. I'd recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: 2 Direct Hits and 1 Huge Miss...Groundbreaking? Hardly
Review: Few books live up to the hyperbole of their backcovers. The first installment of the Combat series edited by Stephen Coontz is no exception, "Groundbreaking Landmark" sounded suspicious...and the first story in the first volume, by Larry Bond, confirmed my suspicions. A huge fan of Bond's first novel, Red Phoenix, I've never been very satisfied with his subsequent material. This is probably the worst I've seen from him. A plot that's hardly engaging, card-board characters (with cheesy dialogue) that aren't the least bit interesting, and some of the poorest editing I've ever seen combine to make his installment a chore. At one point he refers Vietnamese flashpoints between the U.S. and China (that have no bearing on the story's plot) but offers no set up for them. We're just supposed to assume that the U.S. and China had been at odds over Vietnam for a long time...it made no sense. Bond's contribution was just dull dull dull. Then we get to Dale Brown's installment, "Leadership Material". This one succeeds in many places where Bond's installment failed. Its characters are instantly likable. And, while the combat passages are brief, they are harrowing. I found the shennanigans that surround Air Force promotions boards (the primary plot devise herein) to be extremely entertaining - I doubt many others will, though - I'm going up against a board soon myself, it was nice to have an inside scoop. The back cover of the book suggests it portrays war the way it is or soon will be. Brown's novel takes place back in the early 1990's...another strike against the jacket hype. Great story, though. The story that will have the broadest appeal (its an absorbing read!) is the entry from the always-reliable David Hagberg. Hagberg (who recently wrote the novelization of the Terminator 3 film) has made a name for himself over recent years penning submarine thrillers. The brief installment in this series is part submarine plot and part espionage thriller. It may not be the most accurate but it is by far the most entertaining of the lot. Brown's and Hagberg's work here are worth 4 or 5 stars. Bond's installment and the ludicrous hyperbole on the cover knock it down to three. I'd recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: 2 Direct Hits and 1 Huge Miss...Groundbreaking? Hardly
Review: Few books live up to the hyperbole of their backcovers. The first installment of the Combat series edited by Stephen Coontz is no exception, "Groundbreaking Landmark" sounded suspicious...and the first story in the first volume, by Larry Bond, confirmed my suspicions. A huge fan of Bond's first novel, Red Phoenix, I've never been very satisfied with his subsequent material. This is probably the worst I've seen from him. A plot that's hardly engaging, card-board characters (with cheesy dialogue) that aren't the least bit interesting, and some of the poorest editing I've ever seen combine to make his installment a chore. At one point he refers Vietnamese flashpoints between the U.S. and China (that have no bearing on the story's plot) but offers no set up for them. We're just supposed to assume that the U.S. and China had been at odds over Vietnam for a long time...it made no sense. Bond's contribution was just dull dull dull. Then we get to Dale Brown's installment, "Leadership Material". This one succeeds in many places where Bond's installment failed. Its characters are instantly likable. And, while the combat passages are brief, they are harrowing. I found the shennanigans that surround Air Force promotions boards (the primary plot devise herein) to be extremely entertaining - I doubt many others will, though - I'm going up against a board soon myself, it was nice to have an inside scoop. The back cover of the book suggests it portrays war the way it is or soon will be. Brown's novel takes place back in the early 1990's...another strike against the jacket hype. Great story, though. The story that will have the broadest appeal (its an absorbing read!) is the entry from the always-reliable David Hagberg. Hagberg (who recently wrote the novelization of the Terminator 3 film) has made a name for himself over recent years penning submarine thrillers. The brief installment in this series is part submarine plot and part espionage thriller. It may not be the most accurate but it is by far the most entertaining of the lot. Brown's and Hagberg's work here are worth 4 or 5 stars. Bond's installment and the ludicrous hyperbole on the cover knock it down to three. I'd recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome Stories...
Review: I am an avid reader of the techno-thriller. I enjoy diving into the details usual to this type of novel, and not coming up for air for hours. I purchased the paper-back collection of stories at the airport to pass the time while traveling. With two preschoolers however, I quickly found out that no reading would be done on the flight. However, at the pool and the beach while the kids played in the sand and the water, this collection of stories was PERFECT. I could put it down and pick it up a million times and not lose one tidbit of suspense.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome Stories...
Review: I am an avid reader of the techno-thriller. I enjoy diving into the details usual to this type of novel, and not coming up for air for hours. I purchased the paper-back collection of stories at the airport to pass the time while traveling. With two preschoolers however, I quickly found out that no reading would be done on the flight. However, at the pool and the beach while the kids played in the sand and the water, this collection of stories was PERFECT. I could put it down and pick it up a million times and not lose one tidbit of suspense.
Rating:
Summary: wow! this book is very good.
Review: I am doing a book called COMBAT the book is about the US.ARMY trying to capture hackers that are bad than ther is chapter 2 it is called THERE IS NO WAR IN MELNICA and i think that is the best chapter because it is easy and very good.I recommend this book to people that no how to read very good.That is the book that i recommend.
Rating:
Summary: One lemon and three peaches
Review: I picked this book up from an airport bookstall to while away a transatlantic flight, and came very close indeed to binning it after a dozen pages. What a shame that the editor should have put Harold Coyle's "Cyberknights" first of the four short stories in this collection. The other three are fine, but Coyle - although I hate to say it - has lost his bearings. "Cyberknights" has a promising theme: a special team of hackers is recruited by the US Army to defend against hostile hackers from other countries. Working closely with real soldiers and agencies like the NSA, these "Cyberknights" (yes, the pompous title is capitalised every time) also strike back against the countries they *think* are encouraging hostile activities. In the story, they respond to a hack that nearly splashes a flight of F16 fighter jets into the ocean by changing their flight orders "in the computer". (What computer this is, and why the USAF would be stupid enough to link it to the Internet, is not explained). The Cyberknights' response? They engineer the destruction of a chemical plant in the supposed aggressor country.
Apart from being ethically dubious to say the least, the Cyberknights are ludicrous to anyone who knows the first thing about computer security. When counterattacking a hacker's PC, they see fit to upload a huge coloured picture of a charging knight - just to give warning of their intentions. It is clear that Coyle knows little about computers and the Internet, and he has made the mistake of assuming his readers know even less.
"There is no war in Melnica" by Ralph Peters could not be more different. Instead of florid, pretentious fantasies supported by inadequate research, this is a simple, poignant vignette of the NATO intervention in the Balkans and its aftermath. Right from its opening words - "The workman tossed him a skull" - Peters grabs your attention and doesn't let go. With admirable economy of words, he shows you the senselessness of war, the impossibility of identifying the "good" (our allies) from the "bad" (our enemies), and the unbridgeable gulf between those who have been there and the distant politicians and brass who set events in motion without any idea of the consequences - even in retrospect.
James Cobb's "Cav" is a tightly-written, exciting example of a genre in which Coyle ("Team Yankee", "Bright Star") and Peters ("Red Army" and "The War in 2020") have excelled. In 2021 the Islamic Republic of Algeria launches a Blitzkrieg invasion of its southern neighbour Mali, one of the poorest nations on earth. While heavy US and French forces are on the way, a small US Army detachment is sent to head off the Algerian armoured column, if possible, at the only pass through the strategic El Khnachich range of hills. It is a perfect scenario: the superior American equipment (with the advantage of surprise) is pitted against overwhelming force.
R J Pineiro's "Flight of Endeavour" is the longest of the four stories, at 130 pages - but there is no danger of getting bored. What if the International Space Station housed, at the request of the UN, an array of 15 kiloton yield non-nuclear missiles for "anti-terrorist" purposes - and a terrorist happened to seize control of them? A female astronaut and a heavily armed team of Marines go up in a modified Space Shuttle to reclaim the weapons. Unfortunately, the space station is also equipped with a powerful chemical laser... It's a thrilling, thought-provoking situation, none the worse for having been anticipated by 50 years in Robert Heinlein's classic short story "The Long Watch" (1949).
Apart from "CyberKnights", this book is well written, exciting, and ideal for the purpose I had in mind - distraction during a long flight. It also gave me some great ideas, and Peters' story explained more about the Balkans to me than ten years of news reports. Recommended - if you don't like the Coyle story, just skip it and read the rest.
Rating:
Summary: "Solid, Short Stories In Combat #1"
Review: Not a single story here disappointed. To me, Dale Brown's "Leadership Material" was the best of the three. Loved how he intertwined the different personalities of Col. Norman and Major McLanahan. Norman, an Air Force accountant assigned to a promotion board, feels an outcast in the pilot-dominated world of the Air Force. Now his prejudices are coming out as he grades candidates for promotion from Major to Lt. Colonel. One of the the files he comes across is McLanahan's. On paper, he feels Mac is so woeful he should be thrown out of the USAF. But on the other side of the world, as the Gulf War winds down, McLanahan shows his skills and bravery as the Old Dog crew must stop an suped-up, stealthy Tu-160 Iranian bomber from sinking a US carrier. "Lash-up" by Larry Bond was a pretty good story. Character development was decent. The interesting part was seeing how a newly formed group must overcome bureaucracy to come up with a space plane to neutralize a Chinese ASAT system destroying the GPS satellite network. Really enjoyed the David Hagberg story "Breaking Point" where CIA DDO Kirk McGarvey must prevent an all-out war between China and Taiwan. Nice drama as McGarvey infiltrates Taiwan. Loved the captain of the Chinese Han-class sub. Very crafty guy with zero tolerance for mistakes who tries to foil America's plan.
| 
