Firebreak

Rating:
Summary: The best aviation fiction book I have ever read
Review: I came to like technothrillers after reading Tom Clancy's early novels, and for years I tried to find an aviation equivalent of what Tom Clancy had done with submarine warfare.I came across Firebreak by chance, bought it because I liked the cover of the British edition, and after starting it I really felt like I was discovering a new kind of novel, a feeling I had only had before with Tom Clancy's early works. The first part of Firebreak is a spying story not unlike that of a ( good ) James Bond novel, and the second part is political and military fiction at its best, with the description of an all-out war in the Middle East that is chilling in its accuracy. Suspense is skilfully created and maintained and some real facts are cleverly used ( e.g. the F15 Eagle still flying with most of one wing torn off, a fact that really happened to an Israeli aircraft, although McDonnellDouglas engineers would not believe it when they first heard of it). I only regret that Levi's luck did not last until the end, but I presume the author wanted to respect the laws of tragedy. It is rare to see an author with both the military background and the imagination of a born novelist.

Rating:
Summary: Kept me up until 3:00am on a worknight
Review: I'm an active duty military officer and I haven't found anyone as technically on the mark as Herman. He sets the standard. He develops great characters with human frailties--but don't get too attached to any of them. A master story teller! This book is best if you read Warbirds and Force of Eagles (in that order) first.

Rating:
Summary: A realistic view of a possible Middle-East scenario
Review: In the footsteps of his previous novels The Warbirds and Force of Eagles, it shows formerly irresponsible pilot Jack Locke in command of a squadron in the 45th with the grandson of the President under his command. This book shows how Matt Pontowski changed from a spoiled grandson to a top-notch fighter pilot with confirmed kills in combatOne thing about Herman that happens quite often, is that he seems to kill off his characters prematurely, such in the case of Col. Waters, Thunder Bryant, and in this book, Jack Locke and Mike Martin. However, this "aura" of death serves as a prod for the upcoming officers to prove their worth. Some do, and some don't. The former fighter pilot certainly writes a great book, one that is worth reading over and over without losing any of its impact.

Rating:
Summary: This is realistic? One star is too good for this trash!
Review: Israel is under siege (again) in "Firebreak" by USAF Veteran Richard Herman. While armies and fighter planes converge on Israel, both Israel's and America's leadership grapple around like blind men, and opportunists on overy side use every subtle (and not so subtle) trick to turn things their way. Author Richard Herman is supposed to be an expert on military aviation, but he may be out of his league when he goes into the political sphere (actually, few of the political machinations in "Firebreak" are subtle), and when he goes into combat flight mode - supposedly his expert area - Herman creates flight scenes to anemic to remind readers of the high-speed knife-fights that first aroused their interest in air combat.

In between the combat, Herman shows a less-than-deft approach to Israeli politics. USAF pilots, well educated as they are, usually have their own opinions about such subjects as Israel's occupation of the West Bank and the settlements erected there - but Herman's protagonist is conveneiently clueless, and the readers can take heart that a sultry Israeli love interest is on hand to explain the UN resolutions against the Settlements while arab bombs rain down from above. The Knesset scenes, where charachteristically litiguous Isreali politicians censure each other for believing their own propaganda, is probably accurate. Less so are scenes meant to depict life in typical Israeli combat units. One such unit, a tank platoon, contains a Druze arab and an orthodox jew, the latter of the two doesn't really do anything but annoy his commander. Because the orthodox doesn't really exist outside his CO's negative perspective, he comes across less as a separate charachter than a blank apparently intended to symbolize all orthodox jewish soldiers. Let those orthodox jews who serve extended military tours debate the accuracy - it's simply poor writing, the product of any writer who can push just about anything with his miltary credentials, no matter how unrelated to his area of actual expertise. Doubtless orthodox soldiers still unaccounted for in the Lebanon war weren't given copies of "Firebreak" to enliven their captivity (assuming they lived long enough for the paperback ed.)

Worst of all, Herman's Israeli protagonist is the sexy Israeli linked up with the novel's hero. When are writers going to wise-up and realize how dated this stereotype is? This has to be the 3rd book I've read since the Gulf war that featured Israelis exploiting sex. Desert Storm, which showed how far ahead our military is in just about every way, has also revealed the how medeival technothriller writers are. Herman's understanding of the mid-east clearly neglects how often real-life anti-zionists (whether Islamic fundamentalist or secular pan-arabist) fall back on the stereotype of Female Mossad agents seducing otherwise stalwart arabs into sedition. So dated is this stereotype that, were Herman's military units comparably equipped, they'd be fighting with slingshots and pointy sticks.

Instead, Herman applies his critical thinking to his command of military technology, but even here comes up flat. These have to be the flattest flight scenes of any technothriller - comparable to some circa-1991 flight simulator. As usual for this sort of book, the plane come off feeling less like soaring engines of military might than cheap plastic models. Ofcourse the author refuses to depict air-to-air confrontations from a single point-of-view, preferring instead to show where his planes are at all times. In real air combat, the relative positions of different planes is one of the single most important factors. Herman's inability to exploit this element robs his air combat of both drama and realism, marring a book with little credibility to recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent character development
Review: This is one for aircraft nuts and techno-thriller fans alike. Seeing as I've almost finished reding all of Dale Brown's airborne adventures, I was glad to discover Richard Herman! This is a superb Middle East-based thriller with a consistent, flowing storyline and some believable and well created characters. When Iraq builds a nerve gas missile arsenal and Israel threatens to go nuclear, Washington politicians are too consumed by their pettiness and backstabbing to do anything until it's too late . . . so it's up to the Presiden't grandson, Matt Pontowski, a boyish, wild air force flight lieutenant to provide intelligience on behalf of the Israelis, with the help of an attractive Mossad agent, Shoshana Tamir, to prove to the US that the Arabs are indeed whipping up holy war fever. Since this book was written, Iraq has indeed been recently experimenting with nerve agents and Israel did actually threaten to retaliate with nukes . . . proving that Herman had his finger on the pulse! A very well-written novel indeed.Spectacular flying and ground combat scenes, interesting locales(Spain, Israel, Iraq, Syria) prominent and a swift, flowing and suspenseful pace. All the technical terms are well explained too for non-military readers. Altogether, highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Shame I can't go below 1 star
Review: Well, start off with very flat stereotypically characters: Brave dashing American Hero (hot pilot low responsibility), Toss in some evil Arabs (chemical warfare types), some brave Zionists (protecting their country), even a sexy female spy (only there for the love interest and honey trap). Now mix this well with a scene stolen right from TopGun, a tragic flight accident to turn our hero around by interfacing him with a experienced legend.

This book is the typical formula that that was old after Clancy's first book - it is looking no better with age. So, we have nothing new - but the death of many trees. It is a sad thing that this type of book gets published when there are probably much better books just waiting.