Rating: 
Summary: More of the same, I'm tired of it.
Review: B-52's converted into Hi-tech stealth attack ships, Tin Man bullet proof body suits with jet boots and electroshock shoulder units, now updated with super strength, wild plots, Dale Brown has it all. I've read several of Brown's books, they all have far out plots and wild ideas for weaponry and this one is no different. This time the gang takes on the new government of Libya, protecting Egypt along the way, it got so silly I couldn't finish it. With a band of people like those working for Skymasters you wouldn't need an army or airforce, just call them in. Maybe that's why the newage/pacifist president ropes them in at the story's end, he finally sees that they're all he needs to save the world. Good for a little light afternoon reading but anything by Tom Clancy is better.
Rating:
Summary: This is Dale Brown...but just
Review: Dale Brown has written another entry in the adventures of Patrick "Muck" MacLachan. This time they are fighting the Libyans with background assistance from Pavel Kazarov, the villian from the previous book.On the positive side, Brown is excellent in describing the action, especially in the air. However, once he lands on the ground and starts in with dialogue, he is in trouble. Foreigners sound like Americans, with American slang and cadence, as opposed to how they really talk. There are also plot points that are so big, you could fly a B-52 through them. Characters seem to appear in various locations like magic, without reliance on reality. Also, Brown kills off a number of recurring characters for no reason and without remorse. Brown is capable of writing better than he does here. I hope his next effort is better.
Rating:
Summary: This is Dale Brown...but just
Review: Dale Brown has written another entry in the adventures of Patrick "Muck" MacLachan. This time they are fighting the Libyans with background assistance from Pavel Kazarov, the villian from the previous book. On the positive side, Brown is excellent in describing the action, especially in the air. However, once he lands on the ground and starts in with dialogue, he is in trouble. Foreigners sound like Americans, with American slang and cadence, as opposed to how they really talk. There are also plot points that are so big, you could fly a B-52 through them. Characters seem to appear in various locations like magic, without reliance on reality. Also, Brown kills off a number of recurring characters for no reason and without remorse. Brown is capable of writing better than he does here. I hope his next effort is better.
Rating: 
Summary: Something(s) to be desired
Review: I have read all of Dale Brown's novels and feel that he has always had a complete mastery of the technological realm of the techno-thriller genre. Having just completed his latest book, Wings of Fire, I am sorry to say that the authors same mastery does not extend to telling a clear, complete story. I was deeply disappointed. The plot development was disjointed, the characters had little depth and the premise was not refective of the current geo-political realities. As well, Mr. Brown needs to find another publisher who does a better job editing. The novel read more like a 3rd draft than a polished, finished product. I can truly state, for the very first time that this was a novel I was anxious to be finished reading. More depth for his characters and less extensive explanation of super-secret techno-speak, wold have made this a MUCH better read.
Rating: 
Summary: thin Brown
Review: In "Wings", Dale Brown's perrenial hero Pat Mclanahan returns to action in Libya. "Wings" follows a virtual series of books starring Mclanahan and his crew of go-anywhere, do-anything-it-takes air warriors. In his last book "Warrior Class", Mclanahan had been involuntarily retired from the air force due to his efforts to nab a power-mad international criminal named Pavel Kazakov. In league with the Russians, Kazakov tried to engineer a war in the Balkans to enhance the profitability of his petroleum, money-laundering and narcotics enterprises. In protective custody in "Wings" Kazakov is nevertheless on a new venture - this one involving a power-mad Libyan who traces his lineage to the pre-Quaddafi regime that ruled Libya. Nobody really believes that Jadalla Zuwayy is really the true king of Libya, but he is treated as if they did - especially the pilots, soldiers and generals who stand poised to invade oil-rich Egypt on his orders. Susan Harris, a beautiful American married to the soon-assassinated Egyptian president, tries every trick she can hold off crazed Zuwayy (Egypt's forces greatly out-strip those of Libya, but the latter possesses a huge supply of neutron bombs that can make everybody losers). The only hope is McLanahan and his crew. Armed with futuristic weapons designed and built by the Skymasters corporation, and assigned clandestinely by a covert organization known as "Nightcrawlers" (and headed by former president Kevin Martindale), Mclanahan goes into battle with next-generation stealth bombers and combat suits likely inspired by Sigourney Weaver's power-loaded from "Aliens". Unfortunately, bad luck strikes - and some of the Nightcrawlers fall prisoner during an ill-fated hunt in Libya for WMD. Trouble is compounded when the survivors find themselves in Egypt, where loyalties are divided. Back in the USA, the Thorn administration struggles with how to respond to the growing unrest in North Africa and with how it will deal with the McLanahan. (The Nightcrawlers may take Uncle Sam's best interest to heart, but they don't take his orders - and they face criminal prosecution for their unauthorized activities; Thorn himself typiefies the opposite of previous administrations - he pulls out all but a shell of US forces from overseas stations, and refuses to commit them anywhere unless foreign leaders can get their own populations to accept their presence). Meanwhile, the Skymasters company struggles to perfect a powerful laser-weapon that can be carried in a refitted B-52 bomber. Their latest secret weapon however proves to be a nine year old girl who knows a thing or two about plasma lasers and parallel universes. A Dale Brown novel is a lot like one of those family get-togethers: you go to these things about once a year, and with some subtle variations, each one is pretty much like the one you survived the year before. We've still got power-mad dogs, craven US politicians, tons of high-tech and some big battles. Although the storyline spills directly from "Warrior Class", "Wings" has fewer than its share of references to older Brown novels. The villains are as unconvincing as ever (idiots who believe their own lies) and speak in the least plausible dialog. The technology seems compelling, but if you really wanted to learn about plasma lasers, would you really make a bee-line for the nearest Dale Brown tome? For the rest of us, Brown's technobabble may remind us that we studied so hard in high-school because we never wanted to hear that kind of droning again. Despite its title, "Wings" may have the least emphasis on what actually happens inside a fighting warplane than any other Brown novel. Instead, Brown concentrates his emphasis on the "Tin Man" battle armor - motorized exo-skeletons that turn individual soldiers into walking tanks. It's an idea that comes at the expense of his interest in military aviation that probably attracted Brown fans to novels like "Flight of the Old Dog" and "Day of the Cheetah", but the new technology is far too exotic to substantiate his story. Instead, "Wings" is thin and unsatisfying.
Rating:
Summary: thin Brown
Review: In "Wings", Dale Brown's perrenial hero Pat Mclanahan returns to action in Libya. "Wings" follows a virtual series of books starring Mclanahan and his crew of go-anywhere, do-anything-it-takes air warriors. In his last book "Warrior Class", Mclanahan had been involuntarily retired from the air force due to his efforts to nab a power-mad international criminal named Pavel Kazakov. In league with the Russians, Kazakov tried to engineer a war in the Balkans to enhance the profitability of his petroleum, money-laundering and narcotics enterprises. In protective custody in "Wings" Kazakov is nevertheless on a new venture - this one involving a power-mad Libyan who traces his lineage to the pre-Quaddafi regime that ruled Libya. Nobody really believes that Jadalla Zuwayy is really the true king of Libya, but he is treated as if they did - especially the pilots, soldiers and generals who stand poised to invade oil-rich Egypt on his orders. Susan Harris, a beautiful American married to the soon-assassinated Egyptian president, tries every trick she can hold off crazed Zuwayy (Egypt's forces greatly out-strip those of Libya, but the latter possesses a huge supply of neutron bombs that can make everybody losers). The only hope is McLanahan and his crew. Armed with futuristic weapons designed and built by the Skymasters corporation, and assigned clandestinely by a covert organization known as "Nightcrawlers" (and headed by former president Kevin Martindale), Mclanahan goes into battle with next-generation stealth bombers and combat suits likely inspired by Sigourney Weaver's power-loaded from "Aliens". Unfortunately, bad luck strikes - and some of the Nightcrawlers fall prisoner during an ill-fated hunt in Libya for WMD. Trouble is compounded when the survivors find themselves in Egypt, where loyalties are divided. Back in the USA, the Thorn administration struggles with how to respond to the growing unrest in North Africa and with how it will deal with the McLanahan. (The Nightcrawlers may take Uncle Sam's best interest to heart, but they don't take his orders - and they face criminal prosecution for their unauthorized activities; Thorn himself typiefies the opposite of previous administrations - he pulls out all but a shell of US forces from overseas stations, and refuses to commit them anywhere unless foreign leaders can get their own populations to accept their presence). Meanwhile, the Skymasters company struggles to perfect a powerful laser-weapon that can be carried in a refitted B-52 bomber. Their latest secret weapon however proves to be a nine year old girl who knows a thing or two about plasma lasers and parallel universes. A Dale Brown novel is a lot like one of those family get-togethers: you go to these things about once a year, and with some subtle variations, each one is pretty much like the one you survived the year before. We've still got power-mad dogs, craven US politicians, tons of high-tech and some big battles. Although the storyline spills directly from "Warrior Class", "Wings" has fewer than its share of references to older Brown novels. The villains are as unconvincing as ever (idiots who believe their own lies) and speak in the least plausible dialog. The technology seems compelling, but if you really wanted to learn about plasma lasers, would you really make a bee-line for the nearest Dale Brown tome? For the rest of us, Brown's technobabble may remind us that we studied so hard in high-school because we never wanted to hear that kind of droning again. Despite its title, "Wings" may have the least emphasis on what actually happens inside a fighting warplane than any other Brown novel. Instead, Brown concentrates his emphasis on the "Tin Man" battle armor - motorized exo-skeletons that turn individual soldiers into walking tanks. It's an idea that comes at the expense of his interest in military aviation that probably attracted Brown fans to novels like "Flight of the Old Dog" and "Day of the Cheetah", but the new technology is far too exotic to substantiate his story. Instead, "Wings" is thin and unsatisfying.
Rating:
Summary: What happened to the real dale Brown?
Review: My suggestion would be for the author (whoever they are) to read flight of the old dog and then this book. I think they would agree their literary ability is no where near the true Dale Brown. There is nothing redeeming in this novel. The story is implausible, the charactors inconsistant, shallow, ridiculous ect. If this is the direction "Dale Brown" is going I don't think many fans will be going along.
Rating: 
Summary: I love Dale Brown!
Review: There are only two authors, with few exceptions, that I buy as soon as they hit the shelves in Hardcover/Trade Paperback(Softcover):Tom Clancy, and Dale Brown.
I love the places, the political intrigue, the characters, and, of course, the technology, that Dale Brown puts in his novels, and Wings Of Fire is no exception.
I especially enjoyed the introduction of Dr. Kelsey Duffield, and I hope we see more of her and more of what her incredible mind can create (and destroy!-lol, just kidding!). Bring the next one on, Dale Brown! Incidentally, i must say i LOVED Storming Heaven, gotta read that one again!
Rating:
Summary: Intrigue, Technology and the Middle East
Review: This was my first Dale Brown book and I am now hooked. He is similar to Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler with his excellent details and how they fit into the story. In this story the Nightstalkers are trying out some of their new battle amour and weapons while helping an oil consortium out. But things go wrong when they go into Libya to look around they find multiple missiles etc... While trying to get out part of the team gets caught behind including Patrick's wife Wendy. They are held and tortured by the "King" of Libya who is a fraud. At the same time you are following a story line about the development of the weapons by Sky Masters Inc. and their newest genius who you have to read about to believe (great addition). There is a third story line about the Egyptian president who is assinated and his wife taking charge and dealing with both the Libyans and the Night Stalkers. If you are looking for a fast paced exciting book this one is for you!
Rating:
Summary: Cornwall,Pa.....Same time.
Review: To restate other reviewers, my opionion of the book was that it was long and convoluted. It is not his best work. It barely makes it to "average" If you need a book for long airport delays, this is the one. If you are looking for gripping suspense and a well connected plot -- this is NOT the book.
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