Black Rain For Christmas - Illustrated 2nd Edition

Rating:
Summary: A great novel for a new era of post Cold War thrillers.
Review: I really enjoyed this book. I love the mix of historic facts and people, and how they were tied into the storyline. The story of the young Marine Lieutenant really stood out to me. I really think that Clancy can get a run for his money from this author. Looking forward to more from him!

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and engrossing!
Review: This book was excellent! Mr. Malensek's book was an outstanding read. I found it every bit as entertaining and as much a "techno-thriller" as a Tom Clancy novel, but WITHOUT the annoying liberal-bashing and Ronald Regan worship that Mr. Clancy can't seem to keep away from lately. I found this to be refreshing. I literally could not put this book down. The diary style of narration, along with the "news clippings" really held my interest, and made it more fun to read. With the current events in the news of late, this book is starting to look frighteningly real. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys military fiction! I am looking forward to reading "The Xmas War" next.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and engrossing!
Review: This book was excellent! Mr. Malensek's book was an outstanding read. I found it every bit as entertaining and as much a "techno-thriller" as a Tom Clancy novel, but WITHOUT the annoying liberal-bashing and Ronald Regan worship that Mr. Clancy can't seem to keep away from lately. I found this to be refreshing. I literally could not put this book down. The diary style of narration, along with the "news clippings" really held my interest, and made it more fun to read. With the current events in the news of late, this book is starting to look frighteningly real. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys military fiction! I am looking forward to reading "The Xmas War" next.

Rating:
Summary: Liked The Story But Had Trouble With The Book
Review: This is an interesting entry in the military techno-thriller genre. The story focuses on a high-intensity Asian land war in 2011. The conflict made sense at the strategic and tactical levels, at least most of the time. The combat scenarios were exciting and apparently honed with war gaming (Harpoon perhaps?). Black Rain gripped me firmly enough that I stayed up waaaay too late one night to finish it. Now the bad news. Mr. Malensek's got a great imagination but the book was pretty badly written. I winced at howlingly obvious spelling and word usage errors just about every page. Black Rain badly needed a decent editor. Hire a good one before the 3rd edition! IMHO, the book should lose the illustrations too. They're just grainy little thumbnails of generic DOD photos of troopers, ships and jets.

Rating:
Summary: Liked The Story But Had Trouble With The Book
Review: This is an interesting entry in the military techno-thriller genre. The story focuses on a high-intensity Asian land war in 2011. The conflict made sense at the strategic and tactical levels, at least most of the time. The combat scenarios were exciting and apparently honed with war gaming (Harpoon perhaps?). Black Rain gripped me firmly enough that I stayed up waaaay too late one night to finish it. Now the bad news. Mr. Malensek's got a great imagination but the book was pretty badly written. I winced at howlingly obvious spelling and word usage errors just about every page. Black Rain badly needed a decent editor. Hire a good one before the 3rd edition! IMHO, the book should lose the illustrations too. They're just grainy little thumbnails of generic DOD photos of troopers, ships and jets.

Rating:
Summary: All too realistic
Review: This is an unusual work of fiction. Most of the story is told through diaries and newspaper articles. There's some narrative, but only for the antagonist. I can't believe how accurately Malensek has viewed some of today's headlines. The antagonist is a corrupt businessman ala ENRON, Adelphia, Worldcomm, and all of the other Wall Street scam artists of today. The flashpoint of the war is North Korea, and the events that lead up to the confrontation are on TV today-as I'm writing this. There are plenty of topical issues presented, but the format allowed the author to show certain situations without cramming his opinion down my throat. Underage drinking, women in the frontline units, drug use, leadership vs. management, defense spending vs. domestic spending, and the list goes on and on. I really liked this book-mostly because it was extremely realistic, accurate, and wasn't your typical right-wing warmonger book. It might satistfy those people too, but the format made it real enough for people like me to enjoy also. I think it's one of the best books that I've read all year.

Rating:
Summary: All too realistic
Review: This is an unusual work of fiction. Most of the story is told through diaries and newspaper articles. There's some narrative, but only for the antagonist. I can't believe how accurately Malensek has viewed some of today's headlines. The antagonist is a corrupt businessman ala ENRON, Adelphia, Worldcomm, and all of the other Wall Street scam artists of today. The flashpoint of the war is North Korea, and the events that lead up to the confrontation are on TV today-as I'm writing this. There are plenty of topical issues presented, but the format allowed the author to show certain situations without cramming his opinion down my throat. Underage drinking, women in the frontline units, drug use, leadership vs. management, defense spending vs. domestic spending, and the list goes on and on. I really liked this book-mostly because it was extremely realistic, accurate, and wasn't your typical right-wing warmonger book. It might satistfy those people too, but the format made it real enough for people like me to enjoy also. I think it's one of the best books that I've read all year.