Battle Born (Random House Large Print)

Rating:
Summary: TENSION FILLED READING
Review: For those who like their thrills laced with military action here is vintage Dale Brown. A former U.S. Air Force Captain who knows his subject well, Brown is recognized for his adroit delivery. Reprising his hero in former works, Patrick McLanahan, the author puts him in the thick of it immediately - leading a squadron of B-1 bombers into combat over Korea.

The fragile Asian peace has been placed in jeopardy. Descriptions of weaponry and flying tactics abound, as is routine for Brown. If techno-thrillers are your meat - here's a hearty helping. Reader Purdham is especially convincing in relating an aerial dogfight - he renders the melee succinctly and suspensefully.

- Gail Cooke

Rating:
Summary: Armegeddon as Soap Opera
Review: If you prefer your tales of blood and slaughter served up with plenty of jaw-jutting angst, this book is for you. Dale Brown is to be saluted for getting this into print. I wouldn't publish it. The heros are monodimensionally combative with everyone, even each other. There's plenty of bombastic machismo dialogue. Still, the audio version is great for washing dishes. You can miss whole chapters while vacuuming and still follow the plot. And we get to focus on radio-transimitting microchips while thousands fry as the tactical nuclear weapons fly. Doesn't get any better than this for dissassociated mayhem. But hey, I listened to all of it, didn't I?

Rating:
Summary: "Battle Born" - Flight of the NEW Dog!
Review: Unlike some, I wasn't too disappointed with Dale Brown's last book, "The Tin Man", I kind of enjoyed it in a Robocop kind of way. Besides, Dale showed guts in trying something different.

But now "Battle Born". This is what I've been waiting for. Fast paced, fast flying, missiles firing action of the sort that Brown does best. While I'm not going to say if this is his best book yet (I'll have to re-read the previous 11 books and decide), it will grip you, haul you in and refuse to let you put it down until you finish the last page. The politics are not too far-fetched, the technology may well exist already and his characterisations are as good as ever. This book could be seen as a true sequel to Flight of The Old Dog, finally retiring the EB-52 with the introduction of the... nah, you'll have to read it to find out. When's the next one coming out? If it's better than "Battle Born", Amazon better change its top rating to TEN stars.