Gordon Kent (1)

Damage Control is the 6th book in the Alan Craik series, and far and away the best, beating out even Top Hook which prior to this I regarded as the best book in the series. From the opening pages this book is action filled and gripping dealing with an organised group of Hindu environmentalist fanatics who have there eyes on starting an apocalypse in order to save the earth from humankind's destructive ways.

This group manages to perform a successful mutiny and slink away with not only a Kilo class submarine, but numerous Indian naval destroyers. When the mutinied submarine is spotted by an out of place and unexpected US Navy aeroplane they shoot it down then launch an attack on a nearby US aircraft carrier to cover up their actions and keep the US Navy out of action.

Intermingled is a few interesting subplots that provide further character development in the series such as where we see Mike Dukas's character develop further with Leslie, long time support character Rafe steps once again into a pivotal role in the plot. A slimy and unlikable political animal within the Admiral's flag agitates for personal gain and we find out more of Harry O'Neill's background and some of the reasons he was able to go from retired CIA agent to powerful security consultant.

All in all, it's an excellent action filled narrative that doesn't stray far into the absurd but rather keeps to a rather realistic portray of events utilising military technology, systems and techniques of the time it was written (2005)… (mais)

Force Protection continues on from Hostile Contact, this time around Alan, Mike, Rose, Dick & Harry are drawn into a suspected Islamic terrorist attack when a dhow (traditional Arab sailing vessel) filled with explosives powers into the side of a US Navy merchant ship killing a visiting Admiral and numerous sailors as well as disabling the ship in the Kenyan port it is visiting. Simultaneously a riot starts in the nearby Kenyan town destabilising the region and causing a violent response from the Kenyan National Police.

An explosion later targets a US Aid office in Cairo and a naval officer is tortured and murdered, a systematic web of terrorism appears to be targeting US interests in the region and Alan & Mike are at the forefront of the investigation.

As far as excitement goes it's better than Peacemaker but not quite on par with Top Hook, the bulk of the book is pretty good leading to an excellent closing however I did feel that it lacked the enthrallment that Top Hook had. This may be due to the plot which doesn't quite hold up to the prior books level of realism and is kind of a bit left field and could almost be interchanged with practically anything and not really affect the story too much. The instigating factors of the plot are almost secondary to the actual unfolding of it.

All that said, it's still an interesting and entertaining read.… (mais)

In Hostile Contact the story picks up directly where Top Hook left off, in this chapter we see the resolution of the Ray Suter story line and the continued fall out from the actions of George Shreed.

Alan Craig & Mike Dukas attempt to decipher a investigation file that has been foisted on them by the CIA, which appears to have been seeded with bait material that draws them into a meeting which is... a 'Hostile Contact' hey hey. The title also comes into play later in the novel when the carrier battlegroup Alan's detactment is a part of has hostile contact with Chinese & Chinese backed actors.

The novel itself is quite good, it does not suffer from the flaws evident is Peacemaker and with Top Hook having done the lead in work it pretty much launches into the story line with little delay, although there is a little lead in with the introduction of Jerry Piat, and some other tertiary characters that are relevant to this books plot.

Pretty good, climactic ending, bit of feel-good subplot wrap up for some of the Navy men and the reader also gets some satisfaction with the outcome of some of the seedier character's subplots.… (mais)

Top Hook thankfully does not suffer from the same extraordinarily dull and prolonged start (that took almost half the book to get going) as Peacemaker did. Rather within 50-70 pages the story manages to find it legs and begin jogging forwards gaining momentum towards a rather gripping tail end that has you glued to the pages to find out how things will unravel.

The ending is good winding up the subplots for the most part and leaving open plenty of room to continue the larger story arc without trimming this books plot short and abruptly as some books suffer from. My only complaint is that I would have liked to see more of what happened to Ray Suter after his large part in the prior book and the first half of this one it was a bit of a shame that he seemed to fade away after the development in his subplot. Especially considering the detail that went into various other parts of the story.

I was about ready to give up on the author after the stumbling mess that Peacemaker was but Top Hook now has me interested in seeing what happens in the next installment.… (mais)