Promise to Defend

A real whopper of a Stony Man by Tresslar. After establishing the Cadre idea, I wasn't sure how this one was going to play out. But, with Able having most of the time, it was balls-to-the-wall action. Phoenix had a smaller role, but nonetheless their missions were explosive, too. From a hostage situation at an embassy, to hitting Somalia, great stuff. Able's finale of assaulting an oil platform to stop a doomsday plot was explosive. Very satisfying entry.

Whilst I agree with a lot that has been previously reviewed I thought this was a pretty good read. The Cadre Project was an interesting idea for the title and the overall plot was plausible and comes oh so close to being carried out. The whole plot of the title is excellent and complicated taking maybe half of the title before you figure out what is going on but well written to lead you seamlessly through. There are some stunning action scenes in this title with Able Team by far having the majority of them. I enjoyed the side plots involving Pol and the two characters from his past especially his Ironman Beserker mode when even Carl raises his eyebrows. You could read a lot worse than this in this series recommended reading.

This book was very so so. Not very good at the whole Secret Government storyline but still worth a read. There were some good shoot out moments, and the bit about Tom Clancy's "Clark" was good too, but at the same time, the whole storyline just didn't work out.

I must admit that I was not terribly impressed with this Stony Man. Tim Tresslar takes the old cliche of a secret government on the brink of seizing power, but fails to add anything to it. That is not to say that the story did not have potential, because it did, but everything ended up being so mundane (along with a mundane title). Though primarily an Able Team novel the action starts with Phoenix Force in Liberia. In a previous Executioner novel T Tresslar used neighbouring Sierra Leone as a backdrop for his story but didn't really paint in any background. Here it was exactly the same, Liberia has a history of violence and civil unrest but all of this is barely mentioned, and I haven't yet assertained whether this is a touch of political correctness on behalve of the author or it is some serious editing at Gold Eagle HQ. The story follows the usual plot of the teams hitting terrorists and arms dealers until they eventually learn of the location of the top bad guys. And that was the main downfall of the plot. If the Cadre Project was so supersecret that nobody had heard of it before, how come every security guard and bodyguard knew of their leaders hideouts and movements. ABle Team and Phoenix Force learnt the information far too easily. Pol plays a large role, with two characters out of his past featuring. These are new characters, so they have never been mentioned before, but it involves a woman (Ling) and a villain (White). Needless to say the tale involves romance, hatred and revenge, accumilating in a vicious fight on the top of an oil rig. What isn't mentioned is that Pol and White are referred to as 'being in the army' but all the Vietnam references have been dropped. The Cadre Project just didn't work for me. David Campbell was a complete lunatic, almost foaming at the mouth sometimes, and I couldn't picture him running such a secret organisation. If he had been pathelogically cold and menacing then yes, but as a mad dog then no. Plus for the Cadre Project to survive then there would have to have been more political support than what there was, yet it seems that Campbell was working alone, surrounded only by venomous underlings and faceless hitmen. So, sorry Tim, but this book wasn't what it could have been or should have been.