China Crisis

I thought that I would give this one a shot because the subject is so topical. Unfortuntely I was disappointed in this novel, and not because the mission was standard fair for the Stony Man teams, but the opening chapters seemed so dated. I could not get around the fact that where as in the real world the Chinese steal everything from space shuttle designs to that of Joint Strike Fighters and even car designs of BMW (they even recently hacked Coca-Cola to try to steal the formula) here we are treated to the shock horror over everybody from the White House downwards "What? The Chinese have pinched a circuit board? How could they? Why would they? How wicked of them." Please, the circuit board was probably made in China. So off they go to China and Texas to wrap up the smuggling organisation. The action scenes were good although I found the Chinese cast to be wooden and stereotypical. It was annoying that Mea Anna gets caught twice, though. And in the end our boys (and girl) win through, and only one baddie escapes to return at some later date.

This might be my least favorite book by Linaker, but it was still a pretty good read. I didn't find it up to his usual explosiveness until later on. It started off fairly slow, and the cast of characters was huge. Able Team is ignored until after page 200. Hawkins in an undercover role was only average. When Phoenix breaks into China and is captured, does the action take off. A rip-roaring rescue and assult on a Chinese weapons factory was the high point, along with some helicopter action. Able finally comes in to save Hawkins from his blown cover in a decent shoot-out finale. Still rates as a decent book, but had its disappointments.

Well I would have to say that this title is not my favourite by this author compared to some of his other wonderful work but that does not mean it is not worth your time to read this quite the opposite. The plot is okay with US military weapons and high tech computer cards etc. being stolen and funnelled to the Chinese to give them a kick start on their guided missile program for vast amounts of money. The bad guys here are Shadow group which is a bunch of ex CIA covert team members well versed in wet work etc. The title reads fine basically in two halves where Phoenix Force minus TJ who is undercover kick arse in China big time and Able Team handle the second half against Shadow group. As the title approaches the end the excitement builds to a terrific climax where Shadow group are finally tracked to their location. Couple of the group escape and are tagged at the end in some nice writing clearing up all the loose ends. I personally love recurring characters in these titles and have previously very much enjoyed the Mei Anna character but would have to agree not sure why she was in this title except to be captured not once but twice by the Chinese. Having said that well worth your time to give this one a go.

This one was a pleasant surprise, after a rocky start. The first part of the novel was not in focus. The point of view time-shift all over the place on the timeline. Very curious. When it does calm down, it settles into a nice focused story involving Phoenix Force as the second act of the novel. Phoenix Force’s mission invading China was good. Dragon Slayer makes an appearance. Previous novels relied on Dragon Slayer as a crutch, where Phoenix Force (or another Stony Man team) would be less effective, capture-prone or about to be all killed, only to have a state-of-the-art, unbelievable aircraft arrive to bail them out just in the nick of time. This phenomenon does not occur here, thankfully. Other than the structure of the novel, which I enjoyed, I also approve of splitting off a member of Phoenix Force and temporarily attaching to Able Team. And splitting a member off from Able Team, and so on. That was fun. What was not fun the reoccurring character of Mei Anna. I often thought a female member of Phoenix Force would be a compelling, interesting addition. Mei Anna showed me ways on how this could be a bad idea. Phoenix Force is often described as the five best anti-terrorists, covert-operatives and paramilitary types. In recent years, they have been only in strike force mode. This novel has one exception, where one of them plays spy, while the others play commando. He didn’t have a good time playing spy, but this reader did. I also liked the use of reoccurring characters and hope this is more of the norm, than a special occasion.