Battle Plan

Jerry VanCook is a real hit or miss author. Sometimes he’s off base and sloppy while others he on his game and writes engaging and entertaining books. In Battle Plan, he is on. As the first book in a trilogy VanCook introduces us to all of the major players and sets up the conflict of civil war beautifully. While I am no fan of fictional countries he gives us a believable Baltic state and I was able to suspend my disbelief and go along for the ride. The plot is understandable and engaging and doesn’t waste space with unnecessary scenes or chapters. VanCook’s prose is smooth and clear while still exciting and interesting, as it usually is. The only element that some might consider a detraction to this book is that it does not stand on it’s own, it is clearly only the first act of the story and to truly understand and enjoy the reader must finish the trilogy. I consider this element a plus as it reads like a single story as opposed to other series in the Bolanverse where each book is self contained but share plot elements. The characters are well written and believable people and it was interesting to see Bolan as a military commander, a role he seldom fills but performs admirably. The other teams are brought in on the action and the entire series reads more like a Stony Man title that an Executioner, however, VanCook makes it work. Battle Plan, and the entire Freedom Trilogy, is worth the time and effort to read. It is exciting and entertaining and proves that VanCook is a talented and capable author.

A pretty good start to this trilogy, which is really more of a Stony Man story than an Executioner. AT is assigned to protect United Nation diplomats, PF is sent to infiltrate Finland to chase down an assassin, and Bolan is doing a number of things, including hooking up with some freedom fighters. Overall, a solid action novel, although its more of a setup for the rest of the trilogy, as no sub-plots are resolved in this first book, but there is plenty of stuff to keep all three teams busy in this adventure. I liked PF's sneaking into Finland scene, and Carl Lyons has a good plan to get AT out of their diplomat babysitting task. The main villain really isn't a part of this book, I'm hoping that he will get more focus in the rest of the trilogy. I enjoyed reading Kurtzman's computer skills at the farm. Although I didn't think this book was as good a start as the Storm trilogy had, I still enjoyed Battle Plan, and am looking forward to the continuation of this story in Battle Ground.

Yes I thought this was a very good start to the trilogy. I must admit it took about the first third of the book to get into it for me but I can appreciate the need to set up the plot(/s) and characters. The pace is picking up nicely by the end of the title and certainly makes you look forward to the next book in the trilogy. A real good read. my two bobs worth........

The Cold War is in its death throes. Only a few communist nations remain as the Soviet Union disintegrates. However, the Soviet arsenal still exists, and member states may claim Soviet nukes. Enter Bolan in his Colonel Rance Pollock guise. He is training the soldiers of South Haakovia how to fight to resist the aggressions of communist hardliner North Haakovia. ...and that's just the back-story! "Battle Plan" was action-packed from the prologue on. The Stony Man warriors are all present and accounted for, taking on various assignments to try and prevent war from starting. Action scenes are plentiful and well-written. The story is mostly plausible. Only strikes against the book are minor -- for one thing, timing is sketchy. Phoenix Force has a two mile hike in between Lyons running down a corridor. Later, Phoenix Force is driving a short distance in town, but Able Team has flown from New York to Key West. It's understandable that parallel narratives will have different time frames, but this happened too often and for too much time. Also, it's disappointing to read about ficititious countries. Bolan and crew are set firmly in our universe -- having two new countries in Europe is disappointing. On the whole, however, "Battle Plan" delivers a good fast-paced read. Great opener for a trilogy.

The trilogy premise was somewhat interesting, even though the plot involving fictional north & south European countries battling each other is somewhat been overused before. It was a decent start to a trilogy though. I found it a little odd though, that Mack was commanding a small army of U.S. forces in that country. A little too high profile for someone with the Executioner's M.O.. The Phoenix Force mission was really good. The Force back in their prime - hunting terrorists on foreign soil. Able team's talents were seriously wasted on the babysitting detail. All in all, I give it a 7 out of 10.

I liked this book, although This was the least favorite of the trilogies. I thought this was the best of the three.