Prelude to War

This was a good adventure. Mainly Phoenix in action in Israel where radical Jewish tech guys are intent on ridding the world of Arabs using high tech weaponry. Able has a smaller but impressive role in Louisiana with Lyons being taken out of action and in Israel Rafe gets badly injured. If I had a complaint then it would be the repetitious description of the OICW rifle. That got boring real quick, along with the marvels of Windows NT (I had to look up what that looked like). But otherwise I found this to be a well written story.

Well firstly get ready to picture McCarter a little differently in this title as he must have had a makeover as he has short blond hair and icy blue eyes here (page 35). So anyway enough of that what was the title like? Pretty good read here I reckon, lots and lots of technical stuff within the plot and mostly comes across easy to read as the author eases you through these sections seamlessly. Couple of sections which stood out for me was Lyons and Gadgets battle with the OICW weapon system equipped guards especially what happens to Lyons and his corpse at the end of that section also the other standout for me was the section where Akira does the DOS attack on the satellite to gain control of it Very well written. The ending is short and sharp but gets the job done I guess.

I read rainbow six then right after read this , and man oh man was this WAY better - it was kinda Clany minus 900 pages of mind numbing brain draining detail . Action, tech stuff, more action. Thank You Stony Man and GE for getting me back into this series back then - has it been five years ? wow - it has - anyways - Peace !

An interesting premise with Israeli's trying to provoke a war with the Palestinians. Able didn't show up until around page 200 or so, but they never fought together. Action scenes were okay, but I started getting lost when they described all the high-tech weaponry. A good book, but the action scenes were just average.

As the cover says, this adventure is very hi-tek. I enjoyed that element of the book, but I think the author went into a little too much detail on the capabilities of the OICW (I think that's the acronym). It slowed the plot down and just seemed to be there to fill space. Phoenix Force had their hands full in this one and got pretty banged up. That was well done - had me wondering who was going to make it thru the mission. Able Team's mission to Louisana was well written as well - I found myself on the edge of my seat at that part. I was glad that Pol was inserted into the Soldiers of Solomen instead of bringing in Bolan. Without Striker, their was a good amount of exposure for PF, AT and the Farm. There were some little things that I really enjoyed in the book - the referance to the 17 November group featured in "Ring of Retaliation", Bragnola's "where's Bolan?" comment, the crack on Apple Computers to name a few. The only important item not resolved was whether or not the topless sunbather from Stuart Gold's compound survived ;)

Personal gripe - I hate books loaded wtih technospeak. I was bored throughout the many wonders of the IOCW. Its a rifle with laser sighted vision with a grenade launcher. There described. Instead loads of explanation about what this item can do. I was also bored with the Pol scenes where he was configuring his computer with StonyMans and how it can get into the NRO computers satellite images. I loved the premise about a Isreali terrorist group. A lot of interesting political aspects of how a terrorist group can create havoc in Isreali and still be fighting for an Isreali homeland. I just hope there are not in rl lots of Jewish multimillionaires itching to join terrorist groups. The first part of the book was the best especially the school scene and how PF was basically useless to stop it. I also liked how the terrorists filmed and then sent the film to news organizations. RAfe was injured in a rather dramatic scene. Definately thought it was the best action scene in the book. I thought Lyons and Gadgets fight was a bit too protrated. Also how did Lyons survive that firefight any of those terrorists using an ounce of brains would have just launched a grenade at him and not use bullets. Wow really stupid. The last part was neat especially in the gym. That poor receptionist she was so clueless. Also Pol did a very good job blowing away those terrorists especially that woman. If you don't mind technobabble scenes then rank it a 7 if you do like me then a 6.

I liked this book. Although, I seen alot of literay errors. (even though I'm not a professional writer.) I enjoyed the mention of Mack and it's time line reference to the bolan books. I enjoyed massive action and the surprise injury/ I even enjoyed having able team on one end and phoenix force on the other. All the components of a good read. BUT, I was disappointed in the ending. I fealt a lack of conclusion on the part of the war even though it is a continueing battle for the holy land. I will most diffenently read again (someday).

This is a kick-ass, take-no-prisoners, holy-cow-I-can't-believe-who's-injured mission, and one that features Able Team and Phoenix Force collaborating on a mission. No Mack in this one, and I'm not sure it would have made much difference in the end. Tim Somheil's work just keeps getting better and better. I read this on the bus to work, and I almost missed my stop because I didn't want to stop reading.