[.uk] Fatal Terrain (ISBN 0425162605)

Fun Read:
Despite the liberal posters and armchair military experts, I loved this book! Sure, many of the weapons and situations are fictional (as far as I know). The excessive military jargon was almost humorous and actually fun to read. Brown makes sure you know what all the acronyms mean. The situations and flight duals with jets and missiles were great. The plot had some great twists. It had me looking up all the different aircraft used. A fun and hard to put down book, I would highly recommend it!

Politically improbable, technologically unlikely, fiscally impossible:
This is fairly typical Dale Brown fare. Start with some global tension, add a sprinkling of improbably stealthy B52 bombers, throw in some political intrigue, a dash of air combat, and you have a fairly standard techno-thriller. The basic premise is that Taiwan declares independence. Mainland China tries to invade. Zany antics, of course, ensue. The ubiquitous megafortresses (nuclear weapon capable strategic bombers that somehow a private company has modified to become stealthy) are sent to Taiwan because the US routinely makes a habit of sending privately owned experimental modifications of obsolete aircraft to hotspots around the world. Bad things happen. Our heroes are blamed. Our heroes defy the government. Our heroes save the day. Our heroes are not sent to Leavenworth, since the President thinks "Boys will be boys". Politically improbable - Taiwan independence is a complex issue. Taiwan is more likely to erupt into civil war than declare independence. Technologically unlikely - While refitting B52's with air to air missiles is certainly possible, making them stealthy is pretty unlikely. Fiscally impossible - The idea that a private corporation could somehow rebuild, finance and run a fleet of B52 bombers is ludicrous. Most small nations would find it a strain on their defense budget.

needs less chit-chat & more boom-boom!:
Liking to read Tom Clancy on occasion, I thought Dale Brown may be another military author I could like to read. I like to detail of the military equipment and tactics which are used. Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy is a hallmark to this type of writing. I thought wrong baout Dale Brown. What a bore! Some details on equipment are good, I don't want to read five pages about landing an aircraft which just ends up exploding and adds little to the story. The worst bit of the book was the 50 pages of political dialoguein the White House. Yawn! This kind of book needs to stay away from the big-wag chat-chat and get more into the hot-shot boom-boom. Besides, the converted bomber isn't all that interesting. Hmph.

Missiles and More Missiles:
Dale Brown's "Fatal Terrain" explores a possible scenario of Taiwan declaring its independence from the People's Republic of China, and PRC's response to that. For its part, the USA chooses to use a private company that has modified B-52 bombers that are the EB-52 Megafortresses: high-tech platforms of misery and woe for the foe. Brown throws in a lot of technical language, but this is usually fairly well explained, as are the expressions and other military jargon. At some points, the explanations appear in the dialogue, which can make the dialogue seem a little unnatural. For example, Elliot is talking to his friend Patrick and mentions "littoral regions", with an explanation of what they are. Now, I had no idea what "littoral regions" are, but the character Patrick surely would not have needed any explanation. Apart from that, I found the writing to be of a high standard, and at times I couldn't read fast enough to keep up with the action. It was intense at times to try and read faster to see what happens next. Combat scenes abounded and they were festooned with missiles, it seemed. The aircraft and so on were well decribed, balancing detail with movement of the action. I did not find any problems with the political intrigues that Brown described, but then I have little knowledge of the U.S.A.'s political system or that of China or Taiwan. Some details of plausibility are still open to question in my mind. One galring one would be the plausibility of nations setting off nukes near the Philippines and being able to largely conceal it. Along with "combat over the USA" on the part of the main characters, these details make me wonder if Brown knows something we don't. This book really is Tom Clancy with aeroplanes, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. A great read on most counts, and one that I would happily recommend.

A big blast wind from the east !:
Since Sky Masters - when the B2 was on top of South East Asia's Sea, I found another big blast wind from the east. Brown took more serious what happen if China invades Taiwan (I am hoping it's never happen). I read Brown's thriller even more scary this time. All the ballistic missiles ready to aim Taiwan, major scales battle! Hardly to imagine. Definitely Very accurate story and Yes! another best writter from Brown. Don't ever miss this!