Shadow Command
By Dale Brown
HarperLuxe Larger Print: 2008
Distributed by Thorndike Press
ISBN 10: 0-061-56265-3
ISBN 13: 978-0-061-56265-5
Genre: Techno-Thriller
Reviewed by Herbert White - October 20, 2008
In Dale Brown's latest techno-thriller, Shadow Command, Lieutenant General Patrick McLanahan is once again pitted against a ruthless enemy. In this case, instead of just having to fight his own government in order to garner the resources he needs to defeat the bad guys, McLanahan finds himself nearly going to war against his own country in order to raise a defense against a diabolical enemy, when his own government refuses to raise any defense at all!
McLanahan is the commander of the High-Technology Aerospace Weapons Center in Nevada where new, high-tech weapons are developed and tested - often in real world situations. In addition, McLanahan is a master at taking experimental 'models' of weapons and machines into combat and using these new and unknown technologies to defeat an unsuspecting foe. When the President refuses to acknowledge or reply to the potentially devastating threat posed by Russia arming Iran, McLanahan takes the situation in hand and sets out to ensure that Iran, and Russia, for that matter, will never again pose a threat to the United States. McLanahan is not the only rebel. Many of the members of his Air Battle Force command join him in his endeavor, an endeavor that, even if it succeeds in saving the country, could spell doom for not only their careers, but also their very lives.
To carry out their plan, McLanahan and his force make use of the Armstrong Space Station, an orbiting command center from which attacks can be carried out in both space and anywhere on earth. To be sure, the plot takes second place to the action and the technological elements of the story, but Brown is still able to pull off an action-packed, heart-racing thriller that makes this such a diverting book to read. Packed with loads of techno-babble, hard-hitting action, and some nifty space-based warfare, Shadow Command is a must read for all Dale Brown fans, as well as all fans of the techno-thriller genre.
Related Reviews:
Strike Force, by Dale Brown.
With a nuclear armed Iran in the grip of a three-sided civil war, General McLanahan and Captain Noble are mobilized to surreptitiously aid one of the factions. One of the tools they have at their disposal is an experimental space plane. If they fail at their mission - a global nuclear war may well result - so they know that they must succeed no matter what the cost. (Large Print)
Air Battle Force, by Dale Brown
Patrick McLanahan and his team of techno-geeks, working at a secret military base in Nevada, have created a robotic warplane. Although not yet tested, they are called to use it in battle as the US and Russia comes to blows after a coup in Russia. (Large Print)
