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Customer Reviews (10)

Continues the Dixon tradition
This book continues to flesh out the characters from previous books following the Dixon clan. Despite it being very timely subject matter and an engaging book to read, it lacks the excitement of Coyle's previous novels. This felt more like an episode of NCIS than a hard charging ground warfare novel. Coyle does a good job of fleshing out the characters that have been present in all of his novels. At times this caused me to skip over the banter between Nathan and his wife and Nathan and his mother. These conversations go on for way too long, but they do lend a more realistic premise to the story making Nathan less of a Airborne killing machine and more like a real human being. I applaud Coyle's effort to give life to his characters, even if at the expense of keeping the plot moving. The cover of the book bothers me as well because it gives the illusion that there is some sort of combat element to this book. I would have like to see a picture of the UGV, which the entire book is based around, yet we are left wondering what exactly does this new modern warfare vehicle look like? After searching the internet, I could only find pictures of first generation UGV's. Nothing like what Coyle describes. A quick and good read that I still recommend it.

No Warriors, No Glory
In reading "No Warriors, No Glory", one cannot help but be immediately reminded of Pat Tillman's untimely death in Iraq from friendly fire, and what we later found out to be an attempt by the authorities to cover up the real cause of his death.Sound familiar?In this rendition, Coyle's Captain Dixon wants to uncover the truth but is stymied when he gets little if any cooperation from the deceased's C.O., the drone manufacturer, or the victim's peers.

The good captain, having recently returned from active service, where he was wounded, suffering still from his war injuries and bouts of occasional nightmares, finds himself with an assignment that is disturbing and confusing since his intent is misconstrued by those he contacts for the facts to help avoid a future similar occurrence. A thought provoking writing.

E.J. Walden, author of "Operation Snow Owl"

Where was Coyle's proofreader ??
A pretty fair example of a military techno-thriller. Coyle's strong points are his understanding of military society and the mind-set of the men and women that inhabit it, and his ability to put that understanding into words. The plot is straightforward: a career officer, newly reassigned from combat operations to a staff position, is tasked with investigating a friendly-fire incident in Iraq involving a prototype unmanned combat vehicle. Careers and contracts hang in the balance, and everyone involved has their own reasons for helping or hindering his investigation. Like most books in this genre, the plot moves from one massive information dump to the next. This tends to slow the action somewhat, but at the end the reader is left with a pretty fair understanding of the complexities of modern, technological warfare in general and the emerging discipline of unmanned combat vehicles in particular.

Unfortunately, it appears that Mr. Coyle's proofreader was on vacation when the book went to press. The narrative is marred by punctuation errors, omitted words, and uses of the wrong word - balled instead of bawled, for example. To an old English major like me, that's akin to fingernails on a blackboard. It interfered with my enjoyment of the book, since I found myself spending more time looking for the next error than paying attention to the story line.

Another great book in the series
This is another great book from Harold Coyle that follows the Dixon family.Not as much action in this book as other in the series but well worth your money.

A good Story
While recovering from his wounds received in the Philippines, Nathan Dixon is called before the Chief of Staff and offered a position on his staff.

Nathan's first assignment is to investigate a friendly fire incident involving the Army's new automated combat vehicles.Coyle explores the use of unmanned vehicles in a combat situation and what happens when they go wrong.

This continues the Dixon family saga that started with Team Yankee.The saga is interesting but is getting long in the tooth.

It is a good read and I wonder if Nathan is going to join Strategic Solutions Inc. the other series that Coyle co-writes.
... Read more

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Customer Reviews (18)

Yet another Advertisement for VMI!
Coyle has written some really engaging books: "Team Yankee", "Sword Point". In this one he gets the next generation of Virginia Military Institute - VMI, referred to by U. Virginia as the Virginia Marching Idiots - grads into his plot. Closing out General Scott Dixon's career - or soon to be done in the next book - he introduces Dixon's son Nathan. Nathan is a newly minted 2nd Lt, VMI grad, who goes into the INfantry so as to not be compared with his illustrious tanker father. Coyle doesn't miss an opportunity to make good comic use of Texas A&M and West Point graduates throughout the military.

Set against a backdrop of Idaho's militia and written shortly after the Oklahoma City bombing by Tim McVey, this book still resonated today, six years after 9/11. Terrorist can be home grown! In this case, the militia influences the governor to kick the US out of Idaho after unfavorable results in a Federal Court case. Idaho declares war on the rest of the US!

Although there is a lot to work with and some great action, the book really drags in the middle and just seems to coast to an ending. Coyle's always great on his armor engagement descriptions - especially here where you finally realize that the US Army is doing its level best to NOT shoot to kill by to damage the fighting infrastructure while trying to not kill the Idaho National Guardsman and women. Good bead read or to keep you entertained on an airplane flight. But, not his best!

coyle returns
A typical harold coyle novel - introduces new central character and brings back some old favourites - strong action and flowing narrative - current events (at the time) play a big part.Thoroughly enjoyable.

Riveting
This is one of those "what-if" scenarios that gets you thinking.

The State of Idaho decides that it is tired of onerous Federal control and events are engineered to create a confrontation between a state's right to determine its affairs and the need to maintain the union.

In many ways the issues raised by the Civil War are re-examined, and the author makes a clear distinction that in this fight the bad guys might be the good guys.

Some people might suggest that it can't happen here, but since the start of the current century we have witnessed an attack on American soil and the destruction of an American City. WHile events might not unfold as Harold Coyle envisions, something like AGAINST ALL ENEMIESis not as far fetched as some might believe.

The book was written in 1996, in the aftermath of the OKC Federal Building bombing.

I think it is his best book to date.

A Real Stinker from a Talented Author
I had previously read Harold Coyle's TEAM YANKEE and BRIGHT STAR back in the '80s, when I was a young troop facing the motherless commie hordes across the Iron Curtain.Both books were well-crafted, with plausible scenarios and compelling scenes and characters.

"Against All Odds," alas, was a disappointment.The prose is turgid, the characters walking clichés, and the storyline is frankly ludicrous.The book was apparently set against the 1990s backdrop of the OKC bombing and the rise of the much-ballyhooed "militia threat."A disgruntled Gulf War vet stages a terrorist incident, which is the inadvertent catalyst for a showdown between a populist, scheming Idaho governor (backed by rabidly anti-government militiamen) and the Federal government.The Idaho National Guard, depicted as mindless tools, shamble into action to defend their tinhorn governer and his unwholesome coterie against what seems like an eminently reasonable Federal ultimatum. When push comes to shove, the outcome is a foregone conclusion, with plenty of pointless heroics and sacrifice on both sides.

All of the characters, without exception, are formulaic caricatures who lurch automaton-like toward a needless (and to the reader, inexplicable) armed confrontation. If you're looking for dynamic tension arising from moral dilemnas, look elsewhere.I resolved to read the book to the bitter end, since I'd plunked down 25 hard-earned dollars for it.Nonetheless, I found myself hoping for some dues ex machina, like a giant meteorite slamming into the earth, say, on page 43, that would terminate the story and leave me with 373 mercifully blank pages.No such luck.The characters are so contrived, the dialogue so wretched, and the plot so mind-numbingly predictable, that I never was able to muster anything but abject indifference as to whether any of the characters survived or got whatever it was that they desired or deserved.

I would like to believe that Harold Coyle has yet to have his finest hour as a writer, but if this book typifies his future offerings, he'll have to make do with coasting on his past reputation.

two-thirds thru and can't wait to finish
"group of "patriots" from Idaho take credit for the bombing"um.. Mr Gandle, did you actually read the book?The militia didn't do or take credit for the bombing, and the army did not initially act against the militia.The Publishers Weekly and Booklist editorial reviews are inaccurate too.Anyway, I'm having great fun reading it, especially since I can look out my office window and see the Gowan Field battleground.I'll be passing this on to some of the NG members who work here. ... Read more

Product Description
Courage is often enough to drive a soldier forward, to cause him to climb out of his foxhole and face enemy fire. But it takes a little more than courage to keep him going when every instinct dictates that he should do otherwise.

This truth becomes self-evident when the men belonging to Recon Team Kilo, a Special Forces A-Team operating deep in hostile territory, are overwhelmed by indigenous forces. Without leadership and unit cohesion, the survivors struggle to stay faithful to their code of conduct in the face of brutal imprisonment and an uncertain future.

An elite force, ready to place themselves in harm's way to save their own, is sent on a dangerous mission to rescue the POWs. They're lead by Lieutenant Colonel Harry Shaddock, whose men would follow him anywhere. His mission is to save fellow soldiers while putting his own in harm's way. As the families of the imprisoned soldiers learn that their loved ones are being killed off one by one, the operation becomes more dangerous than anyone had imagined. In order to triumph all must draw upon something from within. SOMETHING MORE THAN COURAGE.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

'Fictionalized' Version of Bravo Two Zero
Decent storyline that is ruined by two things. First, the author attempts to detail the lives of every soldier. We read about a soldier for 2 pages then that's all we hear of him for the rest of the story. Second, the author attempts to reinvent the wheel with some computer device capable of doing things like accessing intel files to find out what kind of doors will be encountered in a building about to be stormed.It was like the part in "The Matrix" when Neo has to download the information about how to fly a helicopter...

I noticed a few disgruntled reviews about military weapons used, ranks, and the like. From my standpoint I could have cared less, I'm not a military guy. I can see how this could ruin a book for some though that are used to Clancy like accuracy.I guess you just need to realize that there is a good deal of hollywood aspect to this book. An example is too much of an over dramatized 'war room' when the team is presenting plans to raid the prison camp. Even once you're able to get by the over dramatic approach by Coyle it's still just an OK book.

More Than Courage
I have read almost all of Harold Coyle's books and have always looked forward to them.This book was a tremendous disappointment.

It contains too many technical errors and improbabilities.The Land Warrior system really was an underplayed segue within the story, and the two system experts were both exposed to combat.In addition, the editing job was a disaster.I found four errors, and I am sure there are more.

Inaccuracies ruin a good storyline
I have enjoyed Coyle's books in the past.However, I found too many technical flaws in this story to really get into it.From the start, the make-up and equipment of an ODA (Special Forces 'A' team) are completely incorrect.You will not find an ODA run by a junior liuetenant or captain, nor with Spec-4s as operators.The senior NCO is likely to be an E8 (master or first sergeant) and the other members will be E6s and 7s.Even to such trivial things as the terminology of the M-2 machine gun.It's a "Ma Deuce", not a "Ma Two".Much as I tried to just go with the story, I seemed to find myself saying "Well, that's wrong" about every other paragraph.

A good read that leaves a headache
If you're interested in a good contemporary war story, buy the book.It's a good read. It's rich in behind-the-lines detail. But be aware that the structure of the story is more complex than expected andtwists between a good war story accurately and plausibly told but probably too much technical detail (some readers may like that).Turning every page I looked forward with anticipation to what a US Army Ranger Battalion was going to do at the end of the story to the enemy.I was disappointed.Rather than enjoying total devastation, I had to bog through descriptions of pocket sized computers and command and control procedures when I wanted to read exclusively about payback.Good grief, if you're going to kill this enemy, in this kind of story, do it with all the advantages and brutal details of Ranger combat.

Harold Coyle has the potential to write 5-star books with Tom Clancy type sales. In fact, Tom Clancy wrote that Harold Coyle is the best natural story teller he knows. That could be true provided a good editor and proof reader are provided.Let me give full credit to Coyle's publisher, Forge Books, Tom Doherty Associates, LLC for the worst edited and published book I have read. The book is riddled with spelling and grammar errors throughout. I'm not picky, the errors distracted from a good read. The book reads as though proof reading was out sourced to Syria, a computerized checking system used, and the results automatically incorporated without human intervention. Coyle needs to apply some of that command and controlcomputing capability he describes extensively in his story to publishing his books. As for all the "professional reviewers" cited on the books covers and brag pages -- you guys really read this book before providing your proforma accolades, right?

Great story, couple of technical innaccuracies
The story is thoroughly entertaining and presents a fairly ugly picture of captivity with a non-romanticized version of the dedication to bringing comrades home.Coyle demonstrates many of the practical concerns of a large rescue mission for a handful of men and the some of macropsychology of preparing men for combat. He had a half dozen or so minor spelling errors that slowed down my reading (a little) so that I could make sure I knew what was being said.I might have missed something but he seemed to have flip-flopped two of his characters' ranks or positions (I probably missed something) which also slowed me down for a moment. The two technical things are these: "Task Force 160" as Coyle uses it is not an Air Force organization. It's the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment of the US Army. Number two is this: the US Navy doesn't operate the AC-130 gunship, the Air Force does. Ignore these and the handful of spelling issues and the book is a great read. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

Another great book
I read this book years ago and it was great. Harold Coyle can write books about the military and make you feel like you are there. This book is well worth your money.

Good combat story
As all of Coyle's books, Sword Point doesn't disappoint.The descriptions and explanations for novices are good.Character development is weak, as with all of Coyle's books.

On par with Team Yankee
I actually liked Swordpoint a little more than Team Yankee. I was a real life Cavalry Scout on a Bradley Fighting Vehicle during the Cold War and the Gulf War, I enjoyed the story from that perspective.

Yamabushi's mini reviews pt. IV
Yikes, is this the same person that wrote Team Yankee? Plodding and tedious, this is a 4 hour movie that should have been 2.

Cold War heats up in Iranian desert.....
Following the success of Team Yankee, a depiction of World War III as seen from company level, Harold Coyle achieved acclaim with Sword Point, a novel pitting the United States and the Soviet Union in armed conflict in Iran.

Set in the late 1980s, Sword Point begins with the peacetime routine of an American Army unit in the middle of a training exercise at Ft. Campbell, Ky. In a scene that mixes Coyle's fine eye for detail and wry humorous touches, Staff Sergeant Donald Duncan's infantry platoon carefully sets up an ambush against an OPFOR (opposing force):

"The ensuing firefight would short but bloodless. The men of both Duncan's platoon and the OPFOR....were using MILES, short for "multiple integrated laser engagement system."Each weapon was tipped with a rectangular gray box which emitted a laser beam every time the weapon was fired.Every man....had laser detectors on his helmet and web gear that would detect the laser from another weapon.When this happened, a buzzer, also attached to each man's gear, would go off, telling him and his buddies that he was 'dead.'The use of MILES ensured that there would be no doubt who won and who lost, a far cry from the days when most training exercises degenerated into screaming matches of 'I shot you' and 'No you didn't.' "

But as Duncan and his men "struggle" through their training exercise, halfway around the world a Soviet armored column rumbles toward the Iranian border in the predawn darkness. The Soviet leadership has decided to invade -- Coyle never really tells us why -- Iran, planning to conquer the country and reach the Straits of Hormuz in four weeks' time.Some of the junior Red Army officers are apprehensive -- the Afghan War has taught the Soviets much about the costs of fighting against desperate Muslims -- but Moscow and the Soviet General Staff don't believe there will be much opposition from Iran...or the West.

But as soon as the Soviets launch their invasion, America mobilizes, and soon U.S. forces head to the Persian Gulf.Within weeks, the news are full of images of combat between the two superpowers as battles are fought on air, land and sea.

But the Soviets are not the only enemy the American forces face in Iran.The ayatollahs still rule the Islamic Iranian Republic, and while they fight fiercely against the Russians, the Iranians welcome the U.S. forces not with flowers but with bullets.And even when Iran's forces are forced to retreat under pressure from both foreign forces, the mullahs who wield power in Tehran pin their hopes on a desperate and deadly gambit that, if it works, will destroy the homelands of the nations the Iranians call the Great and Lesser Satans.

But Coyle's talent lies not just with the description of grand strategy, the tactics and weapons used in war, but with the very human portrayal of his cast of characters.Whether he is writing about Major Scott Dixon of the U.S. Army or Junior Lieutenant Nikolai Ilvanich of the Soviet Army, Coyle wisely doesn't resort to the stereotypical "good guy vs. bad guy" style of storytelling.Yes, this is a novel of war, but Coyle (a former Army officer who served in Desert Storm) has genuine affection for the profession of arms and the men and women who serve their country, no matter which country it is. ... Read more

Product Description
A Civil War epic follows the struggles of two brothers who are pitted on opposing sides in the war, a situation that is complicated when they both fall for the same woman. Reissue. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (23)

For Fiction, Very Good
Generally I don't read fiction, 98% of my reading is non-fiction, might read one fiction book a year. But this was given to me by a WW2 buddy and I read it all the way through.

Since the War Between the States is one of my areas of interest, I am not a good audience for lousy, unfactual books.

This is an excellent book with fictional characters set against a very real background of events. Even got out my West Point Atlas of American Wars to verify the actions as related in "Look Away".

Coyle is to be complimented on his research and writing style, I would recommend it to all audiences, no graphic sex parts, very well done.

Look Away/Until the End
I've just finished the two book series about brothers fighting on opposite sides in the U.S. Civil War.Basing the events of this novel upon actual history, Coyle spins us through a very realistic fictional account of three different families as they experience the war's impact upon their lives.While they directly endure physical hardships, Coyle does a great job describing the emotional highs and lows of their lives that result.I highly recommend reading this great story.

You can almost smell the gunsmoke
You can almost smell the gunsmoke of the battlefield while reading this book.It's one of my all time favorite novels about the Civil War.I've bought copies and given them to my friends- that's how much I liked it.
Coyle has a gift for making you feel like you are right on the battlefield with his characters.I didn't always know exactly where the action was taking place or why, but that's just about how the soldiers lived it then, I'd say.
Terrific!

Great fictional account of the war as it might have been!
Coyle uses documentation of real events and people to create this fictional account of "Brother vs Brother" in the War Between the States. This tale of Kevin and James Bannon, who are both manipulated into fighting by the machinations of their greedy father, is an excellent story of soldiering on both sides of the war as it might have happened. An entertaining read for the fiction fan AND students of the War.

Amazing
Phenomenal.I got so involved with the characters that it was like being a part of history.This novel depicts the horrendous rift that separates two brothers and a family as they pick sides in the American Civil War.

It was emotional, gut-wrenching and beautiful all in one.The second installment was even better, if that can be believed.

This is a must read for all civil war buffs or even everyone who loves a great read.Pick it up, you won't be sorry! ... Read more

Product Description
A realistic depiction of World War III combat follows Captain Sean Bannion and the tank soldiers of Team Yankee as they battle the Russian invasion force, from Hill 214 in West Germany to the ultimate cease-fire. Reissue. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (47)

WWIII
This is the BEST book about the Fulda Gap scenario of the 1980's. If the Soviet Union came across the line - this would be the beast that happened.

Non Stop Action
For a first novel, this is spectacular.Coyle puts the reader right in the action.The action begins in the first few pages and does not stop until the last.This is a must read for fans of military fiction.

An intimate encounter with World War III
I first read this novel when I was thirteen, and I will admit that during that reading I mostly skipped over the battle scenes while concentrating on what the main character's family was going through during their evacuation.Those scenes were vivid and showed the seriousness of war through the eyes of civilians who could do little but try to get out of the way.I recently came across my copy and reread it, this time paying more attention to the actual battle scenes and am even more impressed with the story.Coyle chose to write the story of one unit's battles and what they face in fighting World War III, creating an intimate look at what war means to the people who actually fight it.

not sure I read the same book as the other reviewers
I don't know how, but the author managed to make World War 3 boring.The book is loaded with acronyms, tedious details and routines.Hardly any real character development.I was led to believe he was the second coming of Tom Clancy; no way

Popcorn Movie Equivalent
As an aspiring writer I've been reading way too much lately about the craft and what makes a literary work "good."One thing that so many experts and novices alike hammer home is the notion of "showing, not telling."A good writer needs to show the reader the emotional impact felt by his characters:Instead of writing, "Joe Protagonist was scared," you're supposed to write, "A trickle of sweat rolled down Joe Protagonist's back," and so on.Harold Coyle's Third World War classic, Team Yankee, violates this so-called rule way too often.At first, this really bothered me.I cringed every time Coyle told me how one of his characters felt.Then I became irritated with how detached I was becoming from these potentially quite interesting people.About halfway through, I almost gave up on the novel.

And then I realized something:One doesn't read Team Yankee in order to glean some universal truth from its pages.There are tons of books out there where you can experience that.No, one reads Team Yankee to experience Godless Communists getting annihilated.One reads Team Yankee to learn about intricate military doctrines which typically only soldiers would ever have access to.One reads Team Yankee to get a visceral thrill from the white-hat-wearing good guys kicking the tar out of the black-hat-wearing bad guys, saving the girl, and riding off into the sunset.After realizing all this, I plowed through the remainder of the novel and didn't look back.And I enjoyed every minute of it. ... Read more

Product Description
Brothers James and Kevin Bannon find themselves on opposing sides in the Civil War, during which they and the women they love must confront a haunting truth about their pasts while making difficult decisions for the future. Reprint. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Until The End
Love Harold Coyle books. Read the 1st book Look Away and couldn't put it down. Will be starting this book soon.

until the end
Subject is very well covered and gave you the feel of what the charactors had to live with during this war.Because the book covers brothers on both side of the war you get the feeling that neither side is going to win, which in fact is what really happened.

The Supporting Characters are the Best Part of the Story
I enjoyed this marginally more than the first book in the duet, Look Away, but Until the End suffers from the same problems that plagued Look Away - pages that are absolutely and inexcusably loaded with typographical errors (in a chapter heading, we are told that the characters are near "Brany" Station, and a character once again confides in her "dairy"), and repetition that is so word-for-word specific that you can almost quote it ahead of the narration.

Some books are terrible, and that's a different issue.This book could be great, but misses the mark due to problems that could easily have been addressed by a sharp-eyed proofreader and an editor with a spine.If a good editor had said to Mr. Coyle "you have already described how to load a rifle more than five times in the first 100 pages of this book - your readers know how it's done now - tighten it up and get on with the story," this would have been a much more gripping read.

The people who are most interesting in Until The End, just as is true in Look Away, are the supporting characters.Edward Bannon, Harriet Shields, Mary Beth and Daniel McPherson - all of these people have interesting scenes and are integral to the development of the plot.

There is no doubt that Harold Coyle has done his research and that he knows how battlefield maneuvers are executed.He cannot be faulted as to the accuracy of his novels.In the personal relationships and intimate scenes, however, his narrative skills desert him.In a lesser book, this wouldn't be a big deal because the whole thing would be terrible.In a book so close to being truly great Civil War literature, it is a shame.

Excellent ! Hard to put it down!!!
Look Away was my first book on Civil War. I continued with Until the End. Well, Mr. Coyle did a great job. Excellent books!!! I would highly recommend these books to anyone who loves history.

A Civil War Book That Puts You in the Middle of the Action
I give Until the End 5 out of 5 stars.It is an excellent novel about all the aspects of life in the civil war.It does not try to glorify war at all; in fact it describes the horrors of war very well.The author has obviously done a lot of research, and though the main characters are fiction, the actual events they are in are not, as can be seen by his explanation in the back of the book.Not only does he show life in the army for both the Union and Confederate soldiers, he describes a field hospital and the conditions they were in.He shows how the protective shield that is the myth of the glory of war breaks down from stress on the battlefield, exposing the soldiers to his previously hidden internal conflicts between sacrificing his individuality and honoring his sense of duty.The book also really engages the reader, and they feel a loss with the people in the book, like with the loss of their friends to enemy muskets.It also has a very engaging sub-plot dealing with the brother's lives and their eventual reunion.This is an excellent book. ... Read more

Product Description

Harold Coyle, New York Times bestselling author of Against All Enemies, Trial by Fire, and Bright Star, is America's acclaimed master of the war novel. In Code Of Honor, Coyle delivers battlefield realism and excitement in a story that echoes the complex U.S. military mission in today's world....

A corrupt and fractured government in Bogotá, Colombia, requests a small expeditionary force of U.S. troops to combat drug lords and a growing insurgency. It's a scenario for disaster: an unstable country...an elusive enemy...a political and military minefield. The 11th Air Assault Division is called on to act as a police force, even when Brigadier General Scott Dixon reports back from a fact-finding mission that it's a war America can't win. But for a paper-pushing U.S. Major General in Bogotá, no initiative is too risky to safeguard his career. Then Captain Nancy Kozak -- under assault in the field, but determined to avert defeat and protect the soldiers in her command -- dares to defy him. With careers hanging in the balance, Kozak is struggling to survive an explosive clash that pits resolve against prejudice, and honor against ambition.... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Good drama, bad facts.
Harold Coyle was a military officer and thus knows how to protray military action and the reactions of the men and women caught up in the organized chaos that is war. He also shows how in a peacetime military a talented rank climber with decent admin skills and good performance in war games can get command of a frontline divivsion. No imcompetance here folks, just the Peter-principal in action. Cpt. Kozack's actions are not unusual givin the circumstances nor would be Gen. Lane's but to be fair to the Dog-faces (I'm a Jarhead) I believe that once Lane's incompetance was shown, the good captain would get off easily. Sure, she wouldn't get a medal but her career would survive and Lane would become a glorified gofer in the puzzle palace. The interplay between a hero-general, his protage, and a well connented politician in uniform is very well played out if ending in a bit of a anti-climax. But it must be said that these things often end this way.

Were Coyle again goes wrong in on his political background (he did the same in TEN THOUSAND: seven barely adequately trained divisions vs. even one crack US division and the USN, USMC and ASAF air wings (who would have been brought in)? Come on!). First of all FARC (as pretty much everyone, even THEM, admits) is the worlds largest single suppliers of cocaine in the world (70%). They also engage routinely in massacres, kidnapping, and extortion. Sure the right-wing paramilitaries also do these three things, but even Amnesty International admits that FARC has them beat. Thus to my mind making FARC so bloody pure is a stretch to astound Mr. Fantastic and bit insulting really, not to mention odd for such a Army veteran. I chalk it up to literary stretching for sake of story (as I did for the TEN THOUSAND) but I hope that in the future that Major Coyle will change the names of his background organizations enabling readers to suspend belief easier.

Almost perfect
Just two minor quibbles, the first being the slightly cartoonish Lane character who was predictable and stereotyped every step of the way despite some attempt to flesh him out, second being a hurried ending that closed the court martial with a footnote rather than the big bang that it was building up towards.

However, these are small issues. Coyle's take on the Colombian drug war is arguably superior to its equivalents in Tom Clancy's overplotted Clear and Present Danger and Ralph Peters' Twilight of Heroes. Other than Lane, all other characters are well-realised and the gripping narrative is tinged with an affecting touch of sadness. Emotions practically exploded off the pages after the tragic fiasco in the jungle.

I regard this novel as one of the best post-Cold War technothrillers, if it can be called that. Although the genre effectively lay down and died due to the paucity of credible sparring opponents for the might of the US, Code Of Honour shines like a rare gem in the overall decline. Highly recommended.

There seems more to the story
Code of Honor is a cautionary book on sending American troops to other countries without a clear objective.Not too different from Vietnam.I think Coyle romanticizes rebel life a little too much.This romanticism is shown from the eyes of a former teacher-now-turned FARC rebel.The book could have been more objective in that the rebels are nowhere morally better than the government.They'd actually be into kidnap, and extortion.

After the previous book, The Ten Thousand, the tension between mainstays Dixon and Jan Fields is much less.And not much is explored with Capt. Nancy Kozak and her beau.I shall miss one of the familiar characters in the series.The story feels lacking and it could be due to limiting the story to about 500+ pages.

excellent book; you will be angry, sad and happy
it's a book that will leave you frustrated and yet somehow elated at the results. Two U.S. Army Generals face off behind the scenes of a ficticous quagmire war based in Columbia, with the lives and careers of Army officersat stake.

It was OK, I guess.
Code of Honor wasn't too bad. It had some action, but mostly it centered around a U.S. General named C.B. Lane who is a cowardly bureaucrat and the main character's of most of Coyle's previous novels who are fighting a guerilla-type war in Columbia. There wasn't nearly as much action as in the author's previous books, and the end left a lot of business unfinished, but it was still an acceptable read ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (22)

Cat & Mouse
Just go ahead and skip this one. It's terrible. Reading this book gave me the sense of going to see an awful movie. You feel like getting up and leaving but decide not to because you have already paid and keep hoping that something interesting will happen. Regrettably, nothing interesting ever happens. I had to force myself to finnish the damn thing. Everyone else has said it, the editing is atrocious. Aside from that, the story sounds as if it were construed by a book writing machine...or a precocious 7 year old. I do not suggest reading this book.

Cat and Mouse
Coyle usually writes well constructed, clear, concise novels.In this presentation, "Cat and Mouse", such is not the case.His twists and turns make the book interesting although he seems to end his story rather abruptly.

The battle scene leaves much to be desired after such a long and interesting introduction.Word usage is a problem in a nunmber of instances and causes one to stop and try to reconcile what has just been read.In short, the whole plot in not truly reflective of Coyles' ability as a novelist and storyteller.

E.J. Walden, author of "Operation Snow Owl"

Waste of time.
I haven't read Coyle for a few years. I wish I hadn't decided to revisit via this miserable example of military fiction. Others have said it: the editing is pathetic. This book reeks of disdain for fans of the genre. This book reminds me why I decided several years ago to move on to something else. In addition to the sixth-grade editing, the substance of the book is weak. The author dallies through 7/10ths of the book describing in detail how marionettes wreak havoc in our military services, then rushes through the climactic battle in a few pages. Weak, unsatisfying, insulting.

Cat and Mouse---bait and switch
I have enjoyed almost all of Coyle's novels, and especially those utilitzing the Dixon's.not this one.Way too slow on devloping,
"bad gys" as enemies or on "our" side,that are too stupid/blind/
etc., to be considered real
save your $ for another novel, and better luck next time,
Mr Coyle.

Won't buy another book by this author
Harold Coyle usually writes a good book.He always captures the dilemmas facing troop commanders and gives us ordinary folks insights into the difficulties of fighting insurgents.

This book was ruined by poor editing.There are long, torturous sentences.Commas are either misused or simply AWOL.The text appears to have been used to illustrate every common incorrect word choice for an English class."Affect" for "effect" and then vice versa."Caulk" for "chalk"."Wit" for "whit".Perhaps they outsourced the editing to someone who doesn't speak English.

The editing put this book in the category of bad fan fiction, which is widely available for free.Unfortunately for me, I paid $8 for the paperback.Unfortunately for Harold Coyle, I won't make that mistake again. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (15)

Fails to deliver
Harold Coyle is well know for his military action thrillers, sadly this is not one of his best.

This story is based on the insertion of a US National Guard unit into front line peace-keeping duties in Palestine.A shortage of combat ready troops has driven the US military to utilise the National Guard, but some front line officers are inserted to provide experience.So we have a clash of cultures between the regular army captain and his Virginian National Guard troops.Then add in shenanigans in Palestine and the use of bio-weapons blended with a caricature bad guy and you have the premises of the book.

That might have worked had it been delivered better, but this is overly wordy (lots of wisdom about leadership) and while I applaud the author's intent to flesh out his characters, it does not engage sufficiently.Even the action, when we get round to it, is strangely muted and the end is an anti-climax.Credit to the author for using the National Guard as the centre of the story, but this comes over as an opportunity lost rather then one to recommend.

Not his best
While I generally like Harold Coyle's writing, this is not his best work. It's not bad, and it is topical, but it could have been better.

He spends a great deal of time impressing upon the readers the different thinking of National Guard troops compared to regular and reservists. Don't get me wrong, he does an excellent job at this, but he could have reduced the number of times he brings up the subject.

My second complaint is that nothing really happens until 3/4 of the way through the book. Harold needs to go back and read his own book, Team Yankee, which is probably the finest of the cold-war era military novels, better than Clancy. In that book, things start happening with a few pages, and the action never stops. Here, not so much, as the current hip phrase goes.

Lastly, the book stops, it does not end. Most books come to a well-written ending that wraps up the story. This books just stops. It tries to end, but fails miserably.

I think Harold really needs a new editor.

NOT his best
A plausible setup marred by flawed execution. While Coyles early work (Team Yankee, Sword Point, The 10.000) is among the best (both plots and writing) military fiction I have read this latest work is marred by two fatal flaws, to much emphasis on military procedure which detracts from the action and an seemingly absense of editing after the work was written (which in addition to the writing could have also corrected the former flaw). Also the plot while overal believable - and disturbing - has a fatal flaw. The introduction of a biological weapon is handled so clumsily that it is hard to believe that the author has done any research on the subject let alone spoke to any person with even elementary knowledge of virology or epidemology.
A good read for fans of the genre and this author, otherwise - especially if this is your first outing into military fiction - there are many books that are a lot better. Some of the best mentioned above by this author.

Good but it could have been more
With They are Soldiers, Coyle brings forth a tale that is easily imaginable in today's geopolitical climate.The story follows a National Guard unit from Bedlow, VA as it is called up and deployed on a mission in the security zone currently manned by the Israeli military.The unit is under the command of Nathan Dixon, a character familiar to readers of some of Coyle's previous works.Coyle provides good insight into the unique aspects, both positive and negative, of the National Guard and its role in the overall security of the country.He effectively sets the stage with some action from D-Day in WWII and quickly pulls the reader into the present day.While the story itself seems to get bogged down occasionally, Coyle effectively sets the stage for the climactic end to the book.My biggest complaint was that the whole thing seemed to end very abruptly.This is not among Coyle's best works, but it is certainly worth the time for loyal fans.

coyle comes back
As usual a strong well written novel with a familiar storyline.

A word of warning - read 'against all enemies' and God's children' first. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (10)

Decent read, not stellar though
If you like seeing the behind the scenes activity of how a corporation works then this is the book for you.The premise was interesting, but the pace of the book just sort of plodded along.Certainly wasn't a page turner.

Good yarn, bad science
As with all of Coyle's books it is a good story well told. However, the science which forms the backbone of the story is abysmally ignorant. Viruses and bacteria are very different creatures and comparing streptococcus to marburg or ebola virus is just plain dumb and a little research or talking with someone knowledgeable in microbiology could have prevented this unnecessary gaffe. I won't get into the near "religious" ,war of naturopathic, allopathic or homeopathic medical practice.

Good entertainment, but shallow
The concept of a private security outfit is great and fitting our times, but here both the story and the too positive characterisation of the heros are just too un-realistic. Good entertainment, but the good are too good and too lucky for the novel to appeal to grown-ups.

A story with several messages
There is more to this story than a thriller. But, before getting into this, I commend the authors for accuracy. Spreading biological agents into a Western population is difficult. Pandemics only occur when environmental conditions are right. Most bio-agents have a very short life once released into the atmosphere. Anthrax is the exception to this rule. I especially enjoyed the story because it is factual. The real bio-agent threat is crop diseases: wheat and rice rust. Hoof and mouth disease for cattle is next.

Thereare several subtle messages buried in the story. Our self induced vulnerability--no profiling--in order to be politically correct is one. Another is our insane fear of offending Muslims. Today, just as portrayed in the story, the U.S. can't send troops into the tribal regions of Pakistan to hunt down and kill the Taliban and al-Qaeda personnel.

In the story, the government hides all information pertaining to the Marburg attack. Instead of releasing all of the gory details and scaring the pants off our complacent citizens, the government covers up the facts to maintain the notion that we are safe from attack. Unfortunately, this is probably what would really happen. As the author's say in their Author's Note, "The fact that no overt act of terrorism has occurred since 9-11 must be attributed at lease in part to a great deal of good luck. Of course, that situation could change tomorrow morning. And some morning, it will" In this they are correct. I am afraid we will not come to our senses until we suffer an attack many times worse than 9-11.

Strategic Solutions, Inc., is a fictional Professional Military Corporation, hired by the government to do what the CIA and military should be doing, but can't because of our obsession with political correctness. Unpleasant things have to be done when at war, who does them only matters from a perception point of view. The story does a splendid job of pointing this out.

Strangely flat
This tale of bioterrorism and cloak and dagger conflict begins well enough, and establishes the scene and the dangers competently enough, but then falls on a couple of logical inconsistencies. The terrorist network is just too competent to be believable, and there is no reason to use SSI operatives once the action leaves Pakistan.

The mercenary company SSI is hired to investigate and kick in doors in Pakistan to find the terrorists during a period of tension between the US and Pakistan governments. A sensible premise, yet the interaction between SSI and the Pakistan military is smoother than I would believe possible during an outright love-fest between our two countries.

The world-wide terrorist network is so competent, and so universally supported by muslims everywhere, that it can instantly locate an imam in any city willing to knowingly hire hit men or give a bioterrorist a ride to his target in his personal mercedes. This gives jihadis too much credit and at the same time insults every muslim in this country. Providing hospitality to travelers is one thing, but I just don't buy the willing participation the enemy got from Americans in this book.

Then, after the action headed back to the US, I didn't understand why the problem of tracking the bioweapon didn't move from SSI to the full force of the US government. Why sweep anything under a rug at that point? Scream the facts to the ends of the Earth and get the willing cooperation of every government the bioweapons passed through. Marburg would kill their populations as readily as Americans, so why not give them the information they'd need to defend themselves?

The book just doesn't ring true to me.

I did like the military take on recent US politics, though. Tailhook really was a disgrace. I'll give it an extra star just for that. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

Feminism is an unnecessary distraction
My teenage son and I were listening to the audio edition on the way to work this morning. Ten minutes into a feminist rant about young LT Ellerby's anti-feminist attitude, my son commented: "He [Coyle] has an axe to grind..."
We concluded that Harlod Coyle has seriously damaged his credibility by injecting feminist politics into a military adventure novel. I seriously doubt he opened a new female market with this endeavor and I'll be reluctant to buy any more of his books

In which Harold Coyle rewrites Xenophon

This is a modern re-telling of the the extraordinary story which Xenophon described in "The Persian Expedition" which is also sometimes known as "Anabasis" (March Up-Country)."

Following the break-up of the Soviet Union, a long-running dispute between Russia and the Ukraine about the ownership of some former Soviet nuclear warheads suddenly threatens to become very serious. The Russians ask the USA to retrive the weapons, and they send the Tenth Corps to do so. The American force secures the nukes, but then an ally stabs them im the back and leaves them surrounded in hostile territory.

Just as Xenophon's force of greekl mercenaries, the original "Ten Thousand," had to fight their way back home after the Persian prince for whom they were fighting fell in battle in 401 BC, in this book the men and women of the US 10th Corps have to make their way to the sea for evacuation. Sometimes they can persuade the forces they come up against to let them through without a battle, all too often they have to shoot their way through.

The political situation described in the battle is more than a bit ridiculous, but the battle scenes are excellent.

A good light read if you want something to amuse you for an afternoon. However, the original story, "The Persian Expedition" by Xenophon, is an even better read.

Dazed and Confused
The End of the Cold War put a real hurt on the Military Techno-Thriller business.Coyle's "The Ten Thousand" is a good case in point.

To have a fight, you have to have an antagonist.Before 1989, that was easy......the Commies!After the Berlin Wall came down, that became problematic.Authors handled this with a wide array of options.In my opinion the best were those that searched for another bad guy like drug trafficers or Terrorists.I found the worst to be those that esentially went into denial.You know, the ones that have the Communists take back power and threaten the world again.Then there are those who dredge up Nazis like Coyle did.Yawn.How unoriginal.

I have two other problems with this novel.First is Nancy Kozak.Sorry Harold, but you gave her too much of a free ride as one of the first female infantry officers.In my eyes, her presense in this story makes as much sense as Pee Wee Herman being the NATO commander.Then there is the light infantry thing.Coyle's military experience primarily comes from serving in mechanized units and he can be unbelievably hostile to light infantry/airborne forces.Strangely, light units often play key roles in Coyle's novels.This one is no exception.Despite this, he often blasts these units (especially paratroopers) as being an anachronism.

If you just like military novels you may enjoy this one.The combat scenes are decent and pretty accurate.But if you cant stomach poorly considered backdrops stay away from this one.

Unlike any ground-war novel I've read so far...
I just finished reading The Ten Thousand yesterday afternoon, but boy I was caught by surprise as to how the plot unfolds, though I've first seen this book ten years ago and the plot still ingrained in my mind all this time.

It all begins in a cellar in Regensburg, Germany in late April 1945. When a young boy, a member of the Hitlerjugend, sees his family die before his eyes, he feels anger at not being given a chance to serve his Fatherland and his Fuhrer...fast forward to present day, the young boy is now the Chancellor of Germany, Johann Ruff.

The plot was unique in a sense: American troops enter the Ukraine together with Russian Army advisors to acquire a stockpile of Ukrainian nukes discovered stashed away. they eventually take the nukes with them, but not before the Ukrainians destroy one nuke stockpile and kill the American troops in the area.

Because they were not apparently consulted before the operation began, the Germans hijack the nukes as soon as they are prepared in an airbase in Germany for transport to the US. So begins the most dangerous European crisis since World War II...and now that General Malin and his X Corps are trapped in the Czech Republic with no home bases in Germany to return to, they must now make a choice: disarm right then and there, or travel across a hostile Germany for evacuation by sea, with former allies hot on their tails.

I liked Coyle's descriptions of how the action X Corps took gave resemblance to an earlier feat of arms: the march in 400BC of the Greek warrior Xenophon and his ten thousand mercenaries from what is present-day Iraq all the way back to Greece.

The reason I'm giving it four of five stars is because of some things i found odd: A Russian major in charge of US Rangers? Ooookay. Normally, US troops would feel uneasy when a foreign officer, a Russian at that, takes command of a US unit. But given the situation, the issues of nationality and racial bias take a backseat because all of them are soldiers, first and foremost.

This is the first ground war novel I've ever read that placed a major emphasis on ground battles, unlike the other combined-arms operations I've read in some books, most recently in Clancy's Bear and the Dragon or even in Larry Bond's Cauldron...and it shows, from the gritty realism of the tank battles and fifth-column ops that occur at several points in the story, to the personal perspectives of some of the major players themselves (Dixon, Kozak, Seydlitz, Ivanich, to name a few). Yes, some of the characters in the book do not reach the end of the story, but hey, that's war.

The book also gave focus on the professionalism of the German soldier and their ethical dilemmas on following the orders of their superiors or their consciences as well give rise to major dissent in the German Army. It also forced me to take notice because they come from a country that has never been to war in over fifty years, still struggling to come to grips with it's Nazi past and it's division during the Cold War, not to mention many generals from my country's armed forces also went to military schools in Germany that are some of the toughest in the world.

In all, The Ten Thousand is a well-written book.

Wow.
Most days, I don't think Harold Coyle could write his way through a Dick & Jane story.

But this time...wow.Taking some ancient Greek history and twisting it into a modern plot, Coyle has written one fine military page-turner.I dare ya not to laugh out loud when a German officer states, "My position has become untenable..."

Great stuff. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

The continuing saga of SSI
First, I do not understand why reviews on Prometheus's Child are listed under this book.

As for Vulcan's Fire, it is the third in the series of Coyle and Tillman's Strategic Solutions Inc series.The company is having a financial crisis and decides to take a contract from a Israel.

Taking the training contract to train Lebonese Druze provides the backdrop for this good adventure as the mission morphs into something else.

Vulcan's Fire is filled with action and has all the Byzantine relationships endemic to the area.

Overall the book is a good adventure but is not a page turner.

I am not sure where this series is going but if it continues to just be a series of contract stories my dollars will go elsewhere.

Okay military fiction, but far from spellbinding
Harold Coyle has authored or co-authored more than 15 military fiction novels. He has been all over the place in terms of quality, from page turners to complete bores.

"Vulcan's Fire" is a satisfying bit of military fiction, but not extraordinary in any way.

The story revolves around "Strategic Solutions, Inc", a private military contractor. The company is run by wise, old, experienced military types who provide the fighters for missions the United States can't, won't or is unable to undertake.

In this instance, the Israelis want SSI to dispatch teams to train Druze militias in Lebanon. Of course, the fact that Iranian backed Hezbollah is seeking to expand its authority over Druze controlled territories while launching s nefarious scheme to harm Israel guarantees that the SSI teams will do more than merely train.

All the characters are one-dimensional. The crusty old retired Admiral wears his Navy issued glasses. The retired Marine is distinguished by his "jarhead" haircut. The retired female Army Colonel who killed two men in the last novel has a fantastic body and shapely legs terminating in high heels. The SSI team assembled for the mission to Lebanon is filled with stereotypes from the super-capable black sergeant with the broad smile to the shaved head bodybuilder with 20 inch biceps to the former Special Ops surfer dude and, finally, to the never-been-in-combat top-notch championship shooter who converted to Islam and has something to prove.

Yes, sir, quite a crew. We also have an Israeli wisecracking special ops colonel who has a buddy-buddy, wink-wink relationship with the Israeli army general.

For the bad guys, we have the Iranian "resistance fighter" who started off on a firing squad as a teenager and has been killing for the last three decades. The Lebanese teenager who is recruited by Hezbollah and yearns to be a sniper. A clutch of unpentant, murderous Islamist clerics and their jihadist supporters.

Of course, there is a big surprise as well . . .

It is all standard adventure. Cookie-cutter predictable characers. Predictable situations. And predictable outcomes.

But it is reasonably well written and reasonably entertaining. The few combat scenes are engrossing. Coyle has always built much of his books through the incorporation of what may be military jargon into his dialog. (Do people really say "phib gru"? It took me a moment to parse amphibious group out of that.) For example, Coyle drops a factoid into the midst of a conversation: the Marines adopted a new sniper rifle that the sniper characters here didn't like. That sent me off on a web search for the "M40A3" and the discovery that Coyle had some of his facts wrong.

Finally, Coyle has a co-author here, one Barrett Tillman. Tillman goes way back asa the author or co-author of a number of those warplane profiles that every military afficianado has looked at least once. There's no way of telling who contributed what.

Overall, "Vulcan's Fire" is an enjoyable bit of military fiction, perfect for an afternoon's flight or just plain relaxation. The characters are indeed flat, you'll be able to predict almost everything, but it's written well enough that it is still enjoyable.

Jerry

... Read more

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Customer Reviews (44)

A very dark and disturbing experience
This is not a typical shoot 'em up military story.Although there is a fair amount of action the story puts a very human face on some of the darker aspects of war.There is no glory in this book, and I must say that when I finished this book I was quite depressed by it.It is a very dark story.With that said the characters where very deep and Coyle brings the reader through the story feeling very much a part of it.I would put this book near the top of my list of military reads.

About Leadership, Not the Battle
Sometimes I like to read these reviews after finishing a book rather than before. It makes it amusing to see some of the comments. Yes it might seem that the story ended before it was "finished". But that is true only if you believe the story is about the battle. This book is not the typical "weapons and battle pornography" that so many of this genre are. It is a story about leadership and what it means to your soldiers. The weapons, the geopolitical back story are not what the story is about. Even the battle details are not important and the author ends them abruptly. The story is about a lost platoon with two LTs trying to make it back. It about learning to be a leader. The value of experience. Humility in the face of failure. If your looking for the usual military techno thriller that described an RPG like a romance novel describes love making then skip this book. If you're a young officer or NCO looking for a story on leadership under fire then this is the book for you.

..we're running a little late tonight, folks, so g'night..
That's the tag line on many of the old Jack Benny radio shows and is kind of what I felt when I read the epilogue of this book.

If you are interested in action, then I would not expect this effort to fill the bill. The soldiers dismount their Bradley's, walk, walk, walk, the two lieutenants snipe at each other, the soldiers walk some more, they avoid Slovaks, ethnic Hungarians (whoever the hell they are), walk some more, and the two lieutenants snipe some more at each other..

..and then, BAM!, it's all over and we have no idea how half of the story is resolved. As another reviewer stated: it seems like Mr. Coyle got tired of writing and just decided to wrap it up.

But, not to be smug nor condescending, the book is not a total loss. It does provide some insight into how a mechanized infantry platoon functions, the roles its members play, and how they interact. One must presume that Mr. Coyle at least knows something about that as he graduated from The Citadel and served seventeen years (?) in the army. I found some of the information converyed in that context to be interesting.

I have read other books with similarly disjointed plots that were so full of hooey as to make them a total waste of time.

..well, 2 and 1/2 stars really.

Coyle makes you feel the cold snow and smell the gun powder
ABOUT THIS BOOK:If you're new to Coyle, Don't miss my "About the Author" Section.This effort by Coyle has a very different feel than his other books.I was initially disappointed because I was expecting a military novel about war on a grand scale with high stakes and a very "big picture feel".After about 20 pages, however, I was drawn to this small unit tale, with flawed characters, heroes, cowards and a very plausible plot.If you want to know what it's like to have boots in the mud in a conflict zone, then read this book.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:This genre has great writers, good writers and people who should stick to their day jobs.Coyle is a good writer.He creates strong characters (although sometimes the good guys are too perfect), pretty good dialogue and is very good at putting you on location with his descriptions.I rank his writing skills with Clancy (his earlier stuff) and Dale Brown.

YOU'LL LIKE THIS BOOK IF:

-You like gritty military novels
-You enjoy a fast narrative style that keeps the book moving
-You've read military novels before (if not, you might be a bit put off with the jargon)
-You want to "experience" a bit of what our troops are going through with unconventional warfare.

BOTTOM LINE:I rarely and I mean RARELY read books more than once.This one will get a second read from me at some point because I really enjoyed the intimatacy he creates with the characters and the great small unit combat scenes.

The military life
I enjoyed this book for its insights into the military life. I have never been in the military and appreciated this aspect of the book. It gave me a real glimpse of the highly structured, vast world of the military, which the author presents as a kind of culture and universe all to itself. The novel was very good on that score.

But I found it a bit lacking in the action department. I can't agree with reviewers that refer to this one as "action-packed." I recently finished "Fortunes of War" by Stephen Coontz. Now that one is action-packed. The soldiers in this book do a great deal of marching, and there is a great deal of excellent observations about leadership and soldiering, but action?

Still, Mr. Coyle's descriptions of the enormous challenges a mega-organization like the U.S. Military face and deal with year in and year out are worth the price of admission. -Mykal Banta
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Customer Reviews (12)

Dreadful...
1) Author uses a full paragraph to describe something simple and easily understandable with one sentence.

2) Author follows this dragging, novel-extending paragraph with a sentence that summarizes what you have just read (and which was easily known to you 4 sentences earlier. And THEN:

3) REPEATS THE SENTENCE IN OTHER WORDS. He does this over and over and over every page of the entire book. This would be acceptable if you were a very young teenager having no idea how anything in the universe works, but I am pretty sure 11-15 year olds don't actually use there allowance to buy books of this type.

The book is riddled with improper word usage, stacks of acronyms that never get used again in the entire book, long-winded, overblown and downright mind-deflating descriptions of military weapons all described and displayed in numerous war movies 10 years prior to this books release.I have read the comments made by others here and concur with nearly all of them.

I am embarrassed for both he author and the editor.

Yamabushi's mini reviews pt. V
Ever hear the saying 'less is more'? Well Coyle hasn't. Take 100-150 pages out of this thing and you might have a winner. Unless your a completist for 80/90s techno, skip it.

A look at the hearts and minds of warriors.....
Bright Star, Harold Coyle's third novel and second in a continuing series following the careers of various Army officers, is an intriguing and very human look at the lives of professional soldiers both on the home front and on the field of battle.

Set sometime before the fall of the Soviet Union and after the events of Sword Point, Bright Star once again features Scott Dixon, Hal Cerro, Nikolai Ilvanich and Fay Dixon (Scott's wife) and introduces television reporter Jan Fields, a rising star in a cable news network and former colleague of Fay's.

The novel starts on a somber note as Major (promotable) Dixon sits at his home computer writing a letter of resignation from the Army he has served and loved for years.The war in Iran has left an emotional scar, and his wife's hopes for a return to her journalism career after Scotty's expected after-20-year retirement have been put on hold by her husband's deployment to fight the Soviets in the Persian Gulf.The strains of the conflict -- nightmares of battles for Scott, the sudden upending of long-made plans for Fay -- create a vast emotional chasm between husband and wife.

But Dixon is a soldier to his very marrow, and although he is listless and even resigned to accept whatever backwater job he's offered by his superiors, Scotty tosses the letter of resignation away and waits for new orders to be cut, much to Fay's discontent.

And when a UH-60 helicopter carrying Lt. Col. William Dedinger is shot down in Sudan by a guerrilla team, Scott Dixon, Medal of Honor winner, is assigned to serve as the chief of staff of the 2nd U.S. Corps (Forward) in Cairo, Egypt.There, he's to assist in the expected prepositioning of Army equipment in that cautiously friendly Middle Eastern country, in addition to other, more classified tasks.It's a mostly desk-bound assignment, very much the opposite of the combat-geared armored task force command he declined around the same time he was contemplating leaving the Army.

Naturally, Scotty's new posting and promotion to light colonel don't do anything to help heal the growing rift with his wife, who is forced to cancel her acceptance of a job with CBS to accompany Scott to Cairo.And although she does get another job with her former college roommate and friend Jan Fields, the sojourn to Egypt will have unhappy consequences.

Meanwhile, the ambitions of Libyan Col. Nafissi will soon lead to another conflict that will once again pit the United States and the Soviet Union against each other as the superpowers go to the assistance of their client states -- Egypt and Libya.Soon the desert sands are littered with wrecked tanks and dead soldiers as fierce battles are waged on the air, land, sea....and the hearts of combat veterans such as Scotty Dixon and Capt. Hal Cerro.

Not enough battle scenes
I love Harold Coyles books.My favorite so far being Team Yankee.BrightStar, however, was rather slow in comparison to his other "ModernWarfare" books.I felt that there were not enough of those intense,realistic battle scenes that he's known for.The points of view from thedifferent characters would have been more interesting, if there was moreaction to refer to.At times, I was only able to pick up where I left offof by referring to what stage the love relationship was at!!! Unfortunately, this book was easy to put down, and harder to pick up toresume reading.Don't let this book stop you from reading his other GREATbooks, though!!He is otherwise, one of my favorite authors for technothrillers !

fairly good story hit by sappy and forced love story
Bright Star is a sequel of sorts to Sword Point.Here, the aftereffects of a US-Soviet war is explored two years after the shooting has stopped. The horrors of the war deeply affect both countries: in the US, a war herobecomes congressman and hopes that the mistakes in the last war won'taffect Americans in the next one.In the USSR, veterans of that war aretreated without respect (probably not unlike those who went throughAfghanistan) even by other members of the military. The title Bright Starrefers to the US-Egypt joint military exercise.A war between Egypt andLibya erupts when it is found out that Libya is behind an assassinationattempt.Egypt attacks Libya in retaliation.The war snowballs andthreaten to escalate into another war between USA and USSR. This book alsoputs the character Scott Dixon into a even more major character.We'll seethat the horrors of the last war threaten to ruin his wife and kids.Andsuddenly another woman from the past enters into his life, news reporterJan Fields.

I'm glad to see writer Harold Coylebecome more comofortablewith the characters he created.It's also neat to read additional talesand misadventures of the American and Soviet characters faced in the lastUS-Soviet war.If you've read Sword Point, you'll even appreciate some ofthe feelings and motivations of some of the characters in this book.Thisbook also shows a fact: Americacuts back its military after a majorconflict.

However, Bright Star does suffer from a love affair that istoo sappy for its own good and at some points just too convenient.Thebattles also lack the tension I felt in the previous book.Perhaps becauseAmerica fighting the Russians again is rather old hat in this book.Afterall, the US president in the story is not afraid to attack Soviet airbaselike he's not afraid to bomb Yugoslavia.It also appears there's not muchto be expected of Egyptian attack on Libya.

Anyway, I'm happy I got thebook with a painting of an M1 tank on its cover rather than the ugly foilcover you see at the top of this page. ... Read more

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Harold Coyle is anything but subtle: his characters can't cross a room without the author pausing to reflect on the glory of the soldier's calling. Hispedantic asides often bring the plot to a screeching halt, and he has anunfortunate tendency to present his characters in the manner of anannouncer at a beauty pageant: heavy on the platitudes and light onmeaningful revelation. That said, Coyle has built up a loyal following, and these readers will no doubt be pleased with the obvious au courant sincerity of his latest offering. --Kelly Flynn ... Read more

Customer Reviews (26)

Unbelievably banal
I, like many readers, had high hopes for this one. The premise was excellent - an asteroid triggers an old last-gasp system created by the old USSR.Where oh where to begin?Perhaps the biggest problem is resource allocation - an inordinate amount of time is spent on special forces, the military, the personalities (all about as real as cardboard).Hardly any space was given to the disaster beyond such obvious descriptions as one expects - fire, smoke, destruction, blah blah.The subplot (or main plot, I guess) is wearing thin - a nationalist general seizes control of Russia for his own nefarious purposes and outside forces must prevent this from happening at all costs.But do you call in the French Foreign Legion as the instrument? (LOL)

As the continent tilts toward complete pacifism, novels withEuropean soldiers seem increasingly dated except as (in this case) special forces. I did like the description of the Dead Hand and how it worked - quite interesting.But the uneven pace, the phony dialogue (do military folk actually talk like this?) and hurried ending leave a lot to be desired.I find it hard to recall a single character from the book and this is ten minutes after I finished.This is a "real only at the last resort" type of book.

Great concept - shame about the writing
What happens to an automatic nuclear response system when an asteroid hits Siberia, causing destruction similar to multiple hydrogen bombs? And can a multi-national special forces team survive the inferno, let alone disarm the threat? It sounds a really promising subject for a military thriller, but this book just doesn't deliver on its promise. When I first read Harold Coyle's "Team Yankee", I was enthralled. Set in a similar situation to Tom Clancy's "Red Storm Rising", Coyle's book zoomed in on a single US armoured unit and followed its fortunes throughout the whole of a Soviet attack on Western Europe. Although obviously of interest only to war story fans, "Team Yankee" was as close to perfect of its kind as I ever hope to read. OK, so how does "Dead Hand" compare? The concept is just as good, and rather more imaginative. Even the plotting makes sense, but my enjoyment of the book was completely spoiled by what I can only describe as very poor writing. How could this book have been written by the author of "Team Yankee"? I can only imagine it was written in a tearing hurry, or under some similar difficulty. Infelicities abound; much of the dialogue (like Clancy's in his last one or two books) rings false; and foreign words are frequently misspelt. If you think I am exaggerating, by all means try your luck with this book. I actually threw my copy away after reading about half of it - something I hardly ever do.

Not among Coyle's best - 2 1/2 stars
Although my thoughts are not as negative as many of the reviews listed here, Dead Hand is clearly not among Coyle's best works.The action and frequent battle scenes that typically fill Coyle's works were largely absent here.Instead, Coyle takes the reader on a journey of preparation that leads to the action at the end.During the build-up, Coyle goes on at length about the duty, honor, courage and valor of the soldier, regardless of rank or nation of origin.While this is clearly a noble position to take, the presentation of this theme seems to overwhelm.

A Change in Approach
Harold Coyle, VMI graduate and former armor officer in the US Army has written a group of novels that have captured the loyalty of many readers.I am among that group of loyal fans who seek out his books and then devour them as soon as I buy them.For the most part, I have always liked his story lines and the characters he creates.DEAD HAND, is another of those books that I enjoyed, but found flawed by the all too obvious technical errors that are included within the text.

As other reviewers here have noted, Coyle and his editors were delinquent in their fact-checking and this greatly diminished my enjoyment of the story.Continuing to place the SAS Headquarters of Hereford in Scotland is probably the most egregious error.Any soldier or hobbyist who knows anything about the SAS will note that mistake and snicker in derision.

Where Coyle does a great job with this story line is through the use of his imagination in creating a joint and multi-national force to solve the problem that serves as the plotline for the novel.

Basically, Russia, its central government severely weakened by corruption and the huge land mass of the old Soviet Union is faced with a huge dilemma.The first is that the central government must deal with a renegade general in Siberia who is in control and possession of several ICBM locations.While that is bad enough, the old Soviet government had built their missile fields with doomsday systems.Under the assumption that the Soviet government in Moscow might not survive a nuclear exchange with the USA and the UK, they installed "dead hand systems" in their strategic rocket forces.Designed to launch even without human intervention, they would destroy the United States and the West that had prevailed in a nuclear war, probably as the result of a first strike.

What creates the problem for the Russian government, the democracies in the West and for the men who must disarm this system is that the dead hand system works off seismic shocks.Originally engineered to launch as a result of the shocks that occurred as part of nuclear detonations elsewhere in Siberia, the system appears to have been activated as the result of the impact caused by a large meteor that has struck earth.

Knowing about the system and the renegade general has prompted western military planners to create a multi-national force of elite troops to disarm the most dangerous of the missile fields and the general commanding them.At the same time, the Russian government in Moscow has dispatched its own troops to terminate the general's command and return the missile field to government control.

Coyle does a fine job of building and developing each of the characters.He includes several from the 2eme Regiment Etranger Parachutiste (2eme REP), the 22nd SAS Regiment, US Army Special Forces and veterans of SPETSNAZ.These different military organizations ironically share a common mission and Coyle places a great deal of emphasis and descriptive narration on providing the reader with significant details of their planning, the parachute drops, their road marches and so on.In some cases though, the detail overwhelms the progress of the story and only serves to slow down the pacing of the plotline.

Because of his "padding" of details, this book does not read as quickly as Coyle's earlier efforts.In addition, there were sections where I was tempted to give up on the story altogether.I did not and read the novel to completion probably more out of curiosity to see how it ended and which characters survived.

Without giving away the ending, I think readers of this novel will be somewhat surprised by the approach Coyle uses in his final denouement.It is both unusual and effective and it leaves no doubt in the reader's mind that there has been a definitive final outcome.

While I cannot rave about this offering from Harold Coyle, I am glad I finished.I was dismayed at the factual errors, but at the same time found myself overlooking them as I sought to reach the ending.Suspense is sporadic, but the ending is well done.Mr. Coyle has departed from his formulaic retelling of the Dixon family saga with an up and down ride into the world of elite special ops troops.That makes the book worth investing some time with.

Not the Harold Coyle I Am Used To
I have greatly enjoyed most of Coyle's books in the past, so I expected more of the same in this book.How wrong I was.The plot concept is ripe for quality action and writing, but Coyle instead spends more time waxing poetic about the philosophies of command and the ethos of combat.Of the 298 pages in the book, maybe 8 are vintage Coyle; the rest are drawn out editorials and dull character descriptions.There is next to no character development whatsoever; aside from their respective nationalities, each of the main characters is indistinguishable for the other.I honestly struggled to find the will to finish this book, and I agree with other reviewers that it appears that Coyle was either on a deadline or his new publishing house has an axe to grind. ... Read more

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A Mexican military coup draws the U.S. into a full-scale conflict across the Rio Grande, and commanding officer Scott Dixon, TV reporter Jan Fields, and Lieutenant Nancy Koczak find themselves caught in the middle. 100,000 first printing. $100,000 ad/promo. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Yamabushi's mini reviews pt. VI
I'd call it un-readable, but, unfortunately for me I read it. The plot never `clicks' and the action is about as suspenseful as a falling leaf.

Coyle's novel of men and women at war is excellent....
In Trial by Fire, Harold Coyle's fourth novel (and third in the Scott Dixon series), the United States Army shifts its focus from the recently ended Gulf War and the demise of the Warsaw Pact and onto battlefields and opponents -- this time much closer to home, across the Rio Grande in Mexico.

Set in the early 1990s (most works of fiction often reflect the times in which they are created) a short time after the abortive Moscow putsch, Trial by Fire begins with a deadly and successful coup d'etat in Mexico as the military, fed up with the ruling Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) party's corrupt and inept ways, does away with the President and most of the PRI leadership.Motivated -- mostly -- by patriotism, genuine concern for Mexico's countless millions of poor inhabitants, and a desire to kick the country into the approaching 21st Century, the new Council of 13 moves quickly to sweep aside political opposition and the powerful criminal organizations that practically run some of the country's states.

But when Col. Alfredo Guajardo, one of the members of the new military junta, sets his sights on Hector Alaman, aka "El Dueno" (The Manager), a notorious drug baron whose empire has spread across the entire Caribbean, the New Revolution that he has helped to successfully bring about will be jeopardized by the aftershocks of a daring military raid on Alaman's fortified villa/compound at Chinampas.While the Mexican army's heliborne assault is a nominal success and the huge estate is captured, Alaman himself escapes along with a handful of experienced, ruthless and highly paid mercenaries.

Alaman's escape from the raid at Chinampas will soon prove to be more than an embarrasing incident that can be dismissed by the new rulers of Mexico.Alaman's thirst for revenge has no limits, and together with his little but efficient army of foreign mercenaries, including an American named Childress and Lefleur, a particularly creative Frenchman who will carry out any act of violence as long as his pockets are lined with dollars, the drug lord strikes back.Knowing full well that they alone can't topple the Army and the Council of 13, Alaman and his goons create a series of border incidents to create a Second Mexican-American War.

Coyle, who is one of the best writers of the military fiction genre, once again places Lt. Col. Scott Dixon, veteran of two previous conflicts (chronicled in Sword Point and Bright Star) and Medal of Honor recipient, at the tip of the spear of America's response to the apparent new enemy south of the border.Serving with Dixon once again is Capt. Harold (Hal) Cerro, former airborne officer and veteran of the Iran and Libyan campaigns, and now assigned to the 16th Armored Division, where he will be serving for the first time as a staff officer rather than commanding a company in the field.

Coyle also brings back such memorable characters as Jan Fields, the brash, beautiful, intelligent and dogged reporter who is Col. Dixon's current lover, and whose reporter's instincts and desire to get the story land her in jeopardy and Congressman Ed Lewis, a forner National Guard officer who wants to know the truth about why American troops are being sent into combat in Mexico.

Trial by Fire also introduces a vibrant new character in 2nd Lt. Nancy Kozak, one of the first female officers to be assigned to the Infantry branch as a platoon commander.Coyle does a terrific job in describing Kozak's determination to be "all that she can be" in a profession that was once considered a males-only "brotherhood of war."His portrait of her drive to be a good infantry officer while still being female is a fine example of storytelling at its best, and his knowledge of the military, its equipment, and more importantly, its people and culture, allows Coyle to show the men and women in uniform as believable human beings with real emotions.His novels are somehow smaller in scope than his mentor Tom Clancy's huge technothrillers, but Coyle's depictions of his cast of characters are more appealing.

A good effort from Coyle....
A good effort from Coyle......

All things considered, Trial by Fire was an enjoyable book.I have read a number of Coyle's novels, some of which featured Lt. Nancy Kozak.In Trial by Fire, I had the opportunity to go back to the introduction of Lt. Kozak.The story was not as tight or compelling as some of Coyle's other works, but it was a solid work nonetheless.The plot started quickly with the overthrow of the Mexican government and increased tension between Mexico and the US.The rising anxieties, escalating conflict and troubled negotiations were certainly plausible.For Coyle fans, this novel is worth the time.I am glad that I went back to pick this up.

An ideal presentation of women in combat
The first Harold Coyle book I've read and I must say I enjoyed it a lot.Although the book suffers from technical and factual errors/flaws, itsucceeds in making me care or hate the characters.This being Coyle'sfourth book, he is even more comfortable developing his characters andeffectively introduce new ones.The romance between officer Scott Dixonand reporter Jan Fields feels more comfortable, and not as forced althoughthey all seem to get conveniently involved in every major conflictthroughout the series.

Part of the story is told from the point of viewof a woman who's about to become a commander of her own platon unit.Herexperiences and adventures in the book alone make for a very interestingstory in itself.Some scenes I enjoyed: one officer can't help but stareat her breast, another one where she needs napkins, and what a well-restedsoldier looks like.Kozak's story into the military is a somewhat idealpresentation of the author, and so don't expect a highly realisticexploration of integration of women into the American military.But if theauthor were more serious, we should see other infantrywomen besidesKozak.

The battle scenes are not as descriptive this time.The first dayof war but when you start reading that part, you're already in the middlewhere US troops suffer huge casualties.The Mexicans are shown as highlymotivated and seemingly well-trained for this war.And there's somethingcorny when the troops talk to the main Mexican character, Col. Guajardo. And Mexico seems to be described as a utterly poor country than it actuallyis.Hey, my Diamond Supra modems are made in Mexico.

It's not directlymentioned, but the story does take place in 1995.The president's name wasnever mentioned in the book but if it was Bill Clinton, he would have tohave done something right if he's re-elected 1996 because the presidenthere handles the crisis poorly.:)

I have the book with a cover w/ apainting of a Bradley IFV with the US and Mexican flag in the background. This is a better looking cover than the bland red cover you see in thiswebpage.

Withering hail of poor sentences
Never mind the fact that, based upon my experience as a Bradley platoon leader from 1993-4, I find it impossible to imagine a woman becoming an infantry officer with as few problems and confrontations as Lt. Kozak seemsto encounter in this book.Never mind the fact that a platoon leader has30 or so soldiers, yet there were maybe 4 or 5 at all mentioned, let alonedeveloped, as characters in this novel.And never mind the fact that areader gets zero sense of what it is actually like to be inside a Bradleyin training or in combat (I have not experienced the latter, and can'tpicture it after this novel).The real problem is, Coyle can't write. This example sentence will make my point better than any conclusion I couldpen myself:'With the grace and determination of a wire-guided antitankguided missile, Dixon moved towards the refrigerator.'I don't know aboutyou, but I could probably figure out that a wire-guided missile was,indeed, guided.'Nuff said. ... Read more

Product Description
A novel set in the 1750s, with America's vast riches up for grabs. British and French troops wage continuous war against each other - American colonial militias backing British General Edward Braddock, the Caughnawanga and Algonquin Indian tribes siding with the French. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

american wilderness was vast and wild, this book'sneither
Too many years, too many characters, stretched over too few pages. This book had a lot of potential, but fails everywhere. The story feels plotless and plodding to a dull beat. He provides nothing with which the reader can feel or identify with the time period. The characters are poorly written. The frenchman does not feel french. The scot does not feel scotish. None of the characters have any depth because the author doesn't give them any room in which to grow before the reader or the attention they need. And the author wanders too much over the pages. Literally runninig a historical tour through the period at light speed, without giving the reader any time to feel or see what is going on. Indeed, the reader is given very little to see. No descriptions of the area, people, cloths, dwellings or anything of any kind. A few brief parts make nice short stories, but that is the best that can be said of this book.

History does indeedtend to repeat itself.
This is my introduction to Harold W. Coyle's writing because of my earlier readings of the colonial life in America.The Prologue and Chapter 1 could have been omitted, as they were at an earlier time and not American in any way.It would have been better to start with Chapter 2 as the background info could have been incorporated into the intros.

He admits that his assistant did all the detailed research for this volume.Why, then does he take credit for the entire book?I can't see much documented or which needs to be so.I kept wondering what had been research and what from his imagination.

There was a discrepancy at the very beginning in his rendition of the Native American who was converted to Christianity.Is it true that they regard any person not Indian as 'white'?That's strange, to say the least.

We endured such savage blood-thirsty cruelty in this account of a useless war.But, most of them are -- as they occur.It is the consequences some years on down the road which make them neccesary at that time.

I was most frustrated with this writer's use of prepositions at the end of long, rambling sentences.Maybe he knows what he has in mind, but it gets lost along the way.

Savage Reading
Once again this Harold Coyle starts with lots of promise but quickly fades into mediocrity. There are too many characters and all the various plot lines suffer accordingly. We are given glimpses of the French Indian War but that is all. With 125 pages to go and 3 more years of war the author suddenly drops two characters and their plot lines and races through the remaining acts of the war to conquer New France. The fight on the Plains of Abraham before the gates of Quebec is a mere after thought. The campaigns against Louisbourg are totally overlooked. We get to read about the after effects of raiding parties but we don't get to see any raids. At one point the author describes a scene of canabalism performed on captive white settlers by a character who up to this point had been anything but a "savage". In my opinion, while the novel covers a historical period I believe it is a bad representation of both the British and Native Indians. At one point the author has two characters postulating a future revolt in the America's against the British. While the roots of America's revolution can indeed be found in the French Indian War, the feeling of resentment did not come to the fore till after the conclusion of the war when Britain set about making the colonies pay for their defence. This novel had great potential but is sadly lacking in the end result.

Coyle ventures further into the past
Harold Coyle is one of the followers-on of Tom Clancy. He's done a series of reasonably well-recieved books based on modern potential conflicts. What sets him apart is that one of his main characters in several of the books is female, and she's relatively believable. He's made it so that it's concievable that a woman could be a good officer at the infantry level, which is an accomplishment.
However, Coyle has taken a different tack the last several years. He's been writing historical novels, and though in some ways they're good, he's gotten away from his strenghts. He did two novels on the Civil War (Look Away and Until the End) which rested on a tenuous and predictable plot device: one brother winds up in the Confederate army, the other in the Union one...it was a bit much.
Here, he ventures into the French and Indian wars. He has four main characters, a British officer, a Scotsman who's been transported as a prisoner to Virginia and earned his freedom there, a French artillery officer who is a follower of Rousseau and Voltaire, and an American Indian, who's allied with the French because it gives him a chance to kill whites. The plot device used to connect the characters is that two of them met at Culloden in 1745 (the British officer and the Scotsman). This only sort of works; there's no reason for the other two people to be in the story at all. They see each other on the battlefield (the Frenchman and the Indian have a conflict going on, over when it's reasonable to kill prisoners), but other than that there's no interaction at all between the characters. So the story meanders along, not really anything more than an excuse to hang a recounting of the French and Indian war onto several plot devices. Don't get me wrong: I have no objection to the history itself, it's just that the wooden love scenes in the middle sort of detract from the overall effect. There are parts of the war that get much treatment, because the characters are there, and other parts that get scant or no treatment, because they aren't... Lastly, you're left hanging, waiting for the Revolutionary war sequel, knowing that the colonials will be rebels, wondering what the British officer will do (he marries a wealthy New Yorker towards the end of the book), and wondering completely what's happening to the Indians. It's been four years, and Coyle's written other books, which are modern again. Maybe the sequel was going to be more of the same, and the publisher told him to return to what he's good at.

What to say.....(3.5 stars)
First, it is really just less then a four star book. Coyle must have done a tremendous amount of research for this one. Some of the settings and characters are truly well done. This time period in America (prior to the Revolutionary War) is not real familiar to a lot of folks. This book presents this time very well. It is part history lesson, part action/romance.

At times Coyle was a little long winded when setting up the next scene. But, if you pay attention, you will learn something new about the history of the United States. George Washington make several appearence as a young man in the Colonial Militia. Times were hard back then. Especially on the frontier. The frontier extended all the way out to the Ohio River Valley. A lot of the middle of the book takes place in what they called the Wilderness.

I can reccommend this book. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (7)

This book is not worth the time to read
The book is boring and hard to get into.It rambles on and on.I expect more from Coyle.This should be on the romance shelf because there is very little if any action and what action it has is laid out poorly.Don't waste your money.

Prometheus's Child by Harold Coyle & Barrett Tillman
This is one of three books so far dealing with a fictional Private Company that undertakes missions in the middle east for our government to thwart terrorist activities. The book is well done in its plot and you find it hard to put down once you start reading it. I am eagerly awaiting volume 4 in the series.

Administrative Military Fiction
Surprisingly banal and plodding, there was very little combat in this offering by Coyle and Tillman. Much of the novel focuses on the administrative minutiae of running a mercenary organization -- do we need ex-SEALs or - Rangers? Should we trust the Dept. of State or the NSA? Can we afford to do this or that? These conversations drag on, page after page. A new genre is born: Administrative Military Fiction.

A convincing view into the world of private military companies
Private contractors are much in the news, but despite all the attention (most of it negative) these days, I found that Harold Coyle sheds interesting, informative light on PMCs.While some contractors seem to cross the line on occasion, Coyle's team plays it straight, even when it's dangerous to do so.In that regard, his characters are typical of the security firms I know of.They're well trained, well paid pros in a very dangerous game.(Last I heard, about 1,000 have been killed in the war on terror.)

Another thing I like about this series is Coyle's description of how the operators get hired.After so-called "right sizing" in the 1990s, the US military was caught short handed on 9/11, and private contractors were needed as never before.That's part of the plot in this book, and Coyle and Tillman deserve credit for showing that aspect of the business as nobody else has done, to my knowledge.

Prometheus's Child
The release of the second book in this series is well timed. As the world looks to question the rolls of Private Military Contractors for world governments, this novel gives us a second look at the men and women of Strategic Solutions, Inc and the jobs they under take to protect and serve the interest of the United States when politics and Armies can't make do.This fictional look at a real subject may give you insight into the truth of the real world of the PMC. It is not James Bond, or the Bourne spy series but it is not trying to be. It is a look at a very real way of solving problems through the eyes of fictional PMC's. ... Read more

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