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Rating: 
Summary: horrible... what happened?
Review: i don't know what happened to the author, but i've read all the books in both his series.... and when i finished this one... i didn't feel like continuing on. the book was nothing like the ones which he wrote in the past. grammatical errors, spelling errors, poor plot developments, and some characters were just dropped from the book. for those who did read it, where did tomboy go? and why would the chinese attack hawaii? for fun? there was no reason in the book why they did that. it just... happened... and because this took place at pearl, there was some history involved. excuse me, but i wasn't aware that the uss arizona was blown up by a kamikaze. kamikazes didn't even show up until iwo jima and okinawa. what happened?
Rating: 
Summary: Die hard Keith Douglass fan
Review: I have been an avid reader of Keith Douglass for several years now. I especially love the books that have both the Carrier and Seal Team characters working together. This book was very good with only one exception and that would be that there wasn't a lot of action by the Seal Team. Nevertheless, it was a top quality action adventure. I have all of his Carrier and Seal Team books and it is a nice addition to my collection. Keep them coming Mr. Douglass!!
Rating:
Summary: Die hard Keith Douglass fan
Review: I have been an avid reader of Keith Douglass for several years now. I especially love the books that have both the Carrier and Seal Team characters working together. This book was very good with only one exception and that would be that there wasn't a lot of action by the Seal Team. Nevertheless, it was a top quality action adventure. I have all of his Carrier and Seal Team books and it is a nice addition to my collection. Keep them coming Mr. Douglass!!
Rating: 
Summary: Exciting read, but left you feeling unsatisfied.
Review: This was a very interesting book to read. On the one hand, I was engrossed by the plot and narrative. It has a very cinematic style which I enjoy and it's all action, no love stories, extensive backgrounds, etc. Even then, the characters are interesting and well developed, especially when you consider the quantity of them, though some were dumped as the story developed. However, this book has lots of blatant errors and got less believable as it progressed. The loss of an important submarine communications system is forgotten, the Arizona is said to have been sunk by Kamikazes, submarines diving below the thermocline layer IN PEARL HARBOR, a submarine pushing the wreck of the Arizona, and lots of other stupid errors detract from the narrative. There are even many spelling and grammar errors. Then, there are the huge errors, like the idea that we would not attack enemy aircraft over any of Hawaii because of the potential for collateral damage, preferring to relinquish air superiority to the enemy, that Hawaii seems to consist of only one island, or that we would allow attacking ships to sit right off shore launching an aerial assault and potentially an invasion without dumping a bunch of Harpoons into them. Worst of all, you are set up for a big strategic solution for the problem that never gets presented. The implied solution is so ludicrous that nobody would ever believe it. The book seems to end suddenly without providing you the punch you expected. You leave feeling like there is something yet to come that we are missing. I actually was thumbing back to try to figure out what I might have missed. This book has a great idea, a new attack of Pearl Harbor with an occupation, taking advantage of the overconfidence that seeps back in over time. With a bit of background (that was not included), it could have had as much plausibility as the idea that Argentina might attack a British Island (which it did). But, that was not there, so you wonder just why any of this is happening. Even then, I could have ignored that had the book's approach to the battle made any sense. One other major complaint about this book is that all action is local and seems small. There does not seem to be any help from the Air Force, who could have fighters in the area in hours, from satellite surveillance (they actually send two civilians in a pleasure boat to figure out what the bad guys are doing), from military intelligence, or from anyone. The air battles seem to include only four planes on each side. The task force seems to ignore all support ships and the ships that left Pearl other than one we use late in the story. We know the SEAL team has a big thing going on, but we only get reports that they have done this and that impossible thing. The addition of nuclear weapons to the story seems to ignore the potential retaliation elements or any political issues and what the Chinese decide to do with the bomb is so absolutely ridiculous you have to wonder who would think up something so dumb. Then there are the military elements that were really far fetched. This book is written as technical as possible, which I liked, but I really don't think the author knows much about what he is talking about. The approaching small craft would not be handled by the carrier; some escort ship would take care of it. I doubt a US hunter-killer submarine would lose a diesel sub once it had located it and it definitely would not miss if it shot a torpedo at it, nor would it have failed to sink the Chinese ships consider they knew where they were. The US carrier uses cell phones to communicate sensitive information? The Chinese carrier uses sophisticated electronics to locate the US carrier, when it's made clear later in the story that they are within visual distance of each other (which would NEVER happen). Oh, and the glossary was nice, but did not include the terms I didn't know, it only included basic ones I already knew. All in all, a very frustrating book.
Rating:
Summary: Exciting read, but left you feeling unsatisfied.
Review: This was a very interesting book to read. On the one hand, I was engrossed by the plot and narrative. It has a very cinematic style which I enjoy and it's all action, no love stories, extensive backgrounds, etc. Even then, the characters are interesting and well developed, especially when you consider the quantity of them, though some were dumped as the story developed. However, this book has lots of blatant errors and got less believable as it progressed. The loss of an important submarine communications system is forgotten, the Arizona is said to have been sunk by Kamikazes, submarines diving below the thermocline layer IN PEARL HARBOR, a submarine pushing the wreck of the Arizona, and lots of other stupid errors detract from the narrative. There are even many spelling and grammar errors. Then, there are the huge errors, like the idea that we would not attack enemy aircraft over any of Hawaii because of the potential for collateral damage, preferring to relinquish air superiority to the enemy, that Hawaii seems to consist of only one island, or that we would allow attacking ships to sit right off shore launching an aerial assault and potentially an invasion without dumping a bunch of Harpoons into them. Worst of all, you are set up for a big strategic solution for the problem that never gets presented. The implied solution is so ludicrous that nobody would ever believe it. The book seems to end suddenly without providing you the punch you expected. You leave feeling like there is something yet to come that we are missing. I actually was thumbing back to try to figure out what I might have missed. This book has a great idea, a new attack of Pearl Harbor with an occupation, taking advantage of the overconfidence that seeps back in over time. With a bit of background (that was not included), it could have had as much plausibility as the idea that Argentina might attack a British Island (which it did). But, that was not there, so you wonder just why any of this is happening. Even then, I could have ignored that had the book's approach to the battle made any sense. One other major complaint about this book is that all action is local and seems small. There does not seem to be any help from the Air Force, who could have fighters in the area in hours, from satellite surveillance (they actually send two civilians in a pleasure boat to figure out what the bad guys are doing), from military intelligence, or from anyone. The air battles seem to include only four planes on each side. The task force seems to ignore all support ships and the ships that left Pearl other than one we use late in the story. We know the SEAL team has a big thing going on, but we only get reports that they have done this and that impossible thing. The addition of nuclear weapons to the story seems to ignore the potential retaliation elements or any political issues and what the Chinese decide to do with the bomb is so absolutely ridiculous you have to wonder who would think up something so dumb. Then there are the military elements that were really far fetched. This book is written as technical as possible, which I liked, but I really don't think the author knows much about what he is talking about. The approaching small craft would not be handled by the carrier; some escort ship would take care of it. I doubt a US hunter-killer submarine would lose a diesel sub once it had located it and it definitely would not miss if it shot a torpedo at it, nor would it have failed to sink the Chinese ships consider they knew where they were. The US carrier uses cell phones to communicate sensitive information? The Chinese carrier uses sophisticated electronics to locate the US carrier, when it's made clear later in the story that they are within visual distance of each other (which would NEVER happen). Oh, and the glossary was nice, but did not include the terms I didn't know, it only included basic ones I already knew. All in all, a very frustrating book.
Rating: 
Summary: A joint op in name only
Review: When I first saw it, I thought it was going to be a crossover like Ed McBain's "The Last Best Hope," but it's closer in style to any of those multi-franchise STAR TREK novel series like "Invasion!," "Day of Honor," "The Captain's Table," and "Badlands" in that the story gets continued in the SEAL TEAM SEVEN novel "Tropical Terror." There's more focus on submarine warfare in it than aerial combat, and the ST7 contribution is basically "Plus we've got SEAL Team Seven." It also has the usual near-whining of all the characters (and probably Douglass) that the series seems to have picked up: "We can't engage the Chinese over land or we'll kill civilians!" "Bill Clinton sold out the military!" "The F-18 Hornet's a piece of junk!"
Rating:
Summary: A joint op in name only
Review: When I first saw it, I thought it was going to be a crossover like Ed McBain's "The Last Best Hope," but it's closer in style to any of those multi-franchise STAR TREK novel series like "Invasion!," "Day of Honor," "The Captain's Table," and "Badlands" in that the story gets continued in the SEAL TEAM SEVEN novel "Tropical Terror." There's more focus on submarine warfare in it than aerial combat, and the ST7 contribution is basically "Plus we've got SEAL Team Seven." It also has the usual near-whining of all the characters (and probably Douglass) that the series seems to have picked up: "We can't engage the Chinese over land or we'll kill civilians!" "Bill Clinton sold out the military!" "The F-18 Hornet's a piece of junk!"
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