Sword Point

Rating:
Summary: It's Something . . . But Not A Novel
Review: "Sword Point" is officially a novel, but it reads more like a popular history of a war that never happened. The style recalls books by Cornelius ("The Longest Day") Ryan and Walter ("Day of Infamy") Lord that I read and enjoyed decades ago. The action cuts back and forth between small groups of participants in different parts of the action, creating a mosaic-like picture of what's going on. This kind of writing makes for page-turning history (though you generally have to go elsewhere for the Big Picture), but flat and uninvolving fiction.

I'm tempted to call Coyle's characters one-dimensional, but that would misrepresent them. It's not (I think) that he tried to write about three-dimensional people and failed, but that he wasn't really interested in the characters *as* people in the first place. Coyle's soldiers are defined by their jobs, not by what they think or feel or say. I found it hard, as a result, to *care* much about any of them. Usually, in a book like this, there's *somebody* whose storyline I'm impatient to get back to. In "Sword Point," there wasn't.

None of this is meant to suggest that "Sword Point" is a bad *book.* It's actually a very good book--a worthy successor to the work of Ryan and Lord--and I learned a lot from it. It is, however, a dismal failure as a *novel.* Proceed at your own risk.

Rating:
Summary: It's Something . . . But Not A Novel
Review: "Sword Point" is officially a novel, but it reads more like a popular history of a war that never happened. The style recalls books by Cornelius ("The Longest Day") Ryan and Walter ("Day of Infamy") Lord that I read and enjoyed decades ago. The action cuts back and forth between small groups of participants in different parts of the action, creating a mosaic-like picture of what's going on. This kind of writing makes for page-turning history (though you generally have to go elsewhere for the Big Picture), but flat and uninvolving fiction.

I'm tempted to call Coyle's characters one-dimensional, but that would misrepresent them. It's not (I think) that he tried to write about three-dimensional people and failed, but that he wasn't really interested in the characters *as* people in the first place. Coyle's soldiers are defined by their jobs, not by what they think or feel or say. I found it hard, as a result, to *care* much about any of them. Usually, in a book like this, there's *somebody* whose storyline I'm impatient to get back to. In "Sword Point," there wasn't.

None of this is meant to suggest that "Sword Point" is a bad *book.* It's actually a very good book--a worthy successor to the work of Ryan and Lord--and I learned a lot from it. It is, however, a dismal failure as a *novel.* Proceed at your own risk.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best combat books I have read!
Review: After serving in the M-2 Bradley's for some years, this book is a welcome site for the other infantrymen around. The commands are realistic. And, the pace is very good. While reading this book I relived all of my experiences in the field. This book was as good his his first, "Team Yankee".

Rating:
Summary: Coyles early work in "Sword Point" is his best.
Review: Although we no longer have to fear from a Soviet invasion of Iran it is still agood book. The use of many Russian characters is a welcome sight indeed and the fact that the U.S. does'nt win all in the end is also something we don't see everyday. If you like extremely realistic land warfare and a very exciting storyline you have to read "SWORD POINT".

Rating:
Summary: Cold War heats up in Iranian desert.....
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Sword Point - Superb military fiction based on doctrine!
Review: From Harold Coyle's first novel "Team Yankee," we learned that he could write extraordinarily well while threading much of his work around what was doctrine, at that time, against the ever present threat of a Soviet Union that was perceived to be bent on world domination. Fortunately, history proved this "threat" to have been a misperception.

With "Sword Point," Harold Coyle proved that one, "Team Yankee" wasn't a fluke and two, that he was capable of even more depth in his story and that he is quite capable of delivering the "punch" in the story at the right time. This is why, when I wish to read a story involving mostly ground warfare and the people that must fight it, I look forward to a novel written by Harold Coyle. Although I truly do enjoy a Clancy novel in which he goes through all of the political machinations before during and after the fighting starts, what I truly like about Coyle's novels is that he doesn't spend too much time on that aspect and goes straight into the battles and the people behind those battles.

From the Foreword, through twenty one chapters and the Epilogue, Harold Coyle placed a hauntingly poignant and quite relevant quote for that chapter, from Karl Von Clausewitz to Arthur Wellesley, each quote is "dead on" appropriate to that chapter. Also of great importance to this novel and for the likes of those from Publishers Weekly who didn't quite understand what was happening in this novel, is a brief description of the graphics and overlays used by the military and a glossary to help with some of the more common terminology used in the military.

The premise:

This is a story put to paper prior to the fall of the "iron curtain" that is told, with frightening clarity, of what could possibly have happened if during the later years of the cold war, the USSR had decided that a play for the Straight of Hormuz and Iran's oil fields would've been worth risking, turning the cold war into a very hot one.

It is the predawn hours of May 25th in the Armenian province of the Soviet Socialist Republic and a Soviet Armored column makes an easy break across the border into Iran. They're headed straight for Tehran and further to the Straight of Hormuz, their mission; secure the country by removing those in power in Tehran and gaining control of the Arab nation's oil fields and reserves.

The Politburo knows that the Iranians do not have the military power to stop them and doesn't believe the Americans will get involved. They're of course wrong as the United States immediately begins to mobilize its forces and heads for Iran in order to stop the USSR from gaining control of this key territory and destabilizing the oil industry.

Along with the threat of the USSR gaining complete control of this key strategic area and the implied possibility that they might use chemical weapons against American and allied forces there is the very real threat that the Iranians, being besieged by both the greater Satan Americans who are there to "help" them, and the lesser Satan Soviets, is the threat that they have a crude nuclear device that they wish to attempt to start world war three with.

I highly recommend this novel to any and all fans of this genre! It is truly a classic in the military/political genre. I myself have been in the Army for several years and have read many of the same training and doctrine treatises that Harold Coyle used as a basis for this story and I am thoroughly impressed by his ability to take these training and doctrine manuals and turn them into such a compelling and intriguing tale of modern warfare. {ssintrepid}

Rating:
Summary: Sword Point
Review: Harold Coyle's second novel is an action packed military thriller in which the Soviet Union invades Iran for their oil and it's up to the US Army to stop them. Unkown to both sides, Iran has developed a nuclear weapon which they intend to use to kill as many Soviet and American soldiers as possible. Coyle uses very little dialogue but still manages to fully flesh out all his characters, American and Russian soldiers. The only problem is there is not much description of Iranian involvment in the conflict, especially since the battleground is their home soil. It started out slow and there were a couple points where the story got a little boring but overall it is action filled and interesting. Coyle puts the reader right inside the tank. Sword Point continues into the superior Bright Star.

Rating:
Summary: A great read
Review: I absolutely LOVE this book and this author. His stories are great eye candy and I cant get enough of them. Sword Point is a great book if you are interested in what a war between the US and the USSR would be like. The only flaw I sound in the book is the supply problem the Russians ran into. I can't imagine the Soviets really running out of gas, especially when their supply lines are far shorters than the Americans. Other than that small item, this book is great. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Work of Military Fiction
Review: I always felt that this fictional war between the US and USSR in Iran was one of the better Military Thrillers. Coyle's first, Team Yankee, was good also. Personally, I liked this one best and then found his writing to go down hill from here. But again, anyone who likes a good technothriller will enjoy Sword Point. Coyle will then use many of these characters in his later, and in my opinion lesser novels.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Work of Military Fiction
Review: I always felt that this fictional war between the US and USSR in Iran was one of the better Military Thrillers. Coyle's first, Team Yankee, was good also. Personally, I liked this one best and then found his writing to go down hill from here. But again, anyone who likes a good technothriller will enjoy Sword Point. Coyle will then use many of these characters in his later, and in my opinion lesser novels.