Rating: 
Summary: A competent start to a consistently improving series.
Review: I plowed through Harold Coyle's Dixon series in haphazard disorder. Reading this first installment, I couldn't help but feel that he was still honing his skills in epic storytelling. He focuses narrowly on a rather simplistic scenario, while peopling his story with a huge number of shapeless characters, among whom the principal participants would become more familiar with each successive sequel. Many of his secondary characters start out promisingly only to be neglected and eventually forgotten. Compounding problems is a jumpy narrative that leaves gaps where more detailed exposition would have been better. Sometimes an intriguing thread is started and developed slightly, gaining the reader's interest, only for the story to jump forward several days without resolving preceeding events satisfactorily.Still, Sword Point is a worthy read, if only for the great combat scenes (an area in which Coyle clearly excels!), not to mention a peek into the origins of people like Dixon, Vorishnov and Ilvanich.
Rating: 
Summary: A must-read for cold-war techno buffs.
Review: Sword Point is a must read for any cold war afficionado. Here the classic "what-if" confrontation of Americans vs. Russians during the 1980's is realized. Harold Coyle describes in detail how war might have been like on a modern battlefield. Never have I read such a book where technical information was used in such an exciting fashion. Simply put, this book puts a lot of emphasis on the machines for waging war and the men and women that operate them. Though not as in-depth as Tom Clancy might get, Harold Coyle succeeds in feeding the imagination with an exciting story of how war might have been like using the machines that actually exist today. Bottom line: Most reading occurs on the battlefield and away from the political arena and the home front. In essence, this book is about what a modern battle field would have looked like if the cold war had actually gone hot.
Rating:
Summary: A must-read for cold-war techno buffs.
Review: Sword Point is a must read for any cold war afficionado. Here the classic "what-if" confrontation of Americans vs. Russians during the 1980's is realized. Harold Coyle describes in detail how war might have been like on a modern battlefield. Never have I read such a book where technical information was used in such an exciting fashion. Simply put, this book puts a lot of emphasis on the machines for waging war and the men and women that operate them. Though not as in-depth as Tom Clancy might get, Harold Coyle succeeds in feeding the imagination with an exciting story of how war might have been like using the machines that actually exist today. Bottom line: Most reading occurs on the battlefield and away from the political arena and the home front. In essence, this book is about what a modern battle field would have looked like if the cold war had actually gone hot.
Rating:
Summary: Decent but not outstanding
Review: This is a decent showing. There's no central character, but that seems to have been intentional: by not focusing too much on any particular individual, we get glimpses of the effect of war on various soldiers on both sides. There are numerous flaws, though, most notably the fact that there seems to be very little reason to set the battle in Iran. Maybe by setting the novel in an "out-of-the-way" country, Coyle wanted to avoid too many preconceived notions on the part of the reader. Unfortunately, since for the most part nothing is done in the book to really set the book in Iran (other than desert battles and fanatic Iranians), the setting is mostly an afterthought. Further, Coyle doesn't delve as deeply into the motivations of his characters as he did in "Team Yankee", which is a far better thought-out novel. Major Scott Dixon, a recurring character in several of Coyle's later novels, makes his appearances, and there are some particularly moving moments. especially towards the conclusion of the novel, involving dead American soldiers. But the strategy of not spending too much time on any particular character has the sad effect of making it difficult to really care about any of them. One other notable characteristic is the fact that the reader is never given much of an explanation or rationalization of the US' involvement in a Soviet invasion of Iran. At first, this was a major annoyance, until it dawned on me that Coyle was making a subtle point about soldiers as implements of policy without necessarily understanding those policies or even knowing what they are, similar to Vietnam. Overall, this isn't as good a novel as his first effort "Team Yankee", which did a better job of exploring the psyche of the line soldier (Coyle's fundamental motif). But it's decent enough on its own. The author has a point he's trying to make, and he does indeed do so.
Rating:
Summary: Great book about an Iran war, but where are the Iranians?
Review: This is one of Harold Coyle's best books. It describes a major war between the US and Soviet Union taking place in Iran. This book is actually Coyle's exploration of what it would be like if the American and Soviet army doctrines and strategy were pitted against one another. The story taking place in Iran is not an exploration of what a US-Soviet war there will be like. By taking the story to Iran, Coyle removes virtually any interference from either countries' allies and completely focus between American and Soviet strategies (plus the fact that his previous book, Team Yankee, took place in Europe so it would be rehashing if it takes place there again). I have one minor annoyance about this book (and the rest of his series). Among them is the fictionalization of current (at the time) names and numbers of Army units and Navy ships. For example, there is no 17th Airborne Division in the US Army. The only airborne division is the 82nd. There is no aircraft carrier named USS Franklin in service in the 1980's. The carrier was an excuse to start the war, and later there's the pyschological appease for the readers in two instances. One of those involve the USS Franklin and a Soviet aircraft carrier. The other is the loss of a planeload of American troops and a Iranian attack on a Soviet tank column. Coyle is at his best when he describes the characters involved in the battles. The book focuses mostly on the soldiers, both American and Soviet, in the situation they are in. The description of the theatre of war is limited to Iran only. The reactions of Iran's neighbor, what the Iranian civilians and military think of the war is not explored much. And we don't see Iranians collaborating with either American or Soviet forces. This book is good when it comes to details of troop movements, the battles and the not so pretty sight of war from the soldiers' points of view. However, I feel rather slighted that for a story mostly set in Iran, Iranians are treated only like a footnote here.
Rating:
Summary: Great book about an Iran war, but where are the Iranians?
Review: This is one of Harold Coyle's best books. It describes a major war between the US and Soviet Union taking place in Iran. This book is actually Coyle's exploration of what it would be like if the American and Soviet army doctrines and strategy were pitted against one another. The story taking place in Iran is not an exploration of what a US-Soviet war there will be like. By taking the story to Iran, Coyle removes virtually any interference from either countries' allies and completely focus between American and Soviet strategies (plus the fact that his previous book, Team Yankee, took place in Europe so it would be rehashing if it takes place there again). I have one minor annoyance about this book (and the rest of his series). Among them is the fictionalization of current (at the time) names and numbers of Army units and Navy ships. For example, there is no 17th Airborne Division in the US Army. The only airborne division is the 82nd. There is no aircraft carrier named USS Franklin in service in the 1980's. The carrier was an excuse to start the war, and later there's the pyschological appease for the readers in two instances. One of those involve the USS Franklin and a Soviet aircraft carrier. The other is the loss of a planeload of American troops and a Iranian attack on a Soviet tank column. Coyle is at his best when he describes the characters involved in the battles. The book focuses mostly on the soldiers, both American and Soviet, in the situation they are in. The description of the theatre of war is limited to Iran only. The reactions of Iran's neighbor, what the Iranian civilians and military think of the war is not explored much. And we don't see Iranians collaborating with either American or Soviet forces. This book is good when it comes to details of troop movements, the battles and the not so pretty sight of war from the soldiers' points of view. However, I feel rather slighted that for a story mostly set in Iran, Iranians are treated only like a footnote here.
Rating:
Summary: One Trick Pony
Review: This is the second book by this author that I have read hoping it would be a bit better. I am now sure that about the only thing the author does do well is to provide you with one thing - combat action. If you are looking for a Clancy type lead up and details do not look here, but if you are looking for raw action then this is it. The story does not really do much for you, nor the cast of characters. Reading this book is like watching an auto race on TV, you can do it with only one eye on it and you really are only looking for the crashes - here you are only reading to get from on action section to another.
Rating:
Summary: One Trick Pony
Review: This is the second book by this author that I have read hoping it would be a bit better. I am now sure that about the only thing the author does do well is to provide you with one thing - combat action. If you are looking for a Clancy type lead up and details do not look here, but if you are looking for raw action then this is it. The story does not really do much for you, nor the cast of characters. Reading this book is like watching an auto race on TV, you can do it with only one eye on it and you really are only looking for the crashes - here you are only reading to get from on action section to another.
Rating:
Summary: Another good one from Coyle
Review: While I prefer historical fiction like THE WINDS OF WAR or THE TRIUMPH AND THE GLORY, to speculative future war novels, Harold Coyle always does such a terrific job with his books that I always buy his books when they come out. Sword Point is excellent, read it. That's an order.
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