Punks Fight

Rating:
Summary: Another hit by Carroll- step aside, Coonts
Review: "Punk's Fight" the third installment in a series about an F-14 fighter pilot, is quite possibly the best. The whole series is consistent in that it describes life in an F-14 squadron like you were there... but this book takes it to another level.
It begins where "Punk's Wing" left off... during Operation Enduring Freedom, when the main characters were carrying out strike missions over Afghanistan... and the first section of the book carries on with this narrative. This part, the most similar to the previous novels, describes the personal conflicts within the air wing (an antagonist from the first novel returns), the practical jokes that aviators carry out on each other and the mixed feelings that fighting a "video game war" causes.
When Punk gets shot down, this all changes. What follows is Harold Coyle one better, an odyssey through war-torn Afghanistan, where Punk meets CIA agents, warlords, and special operations troops, all characters that leap off the pages and were probably based off real people that Carroll met.
The life of Punk is wrought from Carroll's experience- he was an F-14 RIO- but the gross majority of the book truly expresses his talent in that it is a product of research on his behalf and is still so realistic. He describes the sights, sounds, and (yes) smells of life in Afghanistan like he was there. And that is just a few reasons why this is one of the greatest thrillers written... and I have read quite a few.
Coonts has moved on to action-style thrillers... Carroll has more than replaced him as the definitive author of aviation thrillers.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful, uncommon, but too short.
Review: Lt. "Punk" Reichart, the fictional F-14 driver introduced in "Punk's War" is back. ("Fight" is actually the third of the 3 books Mr. Carroll has written to date - and if I missed "Punk's Wing", "Fight" was the best excuse to rectify that oversight as soon as possible). In "Fight" Punk is back flying F-14 fighters in combat - now in strike missions against the Taliban in Afghanistan in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. (Though Tomcats had served as interceptors exclusively since entering the US fleet at the end of the Vietnam war era, by the time they flew in the Albania campaign, they had been adapted to carrying gear needed to "deliver" smart-bombs against ground targets, and even direct strikes for smart bombs launched by other airplanes.) Punk is restless while at sea - convinced that his will be remembered more than "Desert Storm" as the "videogame war". When a carrier-launch mishap kills two senior officers, Punk finds himself bumped up the chain of command. Not quite a mixed-blessing, Punk finds himself re-united with Captain Alex "Soup" Campbell - the glory-hunting senior aviator who put Punk and his squadron mates at risk in "War". (Soup's credentials as a grad of "Top Gun" and the "Blue Angels" masked an incompetent leader eager to grab glory, regardless of price.) The action ramps up a notch when Punk finds himself shot down over Afghanistan. Now seeing the war from a different angle - Punk will meet vicious Taliban, treacherous warlords, ghostlike US Special Forces soldiers and their CIA run-betweens. Back on ship, Campbell is forced to confront his private demons and a board of enquiry when - on his first mission - he takes out an SUV apparently loaded with refugees. Officially lionized after being shot down in "War", Campbell knows that he has few real friends, and the Navy has no shortage of resentful officers ready to sink his career. Will Punk survive Afghanistan? Has Campbell learned his lesson?

Like "Punk's War", "Punk's Fight" is stirring, believable, but leaves you hungry. It's not a big book - it doesn't seem that much bigger than one of the stories that have been appearing in the "Combat" anthologies - and it touches on many plot ideas that it never really explores (like the sloppy flying of some of Punk's fellow pilots, or the unevenly friendly relations between the pilots of various coalition air forces; we also meet some of the other senior officers of the ship and quickly learn that they're at least as out of their element as Soup is - but we see little of the friction between senior officers that marked "Punk's War"). Carroll's plotting is no-nonsense - he doesn't add that many flying or fighting scenes, probably to avoid the techno-over-kill that lesser authors use to plump up their thin plots. Unfortunately, that would have actually been the better strategy - Carroll goes so much farther than most in capturing both the feeling of being in the cockpit of a heavy-metal fighter jet and the uneasy professionalism of those who fly them, that some extra flying/fighting scenes would have been welcome. (The key? Non-interchangeable pilots with their own POV; also Carroll keeps the perspective locked into the cockpit of the F-14, so we're forced to see things as his pilots do. It's a simple strategy ignored by the vast majority of technothriller writers). In sum, it's fun, but short.

For a non-fiction perspective on F-14's in their new combat role, check out "Black Aces High" by Robert Wilcox.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful, uncommon, but too short.
Review: Lt. "Punk" Reichart, the fictional F-14 driver introduced in "Punk's War" is back. ("Fight" is actually the third of the 3 books Mr. Carroll has written to date - and if I missed "Punk's Wing", "Fight" was the best excuse to rectify that oversight as soon as possible). In "Fight" Punk is back flying F-14 fighters in combat - now in strike missions against the Taliban in Afghanistan in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. (Though Tomcats had served as interceptors exclusively since entering the US fleet at the end of the Vietnam war era, by the time they flew in the Albania campaign, they had been adapted to carrying gear needed to "deliver" smart-bombs against ground targets, and even direct strikes for smart bombs launched by other airplanes.) Punk is restless while at sea - convinced that his will be remembered more than "Desert Storm" as the "videogame war". When a carrier-launch mishap kills two senior officers, Punk finds himself bumped up the chain of command. Not quite a mixed-blessing, Punk finds himself re-united with Captain Alex "Soup" Campbell - the glory-hunting senior aviator who put Punk and his squadron mates at risk in "War". (Soup's credentials as a grad of "Top Gun" and the "Blue Angels" masked an incompetent leader eager to grab glory, regardless of price.) The action ramps up a notch when Punk finds himself shot down over Afghanistan. Now seeing the war from a different angle - Punk will meet vicious Taliban, treacherous warlords, ghostlike US Special Forces soldiers and their CIA run-betweens. Back on ship, Campbell is forced to confront his private demons and a board of enquiry when - on his first mission - he takes out an SUV apparently loaded with refugees. Officially lionized after being shot down in "War", Campbell knows that he has few real friends, and the Navy has no shortage of resentful officers ready to sink his career. Will Punk survive Afghanistan? Has Campbell learned his lesson?

Like "Punk's War", "Punk's Fight" is stirring, believable, but leaves you hungry. It's not a big book - it doesn't seem that much bigger than one of the stories that have been appearing in the "Combat" anthologies - and it touches on many plot ideas that it never really explores (like the sloppy flying of some of Punk's fellow pilots, or the unevenly friendly relations between the pilots of various coalition air forces; we also meet some of the other senior officers of the ship and quickly learn that they're at least as out of their element as Soup is - but we see little of the friction between senior officers that marked "Punk's War"). Carroll's plotting is no-nonsense - he doesn't add that many flying or fighting scenes, probably to avoid the techno-over-kill that lesser authors use to plump up their thin plots. Unfortunately, that would have actually been the better strategy - Carroll goes so much farther than most in capturing both the feeling of being in the cockpit of a heavy-metal fighter jet and the uneasy professionalism of those who fly them, that some extra flying/fighting scenes would have been welcome. (The key? Non-interchangeable pilots with their own POV; also Carroll keeps the perspective locked into the cockpit of the F-14, so we're forced to see things as his pilots do. It's a simple strategy ignored by the vast majority of technothriller writers). In sum, it's fun, but short.

For a non-fiction perspective on F-14's in their new combat role, check out "Black Aces High" by Robert Wilcox.

Rating:
Summary: Punk, a real hero
Review: Mr. Carroll has the unique ability to merge today's headlines with believable fiction to create a compelling story. This book takes Punk into every aviator's worst nightmare: on the ground in the middle of a shooting war. As he struggles to keep up with the Special Ops Grunts, he realizes that the true heroes in modern war are not the "Glam-Rock" aviators with their Ray-Ban shades and cocky, presumed invincibility. He is humbled (as we all should be) by the selfless dedication and bravery of the troops on the ground. Bravo!

Rating:
Summary: Punk, a real hero
Review: Mr. Carroll has the unique ability to merge today's headlines with believable fiction to create a compelling story. This book takes Punk into every aviator's worst nightmare: on the ground in the middle of a shooting war. As he struggles to keep up with the Special Ops Grunts, he realizes that the true heroes in modern war are not the "Glam-Rock" aviators with their Ray-Ban shades and cocky, presumed invincibility. He is humbled (as we all should be) by the selfless dedication and bravery of the troops on the ground. Bravo!

Rating:
Summary: Not the usual but good nonetheless
Review: Punk's Fight wasn't what followers f Ward Carroll would call typical. Instead of numerous scenes in the cockpit, we were treated to a vivid story of a pilot shot down.

Carroll's storyline included the usual action-flight scenes I was expecting but took a turn when Punk was shot down. The events on the ground seemed a little too good to be true. For such a short book, it contained a lot of story lines. None were developed like they had been in previous books. Punk's captivity under a Chechan butcher lasted only pages before being picked up by a CIA/Green Beret team he would stay with for the duration of the book.

In the end the book was interesting and fun but some points lacked credibility and were just too shallow. If so many topics are going to be included (and Carroll gets extra points for the effort), the book should have been longer. A reader wouldn't object to another 50 to 100 pages.

Rating:
Summary: Not the usual but good nonetheless
Review: Punk's Fight wasn't what followers f Ward Carroll would call typical. Instead of numerous scenes in the cockpit, we were treated to a vivid story of a pilot shot down.

Carroll's storyline included the usual action-flight scenes I was expecting but took a turn when Punk was shot down. The events on the ground seemed a little too good to be true. For such a short book, it contained a lot of story lines. None were developed like they had been in previous books. Punk's captivity under a Chechan butcher lasted only pages before being picked up by a CIA/Green Beret team he would stay with for the duration of the book.

In the end the book was interesting and fun but some points lacked credibility and were just too shallow. If so many topics are going to be included (and Carroll gets extra points for the effort), the book should have been longer. A reader wouldn't object to another 50 to 100 pages.

Rating:
Summary: Punk's Fight
Review: The last book in the "Punk" series, Punk's Fight takes place during the early days of warfare in Afghanistan. This book takes a larger stretch from reality than the previous two, as numerous deus ex machina events, such as both the Skipper and CAG perishing after a bad cat shot, Punk and Spud shooting down their own aircraft due to a fusing difficulty with a bomb, and Punk spending days on end integrated into a Special Forces team on the ground in Afghanistan drive the plot. Spud has now had to eject 4 times, and has been serving in the Navy continiously from the Vietnam War(according to Punk's War) to the present day. If I were him, I would first stop flying with Punk, and then retire, as I would now have at least 30 years in.
Despite any types of plot stretches, the book is still great, because of the basic honesty in its depiction of its main character, Punk, all of the supporting characters, and its presentation of the Navy and its lifestyle. This is the thread of truth that runs through all of these books, and keeps them believable and completely engaging, despite anything else. Despite the dubious circumstances of his recieving it, one of the best moments in the book was Punk's letter from "the boys in the ready room" while he was on the ground in Afghanistan.
Overall, this is an amazing book well worth checking out, and one which always seems completely realistic, despite any stretches in the plot.