Shattered Bone

Rating:
Summary: Who let this one loose?
Review: Briefly, this book was so many wasted hours. Ridiculous plot devices, lost threads, cheesy but amazingly brain-dead characters, frequent use of absurd coincidence. Count yourself lucky if you avoid this piece. One saving grace-type situation was that I gave the book to someone that really annoys me.

Rating:
Summary: Very tired
Review: For a new author, this book reads very tired. The plot is far from original (see Dale Brown), the characters little more than sand-up cutouts (see Al Gore), and based on his descriptions I have to wonder if the only thing he flew was desks. His "hero" makes the near instantaneous jump from fighter jets to B-1 bombers without even blinking.

This is really a shame since the basis was there for a good story about a location and problem that seems rarely touched (see also Larry Bond's Cauldron). I was really looking forward to this - but in the end it was one big mistake.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty bad - Imagine Iron Eagle with a B-1
Review: I found the book rife with unnecessarily complicated plot devices that detracted from the overall read. If they needed to "bring in" Capt Ammon, why didn't he just disappear one day? Or have a car crash? Why this unbelievably complex ejection situation? Were his handlers worried that someone would say, "Hey, an F-16 pilot disappeared. Maybe he's going to steal a B-1!!" And why did they run away at low altitude/high speed after stealing the B-1, which presents a huge, unique signature to anyone with a radar, instead of simply climbing, slowing down, and "looking" on radar like every other bizjet enroute to New Orleans? So much of the plot reads as nonsensical, as if it was only put there to make the story more exciting, not plausible. As an Air Force fighter pilot, I found the technical side filled with inaccuracies that didn't need to be there, even if you get past the "B-1 is the most awesome warplane in the known universe" tripe. "Stew III?" F-16's at Bitburg?

Overall, I found the whole book contrived and unbelievable. I almost quit halfway through, but kept thinking, "Surely this gets better." Nope.

Rating:
Summary: Action packed, a great story and an awesome ending!
Review: I loved the book and couldn't put it down! Great job by Stewart. As a current Air Force Instructor Pilot with over 2,500 hours I can see the vivid realism and exciting details in the storyline (except for the F-16 intercept - but hey, there has to be a little bit of fantasy in everything). The other two books were awesome too (Kill Box and Third Consequence). I hope there are more to come. To the other reviewers of this book, you obviously haven't spent any time in a military jet and don't know what you are talking about. As for his writing style, it was perfectly in harmony with how pilots work, think and FLY! I also found it refreshing that there were some morals displayed by the hero and not the usual [physcial contact] on demand and bad language.

Rating:
Summary: Action packed, a great story and an awesome ending!
Review: I loved the book and couldn't put it down! Great job by Stewart. As a current Air Force Instructor Pilot with over 2,500 hours I can see the vivid realism and exciting details in the storyline (except for the F-16 intercept - but hey, there has to be a little bit of fantasy in everything). The other two books were awesome too (Kill Box and Third Consequence). I hope there are more to come. To the other reviewers of this book, you obviously haven't spent any time in a military jet and don't know what you are talking about. As for his writing style, it was perfectly in harmony with how pilots work, think and FLY! I also found it refreshing that there were some morals displayed by the hero and not the usual [physcial contact] on demand and bad language.

Rating:
Summary: Not enough whomp...
Review: I personally dont think this book is worth the money spent on it. While the premise and general idea was good, the Stewart failed to develop the storyline to its true potential. It could have been SO MUCH MORE!

Characters were not well fleshed out, and ended up as mere skeletons. While Stewart does make an attempt to give his lead character Richard Ammon a personality and to try and make the reader feel for him, somehow he falls short. The result is a rather loosely pieced together character ensemble.

Plot-wise, the book went rather slowly in my opinion. Again, Stewart does try to give us different angles from different POV's but to no avail.

If you HAVE to read this book, get it from the library. Spend you money on something else, like Ken Follett's "Jackdaws" for example.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting read, few flaws for first-timer
Review: I read the reviews and almost didn't get the book, there were so many outright negatives, but there were enough USAF insiders who praised it that I took a chance. I'm glad I did! It held my interest, but had a few flaws. Labeling the Typhoon Class as US subs is a major flub--a decent editor would have caught that one. One reviewer griped about numerous spelling and grammatical errors. Forewarned, I was on the lookout and saw none.
As far as believability: I don't know the B1, but I find the scenario once over Russia a bit implausible.
(***** Spoiler coming!!!! *****)
#1 -- if I'd been prepping the aircraft with the special missile, I'd have removed the nukes as a precaution. With a longer prep window, I would have locked out the navigator's ability to launch same.
#2 -- For you B-1 jocks, doesn't the aircraft commander/pilot have the ability to override actions of the navigator/weapons officer?
#3 -- First we're told that the ground troops wouldn't hear the B-1 until it was immediately upon them--to late to do anything. Then a lone misfit ground soldier has time to not only notice the B-1 coming, but to load, shoulder and launch his missile and down the aircraft--huh?
(**** Done spoiling ******)
Is Chris Stewart the next Tom Clancy? Not yet. He needs a better publisher and editor, and doesn't equal Clancy's research, but the potential is there. I'm encouraged that Stewart has taken the high road and avoided the "commercial" pitfall of coarse language and sex that Clancy fell into after his first couple of books. I'm eager to read his follow-on books and see how this author develops.

Rating:
Summary: bury this book
Review: In "Shattered Bone", one of our nation's most trusted fighter pilots is revealed to be nothing more than a deep-cover plant of the Ukranian KGB. At a pivotal moment long after the cold war has come to an end, and after the spy has come to doubt he will ever have to answer to his masters again, he is plucked out and given one last assignment - steal a B-1 bomber and fly it on a desperate mission. Nevertheless it's incredible that a book so convincing in detail remains not only implausible but unreadable - almost as it were a product of the Ukranian KGB itself. The charachters are flat, whether it's the devious Ukranian spy master or the civilian heads of our own military who - true to form for the technothriller - are pleasingly ignorant about military technology and know less about military technology than the readers of technothrillers. The author can't even drum up any sympathy for our hero dragooned into hijacking a B-1, the titular "Bone". While the details of military procedure reveal their author's expertise (actually, let other experts confirm the veracity) they don't do much for the author's writing since the details are only used to buttress a contrived plot protracted for the sole purpose of displaying minutiae. In short, the Ukrainians use the American pilot to steal a B-1 to fly against Russia. I can accept that the Ukranians haven't enough of their own planes, or any as capable as the B-1, but the sleeper-agent idea - aside from ripping off Dale Brown's "Day of the Cheetah" - seems superfluous, and doesn't make the story more compelling. It's not quite clear just what the story is supposed to do. Why not just use an expert Ukranian pilot - his experience with B-1's couldn't have been any weaker than the American's (The sleeper agent flew USAF F-16's, a world apart from the B-1) and would've allowed the author to portray flying from a commie MiG-driver's perspective (now how often does that happen?). Or better yet, a deep cover spy who was supposed to fly B-1's, but flunked and got sent to fly the proverbial cargo plane full of rubber doggie-poop out of Hong Kong. The elements of the story don't gel, rather they spin out of control and, midway through, I realize that "Shattered Bone" just never takes off. To that extent, "Shattered Bone" makes me appreciate other air-war thrillers, but otherwise follows them closely enough to mirror their faults. As with any technothriller, instead of nuanced charachter development, we get charachter dossiers; instead of articulated scenes, we get floor-plans; everything about "Shattered Bone" seems precisely ruled, rather than subtle like the people who live (and even fly B-1's) in the real world. And last, but not least, the flying scenes won't inspire any spectacular visions of air combat. Were "Shattered Bone" a computer flight simulator, it would comfortably run on your dad's old 386-sx. As a novel, it demands even less of its readers.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best. Couldn't put it down
Review: Shatterd Bone is the most intense book I have ever read. The airial scenes are so detailed. The action never stops! Once you think a situation can't get worse, it does. I could never figure out how it would end.

Rating:
Summary: What a great book
Review: This book had an interesting plot....but it was plagued by many grammatical and spelling errors. There were also other types of errors, such as saying that the U.S. has Typhoon-class subs, which are actually Russian SSBNs. Or the mispelling of 'Kadena' Air Base as 'Kadina' Air Base (I lived on Kadena). Another big thing....what happened to the war between Russia and Ukraine? Did it end after 'certain events at the end of the book' (don't want to give it away to those who haven't read it) or is it still going on? The B-1B is certainly a very capable weapons platform, but I believe you slightly over exaggerated it's capabilities, by stressing again and again how great the Bone is. But I guess that's because you're a Bone jock, ha ha.