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Reviewed by Jim Kalla

Collateral Damage is book number fourteen in Dan Brown’s Dreamland series of action thrillers. It features Captain Turk Mako, U.S. Air Force pilot, assigned to the CIA-Department of Defense Office of Special Technology/Whiplash; Ray Rubeo, president and CEO, Applied Intelligence, a key contractor to the Office of Special Technology; and Jeff “Zen” Stockard, a retired U.S. Air Force Dreamland pilot who is wheel-chair bound and now a U.S. Senator. The action takes place mainly in Libya where rebel forces and government forces are engaged in a seemingly never-ending civil war. An alliance of forces from NATO countries including the United States is in support of the rebel forces and has established a strict no-fly zone in the northern portion of Libya, and a challenge area in the rest of the country.

It was into this hostile environment that Captain Turk Mako flew his Tigershark II experimental plane accompanied by four Sabre unmanned attack planes (UAVs) on a mission to target government based, Russian-made T-52 tanks staged to battle the rebel forces. All signs indicated that the Tigershark II and its UAV’s would be flawless in the destruction of the tanks when catastrophe occurrs. Instead of targeting the tanks, one of the UAVs missiles targeted and struck a hamlet four miles from the intended tank base causing major damage to the village and multiple civilian casualties and injuries – “Collateral Damage”. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Allen Hott

Quite a ride or should I say quite a flight? Collateral Damage is another in the Dreamland series by Dale Brown (some with Jim DeFelice). Mr. Brown, having had a career as a combat pilot, puts his great background into developing stories about flying. His newest one has a lot to do with drones or unmanned flying objects. Because of all of the news recently about drones in the world’s arena this book is very timely.

The story begins with Turk Maco, an American pilot, flying the Tigershark II on a mission over Libya shortly after the rebels had routed Gaddafi from the control of the country. The Tigershark is still a somewhat experimental aircraft and is manned by a semi-prone position pilot who has just about every computer device known to man on board. In fact computers have made this a practically pilot-less craft.
On this particular flight under the auspices of the Allies Turk is flying with four drones which are basically flown from his plane’s computer’s directives. They are on a training type mission but suddenly Turk sights four planes taking off from a Libyan government airfield. Shortly thereafter one of them fires a missile in his direction. The Tigershark easily gets out of the path of the missile and then on command from his on ground support Turk proceeds to shoot down all four of the planes in a fairly easy battle as they are far from the state of flying that his aircraft is. After shooting down the four, Turk turned back to his four UAVs so that they could carry out their mission. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Jim Kalla

A Time For Patriots is book number seventeen in Dale Brown’s series of action thriller books featuring Lt. General Patrick McLanahan. In this book, readers of the Patrick McLanahan series find the McLanahans (father and son) resolutely living in Nevada on a nearly closed-down Air Force base. General McLanahan, recently forced to retire from the Air Force because of his involvement in the American Holocaust affair, has taken on a role as a Colonel in the local Civil Air Patrol along with his son, Brad. Brad, a senior in high school, is working to get his pilot’s license and trying to fit into the social life of the small town near the base.

The action in this book is multi-leveled. The main story line focuses on a series of threats by homegrown terrorists group called the Knights of the True Republic who deploy dirty bombs in their battle against the United States government whom they see as a threat to their rights of self-government. The McLanahans and members of the Civil Air Patrol become increasingly involved in collecting intelligence info on the terrorist group and eventually are attacked themselves. A second story line is the pursuit of General McLanahan by operatives of the Russian Federal Security Bureau who seek revenge on General McLanahan for his part in the bombing and devastation of military sites in Russia in retaliation for the American Holocaust. A third story line is the growing up of Bradley (Brad) McLanahan and his increased involvement in the actions of his father. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Jim Kalla

Raven Strike is book number thirteen in Dale Brown’s Dreamland series of action thrillers. Fans of the Dreamland series have enjoyed reading about the adventures of the team members of the Dreamland and Whiplash organizations as they battled enemies of the United States while fighting for their own existence in the military and political arenas of the American government. Lt. Colonel Tecumseh “Dog” Bastian inherited Dreamland, an advanced aerospace-weapons testing facility, when the Pentagon was looking for an excuse to shut it down. Under his leadership, Dreamland and its people provided a fast-strike, high-tech alternative to conventional military response options.

In Raven Strike, readers meet up again with Lt. Colonel Bastian’s daughter, Breanna Bastian Stockard, a retired Air Force Captain and Megafortress bomber pilot, who is now heading up a combined CIA and Pentagon high-tech wizardry program. Her husband, Jeff “Zen” Stockard, another retired Air Force Dreamland pilot who is wheel-chair bound and now a U.S. Senator is both her biggest supporter and potential adversary. Her main CIA contact is Jonathan Reid whose official title is Special Assistant to the Deputy Director Operations, CIA. Colonel Danny Freah, a Medal of Honor winner, heads up the Whiplash military team that is called in to support the CIA. The in-field CIA agent, Nuri Abaajmed Lupo, is a top CIA operative who is used to working on his own but must now adjust to the quasi-military team to complete his mission – the recovery of a top secret aircraft that has crashed in Africa while on a covert operation to assassinate a Chinese arms dealer. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Jud Hanson

Thor’s Hammer: America’s newest space-based defensive system. It’s capable of striking any place on the planet. Problems with it exist, however, as several of its components began to fail, the result of apparent sabotage. President Gardner has reservations about using it but things become worse when it misses its mark and kills thousands of Pakistani civilians. This provides an opening to China to establish a presence near Middle Eastern ports vital to America’s security. China goes a step further and launches a brutal attack on Somalia pirates’ havens in Somalia, a seemingly altruistic act. Tensions rise, however, when U.S. Naval vessels are attacked and the American space station is held hostage by a joint Chinese-Russian force of spacecraft, demanding the dismantling of Thor’s Hammer. McLanahan is called upon by U.S. Space Defense Force commander Kai Raydon to stop the sabotage of Thor’s Hammer and try to stop tensions from becoming a global war between superpowers. Read the rest of this entry »