Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I found the plot of "Black Star" pretty unrealistic, but it was audacious enough that I'm giving the book four stars.
The story starts a bit slow, but the last half of the book makes up for it, with many exciting descriptions of military conflicts. Character development is not all that great, but above average for a techno-thriller.
The best parts of the book are the fantastic descriptions of aerial dogfights and naval battles. Surprisingly, I thought that some of the battle scenes between various Taiwanese and Chinese naval vessels were more exciting than the aerial shoot-outs. Robert Gandt is good at making both kinds of combat scenes come alive.
My criticism about the lack of realism in the plot concerns the mission launched by the U.S. and Taiwanese military to steal an advanced Chinese stealth fighter. This sounds pretty crazy to me - I'm sure that in a real wartime situation that the allied forces would decide to simply destroy this aircraft. After all, the Chinese built this airplane using plans (stolen from the USA) for a corresponding American airplane. Why risk major loses trying to steal military "secrets" that you already have?
Still, it's an audacious undertaking and the story of how the mission works out is very exciting.
Another plus point is that there is some humor in the story. For example, there's an Air Force Major who fills the role of providing comic relief.
On the other hand, an additional minus point is that a totally unnecessary extra conflict takes place in the last chapter.
If you like military techno-thrillers about naval warfare in general and especially about naval aviation then I'd like to recommend this book.
Rennie Petersen
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Commander Brick Maxwell and his squadron of Super Hornets are flying cover for the President of Taiwan's jetliner when it mysteriously explodes and falls from the sky.Other than a slight shimmer of light preceding the catastrophe, there is no visible cause for the disaster.But ex-test pilot and astronaut Maxwell suspects that China has somehow acquired the technology of the U.S.'s most secret weapon — the superstealth fighter called Black Star.As war erupts between China and Taiwan, Maxwell and a team of commandos must hijack the exotic Chinese killing machine .But with a beautiful defector of dubious loyalty guiding them, the mission could turn into a death trap.
