Battle Born
by Dale Brown
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Book Summary Information
Author: Dale BrownEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-02-27
ISBN: 0553580035
Number of pages: 576
Publisher: Bantam
Book Reviews of Battle Born
Book Review: Brown picks up on story threads from Fatal Terrain
Summary: 4 Stars
Dale Brown returns to the world stage in Battle Born, picking up loose ends from his 1997 technothriller, Fatal Terrain. That novel began as China launched a small-scale nuclear assault on Taiwan after it declared full independence and sovereignty. At the same time, a nuclear explosion in Yokosuka Harbor outside Tokyo destroyed several American warships, including the aircraft carrier USS Independence. Although the Chinese were suspected, the actual culprit was never positively identified. When the United States tried to halt the PRC's attacks against Taiwan, the Chinese retaliated by launching a nuclear attack against U.S. military bases on Guam. A stunned U.S. struck back, effectively destroying both China's air force and its last remaining ICBMs, but afterward chose not to escalate the conflict.
Two years later, the U.S. is keeping a wary eye on the Chinese and trying to mend fences with nervous allies. Japan, for example, fearful of Chinese aggression, has closed down all U.S. military bases. Little does anyone know that another wild card is about to be played, this time by South Korea. A joint U.S.-Japanese-South Korean military exercise goes horribly awry when South Korean pilots race across the DMZ to support a massive people's revolt against the communists. To everyone's surprise, the bold initiative succeeds. Armed with weapons the Chinese provided to the North, the newly minted United Korea becomes the world's newest nuclear power. Ironically, its most likely target is China, who many fear will launch a preemptive strike on the fledgling nation.
Seeking to contain the situation, a shaken U.S. president turns to Generals Terrill Samson and Patrick McLanahan. Backed by technological marvels developed at Groom Lake (a top-secret military facility) and supported by a feisty group of fliers appropriated from the Nevada Air National Guard ("Battle Born" is Nevada's state motto), McLanahan once again enters the fray, this time trying desperately to avert the beginning of World War III. The odds are against him, but this doesn't phase McLanahan a bit -- he's made a career out of bucking the odds.
Obviously pitched toward technothriller fans (Tom Clancy fans will feel right at home here), Battle Born will satisfy general readers as well. For those who crave a charismatic hero, it stars Brown's long-running series character, Patrick McLanahan. For political junkies, it brims with domestic and international intrigue. There's hardware aplenty for techno geeks, air battles for avionics buffs, and plenty of thrills for action fans.
The book also has a serious side. Although Brown could have better depicted the human cost of the carnage (basically, all we get are numbers), he does a great job of casting light on the current global situation. McLanahan's volatile world differs from our own, but not by much. The Korean situation he depicts is especially plausible -- the conditions described in Battle Born are eerily close to those that exist in those troubled countries today. Hopefully, should events develop in our reality as they do in Battle Born, soldiers like Patrick McLanahan will step forward to save the day.
Summary of Battle Born
Patrick McLanahan is back - and this time he faces his most difficult challenge. He must pull together a team of aggressive, maverick young pilots to face a world on the brink of massive nuclear conflict.It begins with a joint U.S.-Japanese-South Korean mock bombing raid. But the South Korean fighter pilots don't stick to the script. Instead, they race across the border into North Korea to support a massive people's revolt against the Communists.
Virtually overnight, the fledgling United Korea is the world's newest nuclear power, igniting a fuse that threatens to blow Asia apart and trigger World War III. Only McLanahan has the top-secret aviation technology and the brash young heroes to stop the coming inferno - if he can get them to stop fighting each other and start fighting as a team before the world is reduced to cinders!
Dale Brown, himself a former air force captain, knows that a good techno-thriller succeeds by its careful blending of the hard realism of modern warfare with the fantasy of sci-fi's best alternative reality stories. In Battle Born, Brown takes pains to frame his reality with all the necessary details. He begins with an extensive, international cast list; three pages of contemporary excerpts from newspapers that address the instability of the Korean peninsula; and finally, an explosive battle simulation in the Nevada desert, rich with the techno-speak of modern warfare: "'Radar altimeter set AUTO, bug set to 830, radar altimeter override armed,' the copilot announced on the interphone. 'Both TFR channels set to one thousand hard ride. Wings full aft. Flight director set to NAV, pitch mode select switch to TERFLW, copilot.'"
As the novel unfolds, we learn of a people's revolt against the Communist leadership of North Korea. The South Koreans, already in possession of their first nuclear weapons after the failed kamikaze run of a North Korean pilot, take advantage of the weakness and destroy key tactical sites in the North, forcing a stunning surrender of the Communist leadership and the reunification of Korea. Now in possession of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, the once fractious Korean peninsula poses a serious threat to China, and the world seems poised for World War III. Enter USAF brigadier general Patrick McLanahan. As head of a new B-1B Lancer tactical strike unit based in Nevada, McLanahan and his men target and destroy enemy missiles. With their Top Gun dramatics, the Lancer unit seems the only safety between stability and global annihilation as Korea and China face off.
While all this seems a bit too fantastic and fast-paced at times, Brown's battle dialogue maintains a narrative intensity that keeps it all fun. He does seem to underestimate the impact (pun intended) of using nuclear weapons in warfare, though; the book is premised on a history that involves the Chinese having used them in strikes on Taiwan, and this new tale treats the subject with somewhat less gravity than might be imagined. That said, one can't help but return to those opening newspaper clips from time to time and wonder if the seeds of Brown's world are indeed contained in the ominous tea leaves of current events. --Patrick O'Kelley
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