Dreamland (Paperback)

The problem I had with this book is that I sometimes found it difficult to follow what was happening and how various events were related. But, their were fairly detailed descriptions of the various aerial scenarios which are often riveting.

I'm a pretty big Tom Clancy fan and for those of you who've read his work I'll tell you that Brown's writing, unlike Clancy's, focuses much more on the military side to stories and only a little on the political implications. And this story seemed a little less intricate than Clancy's work.

I think the book is pretty good and the stories concerning this top-secret government installation have a lot of room for potential. Dale Brown is no Tom Clancy, but he's talented and has written a novel worth reading if you're really interested.

On a good note, the action scenes were enjoyable, but I found myself not really caring what happenes to the characters in the end. I just wanted to get to the end so I could know what happened, and not completely waste the couple of bucks that I spent on the book. My recomendation if you want to read this book is to check it out at the library.

Enter Colonel Dog Bastian. He takes over Dreamland, figuring it will be ditched by the powers that be. This is the slow, and I mean slow part of the book, pretty much the first one half to two thirds of the book. Generally, we introduce new characters, besides Bastian, including his daughter and pilot Breanna Stockard, and her husband, who is wheel-chaired after a training accident in the prologue, Jeff. A few cameos from Dale Brown's other novels appear, such as McClanahan and Briggs. The only one that takes part in most of this novel from the past novels is Nancy Cheshire.

While they are working on projects at HAWC, tensions are mounting in Somalia, where Iranians are shipping in Silkworm missles. Also, involved is Libya. The Iranians are trying to get a "Greater Islamic League" set up against the west.

Eventually, our friends at Dreamland are sent over, in their modified EB-52 Megafortresses...along with U/MF's Flighthawks, which are unmanned planes flown by Jeff from inside the EB-52.

The novel picks up speed in the last one quarter as we have aerial and land battle scenes. Can the guys and gals of Dreamland succeed in their mission, and if so, this could save the Dreamland facility.

Also enjoyed Brown and Defelice adding some action from the Navy, and Marines in this one. If not for most of the book being slow, this would have ranked higher.

Betting the series will get better, now that the characters have been developed. Worth getting if you're a techno-thriller fan.