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4.0 out of 5 stars
Great sequel to "Flight of the Intruder", Jan 30 2003
This was Coontsï¿s first sequel to the unmatched ï¿Flight of the Intruderï¿, bringing Jake Grafton back (for the first and ï¿ it seemed in ï¿88 when this book came out ï¿ last time). While ï¿Intruderï¿ took place during the Vietnam war, ï¿Finalï¿ has ï¿Cool-Handï¿ Grafton flying F-14 Tomcats in our times. Though nearly court-martialed at the end of the older book, ï¿Finalï¿ starts off years later with Grafton on the nuclear aircraft carrier ï¿United Statesï¿, having achieved the vaunted position of ï¿CAGï¿ ï¿ the air-wing commander, and the highest ranking aviator a board. (In ï¿Intruderï¿, Grafton deliberately attacked an unauthorized target; just as Graftonï¿s career appeared doomed, President Nixon unleashed the ï¿Christmas Offensiveï¿, and the brass realized that they canï¿t very well court-martial a gung-ho fighter pilot for striking back at the Vietnamese when the President declares an all-out air offensive.) Graftonï¿s job is frustrated by the degree of bureaucracy that stands between him and getting his job done. Unfortunately, this isnï¿t helped by his shipï¿s position in the Med, where it attracts the attentions of a sinister arab mastermind, Col. Quazi. Owing his services to a fanatic arab leader with whom he is at odds, Quazi nevertheless plans and executes a daring and bloody infiltration of Graftonï¿s carrier, with an eye towards its ï¿specialï¿ weapons (okay, its nukes! At the time, the USNï¿s policy was to neither confirm nor deny the existence of nuclear weapons on any of its ships; given that the United States is a huge and modern aircraft carrier, Quazi figures his chances of finding nukes aboard are high). This was a great book, one that turned technothrillers on their head, even if it wasnï¿t as much fun as ï¿Intruderï¿. For one thing, virtually none of the characters that made the older book fun return (like the boisterous and snobby ï¿Razorï¿, the craven ï¿Rabbitï¿ Wilson or the noble and demanding Camparelli; ï¿Tigerï¿ Cole, Graftonï¿s old navigator, doesnï¿t return and his replacement here, ï¿Toadï¿ Tarkington doesnï¿t quite fill Tigerï¿s shoes; ï¿Cowboyï¿ is back, but more on him later), and much of the priceless repartee that Coonts gave his fliers is absent here. Grafton, who was a very approachable character in the older book is more remote here ï¿ owing to both his higher rank (fewer people can talk to him one-on-one) and the complex plot involving terrorists which keeps Grafton from becoming a character central to the book. Coonts seems deliberately dead serious, but he handles it well. Coonts also manages to save the day without relying on the typical technothriller stand-bys: instead of special forces or expert analysts or the heroic and hunky operative, Coonts has the day saved by the embattled sailors of the USS United States, led into battle by its grizzled chiefs. When the gravity of the crisis hits Washington, Coonts manages to avoid creating the typical scene in which the planners and generals are already gathered in front of some situation room in the Pentagon, guaging the situation from countless computer screens (instead, Grafton and company have to conference the situation over the phone with an assistant SecDef, one who ofcourse orders Grafton NOT to fly off into battle). Technothriller authors often insist that their plots are ï¿frighteningly plausibleï¿, but Coonts succeeds here because he embraces the chaos that eludes other writers who are enamored or addicted to plots in which hi-tech and brilliant heroes will save the day in the end. If ï¿Finalï¿ has one big flaw, itï¿s the arabs ï¿ not that their evil, theyï¿re just boring. The plot works at Quaziï¿s reluctance to make his master a nuclear power, but doesnï¿t work that hard at it. Still a worthy read, and one of the great technothrillers suffering only in having been eclipsed by ï¿Intruderï¿.
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