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2.0 out of 5 stars
Great idea undermined by weak writing and charachters, Jun 29 2001
"Targets of Opportunity is either a sequel to "Rules of Engagement" or the next installment in a series that began with that book and charts the adventures of fictional marine Corps aviator Brad Austin in the hostile skies of Vietnam. In "Rules", Austin disobeyed official policy to shoot down a Vietnamese ace responsible for claiming numerous American airmen. In "Targets", having escaped punishment for his actions in the previous book, Austin is now assigned a plum - if completely secret - assignment: fly a captured Russian jet into Vietnamese airspace, and shoot down every North Vietnamese aircraft he can find. While some higher-ups would like to keep the purloined plane (a MiG-17) stateside for testing, a maverick flier insists on using the plane to sidle up to communist pilots and waste them. Taught some Russian, given false papers, and some training in flying the none-too cooperative little jet, Austin sets out from a hidden jungle airbase near the DMZ, and proceeds to dig into the North's air force. Expertise and the element of surprise do little against the superior numbers of the enemy, and, though free of his country's restrictive rules of engagement, he can't rely on help from them either. Overwhelmed in the air, Austin finds his hidden airport under siege.Because "Targets" is a more original story than "Rules" it's sadder that it's written just about as well. Characters are pretty much cardboard, undeveloped and static. Dialog is similarly one sided and flat. The plot doesn't go far from the basic premise - just flying a highly secret mission and shooting down as many enemy jets as the hero can find. There is no sense that author Joe Weber is working towards a bigger payoff, like a duel between Austin and an imported Soviet pilot who's no fool, or with an American pilot who simply doesn't realize who he's flying against. The author also misses some golden moments of irony - like whether the danger of the mission is more preferable to the support he'd get flying as a regular pilot, with restrictive ROE and all, or simply the possibility that the mission may be some hidden form of punishment for Austin's misconduct in "Rules". Weber misses the most obvious twist of all - that a mission which assigns a pilot, at extreme risk, merely to go and kill as many of the enemy as possible - mirrors the futility of war. (Novels like "Rules" routinely criticize our leaders for their short-sighted decision-making in Vietnam, yet take a remarkably similar approach to the war in which most of the authors fought). The biggest dissappointment is the ersatz MiG itself, which would have been obsolete by the time it appeared in the era in which "Targets" is set. The MiG-17 was no more than a highly modified version of the Korean-war era MiG-15, and it provides little excitement in terms of flight performance and sophistication. It was probably the most advanced piece of Russian hardware the yankees could ahve gotten at the time, but, since the author has already suspended my belief with his poor writing, I would have been ready to accept a US-owned MiG-21 in a minute. Unless you've read other novels about the Vietnam air war, you can start with this one. Otherwise, you'll be severely underwhelmed.
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