Monday, June 9, 2014

Title:       Drone Strike [Dreamland, book 15]
Author:   Dale Brown and Jim DeFelice
Rating:   ★★★ 1/2
*E-book copy from HarperCollins via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review

Welcome to my stop for the Drone Strike blog tour! I don't often participate in many blog tours or accept books for review because I want to make sure I can actually commit, and that the book will be something I'll have fun reading.

On the President's orders . . . one man is tasked with averting nuclear war.

When the U.S. develops intelligence showing that Iran is in the final stages of assembling a nuclear bomb, the President orders Breanna Stockard and the Whiplash team to destroy it before the renegade nation can destabilize the shaky Middle East. Left with no other choice, Stockard sends young Air Force ace Turk Mako behind enemy lines. His orders: pilot a squadron of high-tech nano-UAVs from inside Iran to destroy the weapon and its assembly bunker. Turk and his accompanying Delta Force team succeed, only to discover another site and another device. With the fate of the region hanging in the balance, Turk and Delta Force must fight off Revolutionary Guards, Iranian MiGs, and the elite Quds Force to locate and destroy the second weapon. With time running out, Turk takes matters into his own hands, hoping to accomplish what no machine ever could . . . stop a nuclear war before it begins.

Drone Strike is right on course with its mixture of action and adventure, with adrenaline-pumping plot. While I did not identify with Turk Mako, I was still interested in seeing how he will pull off his tricky task of setting off a nuclear plant in Iran to pieces with nano-UAVs while dealing with a hostile territory.

However, I had trouble fully immersing myself in the story because there were too many technical terms that I couldn't remember. And while I love war on terror books (hello, Mitch Rapp), I am not a fan of technical books and they tend to bore me. The writing style got me hooked, however, and I found myself wanting to turn page after page after page.

I didn't realize that Drone Strike was the fifteenth book in the Dreamland series already, and it did not feel like it. I was able to enjoy it as a standalone book, and I'm glad it was written that way.

It was interesting to read about the things that ran through their heads while in the war, and it made me realize how lonely and isolating a soldier's life can be. While they are on active duty, they have to face horrors that they cannot even talk about with their family or kids, and they have to keep it all in. It felt more personal because their thoughts were not just about killing or doing the job. Overall, Drone Strike is an enjoyable book on action and adventure, and I'm glad to have read it.

I'm always on the lookout for new authors to read, and I think I'll be checking out Dale Brown and Jim DeFelice's other books :)

What's the latest book you've read? I haven't been around for quite a while!