Flight of the Phoenix

HarperEntertainment
An Imprint of  HarperCollinsPublishers

Written by Elleston Trevor

Copyright © 1964 by Elleston Trevor. All rights reserved.

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In Elleston Tevor's The Flight of the Phoenix, a Skytruck air freighter runs into a sandstorm - and crashes in the Sahara desert,  the largest desert in the world. Now the survivors of the air freighter must struggle to stay alive in one of the hottest places on Earth as they desperately try to build a smaller new airplane from the wreckage of the Skytruck.

The development of the surviving characters are uneven - as I only recall half the characters of whom I could distinguish from the others. The struggle for leadership between the guilt-ridden pilot Towns and the obsessed engineer Stringer, as they construct the new plane to get away from their harsh landscape, is the main focus of the characters - although I was a bit put off by Stringer's inexperience with the real world. When the British soldier Captain Harris insists on traveling through the vast desert to a distant oasis to get some water, it seems almost cruel to me that the captain expects his sergeant to go marching with him into the parched, forbidding dessert. Especially since the Sahara desert gets less than three inches of rain per year. This book has been made into two movies - the 1965 film with James Stewart with a Fairchild C-82 Packet, as well as the 2004 film with Dennis Quaid with a Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar. I saw the 2004 film in the theater and the plot point towards the end of the movie was a shocker for me, but it seems to have been played down in the book.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.
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ATTACK OF THE SEVENTH CARRIER

ZEBRA BOOKS

Written by Peter Albano

Copyright © 1989 by Peter Albano



In ATTACK OF THE SEVENTH CARRIER written by Peter Albano, the fifth book of the Seventh Carrier series, the Imperial Japanese aircraft carrier Yonaga - which was originally supposed to be part of the Pearl Harbor attack force in 1941 - must deal with getting combat ready to go against an enemy naval fleet, while Lieutenant Brent Ross is assigned to a WWII submarine.

Because of a Chinese space orbital weapons system, modern weapons and machinery become destroyed if used. So WWII equipment is brought out of mothballs to fight the world's terrorists. As Lt. Ross, the American samurai, falls for a mature woman CIA liaison agent, Ross learns how to operate a WWII submarine to fight alongside Yonaga against a battle fleet. Considering that American submarines sank almost five million tons of shipping during WWII, this submarine is an important part of Yonaga's fleet. The loss of one of the major characters in the series is a shock and is sure to affect Ross in future novels.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

G.I. JOE - THE RISE OF COBRA

A Del Rey Mass Market Original

Written by Max Allan Collins
Based on a Story by Michael Gordon, Stuart Beattie, and Stephen Sommers

and the Screenplay by Stuart Beattie, David Elliot, and Paul Lovett
Copyright © 2009 by Hasbro Inc.
Copyright © 2009 by Paramount Pictures

All Rights Reserved.



 A convoy of nano-tech weaponry, weaponry made from molecular robots - is ambushed by aggressive super-soldiers that are called Vipers. The convoy is rescued by a top secret elite team of soldiers from all branches of the armed forces called G.I. JOE. Survivors of the convoy, Duke and Ripcord soon join the team G.I. JOE as they go after the nano-tech weaponry the Vipers stole from the convoy before the Vipers can deploy the weapons. The Vipers collaborate with a weapons dealer, who basically is in charge of a group of terrorists - that will soon become the terrorist organization called COBRA.

This is a fairly straight-forward novelization of the movie with very little additional material to add to the adaptation, which makes it a little disappointing coming from Max Allan Collins. I expected a little more bite in the style from a novelization from the usually dependable Collins - especially after watching the movie, which was more commercialized. I wanted to see more of the envitonmental impact of the nano-technology weapons of grey goo eating all of the metal it touches, like when they ate the Eiffel Tower.

See movie review:
G.I. JOE - THE RISE OF COBRA

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Alfred HItchcock and The Three Investigators in The Mytery of Death Trap Mine

Random House

Written by M.V. Carey
Based on characters created by Robert Arthur

Copyright © 1976 by Random House, Inc.



 The 24th book in the series Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators, written by M.V. Carey, teen aged boys - The Three Investigators - are invited by the uncle of their old friend Allie to spend some time at their ranch for the summer. Allie is suspicious of their neighbor who returned to his family's shut down mine and begins working the mine again. What valuable minerals could he be mining? There was a reason the mine was closed. Tensions rise when a suspect from an old armed robbery is found dead in a mine shaft and The Three Investigators search for a connection as to why the suspect came to the mine.

In this young adult book, Allie is the equal of The Three Investigators analytical abilities which is why she irritates the boys so much - because Allie is just as headstrong and competitive as they all are. It is too bad that I felt that The Three Investigators never really took to Allie. I have always felt that they needed a girl as a regular in this series as a resourceful companion to the boys, and Allie definitely fits the bill.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

The Devil Met A Lady

ibooks

DISTRIBUTED BY SIMON & SHUSTER, INC

Copyright © 1993, 2000 Stuart M. Kaminsky

Afterword copyright © 2000 Stuart M. Kaminsky

In The Devil Met A Lady, written by Stuart M. Kaminsky and set during Hollywood's Golden Age, private investigator Toby Peters must protect actress Bette Davis from being kidnapped by a spy ring trying to get top secret plans from her husband.

While reading this book, I kept picturing Bette Davis as the girl on the cover instead of how the real Bette Davis looks - which shows how important a cover can be. Davis can be seen at the servicemen-only Hollywood Canteen, which Davis managed during World War II. Toby is just as funny as always, and his police detective brother hates Toby as always. The spy ring is practically comic relief so, despite their violence and guns, it is hard to take them too seriously. The sad part is the seriousness of Toby's sister-in-law's medical condition. Toby and his brother's relationship becomes civil when relating to Toby's sister-in-law, which shows their concern for her. I hope to see Toby's sister-in-law being well in future books. Having Davis vist Toby's sister-in-law in the hospital was a rather poignant touch.

Pancho

All people smile in the same language.

Deep Current

ONYX Published by New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Written by Benjamin E. Miller

Copyright © 2004

In Deep Current, an iceberg larger than the size of Manhattan is self-driven toward Hawaii and a group of scientists and Marines are sent to stop the "Floe." However, there is more to the iceberg's engine than it seems.

While granted, the "Floe" is twice as large as a real floe, "Floe" sounds better as moving ice than an ice field. The "Floe" on the ground appeared to be quite large - and when you consider that only one-ninth of an iceberg is under water, the "Floe" is quite large.

As the Marines and scientists get picked off on the floe one by one, it was a little annoying for me that one of the scientists keeps insisting that the aliens are the ones that are doing all of this. The deaths get rather graphic as the creatures pick off their victims. The greedy scientist trying to procure specimens for his company is such a typical crazy villain that I either wanted him to succeed in killing off the rest of the survivors or get killed himself. The fact that the baby girl survives all that has happened to her with only a cold seems so unrealistic to me, as such a defenseless little one would no way survive all the rigorous events, despite a doting big brother watching over her and protecting her. As a result, I was pulling for both the Marines, as well as for the creatures in this book - although the surviving Marine was so injured, she should not have been functioning at all by the climax.

Pancho

All people smile in the same language.

Dreamland - Satan's Tail

HARPERTOURCH An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers


Written by Dale Brown and Jim DeFelice


Copyright © 2005 by Air Battle Force, Inc.



In Satan's Tail, Islamic pirates in the Gulf of Aden aggressively prey on civilian vessels. A prototype American littoral warship, that the enemy has named "Satan's Tail," is sent to stop them. Dreamland's Megafortresses and Flighthawk escorts go as support with the littoral warship.

There is quite a bit of rivalry between the leadership styles of the commander of the littoral warship and the commander of Dreamland, Colonel Tecumseh 'Dog' Bastian, as they try to coordinate their various task elements while searching for the extremist pirates. Granted the styles of combat command for a vessel designed to operate close to shore and an air combat command are two different styles, you would think they could work better together in combat for the same goal. At least I would think Bastian would. Although I did not want to, I felt for the dedicated Islamic leader as he does all the things in the book for his son who was killed. There is rivalry between the two paraplegics back at Dreamland, although one has more self-pity than the other. Washington politics flare up concerning a fake picture of the situation in the Gulf of Aden.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.