Ian Slater

Terrorists attack a secret US installation where a new super weapon has been invented, and subsequently stolen, once again General Freemen enters the realm with his team backed up by a Marine Expeditionary Unit to seek vengeance.

Probably one of the better recent books in the series, but still not as all encompassing as the first seven books were. Could quite easily be read stand alone without missing much as it doesn't rely much on prior events (an in fact contradicts earlier books by show more forgetting that North Korea was earlier over thrown, as the last book Payback also did).

Overall, it's a entertaining book but the shine has certainly come off the series the longer it's gone on getting less ambitious and more generic as each new book arrived.

If looking to start reading the series, in my opinion, only books 1-7 are really worth your time, the rest don't line up with events in these prior and seem quite shallow by comparison. show less

After starting reading this book I had to go back and check it was actually next in line after Force of Arms, as it ends like action is starting up elsewhere and South China Sea begins completely disjointed from Force of Arms as well as all the earlier books in the series.

On it's own the story isn't too bad but I can't help but feel disappointed that it contradicts earlier events in the series to the point it doesn't even fit with events that have previously occurred, never mind that whilst show more General Freeman is involved the other characters you've learned about and grown attached too in the previous six books of the series are suddenly absent with no explanation.

Overall - disappointing experience, doesn't fit the series however it could be read on it own as a result. show less

Whilst this book isn't some award winning literary work, it still is quite entertaining. It's all about an escalation between North & South Korea that spirals out of control dragging the world into armed conflict. The escalation and battles are realistic, with the novel being set in 1990, so whilst the technology and warfare isn't to today's standards the details are correct for the period (including North Korea's leader being Kim Il-sung).

Towards the latter half as things heat up the book show more becomes more gripping and the author having a series in mind ends on reasonable cliff hanger to keep you interested in continuing.

One thing I found lacking was the lack of chapter subtitles in reference to the time, whilst some chapters do say "...some months later" during the opening paragraphs it would have been nicer to have a specific date at the beginning of each chapter so you can better place mentally how events are unfolding.

Other than that, it was good. show less

Payback continues on from Chokepoint, in what appears to be the same world, that is a different setting to books 1-7 (despite quoting some events from them). You could quite happily read this book standalone as it doesn't rely on the earlier works, and I do in fact wonder why books 8 onwards were included in the world war 3 series when they aren't in fact continuations of the same universe/story line.

It's alright, more of a terrorist retaliation story than war in the classic sense - a bunch show more of terrorists attack aeroplanes in America downing them on take off with shoulder launched missiles, they trace the origin of the missiles then go in to get proof of who was behind it. Pretty straight forward narrative with a handful of shallow sub plots.

Entertaining, sure, but a let down compared to the quality in books 1-7. show less