Gordon Kent (1)

Damage Control is the 6th book in the Alan Craik series, and far and away the best, beating out even Top Hook which prior to this I regarded as the best book in the series. From the opening pages this book is action filled and gripping dealing with an organised group of Hindu environmentalist fanatics who have there eyes on starting an apocalypse in order to save the earth from humankind's destructive ways.

This group manages to perform a successful mutiny and slink away with not only a Kilo show more class submarine, but numerous Indian naval destroyers. When the mutinied submarine is spotted by an out of place and unexpected US Navy aeroplane they shoot it down then launch an attack on a nearby US aircraft carrier to cover up their actions and keep the US Navy out of action.

Intermingled is a few interesting subplots that provide further character development in the series such as where we see Mike Dukas's character develop further with Leslie, long time support character Rafe steps once again into a pivotal role in the plot. A slimy and unlikable political animal within the Admiral's flag agitates for personal gain and we find out more of Harry O'Neill's background and some of the reasons he was able to go from retired CIA agent to powerful security consultant.

All in all, it's an excellent action filled narrative that doesn't stray far into the absurd but rather keeps to a rather realistic portray of events utilising military technology, systems and techniques of the time it was written (2005) show less

Top Hook thankfully does not suffer from the same extraordinarily dull and prolonged start (that took almost half the book to get going) as Peacemaker did. Rather within 50-70 pages the story manages to find it legs and begin jogging forwards gaining momentum towards a rather gripping tail end that has you glued to the pages to find out how things will unravel.

The ending is good winding up the subplots for the most part and leaving open plenty of room to continue the larger story arc show more without trimming this books plot short and abruptly as some books suffer from. My only complaint is that I would have liked to see more of what happened to Ray Suter after his large part in the prior book and the first half of this one it was a bit of a shame that he seemed to fade away after the development in his subplot. Especially considering the detail that went into various other parts of the story.

I was about ready to give up on the author after the stumbling mess that Peacemaker was but Top Hook now has me interested in seeing what happens in the next installment. show less

This is the second book in the Alan Craik series, the first of which I read 8 years ago and as such can't really remember, that being said there's enough character background at the commencement of this book to get you up to speed - Alan Craik's a navy intelligence officer whose father was also in the navy - and he's good at his job.

This is 644 pages long, and I've only given in a mere 2 stars as the first 300 pages are d-r-y, yes there's required background for the last half of the story in show more there, laying the groundwork for the Yugoslavia subplot, unfolding genocide in Rwanda including a brief primer on the Hutu vs Tutsi conflict, there's an entire subplot surrounding a classified satellite weapons system as well as a racist petty officer subplot. Sure they added depth but the action side wouldn't have really suffered had they been cut. There's also a whole section where the Mike Dukas character steps away from his NCIS job to pursue war criminals in Yugoslavia and the back and forth as he chases after a particular bloke that Alan interacts with in the book opening.

In the last 344 pages is where the book actually becomes interesting, dare I say gripping - the war begins in Africa, a CIA agent friend of Alan's is taken hostage and the US Battle Group that Alan is a part of enters conflict and is split between the unfolding Yugoslavian problems and a contested launching of the satellite off the coast of Libya, whilst also providing support for Alan who is put ashore in Rwanda to rescue his friend taken hostage by the rebels.

The ending is pretty decent and almost redeems the book, but geez that first half was pretty dull and I actually found myself putting it down to merely stare out the window and trees it was so uncompelling, I am glad I persisted however as the last 344 pages were up there with Dale Brown's writing. show less

The Falconer's Tale is the final book, so far, in the Alan Craik series, whilst it does however only involve him in a tertiary capacity the other characters of the series feature more centrally than usual, namely Jerry Piat, Mike Dukas and slimey Clyde Partlow. The main two characters of this story, is Edgar Hackbutt the ex-agent, oddball & falconer along with Jerry Piat the ex-intelligence operative, now small time criminal. These two characters are roped into what initially seems like a show more legitimate intelligence operation yet as the story unfolds it begins to look more and more shonky.

A lot of novels skip over the procedural aspects of an intelligence officer running an agent and there's good reason - the interactions between Piat and Hackbutt who he is brought back in to re-recruit as an agent are largely rather dull. The overriding bulk of the story is that of procedural minutiae interspersed with a pretty decent story line which could have quite easily been shortened by at least 100 pages. show less