Joe Weber (1) (1945–)

Former Marine aviator Joe Weber has tapped into his experience and expertise to write, DefCon One, an engrossing military thriller. In this all-too-close-home novel, Russia has a new secretary-general who's bent on returning the former USSR to its standing among world superpowers. That plan begins with a first-strike nuclear attack against the United States.

Ok, the book is a little outdated with its 1980s setting, but the reader will quickly forget that as he or she moves through the show more believable and gripping story. As the Soviets begin to amp up their military presence in both the Pacific and Atlantic regions, US military leaders and the president are faced with a no-win possibility. Negotiations have broken off and it may come down to the information that CIA mole Steve Wickham can smuggle back out to the White House. Can Wickham get that important message to the president before armageddon?

Weber's writing style is comparable to that of Tom Clancy in DefCon One. He's able to showcase the arsenal of weapons and delivery methods without burying the reader in technical jargon. There's even a glossary in the back of the book to help the reader with acronyms and military references.

I'm not a huge fan of military thrillers, but after reading DefCon One, I just might become one. show less

Overall I enjoyed the read and feel Joe Weber did a good job blending military jargon and detail with the story.

The writing is excellent and the characters believable, though I did feel President Jarrett was a stereotype and not well fleshed out as a character.

There were a few things that bothered me that really have nothing to do with the writing. I was disturbed that the B2 bomber stolen by the Russians was ultimately destroyed, rendering some of the character's actions pointless. Also, show more when in aerial combat, the story focused on each pilot to the exclusion of the team they were a part of. It was as if the pilots were going into combat alone.

I also found it tough to swallow that an aging Cuban submarine could so easily slip through the security net surrounding an American aircraft carrier. In the same scenario, the captain of the sub gave in to the Russian KGB agent and attacked when he knew it was a suicide mission. I just couldn't buy into it.

While for some knowing the thrust level of each aircraft, what weapons each was packing, etc., may be of interest, I thought that level of detail was a distraction.

Again, it was a good read, if you ignore the concerns I voiced. show less

It's silly "popcorn" adventure. You've got an author who was a military pilot and he delights in showing off his flying knowledge on as many pages as possible, no matter what the consequences to the pacing or the plot. Other than that it is a decent, although lacking any subtlety or nuances, adventure thriller.

A good plot flawed by unskilled writing.

Weber's basic storyline is one we're all familiar with: US vs USSR/Russia, cold war, escalating tensions, nuclear threats, Russians are evil etc etc. It's been done a million times before and it'll probably be done a million more.

In addition to the unoriginal concept: There were was too much in the way of extraneous details - specifically numbers (the 70,000 pound plane took off! etc), military chatter - whole conversations of attack plans with pilots show more ("the Texaco is airborne, two-three-zero for one-ten, angels two-six" and so forth), and holy crap the amount of characters and locations! Multiple subs, multiple carriers, multiple fighter pilot pairs, the Kremlin, the White House, and so forth. For the life of me I could not name you more than two or three of the like 60-something people named and "featured" for three pages here and five there.

That said, he had a decent take on the premise, and he did well at building the tension, as well as pulling off the ending. While frustrated at the aforementioned flaws, I still sped through much of the novel, anxiously awaiting the outcome. At the end, I wasn't disappointed. show less