Tom Young (1)

When a novel starts with a bomb exploding in the Afghan National Police training center, you expect either a bad book which relies on shocking events or a good one that can use the shock and devastation to tell a good story. Fortunately, this one is from the second type.

Just when you believe that everything bad is behind everyone and people will get saved with the evacuation planes comes the second blow - the whole initial explosion was just a ruse to get everyone on planes bound to other show more places... and the planes are rigged with explosives. On top of all we meet Major Michael Parson and Sergeant Major Sophia Gold, a few years older but not necessarily wiser (Note to anyone in their world - if you see these two on the same plane, you better get out of their way -- they most likely will crash or worse...). Once the people on the ground realize what is going on, they redirect the flight to an island in the middle of nowhere where it can make as little damage as possible. And the race with time is on.

The premise is not all that original but what makes it sound different from anything similar is the author - an ex military flight engineer. He knows about planes more than anyone else. And he knows how to give all the technical details without making them sound boring or forced in the story. Using two different narrators (Gold and Parson) help as well - he knows all that is to know about planes; she does not. Somehow the author manages to make both voices believable.

If there is a problem with the book, it is mostly in the substories and secondary characters - sometimes it feels like the technical part of the story is taking the lead and leaving anything out of it in shadows. But then the narrators are on the board of that flight and any narration from the name of the protagonists will be centered on them and what they deem important.

A note of warning though - if you plan to read Mullah's Storm and you don't like knowing what happens in the book, read it before you even start this one. The author reveals pretty much anything that happened there - mainly because this was needed to understand some parts of the book. But if you do not mind knowing what will happen or not plan on reading the first book, you can follow this one with no issues -- everything needed is in the story itself, without being too repetitive for the people that read the first one.

4 stars out of 5 and I am waiting to see what the author will write next. show less

In the twilight days of WWII in the autumn of 1944, two men from German families, Karl Hagan and Wilhelm Albrecht, are really tired from the war. Karl is a pilot in the US Air Force, based in UK and bombing Germany across the Channel -- his family fled Germany post WWI. Wilhelm is the executive officer on one of the German U-boats which terrorized the Atlantic throughout the war.

When the novel opens, Karl is about to fly his last mission before he is sent back home for good (after 35 show more missions, you get to go home and away from danger) and Wilhelm is dealing with his crippled submarine - by that time the U-boats are not as invincible as earlier in the war, partially because of their communication being compromised and partially because they are getting old and tired. Both men end up in Bremen - the planes target the city, the submarine finally crawls back home after its disaster. Unfortunately for Wilhelm, the two things happen at the same time. And just to make things worse, the submarine crew gets a suicide order - once they are repaired so they can leave, they are to destroy a ship by ramming it - thus destroying themselves. So when the bombs start falling, Wilhelm deserts - they would not send the boat out with no XO so he even convinces himself it is for his crew. Before long Karl is also on the ground after his plane get shot down - and the real story can begin.

The two men cannot be more different on the surface but when they meet, they realize that they can help each other - and off they go, trying to leave Germany behind and reach the Allied forces. And in a somewhat ironic way, the German is actually in more danger than the US pilot - Goering had ordered all downed airmen to be sent to camps and left alive; deserters are getting killed almost instantly. So while the two men walk through the country side, seeing the devastation brought by the war, they come up with a plan - the German will pretend to be Karl's navigator. And the plan actually works - both end up in a camp for captured airmen.

Young leaves the end almost incomplete - both men are going home but we never see them getting home - he decides against an epilogue but he adds an author note about he would like to think happens next which is basically the same thing.

The description of the devastated Germany and the camp (nowhere as horrific as the other camps but still not a summer camp) are well done. So are all the technical details (as usual). The pacing of the novel never falters but it also is too ordered - Wilhelm leaves the German Navy and sees both a killed deserter and Jewish prisoners within hours for the first time (there is probably a way to read this either as a commentary on how bad the things were going thus making both common things or as him seeing for the first time things that had always been there and ignored). It almost feels like adding too much detail where just a note would have been enough. It is part of allowing the German to change and turn into the man at the end of the novel but too many good things do not make a great thing.

It is a competent novel - it does not have the sparkle of Young's thrillers even if his distinctive and very technical style is suited to it - he is a retired flight engineer and he knows his planes. He alternates the point of view between his two characters but even then there is a bit too much dumping of information in places. It adds to the novel but I wish he had found a better way to incorporate the memories...

I am glad that I read it but I hope he decides to go back to thrillers in the now and here.

On a separate note: despite the seriousness of the novel, the parts in the camp made me think of the British comedic series 'Allo 'Allo! (and the episodes in the airmen camp in it) - some of the descriptions matched enough so despite the differences, my mind kept going there. Not because anything was funny in the story - but things were just lining up way too perfectly. Once that connection was made up in my mind, dissociating it was impossible... show less

The title "The Warriors" I think could have been scrapped for a better one. After reading the book, it just didn't seem to fit. Though that is probably the biggest problem I had with it. It was a pretty good story and painted a very interesting picture with a bit of history about the Balkan war. It also shows people need to be vigilant for those consumed with hate to try and bend the world to their will.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I think it was well written and the story fits together show more very well. I didn't notice any glaringly bad holes like you see in the plots of a Dan Brown or Steve Berry books. I'm not sure what was missing to get is a higher star rating but the author has a solid foundation to build on and I expect them to keep getting better. show less

I have never read a Tom Young novel before, but I can promise you that I will be reading anything he writes from now on! The best part about reading this book is that even though it is apparently the third in a series with the same characters, I did not feel lost. The author does a wonderful job of providing enough relevant facts from his other books that I felt like I was able to bond with the characters in this book. While getting to know the main characters like Lt. Colonel Michel Parson show more and Sgt Major Sophia Gold was a treat, the other characters such as Capt. Rashid and Sgt Reyes were equally important. I don't know if the latter two play a part in earlier novels but I sure do hope they come back in other novels!

In The Renegades, a Taliban splinter group is out to make a name for itself and its methods are so extreme that the Taliban seems tame in comparison. They pose a danger not only to the American forces in Afghanistan and their Afghani allies, but the Taliban identifies them as enemies of Islam and humanity! So Parson, Gold, and all the other characters here find themselves trying to track down and eliminate this group. But can they do so without the aid of the Taliban? And if not, how can they possibly convince the Taliban to help?

Well this is what you will need to read the book for...to find out!

The story is of course exciting in itself. The mission guaranteed to bring action and excitement. But I'll be honest, it was the character development I like the best. There are some action novels where the action is what it's all about. One could care less who dies. Well in this book that is not the case. I felt like bonded with all the characters. I understood why they did what they did. When a very minor character finds himself blackmailed and made to turn on his American allies, I feel bad for him. His actions are despicable, but I could understand what motivated him.

Overall, this book is simply excellent. Go out and read it! show less