The Mullah's Storm

You've heard the legend of Eskimos having 47 different words for 'snow'? While that may be a myth, it can be stated with certainty that Thomas Young has now created more than 47 different ways to describe freezing your butt off.

While ferrying an important bad guy (the eponymous Mullah) from an isolated base in the back country of Afghanistan to an 'interrogation' center, Major Parson's airplane is shot down, crashing in the icily desolate Hindu Kush. The crash occurs during an unreasonably harsh blizzard; during astonishingly low temperatures; during overcasts which prevent air support or rescue; during a time when the area is crawling with really bad guys who want their Mullah back. [There's probably something pithily sociological to show more be said about the enemy leader, the baddest, smartest, and most sophisticated of the lot, being a product of Western education and training, but that's a minor matter of blatant culturism we need not go into.] Major Parson and his trusty sidekick, Sergeant Gold (a woman who, like many sidekicks, is the smarter and more admirable of the two and suffers the sharp end of the stick most often), drag the Mullah along, trying to survive the dual onslaughts of the environment and the enemy.

This is a quite good book, growing tedious occasionally, growing intense occasionally, and keeping your interest piqued consistently. You know that the protagonist survives in some fashion (otherwise, what are all those pages you're holding in your right hand about?). But you can't be sure what deprivations and anguish he will endure, and which of the ancillary characters will lose their heads.

Throughout, I kept wondering whether I could endure such circumstances. Do I have what it takes? Could I endure and be semi-effective, or at least not a hindrance to my fellows? I was taken by surprise and thoroughly impressed, reading the author's afterword, that these were the questions Mr. Young had in mind as he wrote. He succeeds not only in telling a good war story and survival epic, while conveying a God-is-NOT-on-their side message, but also in perniciously and effectively encouraging the reader to question his/her own limitations and will.

The only off-note arises from so many of the protagonist's survival skills being those he gained from a childhood hunting the Colorado Rockies. While he survived sub-zero nights huddled in his snow caves, I built forts with couch cushions, dining room chairs, and a blanket. Although it may be difficult to reconcile one's own history with contributing to survival in the way that Major Parson's does, imagination is a wonderful and frightening thing. show less

Michael Parsons is an air force pilot transporting a high importance prisoner of war, a mullah withholding critical information, for questioning when every pilot's nightmare becomes his reality. He is shot down over enemy territory. Worse, this isn't just a small group of radicals getting their rocks off shooting down military planes. This is an organized group, an angry one, who want their mullah back.

Parsons is forced to trek across this mountainous terrain with this man and an interpreter in one of the worst snowstorms the area as seen in ages, prohibiting any chance of a medevac rescue. He must rely on his survival skills he learned as a youth in the mountains of Colorado to keep him alive, but that won't do any good to help him show more control his temper as he is forced to help sustain a man who represents everything Parsons has been trained to fight against.

There is also a female character, Gold, who felt very under-utilized until the end, which was a shame. She is described as a tough military chick but she mostly just cooked and helped dress wounds. Oh, and she got captured so Mr. Hero could go rescue her and save the day. Eh...

Still, the book is loaded with action. From the first page to the last, the book is relentlessly fast-paced. This is not for those who gun fights and warfare. The book is a teeming with ceaseless military combat action. It is definitely not for everyone, but if you are a fan of such things I think you will find plenty to enjoy in The Mullah's Storm. show less

The missile brought the U.S.A.F plane down into the mountains of Afghanistan, but that was only the start of Major Parson's bad day. A blizzard moves in, making extraction impossible, and he's worried about the Taliban reaching him and reclaiming his cargo, a high-level detainee. So Parson and Gold, the lady translator, decide to hide the mullah. They have little ammo and less food and their flight suits are no help against the snow and ice. Soon they realize the mission is not just evasion now, it's survival.

I think it was a combination of watching Carrier and seeing the coverage of bin Laden's death, but all the sudden I had to read this book RIGHT NOW. The detailed writing made me feel that I was over there, eating MREs, wearing a show more flak vest, seeing the horror of firefights and beheadings. I think the fact that Gold was a female also helped me relate to the material. The soldiers were capable but not supermen, they had fear, they made mistakes and I liked the realism. I'm not big on war books but this felt timely and I'm glad it crossed my path. show less

The Mullah's Storm by Thomas W. Young
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


If you have seen pictures of our troops stationed on the high mountains of Afghanistan with nothing but mountain and rocks and dirt around them and were awed by the desolation and isolation and danger, you must read this book. A US plane is hit by a missle immediately upon take-off in a snow storm. It is leaving Afghanistan with a full crew, a female Army interpreter, several CIA operatives and a captive,aged mullah who is being spirited out of the country to be interrogated. Many are killed, several are injured and the attackers are going to move in soon to regain their holy man. The commander orders one of the crew and the interpreter to take the mullah and escape. show more Reluctantly, the man obeys and the three take off on foot through that same desolate, isolated landscape this time in a blinding snow storm with little food and water, a radio, night goggles, and a GPS system and little else.

Unlike many books of this type there are no gigantic moments of heroic action with shootem ups and fast action. Instead, the realism of the narration has the reader as cold and frightened as the characters. The need to move through an area in which the enemy is hidden but all around, an area where the people one encounters may or may not be friendlies, an area where every path followed is boldly imprinted in the snow is what gets your heart racing. When the trio are captured the fear they feel and their expression of it is totally believable. There are no romantic involvements, no big buddy relationships, just the business of survival and war. This is not to say that these characters are unfeeling robots--the narration is from the perspective of an airman who is a technician, used to flying, who finds himself as warrior and protector in a landscape he has only seen from the safety of a plane high over this terrain. How he feels about this change and how he conducts himself with this new mission is as gripping as the mission itself.

I think the ending had the most impact on me--the fact that after an intense sharing of danger and loss and injury and pain these characters go their separate ways and will probably never see each other again. Yet they will always remember and so will we. I closed the book and thought I don't know how they can survive such situations and wonder, as our hero does at times, why they occur or how they can in a place so incredibly beautiful.

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I really enjoyed this. It was fast paced and suspensful while still believable. Things went from bad to worse in the story very rapidly. It was one of those don't blink stories.

The military lingo was right on. You knew you were reading a book by a person who had spent years in the military. You didn't have to spend a lot of time saying things like "they wouldn't do that!" That was a huge plus.

The hero was not a spec ops guy who knew everything and could do it all with his hands ties behind his back. He was a downed flyer who, while he had passed survival training and who had grown up in the mountains of Colorado so he wasn't a complete novice, still made mistakes and worried about that. He also felt prejudice and hatred and fear and show more fatigue. A very human character not really PC and cleaned up for the reader who might be easily offended by his thoughts and attitudes. It was refreshing to read.

There were some spec ops soldiers in the story and the author's admiration for thoses soldiers came through in their depiction here as calm and collected, dedicated, kind and very smart.

Definitely worth the read. show less

First I have a confession to make... I am NOT a big fan of military action novels, nor their counterpart in movies. I just don't fantasize about carrying a rugged pack and slinging an M-16 over my shoulder and traipsing through some mountainous dessert terrain or sloshing through a jungle where the enemy lies waiting for my demise at his hands!

But from the very moment I read the description for The Mullah's Storm, I knew I had to read it! Thomas Young is an Air National Guard veteran and knows that of which he writes first hand.

I was gripped by this novel from the word go! When Air Force navigator Michael Parsons and Army interpretor Sgt. Gold are shot down from the skies they are the only two of their mission to survive. Except for a show more prisoner. A very special prisoner.

Young takes us through terrain we have never seen before, but which we now feel we know like the back of our hand. He leads on a mission that puts us right there in the field with him.

Young's military and technical knowledge are fully apparent in his writing. Yet he doesn't overwhelm the ignorant with so much technical jargon that we become lost and unable to follow. Instead, we feel the terror that grips Parsons and Gold. We feel the mental anguish. We feel the elements as they battle for survival in a brutal land against an even more brutal enemy. We smell the gunpowder, lead, and blood.

There are so few writers today who can transport you into the world of their story. It takes a special talent to do that. Young is just such a talent.

I highly recommend The Mullah's Storm.

I give this book......my five star rating and......my Thumbs Up award!
****Disclosure: Putnam provided me with a copy of this novel through Library Thing's Early Reviewer program for review. show less

The Mullah's Storm is a compelling read. The author tells the story from the point of view of a USAF navigator. Their particular mission was the transporting an important prisoner out of Afghanistan for questioning by the CIA. But the book starts with his aircraft being immediately shot down over the Hindu Kush and the book becomes a battle for survival against not only the enemy but the severe elements.

The book is a page turner and keeps you wanting to continue to turn the page as the protagonist does his best to survive the brutal environment, the enemy and at the same time keeping what he felt were his charges safe. It is not a tale of a superman that can overcome all, for we see his breaking point and his reaction to various show more stressful situations. The author brought his knowledge he learned growing up and his training in the USAF. To my surprise I realized that I had read this book within four hours. show less