KCR: Ghost, Paladin of Shadows #1 (terrorism, hero, novel)

Image via WikipediaDespite the series title, this is NOT a fantasy novel, but rather, sort of novel you'd think are more... pulp. And you can guess by the cover. And yes, it does involve OBL. Now that OBL's dead, this book is still a lot of fun to read.

Story: Former navy SEAL "Mike" was just going about his business when he witness a girl snatched off the street. He could have left it to local cops, gave a license plate number, and called it quits. But he was cast adrift, going to school when he wish he can be at war. So he trailed the bad guys to a warehouse... where he discovered a nefarious plot... Al Qaeda, lead by none other than OBL himself, has hatched a decidedly evil plot... They will kidnap 50 girls from the US, put them in a base somewhere in Syria, surrounded by commandos and air defenses, and torture and rape them to death, one at a time, on live TV and streaming over the Internet, unless US agrees to withdraw from the Middle East. With no time to contact authorities, he infiltrated the operation, saved a girl, and stowaway on the aircraft and infiltrated the base. Let's just say it's a funny read, and bloody, complete with songs and heavy metal and death.

Don't take this book seriously. It's written as sort of revenge fantasy, and there are plenty of bodies, ridiculous situations that's both serious and laughable, and thus, perfectly entertaining.

People who are easily offended should not read this book.

Rating: Get it!

KCR: Tears of the Sun (movie, war)

Not a war movie, but more of an adventure, this movie is about a SEAL team tasked to evacuate VIP in a war-torn Nigeria that turned into a major mess after a bloody coup and ethnic cleansing had started. As you can imagine, the mission NEVER goes as planned. When they get there, they find the good doctor with 70 people... and she won't leave them behind. So what do you think happens?

It's so obviously a tear jerker, about how people deal with horrors of war, and how each deal with the horror as they can... and you know there will be a big battle at the end, when the bad guys caught up.

The good guys here are not cliche, and the bad guys are... but that is expected, eh? The only problem I have is one of the sequences, when all of the SEAL team started standing up and firing on full auto. It is, to me, unrealistic. But then, it's one of the best war movies around.

KCR: Starstrike, Operation Orion (novel, scifi)

Cover of Starstrike: Operation OrionStarstrike: Operation Orion by Kevin Dockery and Douglas Niles is a book in the "SEALS" series, where the ultra-commandos of Earth have some adventure among the stars, like shoot pirates, escort diplomats, and the like. Unfortunately, this book is a stinking piece of ****, and that may be insulting ****.

Kevin Dockery was historian and had written some definitive books on  US Navy SEAL, and he know special operations. So his battle scenes are realistic and exciting. Unfortunately, he can't write worth ****. The plot was contrived enough and the action boring enough that if you replace all the aliens with Terran names the action doesn't change at all. The pirates may as well be from Somalia instead of some alien planet.

All the aliens behave just like humans, albeit with funny names.

Frankly, if you want to read good action, I recommend the Starfist series. That, at least, is somewhat entertaining, esp. when the enemies really do put up a fight.

Rating: Skip it

Starstrike: Operation Orion (on Amazon)