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Title: Final Flight by Stephen Coonts ISBN: 0-440-20447-X Publisher: Dell Pub. Date: 01 September, 1989 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.81 (16 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Good techno-thriller with real people
Comment: "Final Flight" really appealed to me as a techno-thriller where at least most of the people came across as real people, not shallow clichés.
Most of the story takes place on the aircraft carrier USS United States, and I found the descriptions of how a modern aircraft carrier functions fascinating. A ship like this and the aircraft on board it are an incredibly complicated yet awesomely powerful fighting machine.
Stephen Coonts describes in detail many of the procedures involved in launching and recovering the airplanes on an aircraft carrier. The level of complication is such that I found myself surprised that these things function at all, let alone function reliably.
The assault on the aircraft carrier by a group of ruthless terrorists, and its defense by the seamen and marines made great reading. I also loved the description of the dog fight between the lone F-14 Tomcat and four MiG-23 Floggers. This was a real edge-of-the-seat climax to the story.
As mentioned above, I found it appealing that most of the characters in the story actually come across as real people, with real people's problems and worries and motivations and good sides and bad sides. Also, the U.S. Navy is depicted as an organization with certain deficiencies, such as excessive bureaucracy, suppression of private initiative and lack of rewards for individual thought.
This is in contrast with most techno-thrillers, where all the characters are stereotyped and shallow "good guys" or "bad guys", and the western military organizations are the epitome of efficiency and functionality.
Despite what I've just said about the characters, I did find the top bad guy somewhat unrealistic, and this is the reason for the lack of the fifth star. Am I really supposed to believe in someone who,
- makes love to a female assistant in the locked trunk of a limousine?
- talks to a Russian General via a radio transmitter in a belt buckle?
- spends 1/2 hour burning a top secret manual for a nuclear bomb a few pages at a time in a furnace in the basement of a hotel?
But despite my problem with the top bad guy I really liked this book, and am looking forward to reading more of Stephen Coonts' books.
Rating: 4
Summary: Great sequel to "Flight of the Intruder"
Comment: This was Coonts's first sequel to the unmatched 'Flight of the Intruder', bringing Jake Grafton back (for the first and ' it seemed in '88 when this book came out ' last time). While 'Intruder' took place during the Vietnam war, 'Final' has 'Cool-Hand' Grafton flying F-14 Tomcats in our times. Though nearly court-martialed at the end of the older book, 'Final' starts off years later with Grafton on the nuclear aircraft carrier 'United States', having achieved the vaunted position of 'CAG' ' the air-wing commander, and the highest ranking aviator a board. (In 'Intruder', Grafton deliberately attacked an unauthorized target; just as Grafton's career appeared doomed, President Nixon unleashed the 'Christmas Offensive', and the brass realized that they can't very well court-martial a gung-ho fighter pilot for striking back at the Vietnamese when the President declares an all-out air offensive.) Grafton's job is frustrated by the degree of bureaucracy that stands between him and getting his job done.
Unfortunately, this isn't helped by his ship's position in the Med, where it attracts the attentions of a sinister arab mastermind, Col. Quazi. Owing his services to a fanatic arab leader with whom he is at odds, Quazi nevertheless plans and executes a daring and bloody infiltration of Grafton's carrier, with an eye towards its 'special' weapons (okay, its nukes! At the time, the USN's policy was to neither confirm nor deny the existence of nuclear weapons on any of its ships; given that the United States is a huge and modern aircraft carrier, Quazi figures his chances of finding nukes aboard are high).
This was a great book, one that turned technothrillers on their head, even if it wasn't as much fun as 'Intruder'. For one thing, virtually none of the characters that made the older book fun return (like the boisterous and snobby 'Razor', the craven 'Rabbit' Wilson or the noble and demanding Camparelli; 'Tiger' Cole, Grafton's old navigator, doesn't return and his replacement here, 'Toad' Tarkington doesn't quite fill Tiger's shoes; 'Cowboy' is back, but more on him later), and much of the priceless repartee that Coonts gave his fliers is absent here. Grafton, who was a very approachable character in the older book is more remote here ' owing to both his higher rank (fewer people can talk to him one-on-one) and the complex plot involving terrorists which keeps Grafton from becoming a character central to the book. Coonts seems deliberately dead serious, but he handles it well. Coonts also manages to save the day without relying on the typical technothriller stand-bys: instead of special forces or expert analysts or the heroic and hunky operative, Coonts has the day saved by the embattled sailors of the USS United States, led into battle by its grizzled chiefs. When the gravity of the crisis hits Washington, Coonts manages to avoid creating the typical scene in which the planners and generals are already gathered in front of some situation room in the Pentagon, guaging the situation from countless computer screens (instead, Grafton and company have to conference the situation over the phone with an assistant SecDef, one who ofcourse orders Grafton NOT to fly off into battle). Technothriller authors often insist that their plots are 'frighteningly plausible', but Coonts succeeds here because he embraces the chaos that eludes other writers who are enamored or addicted to plots in which hi-tech and brilliant heroes will save the day in the end. If 'Final' has one big flaw, it's the arabs ' not that their evil, they're just boring. The plot works at Quazi's reluctance to make his master a nuclear power, but doesn't work that hard at it. Still a worthy read, and one of the great technothrillers suffering only in having been eclipsed by 'Intruder'.
Rating: 5
Summary: Wondeful Page Turner
Comment: This was my second Stephen Coonts, the first i read was The Flight of Intruder, a Great book too ..
Final flight is even better, i think is one of the best thrillers i have read, wondeful story, great plot and the Jake Grafton Character is very Good, Toad Turkington is a very Funny Character. The description of the flight scenes are very well done, it's almost you were in the carrier. This book is a must have. Highly recommended.
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Title: The Minotaur by Stephen Coonts ISBN: 0440207428 Publisher: Dell Pub. Date: 01 September, 1990 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: UNDER SIEGE by Stephen Coonts ISBN: 0671742949 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 1991 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Red Horseman by Stephen Coonts ISBN: 0671748882 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 1994 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The INTRUDERS by Stephen Coonts ISBN: 0671870610 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 1995 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Cuba by Stephen Coonts ISBN: 0312971397 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 15 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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