Overall this was a decent book. Not the best, but good enough to keep my interest engaged. However, all of the characters in this story are very shallow. Relationships are seemingly focused only on lust and sex. And the time in between many of the scenes in this book jump ahead suddenly and unexpectedly. The best thing about the story were the detailed dogfights that take place up in the air between advanced aviation aircraft. I envisioned the flight scenes from the movie, "Top Gun" throughout this storyline as good pilot takes on bad pilot.

If you like a book with a fast read, shallow characters, and lots of adventure, then this book is good for you. Otherwise, save your money and stick with a real Tom Clancy novel instead. ( )

HAWX is awful.

I'd read David Michaels' (A.K.A. Grant Blackwood) Ghost Recon and liked it enough to try more. It wasn't great, but for a book based on a game franchise, it did what I wanted. It was fast moving and the combat was very well done. When I heard Blackwood wrote novelizations of HAWX and EndWar, I picked them up. I decided to try HAWX first because, well, because I liked the cover better.

HAWX sounds promising: Former hot shot Air Force fighter pilot Troy Leonsch (I know, I couldn't pronounce it either. I called him 'Troy Lunch') signs up with private military contractor Firehawk and gets the action he misses and a hefty paycheck. But are PMCs a good idea? Troy isn't so sure. When the CIA asks Troy to help investigate Firehawk, he does.

Sounds great! But the book is full of problems. HAWX is very slow moving and even though it has a promising set-up, the book that was written feels padded and dull. For one thing, Firehawk doesn't appear until around page 150. The CIA? They don't show up until half way through the book. The action that carried Ghost Recon is here as well, but there is very little of it and it isn't really tied in to the story.

The rest of the book is made up of cheesy soap opera elements in Troy's romantic life. I mentioned that I enjoyed Ghost Recon. One thing that I had problems with was the characterizations, which were poor. I accepted them in that book because they came in small doses. In HAWX, about half of the book is made up of Troy's personal life.

Also, even though Blackwood writes in a very easy to read style which works for the books he is writing, here he tended to over-explain even simple things. I felt like he was talking down to me. At one point, he quotes Buzz Aldrin, and then explains who Buzz Aldrin is. Buzz Aldrin!

Finally, the third act is hare-brained and absurd. The idea of a PMC pulling off a coup against the U.S. is interesting, but here it is handled in such a half-baked manner I wondered if the author understood the way the government works. The plot point used to remove the President never takes into account that there is a Vice President or the Speaker of the House. I'm willing to accept some ridiculous stuff in my fiction, but please make it plausible.

As I read through the book I realized I didn't care about any of the characters or where the story was going. I finished the book only due to stupid, grim determination. Towards the end, I was angry at myself for sticking with the book, but I did.

Please understand that I'm not expecting Tolstoy when I read a book based on a Tom Clancy video game. I do expect a book that is fast paced, pulpy fun. The author of this book has proved he's up to the task in previous books. I will give EndWar a chance. Ghost Recon was enjoyable enough for me to give him a third try. But HAWX is a failure of a book in every way. ( )