Posted on 05/10/2002 8:43:58 AM PDT by Jack Black
BOOK REVIEW: "Dragon's Fury: Volume 1 - Breath of Fire" by Jeff Head
"Breath of Fire" is an exciting novel of the near future that explores plausible what-if scenarios straight out of todays headlines. The book neatly combines the general categories of techno-thriller and political thriller into a fast paced and thought provoking story. The book is subtitled "A Series on the Coming Third World War" so you know the general plot line before begining.
I am a big fan of both techno thrillers and future war books and Head's first novel delivers the goods and is far more interesting and plausible than most of the other books that have taken on these topics recently. The story has several threads that overlap, and in doing so ties together the threats posed by the Islamic world, China and domestic issues into a scenario that is as frightening as it is realistic.
While I'm not an expert on military weapons systems it's pretty obvious the author is, and the short author's bio confirms this. Yet he has still managed to avoid the techno overkill that has marred the efforts of many Clancey influenced writers. This book is a story first and foremost, not an operating manual for the ZS9000 Destruction Unit. Still if you want some really interesting speculation on future weapons systems, particularly naval ones, it would be hard to beat this book.
The political scenarios are the heart of this book, and they are well thought out and fully capable of carrying the story forward into the future volumes of the series. Mr. Head has done an admirable job understanding the dynamics of a number of other nations and groups and paints a plausible scenario for how these forces could conceivably lead us to the unthinkable: World War 3.
The characters are particularly well drawn and I liked the fact that the enemies are treated in a fully interesting and sympathetic mannner, unlike many thrillers where the bad guys are only stick figures, and so fully evil you can neither sympathize with them nor even believe they could exist.
If your looking for a great techno thriller, or like international political intrigue "Dragon's Fury" is well worth the read. If you are fascinated by the topic of WWIII, as I am, then I believe you will enjoy this novel because it is just plain more realistic than most others in the genre.
Finally Jeff Head is a legendary freeper who has led many successful grass roots conservative movements, most recently the online petition to stop the effort to rewrite history of Sept. 11 with the firefighter statue. Supporting Jeff is a happy biproduct of buying a copy of this book.
Jeff Head, I'm taking your book on my journey to New Zealand next week. I'll have plenty of time to read it on the long journey to and from NZ. I'm going to attend my brother's wedding and some sightseeing while I'm there.
I make no bones about the story trying to send messages, but also couching it in what I hope is an interesting, compelling and enjoyable story. I am glad and heartened that you found it so and hope I can live up to it in all of the novels in the series.
I am about 300 pages into Volume II and honestly believe it to be even better than Volume I. But in the end, that will be decided by folks like yourself. It should be available on Amazon sometime in June.
Again, thank you SO much for the kind words. I hope the novel can reach a broader and broader audience.
JohnHuang2 ...Mega-Ping?
Hope you enjoy the read. Glad you are getting to it and I look forard to your thoughts and comments.
Safe trip and God bless.
Thanks again for the time on your show. You guys are great. I look forward to the next opportunity whenever that may be.
God bless and keep after it.
I look forard to your thoughts and comments. It's pretty intense, particularly at the end. Remember, it's the end of book one of five parts and the last Book is entitiled "Eagle's Talons".
Joke follows
Two competitive friends go sky diving. The first jumps from the plane, pulls the cord and his chute opens. The second jumps, pulls the cord and nothing happens. He falls straight down. As he passes his friend, the friend gets angry, unbuckles his harness and shouts, “So you wanna race, eh?”
So who will I buy my next book from?
It annoys me that you cannot write as fast as I read. Nor could Heinlein, Jordan, Clancy, Dickson, Eddings, Adams, Stasheff, Goodkind,...
Twain gets a free pass - he has an excuse. He is dead.
5.56mm
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