The Kremlin Strike
A Novel
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4.4 • 263 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
In this exciting, visionary, and all-too-plausible next chapter in the legendary Dale Brown’s New York Times bestselling techno-warfare series, Brad McLanahan and the Iron Wolf Squadron must fight the Russians on a dangerous, untested battlefield: outer space.
The previous administration’s ineffective response to the growing Russian threat has left America vulnerable. Setting a bold course for America’s defense, the decisive and strong new president, John Dalton Farrell, intends to challenge Russian aggression head on. Brad and Patrick McLanahan and the formidable Iron Wolf Squadron—including the recently injured Nadia Rozek, rested and back to fighting form thanks to a pair of state-of-the-art prosthetic legs—are ready and eager to join the battle.
But even with their combined forces, the Russian menace may prove too great for the Americans to overcome. Done with provocative skirmishes and playing for small stakes, the Russian president has set his sights on the ultimate prize: controlling the entire world. Expanding beyond earth’s bounds, the Russians have built a new high-tech space station and armed it with weaponry capable of destroying US satellites as well as powerful missiles pointed at strategic targets across earth.
Devising a cunning plan of attack, Brad, Nadia, and the Iron Wolf warriors will take to the skies in their advanced space planes to destroy the space station, check the Russians’ plan for dominance, and save the world. But is it already too late?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Outer space becomes the battleground in bestseller Brown's thrilling follow-up to 2018's The Moscow Offensive. In the near future, the Russians, led by their unstable president, Gennadiy Gryzlov, have developed advanced aerospace weapons as part of their Mars Project that, when deployed on a new high-tech space station, will dominate not only space but the world. Having fallen behind the Russians, the Americans are desperately trying to build their own resources by resurrecting weapons that began life under Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative program. Only the skill and valor of pilots like Maj. Nadia Rozek and Capt. Brad McLanahan of the Iron Wolf Squadron can possibly offset the Russians' technological edge. As usual in this long-running series, the combat scenes stand out, though readers should be prepared for characters straight from central casting. Brown reinforces his position at the top of the military action genre.
Customer Reviews
A night and day experience
This book is split right down the middle. There’s a lot of time spent in the beginning setting the stage, this is primarily moving characters around into their new rolls amongst the aftermath of the previous book, The Moscow Offensive, and (for the most part) introducing a plethora of new... everything. I don’t know how many new technologies, devices, weapons and crafts are introduced in the first half, but it’s a LOT. And for a while, I thought The Kremlin Strike was going to be another Starfire, where the entire thing is mostly just setup for the next book in the series.
Then about halfway through, everything got dialed up to 11.
You could say that the second half consist entirely of only two scenes: a massive search and rescue mission, followed by a climactic space battle with an ending that will surprise many longtime fans.
Now there’s only one real negative here (but it’s kind of a big one), and it’s that Dale Brown goes a little overboard with the military terminology in this one. Now I’ve been reading Dale Brown for a while now, so I do understand that the specific plane models and weapon calibers he puts into his writing is part of his appeal. While I am a fan of this, it really seemed to get in the way during the second half when the pace skyrockets (quite literally). All of a sudden, all the new things that were introduced in the beginning are being thrown at you all at once. It’s cool, but between the military jargon of different plane models and the many acronyms of various radar systems, it gets confusing. When there are several different planes and ships and weapons and locations taking part in a single event, keeping things simple can make it easier to keep track of everything. It got to the point where I was no longer trying to keep track of exactly what was what, and instead I just started asking myself, “Is it American or Russian? That’s all I need to know.”
*Side note*
While the McLanahan series has often dabbled in near-future tech with a hint of science fiction, I would love to see Dale Brown write an actual hard science fiction novel. With his military expertise and prowess for fast paced action, I have no doubt it would make for some interstellar warfare that’s actually interesting (because it often isn’t).
Even today
Russia is the evil state by its nature. Terrifying story.
Another great read
Just the kind of read for passage of time while incarcerated in cattle class on an international flight. For those who think it a bit far fetched I suggest you think again. The scenario could become far too real with staggering implications.