One Killer Force (Delta Force #4) ★★☆☆☆

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: One Killer Force
Series: Delta Force #4
Author: Dalton Fury
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 301
Words: 107K

Synopsis:

From Kobo.com

Still recovering from his near fatal wounds suffered at the Yellow Creek Nuclear Plant, Delta Force Commander, Major Kolt "Racer" Raynor, is thrust into a new battle with some of the toughest killers he's ever faced - US Navy SEALs. Government austerity measures have the Joint Chiefs of Staff contemplating the unthinkable - combining Delta Force and the SEALs into a single unit: One Killer Force. In this installment of Dalton Fury's Delta Force series, Kolt's career is in jeopardy and worst of all, the final say rests in the hands of men who have reasons to want to see Kolt gone.

Recovered from her own wounds, Cindy "Hawk" Bird is closing in on becoming the first official female operator in the history of the US military...She only has to survive an insertion into the most repressive regime on earth.

Meanwhile, a new terrorist threat looms on the horizon in the form of not one, but possibly two mushroom clouds. Kolt earns his call sign as the action has him racing to the world's hottest combat zones from Syria to Ukraine on hunter-killer missions to eliminate the terrorists before they can enact their deadly mission.

Half a world away, a spy deep in the secretive North Korean regime sends a desperate call for help. A new danger to world peace and security is growing in the heart of the increasingly unstable Communist country and no amount of sanctions or political negotiations are going to stop it. Violently applied force is needed, and needed now before it's too late.

My Thoughts:

In my Currently Reading post about this book I stated I wouldn't be continuing the series even if the book ended up being much better. Well, it wasn't much better, hence the 2 stars. Plus, I found out the author died back in '16 and there was only 1 more book anyway, so I'm sitting pretty.

This was as much about the political side of the military as it was about killing the bad guys. Reading about “Points” (“appointed” military people) always annoys me and the whole “Git da wimminz in'ta Delter” was just more than I wanted to deal with.

Overall, this series has left a very “bleh” taste in my mouth. I didn't particularly hate it, but neither did I truly enjoy it. It felt, and I suspect it was meant to be, very “true to reality”. That is what the radio and tv are for, for me.

At least now I can go to my Calibre library and pick the next reading selection to replace this. At least that process is always enjoyable.

★★☆☆☆

• Black Site (Book 1)

• Tier One Wild (Book 2)

• Full Assault Mode (Book 3)

Full Assault Mode (Delta Force #3) ★★★☆☆

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Full Assault Mode
Series: Delta Force #3
Author: Dalton Fury
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 335
Words: 121.5K

Synopsis:

From Kobo.com

When SEAL Team Six killed Osama bin Laden, they pulled a treasure trove of intelligence on planned attacks on U.S. soil. Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda's new leader, is activating his most trusted (and deadliest) terrorists to carry out his newest plot: to detonate a bomb inside one of the sixty-four commercial nuclear power plants in the U.S. in an attack ten times worse than 9/11, causing radiological fallout that would kill hundreds of thousands of innocent Americans.

The President wants answers quickly, and after Kolt Raynor saved his life a few months earlier, he knows Delta Force is fully capable. But Kolt is on the verge of getting forced out of JSOC for disobeying orders in Pakistan—and when he's offered a slot in Tungsten, an ultra-secret deep-cover organization, he jumps at the chance. Now his task is to infiltrate al Qaeda and prevent this deep-cover terror cell from making their plot a reality before it's too late.

My Thoughts:

The above synopsis isn't that full because I didn't care enough to write out any more and what Kobo included was good enough. Needless to say, there was a lot more involved than what was described. In fact, by the time I was done with this book I was exhausted myself and beginning to think that maybe Superman needed to take a few lessons from Kolt Raynor.

The book starts out with Raynor locking horns with his new boss and disobeying direct orders so that Raynor can rescue a fellow Delta Operator. This also allows him to bag a big time terrorist and get some much needed info to Agencies like the CIA, etc. It has the bad effect of putting him into direct conflict with his superiors which leads to him being “re-evaluated”. We all know what that means.

That opens up Raynor to be recruited into Tungsten though. If Delta Force is a black ops, then Tungsten is blacker than black AND they can operate on American soil. Think Treadstone without the brainwashing from the Jason Bourne franchise. Raynor gets involved with helping terrorists and I have to admit, I was wondering if he was going to cross a line. Thankfully he didn't but that was because he really played Superman.

In the final attack on a Nuclear Power Plant, Raynor figures out that the terrorists are actually planning three levels of attacks, so as to distract and confuse anyone responding. Not only does he figure it out, he singlehandedly deals with them all, WHILE being fired upon by the security forces at the Power Plant. I was expecting a Dagwood sandwich in terms of heroics and this book felt like my order was Supersized without me wanting that.

That “too much action” (which if I'm being honest I wouldn't have believed possible to be a problem for me in a bleeding Delta Force Military Action/Adventure book!) was one of the reasons this didn't get a higher rating. The other reason was the inclusion of Miss Delta Force, codename Hawk. Mainly because there were some small but not subtle “romance vibes” between her and Raynor. I don't care if it's realistic or not, keep your filthy romance out of my action books please.

After writing all that I had to sit back and make sure this was actually a 3 star read. It was. While I might have complained about Action Fatigue, that is 1000% better than complaining about a LACK of action in a book like this. For example, Hawk, the female operative, gets captured in her civvies and ends up putting 2inches of her high heel through one of the terrorist's skull. How awesome is that?!? That is what I expect from a series called Delta Force.

Another thing that I realized that I liked, was the whole Group Dynamics. Usually, I'm a single hero kind of guy, none of this group stuff for me. But when Raynor went on his own in Tungsten, I realized I really liked how the Delta Force Operators worked together. They weren't a group of single heroes, but a real unit. Personally, I hope Raynor goes back to Delta Force in the next book. We'll see though.

And holy tabascoman, did I write a lot more than I intended! See you tomorrow.

★★★☆☆

• Black Site (Book 1)

• Tier One Wild (Book 2)

Tier One Wild (Delta Force #2) ★★★✬☆

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspott, Librarything & Bookhype by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Tier One Wild
Series: Delta Force #2
Author: Dalton Fury
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 344
Words: 124K

Synopsis:

From Devilreads & Me

Former disgraced Delta Force commander Kolt "Racer" Raynor has earned his way back into The Unit after redeeming himself during an explosive operation at a black site in Pakistan. But he is about to face his deadliest challenge yet.

The most wanted man in the world, American al Qaeda commander Daoud al Amriki, and his handpicked team of terrorist operatives, have acquired stores of Russian-built, shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles (SAM's) from ex-Libyan spies in Cairo. Their mission: infiltrate the United States and take down American aircraft. The country's best are tasked with stopping them. But when a SEAL Team Six mission to take down al Amriki goes wrong, Major Raynor and his Delta Force team find themselves front and center as Amriki and his terrorists work their way closer to America. And time is running out.

Amriki and his group make it into American and bring down several planes. One cell is caught, which was Amriki's plan to distract everyone from his real plan to shoot down the President of the United States who is going to be traveling by helicopter. With the laws of the land forbidding them to act, Delta Force is left on the sidelines as an official agency. But when Raynor and his friend TJ (who was captured by Amriki in the previous book and knows him like a second brother) strike out on their own, they know they are doing the right thing.

TJ gives his life to stop Amriki and Raynor kills the son of a monkey, thus saving the President.

My Thoughts:

While I'm giving this the same rating as the previous book, I enjoyed my time reading this more. Raynor isn't so much of a jerkface due to his returning officially to Delta Force, but he doesn't let the reader forget for one instance that he's the new and improved version of Kolt Raynor. I think most of my enjoyment sprang from the fact that Raynor isn't as much a solo character as in the first book. Usually, I'm a big fan of the Lone Cowboy (in whatever setting) against the world, but Raynor just works better as part of a team and Delta Force is ALL about the Team.

The action starts out hot and heavy with Delta Force taking down a hijacked 747 WHILE IT IS TAKING OFF! That was just cool. It felt like the author started out with a sprint and then we eased into a long, loping run to go the distance. The rest of the book was us getting to the scene where Raynor and Amriki face off and the President of the United States is in danger.

The one issue I did have was with there being a female in Delta Force. Given, she's not supposed to be on the Action Team but she's part of an initiative to broaden the scope of what Delta can do (ie, married couple's are a lot less suspicious than a group of four men). I've google'd women in the special forces and most of the articles are by publications that I don't trust, not one iota. So while they report that there are women in the various branches of the Special Forces, nothing has been said/written if the regulations for entering have changed (ie, the physical side of things). Aside from that, I am not in favor of women serving in combat positions in the military anyway. I realize that is yesterday's fight though and have pretty much moved on.

That does bring me to something that I did like about a modern military, the psychology of the people who can operate as Special Forces. The author shows how the various teams are rotated so that they can not only get some R&R but also be examined by Shrinks. People can't go around killing people (even ones who really do deserve to die) without there being consequences to the mind and emotions. While Fury doesn't do a full on “Headology 101”, he does acknowledge it is a real factor and needs to be addressed. I talked about this briefly in my Whose Body? review earlier this month but it feels like this generation of soldiers is the first where their mental space is as of much concern as the physical side of things. I for one find that encouraging.

To end, this was much more enjoyable than book one and I'm looking forward to what Kolt Raynor and his team has to deal with in the next book.

★★★✬☆

• Black Site (Book 1)

Black Site (Delta Force #1) ★★★☆☆

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Black Site
Series: Delta Force #1
Author: Dalton Fury
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 347
Words: 122K

Synopsis:

Kolt Raynor, code name Racer, was at the top of his game as a Delta Force Commander when one bad decision on a covert operation plunged him into the abyss. After being kicked out of Delta Force and the military completely, for three years he took odd jobs to get by and drank his life away. Then one day there was a knock at his crappy trailer door and he was offered the chance to get back into the game, but as a civilian. The job was very risky, as in not-come-back-alive risky, but it was worth it for Kolt to do it and do it well. He had three weeks to train and it wasn’t going to be a piece of cake. If he survived the training then he would be able to start the job.

After dropping in, making contact with his local guide, Raynor begins surveillance of the compound where a group of American soldiers are being held captive. They're in captivity because they tried to rescue Raynor during his disastrous mission 3 years ago. Raynor breaks orders, infiltrates the compound, learns there is a huge operation underway by Al-Queda and exfiltrates with the vague info. His bosses refuse to act on the info and Raynor has to rely on a former Intel Spook gone native and the local guide to figure out what's going on.

Turns out Al-Queda has found a Black Site where high value prisoners are being held. They wish to rescue the prisoners, destroy America's credibility in the region and use it all as propaganda to demoralize the general American populace (with the help of the damnable propaganda machines known as the news outlets). Raynor warns the site, helps them survive the various attacks and makes his own way out of the country.

My Thoughts:

This was enjoyable but in a very ambivalent way. Raynor gets his team killed, regresses to an alcoholic, takes on a rescue mission and cleans himself up. There are no surprises as far as I was concerned and while the final goal of the Al-Queda terrorists remained a mystery up until it happened, I simply didn't care to try to figure it out. I just rolled with it.

Honestly, this is just another military action/adventure story among a whole host of them. I haven't read a lot in that particular genre so I can't tell if this was better or worse, but in general, this was ok. I've got 3 more books by Dalton and nothing here persuaded me to not read them.

★★★☆☆