Larry Bond used to write amazing thrillers: conflicts likely to escalate into world war. His most recent books about Jerry Mitchell do not measure up although this one was better than Dangerous Ground. Iran's nuclear weapons program is a disaster so their leadership decides to fake success in the hopes of provoking a military response. A scientist and her husband, a security officer, are trying to defect with the truth, when a series of problems arise during the extraction. ( )

This is the third book about submariner Jerry Mitchell, now XO on a submarine in the Persian Gulf. Next to Iran. Iran is the focus of this book, and it's interesting how little seem to have changed since the book's story.

The background story is Iran's nuclear program, and it involves spies, SEAL teams, airplanes, submarines, global politics and everything else I expect from a Larry Bond book. It all comes together rather well, and despite a few comments, I think Bond has again written a story that seems plausible. This could happen. Kind of.
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I borrowed this for my 15 year old son who loves it and has re-read it several times. To stay hep with the young generation I read it too. It's a cartoon like thriller about SEAL special operations forces and an Iranian nuclear bomb and the exfiltration of an Iranian spy to a US submarine lurking in the Persian gulf. So long as the story sticks to the action on the ground with the commandos it's an engaging adventure story, with plausible action scenes and careful descriptions of different kinds of weapons and tactics. And when I say plausible, I don't mean to suggest that 5 SEAL commandos would likely be able to kill 35 Iranians in a 3 day rampage through the backroads of the Iranian coast, but rather that the descriptions feel like fighting and are possible to imagine. The plausibility is of a movie sort and I was willing to surrender to the artist's vision. In contrast, the dialogue and plausibility of the Presidential level and diplomatic discussions is much lower - laughable really. The whole thing is an awkward mess, but perfectly acceptable as a diverting adventure and a way to bond with your teenager. ( )

I guess if one were to make a blurb for this book it could read: "timely as tomorrow's headlines ... an action-filled romp through military details only Larry Bond can deliver." Sure. To be able to start and finish a Bond book, I make a tacit, unilateral agreement with [a:Larry Bond|19636|Larry Bond|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg], as follows:

I hereby commit to read through without twitching to the unlikely background events of the narrative, in the expectation of receiving a detailed account of an imaginary battle that will blow my mind.

And to the letter of this pact, Mr. Bond delivers in [b:Exit Plan|12160914|Exit Plan|Larry Bond|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327932441s/12160914.jpg|17131969]. Nevermind the one-sided viewpoint on politics, world affairs and Iran, there's much to distract in the military details ---a covert submarine, uber-SEALs, various Iranian and US military vehicles, armaments, and technology. There is a surfeit of dying and killing and skullduggery that may not be tolerable to readers, especially those who do not come into this with the above contract in place. But, on the advise of my legal counsel, these concerns are mooted by a preponderance of fun features, including: (1) a Green Beret(the movie)-like cavort through the Iranian coastline, (b) a [b:The Hunt for Red October|19691|The Hunt for Red October|Tom Clancy|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1281995542s/19691.jpg|1112006]-like submarine dance, and (c)battles galore --- hand-to-hand, technology-filled, strategic, missile-backed, unmanned-overflight, boat-to-boat and torpedo-evading. Enough that one cannot say Mr. Bond did not keep his end of the deal.Mr. Bond has found a winning formula, continuing from his earlier books such as [b:Red Phoenix|981161|Red Phoenix|Larry Bond|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1298859399s/981161.jpg|966050] and [b:Vortex|627976|Vortex|Larry Bond|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176476340s/627976.jpg|614319], keeping long on the details of military armements and strategy and paying just enough attention to the narrative to keep the story going. One wonders how he actually knows about the battle order of Iranian and Israeli commands but he makes it sound so real that one does not question but rather assumes the accuracy of the facts (a trick one [a:Dan Brown|630|Dan Brown|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1206553442p2/630.jpg] has played before). Anyway, go ahead and purchase a ticket. It's an enjoyable show. Just do it soon. The blurb "timely as tomorrow's headline" could just as quickly become "yesterday's headline." Reality can trump fiction, if you delay too much. ( )