The strategic premise, a nuclear attack by North Korea, is a nice start. Follow that up with an airborne laser in that can shoot down ICBMs and you have my interest. However, the plot is marred by erroneous research, especially in the airplane world, somewhat in the Far East and very much in the Pentagon. Naaawww, the Pentagon doesn't really run tactical operations...except in this book. Instant credibility gap. Follow that up with multiple racial and sexual slurs the book goes downhill fast. Just when you think that the plot has all come together nicely, there's a dude crossing Lolo Pass in Idaho/Montana with his family, who's a popsicle and just hangs there in the end??? Nice start--poor follow through. ( )

I listened to this book. It is set in the present day (or near future). A laser defence weapon that can shoot down missiles is to be tested over the northern Pacific but before it can take off North Korea launches one missile that takes out almost all the satellites in space. One of the US military satellites that is still functioning is able to see that there are two more on the ground ready to take flight. Suddenly the test flight becomes an actual mission. It's up to the captain of the airplane and the lead engineer to figure out how to do that without being shot down themselves.

There are a number of sub-stories going on with the characters and for the most part these added to the story. I still don't see what the reason was for including the subplot about the family driving through the Bitterroot Mountains in a snowstorm. It really didn't add to the main plot and it diverted attention from the intense story about the airplane and the missiles. ( )

Actually 4.5 stars. I read it straight through. Verge of nuclear war theme that was almost reasonable. ( )

I found this 2010 hardcover thriller at the Mennonite charity shop in New Hamburg. Ben Bova usually writes science fiction, but this book doesn't really fall into that category.

A nuclear weapon is fired from North Korea and explodes in orbit. All satellites that are not hardened against radiation are totally fried. The world's communications and weather forecasting is gone. A US military satellite spots two more warheads on the ground where the first was launched from. North Korea says all the weapons are under the control of a rogue military command, and that it will take hours for them to subdue them. In the meantime it cannot prevent the weapons from being fired - possibly reaching the west coast of the US. Able One is an experimental anti-missile laser mounted on a 747, and designed to destroy the weapons in the first few moments after they are launched. By coincidence, Able One is in Alaska for tests, and is available to try to avert a global disaster.

An okay thriller by the prolific science fiction author. A rogue (perhaps) element of the North Korean military has detonated a nuclear missile in orbit and knocked out all non-military satellites. That’s the bad news. The really bad news is that they have two more missiles ready to launch perhaps at the United States to kill the President. China threatens to retaliate if we try to take out the North Koreans with our missiles or an air strike. There is an anti-ballistic laser mounted in a 747 getting ready to take off on an undermanned test mission and it is diverted to try and shoot down the two missiles. But wait, (as Billy Mays might have said) there’s more. There appears to be a saboteur on board. The mission action is good and there is a lot of behind the scenes political jockeying but there are some problems. Just a things start to heat up, there is a long multi-chapter flashback into one of the main character’s life. Nothing much is really added by these chapters (I think, since after a couple of chapters I started to skim). The flashback just repeats in more detail information we have already been given. There is a distracting, totally unrelated (to the main characters or action) minor subplot with a very unlikely ending. The story also seems to run out before the novel does. After the completion of the mission, we go around to all the characters tying thing up. I guess the problem is that the plot was more interesting than the characters and it just makes things seem to dribble out at the end. Despite the criticism it is a rather enjoyable fast read. ( )