Review: Abe is a weak, ineffective Hound Dog
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 02 4, 2013
Oh my, this is a very poorly/crudely written thriller.  If you check out my reviews you will see this type of book is usually right up my alley: Action and Special Forces.  I was expecting so much, but was so highly disappointed.  I was less than 20% into this book & I was rolling my eyes and groaning.  Not because it was good, but due to the poor quality of writing (plot wise & characters) and the editorial mistakes. I would have quit reading this clunker very early on, but I paid $3.99 (wasted part of my Christmas Gift Card) for it and I was determined to read it all the way to the painful ending. Agggggh!The main character Abe Talley is a Lieutenant (Lt.) in the Navy SEALS. Sometime in the book he gets a battlefield promotion to a Captain. Only thing is, in the Navy the rank right above a Lt. is a Lt. Commander, then Commander, THEN you get to a Captain. The Navy officer structure starts off with an Ensign (O-1), then Lt. Junior Grade (O-2) and LT (O-3), a Lt. Commander is an O-4, with a Commander as an O-5, and a Captain in the Navy is an O-6 (equal to a full Colonel in the Army/Marines).  Now a Captain in the Army and in the Marines is an O-3, which is the same rank level as what Abe Talley was when the book started. This tells me that the author did no research at all into the ranks of the U.S. Navy (and it seems no one caught this in all the reviews). It appears as if the author just made stuff up he saw on TV or in the movies I guess.And oh yeah, ole Abe is a hound dog who has sex all the time (after a battle, before a battle, while planning for a battle, I lost track of how many times.....) with this hot female pilot. I know Pat Benatar said that "Love is a Battlefield" but come on Abe, try thinking of the mission FIRST, then think about sex.  It looks like Abe got over his pending divorce with no problems at all.Early on in the book when Abe pushes the Admiral of a nuclear Aircraft Carrier I almost stopped reading right there and then.  This guy was supposed to be the Team Leader of this elite squad?  The best of the best?  A professional?  Used to handling stress?  No way!  And he goes and pushes an Admiral?  Agghhhhh!  Abe makes for a pretty poor team leader of this so-called elite team.  He is weak, ineffective, and very indecisive.  He called the carrier a boat? Abe is a former SEAL and knows that a carrier is referred to as a SHIP. Abe reminds me of aSouth Park Cartman Respect My Authority Men's T-Shirt #51.  It seems as if Abe is pleading with the troops to respect him.And Echo Six?  What a bunch of whiners/cry-babies/prima-donnas/back-stabbing and insubordinate SOBs.  This is SUPPOSED to be an elite unit?  Please!  The best of the best?  I did not see anything to show me that.  Give me Lee Marvin &The Dirty Dozenand we could mop up the floor with Echo Six.  If Echo Six was made into a movie it would be a "direct to DVD" (would not even make it to Blu-ray), and it would star actors no one (except their mothers) would have heard of.The French & German operators were the biggest whiners.  With their backs against the wall they decided to surrender to the Somalies?  Oh yeah, now THAT'S a bright idea!  You would have better odds taking on a Predator AND an Alien.  And HOW many times we were told that the UN would stop any recovery?  At least twice in the same book!  Hello!  Forget about me staying in your unit with THAT type of support!I understand that if I want the quality of a Tom Clancy novel that I should expect to pay more than $3.99.  Fair enough.  Another book that covers basically the same idea as Echo Six (hostages/pirates in Somalia) isFair Game($7.99) by Stephen Leather.  Very well written tale of the British SAS (mainly Spider Shepherd) going against pirates in Somalia.  Covered the same basic matter as Echo Six, but told 100% better.I did find several other books closer in cost to Echo Six that I consider very well written thrillers dealing with Special Ops Units:  Any of the PRIMAL books written by Jack Silkstone.PRIMAL Unleashed($4.99) or PRIMAL Vengeance ($3.99) are two excellent examples of how to write about Special Ops with troops from several nations.  These are well-written books with great character development and plots.  Another low-cost ($0.99) well-written book dealing with Special Forces action:Ghost Of Winter PROLOGUE (Modern Warfare Series 1 SAS Black Ops Part 1)by Freddy Hansen.  For Special Forces and hi-tech action try these two by Michael Stephen Fuchs:D-Boys($2.99) andCounter-Assault (D-Boys #2)($2.99).  They are excellent!  Fuchs teamed up with Glynn James to write about Special Force Operators from several countries that team up to fight zombies in a series of novellas.  Check out these two thrillers:Arisen, Book One - Fortress Britain($2.99) andArisen, Book Two - Mogadishu of the Dead($2.99).  They are fantastic!  Now these guys are truly the best of the best.I was torn between writing a one or a two star review.  Out of all of my reviews, I have only written ONE 1-star review and that book (Call Sign: Wrecking Crew (Storm Warning)by Mckay & Hallbrooks, ~ $0.99) was REALLY, REALLY, REALLY a poorly written book.  Slightly worse than Echo Six.  So, although I am giving this book a 2-Star review (based solely on the action aspect), it should only be 1  Stars.  Odds are I will NOT be reading any more books by Eric Meyer.