Review: Strains the bonds of believeability
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 05 4, 2014
Although it is generally a 'Red Dawn' knock off it is a good story concept with some unique aspects. I did read it all the way through but kept asking my self why? I guess I wanted to know how he ends it. The writer has a lot of potential but needs to work on his development.1) No 15 year old is going to be able to keep up with qualified Army Rangers without some substantial preliminary foundation. I could have bought into the possibility if a foundation had been established. Maybe they had been in JROTC, hunted with family, had martial arts training, and/or something that would give them some basis for being able to at least keep up with Army Rangers. Basically all we got was that Austen was an exceptional ball player and in good physical shape. It takes more than good physical conditioning to go to war and keep up with SpecOps operators.2) Sometimes we were told the war was 5 months long and other times it was 8 months long; get consistent. Throughout the entire story there were inconsistencies that took away from the story. At one point the girlfriend was told that her father had died at the beginning of the war and she hadn't known. Shortly thereafter we were told she had been upset ever since she learned her father had been killed, and the implication was that she had knows a long time. By the way, we were told her father was an admiral. An admiral would not be the captain of a ship. Especially not a DDG or ship of that size. Shows lack of preparation and research in development of the story.3) No Sargent is going to be in charge of a multi-service group of experienced SpecOp operators that include Lieutenants, Captains, and Majors. The highest rank will be in charge. The Officer in Charge (OIC) will probably listen carefully to the advice of the most experience operator in the area, especially an NCO, but the officer, not the enlisted member, will be in charge. Also, enlisted people do not call each other Sir and they do not salute; and no one in their right mind salutes another in a combat zone. That is an invitation for a bullet. Enlisted and Commissioned Officers do not generally call each other by their first names so openly. That is not to say that they may not when in their own tight knit group with no outsiders around or when not in public. The military etiquette and chain of command was unrealistic, inappropriate, and showed a great lack of knowledge, understanding, and research on the topic.4) The number of times the main character was seriously injured and came back was not in any way believable. The wounds described from the helo crash would have kept any real person hospitalized and in recovery for the rest of the war and beyond. Again, the injuries that so many came back from was just not believable.Another point. After being in a coma for three months no one is going to be able to come out of it, go for a walk in the city, and get into a physical confrontation with the bad guys the way this was described. Reinforces my point that this is just not believable. I know it is fiction but I expect some degree of reality even when reading fiction.5) Somewhere along the line a few comments were made about someone from another planet but absolutely no development of that information was provided. If you are not going to develop it in the story, leave it out. It had nothing to do with the story line from what we were told.6) All of a sudden, with no preparation, we were told the bad guys were part of a group called "Hands of Chaos". No development of that group and no idea what their intentions are except to create chaos. Seriously? We are to believe that these yoyo's are disrupting the entire planet and killing millions of people on both sides for the fun of it with no idea of what their end game is?I have to wonder if any outsider with an open mind and a military background read this before it was published. Surely someone should have and pointed out all the inconsistencies and unbelievable aspects of this story.Reread Red Dawn and see how a story is developed and how the foundation is established for teenagers to go up against trained solders.I gave this two stars, not just one, because I think it was an interesting concept, even if it was a knock off of Red Dawn, and I think the writer has potential if he does his research, gets his ducks in a row, and has someone with real military experience read it  before publishing a story like this. Clancy and all the best of the best do/did, so should a newbie.