Operation Hail Storm by Brett Arquette

Don't be put off by the cover, it really doesn't do the book justice.  I don't tend to read this genre of book as I have it in my head that it is a "man's" book.  I don't know why but anything vaguely military in tone has always seemed to me to be for the male populace and not the female - terribly misogynistic I know.  In this case I have been proved wrong as I was completely absorbed in this book.  Set in the near future (we only know that it is post 2027) the world isn't so different from the one we are experiencing now but there have been some technological advancements and the book is stuffed full of them.

The book centres around Marshall Hail, a vigilante kazillionaire who is determined to avenge the death of his wife and twin daughters during The Five.  Having money, and intellect, to burn he had made his mark in Nuclear Technology and now he can give people power for pennies - if their governments will pay the price, he has started converting his cargo ships into floating hotels and battle stations for his handpicked staff.  I have to say the living and working conditions on board the Hail Nucleus (we are told that Hail Proton and Hail Laser and all his other fleet are identicial) sound exceptionally luxurious and I wouldn't want to leave ship either.  The bulk of his technological efforts are now spent in building military-grade drones that are beyond anything a regular army has available to them.  These drones are remotely deployed, can carry other drones in to secluded areas and can deliver poisonous death, cut through galvanised steel, provide audio and video surveillance or simply rain bullets down on you.

There is a lot of technological speak here but it is well explained without too much dumbing down.  The action is well constructed and believable, even if we aren't quite there yet it is based in sound fact - drones are starting to be used in theatres of conflict and their pilots are recruited from the gaming community.  There is a certain wry humour in the writing, especially the dialogue, and this helps the whole tale gel and move along at a clipping pace.  Even though Hail's heart is in the right place for now you can't help but wonder if the US Political system's wariness of him is well-founded as a private army can turn against you at any time and Madame President is all too aware of that fact.

Apart from Hail and Kara Ramey there is little overt characterisation within the book and yet you still have a sense of the different people aboard the Hail Nucleus.  This mainly comes from brief conversations during deployments but everyone seems to have their own personality rather than being simply a device to move a bit more of the technology from Point A to B.

There were a couple of niggles for me though.  In Act 1 we are introduced to the main team on board the Hail Nucleus and then about 15 pages later (my best guess I didn't count) they are all recapped - I do have an attention span somewhat greater than a gnat and could remember who everyone was thanks.  In Act 3 there is a needless chunk of Wiki-text explaining the Situation Room at the White House, if anyone didn't know what it was they could have googled it rather than slapping unnecessary text down.  The ship names are italicised throughout the text and this irked me increasingly through the book, this could have been a typesetting decision rather than the author's but it really is not necessary.  Finally in the Kindle version there are strange line breaks in the middle of sentences where you will have 2 words on a line and then it jumps to the next - disturbs the flow of the eye across the page and temporarily jolts you out of the story - not the athor's fault but could do with fixing IMHO.

If you are looking for a read with a LOT of action and some very believable tech them this is for you.  There are some good personal interactions within the tale so it isn't all "gung-ho" and there are the first stirrings of romance but not overtly so and certainly not enough to offend.  A great read and one that has gone some way to proving to me that when written right this is a genre for ANYONE.

I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK FROM THE AUTHOR IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.