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Tom Young (1)

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Tom Young (1) has been aliased into Thomas W. Young.

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Værker af Tom Young

Works have been aliased into Thomas W. Young.

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This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
I have never read a Tom Young novel before, but I can promise you that I will be reading anything he writes from now on! The best part about reading this book is that even though it is apparently the third in a series with the same characters, I did not feel lost. The author does a wonderful job of providing enough relevant facts from his other books that I felt like I was able to bond with the characters in this book. While getting to know the main characters like Lt. Colonel Michel Parson and Sgt Major Sophia Gold was a treat, the other characters such as Capt. Rashid and Sgt Reyes were equally important. I don't know if the latter two play a part in earlier novels but I sure do hope they come back in other novels!

In The Renegades, a Taliban splinter group is out to make a name for itself and its methods are so extreme that the Taliban seems tame in comparison. They pose a danger not only to the American forces in Afghanistan and their Afghani allies, but the Taliban identifies them as enemies of Islam and humanity! So Parson, Gold, and all the other characters here find themselves trying to track down and eliminate this group. But can they do so without the aid of the Taliban? And if not, how can they possibly convince the Taliban to help?

Well this is what you will need to read the book for...to find out!

The story is of course exciting in itself. The mission guaranteed to bring action and excitement. But I'll be honest, it was the character development I like the best. There are some action novels where the action is what it's all about. One could care less who dies. Well in this book that is not the case. I felt like bonded with all the characters. I understood why they did what they did. When a very minor character finds himself blackmailed and made to turn on his American allies, I feel bad for him. His actions are despicable, but I could understand what motivated him.

Overall, this book is simply excellent. Go out and read it!
… (mere)
 
Markeret
enoch_elijah | 24 andre anmeldelser | Jan 15, 2023 |
historical-figures, historical-places-events, historical-research, historical-setting, history-and-culture, family, family-dynamics, friendship, factions, facing-death, rescue, WW2, Europe, resistance-efforts, action-adventure, survival*****

Neither fiction nor pure fact, this entwined account (really, aside from Anne Frank who records conversations for posterity) captures the international politics of one struggling country during a very nasty war. The characters are aggregates of real people facing real dilemmas and acute dangers as a consequence of their beliefs. The part (aside from the history) that most impressed was the immersion of the reader into a past reality previously unknown to me. Excellent read.
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Kensington Books via NetGalley. Thank you!
… (mere)
 
Markeret
jetangen4571 | Jan 6, 2022 |
This kind of book usually ain't my cup of meat, but I'm trying to read outside my confort zone now and then. In a nutshell:

Everything that can go wrong does go horribly wrong in this incredibly fast-paced thriller about a military transport plane with a terrorist’s bomb aboard. This is the sequel to The Mullah’s Storm, and continues Major Michael Parson and Sergeant Major Sophia Gold’s heroic attempts to bring peace and stability to the Afghan region.

And it was pretty good!… (mere)
 
Markeret
FinallyJones | 24 andre anmeldelser | Nov 17, 2021 |
In the twilight days of WWII in the autumn of 1944, two men from German families, Karl Hagan and Wilhelm Albrecht, are really tired from the war. Karl is a pilot in the US Air Force, based in UK and bombing Germany across the Channel -- his family fled Germany post WWI. Wilhelm is the executive officer on one of the German U-boats which terrorized the Atlantic throughout the war.

When the novel opens, Karl is about to fly his last mission before he is sent back home for good (after 35 missions, you get to go home and away from danger) and Wilhelm is dealing with his crippled submarine - by that time the U-boats are not as invincible as earlier in the war, partially because of their communication being compromised and partially because they are getting old and tired. Both men end up in Bremen - the planes target the city, the submarine finally crawls back home after its disaster. Unfortunately for Wilhelm, the two things happen at the same time. And just to make things worse, the submarine crew gets a suicide order - once they are repaired so they can leave, they are to destroy a ship by ramming it - thus destroying themselves. So when the bombs start falling, Wilhelm deserts - they would not send the boat out with no XO so he even convinces himself it is for his crew. Before long Karl is also on the ground after his plane get shot down - and the real story can begin.

The two men cannot be more different on the surface but when they meet, they realize that they can help each other - and off they go, trying to leave Germany behind and reach the Allied forces. And in a somewhat ironic way, the German is actually in more danger than the US pilot - Goering had ordered all downed airmen to be sent to camps and left alive; deserters are getting killed almost instantly. So while the two men walk through the country side, seeing the devastation brought by the war, they come up with a plan - the German will pretend to be Karl's navigator. And the plan actually works - both end up in a camp for captured airmen.

Young leaves the end almost incomplete - both men are going home but we never see them getting home - he decides against an epilogue but he adds an author note about he would like to think happens next which is basically the same thing.

The description of the devastated Germany and the camp (nowhere as horrific as the other camps but still not a summer camp) are well done. So are all the technical details (as usual). The pacing of the novel never falters but it also is too ordered - Wilhelm leaves the German Navy and sees both a killed deserter and Jewish prisoners within hours for the first time (there is probably a way to read this either as a commentary on how bad the things were going thus making both common things or as him seeing for the first time things that had always been there and ignored). It almost feels like adding too much detail where just a note would have been enough. It is part of allowing the German to change and turn into the man at the end of the novel but too many good things do not make a great thing.

It is a competent novel - it does not have the sparkle of Young's thrillers even if his distinctive and very technical style is suited to it - he is a retired flight engineer and he knows his planes. He alternates the point of view between his two characters but even then there is a bit too much dumping of information in places. It adds to the novel but I wish he had found a better way to incorporate the memories...

I am glad that I read it but I hope he decides to go back to thrillers in the now and here.

On a separate note: despite the seriousness of the novel, the parts in the camp made me think of the British comedic series 'Allo 'Allo! (and the episodes in the airmen camp in it) - some of the descriptions matched enough so despite the differences, my mind kept going there. Not because anything was funny in the story - but things were just lining up way too perfectly. Once that connection was made up in my mind, dissociating it was impossible...
… (mere)
 
Markeret
AnnieMod | Jan 7, 2021 |

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Værker
8
Medlemmer
360
Popularitet
#66,630
Vurdering
3.9
Anmeldelser
84
ISBN
79
Udvalgt
1

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