I guess if one were to make a blurb for this book it could read: "timely as tomorrow's headlines ... an action-filled romp through military details only Larry Bond can deliver." Sure.To be able to start and finish a Bond book, I make a tacit, unilateral agreement with Larry Bond, as follows:
I hereby commit to read through without twitching to the unlikely background events of the narrative, in the expectation of receiving a detailed account of an imaginary battle that will blow my mind.And to the letter of this pact, Mr. Bond delivers in Exit Plan. Nevermind the one-sided viewpoint on politics, world affairs and Iran, there's much to distract in the military details ---a covert submarine, uber-SEALs, various Iranian and US military vehicles, armaments, and technology. There is a surfeit of dying and killing and skullduggery that may not be tolerable to readers, especially those who do not come into this with the above contract in place. But, on the advise of my legal counsel, these concerns are mooted by a preponderance of fun features, including: (1) a Green Beret(the movie)-like cavort through the Iranian coastline, (b) a The Hunt for Red October-like submarine dance, and (c)battles galore --- hand-to-hand, technology-filled, strategic, missile-backed, unmanned-overflight, boat-to-boat and torpedo-evading. Enough that one cannot say Mr. Bond did not keep his end of the deal.
Mr. Bond has found a winning formula, continuing from his earlier books such as Red Phoenix and Vortex, keeping long on the details of military armements and strategy and paying just enough attention to the narrative to keep the story going. One wonders how he actually knows about the battle order of Iranian and Israeli commands but he makes it sound so real that one does not question but rather assumes the accuracy of the facts (a trick one Dan Brown has played before). Anyway, go ahead and purchase a ticket. It's an enjoyable show. Just do it soon. The blurb "timely as tomorrow's headline" could just as quickly become "yesterday's headline." Reality can trump fiction, if you delay too much.
