The ranks of writers of military thrillers has been somewhat desolate this last two decades or so. Ever since the great Alistair Maclean departed to the great beyond, presumably contemplating the Stygian blackness with a large tot of Bushmills', there has been nary a man to take his exalted place.
We desis' have always had a soft corner for Maclean. And indeed, why not? He was of the old guard, his heroes were brave men of honour, there were few, if any femme fatales in his books, the villains were usually the elements and then the always well regarded Germans (in that order, mostly) and he was as English as only a Scotsman could be. What I am trying to get at, my dear reader - is that Maclean wrote the most wholesome books that one could write - if one's topic was depth charging an U-boat, or dive bombing Stukas or blowing destroyers out of the Agean Sea. His protagonists could be, and frequently were defeated by a respectable enemy - and his men have always been distinguished by tenacity and loyalty to their comrades, not to some flag. Their actions have been tempered by mercy to brave enemies ..- born not of expediency, but of common decency.
Sadly, such writing now seems passe. The time for fairly straightforward war/adventure novels appears to be gone. The likes of Desmond Bageley and Hammond Innes are nowhere to be seen. The protagonists of their novels were somehow more nuanced, more real and displayed very little of the zealot-like xenophobia which pervades, say, a Clancy novel. And of course, the new generation of techno-thriller writers are more like Tom Clancy. The only decent book this man has ever written is his first one, 'The Hunt for the Red October'. Everything else comes across as meticulously researched, immensely detailed bilge. For all the effort he puts into describing an underwater sonar array, he then lets himself down by the fairly one dimensional characters that inhabit his world. The good guys are always correct, righteous and moral. The bad guys may be blessed with some technical skill, and sometimes strong beliefs, but their faith is always in false gods. Clancy's novels, at their very core, are plotted with wondrous complexity, but are ultimately simplemindedly jingoistic.
Another entrant into this fold is our good Patrick Robinson. He writes techno-thrillers. Much of his writing is good, old fashioned acronym masturbation (what; you didn't know what "SOSUS" stands for?) His leading men are all cartoonishly heroic, none of them suffers the slightest bit of self doubt. Introspection is not a quality much valued in his universe.I have recently had the misfortune to read one of his thrillers: Scimitar SL2, it is called. What was rather surprising is that the plot revolves around a giant tsunami - generated by a volcano-quake. Now this book was published in mid 2004, months before the Indian Ocean tsunami that caused such horrific loss of life. Did this fellow grab a hold of a crystal ball?
Secondly, Mr. Robinson, an F15 is not a Tomcat. Ask the US Navy. They know. Thirdly, as the fulcrum of the plot is the ability of the USAF to switch off the GPS system, have you ever heard about the GLONASS system? I believe it was operational in 2004. And finally, the Hummer H2, which you describe as GM's masterpiece. I understand that you might be a fanboy. Nothing wrong about it(actually, there is... but I'll let that slide). Yes, the H2 is based on a civvy platform. Doesn't share much with the milspec Humvee. So there. GM's masterpiece indeed! FYI, that would be the Corvette.
