Super#4: The Barrabas War

This longer SOB's adventure was not bad, it just wasn't great. Lots of time spent with the Russian characters. Some build up to the confrontation, and then the attack on the island...which was fairly exciting. Towards the end, some ship-to-ship battles, the SOB's engaging in undersea warfare, and many groups coming together to repel the Russian Spetsnaz. The SOB's working so openly with these other soldiers didn't work for me. So, some good island fighting, but probably too long for a great SOB adventure. The shorter books are much sharper.

If this were a movie, perhaps I would have enjoyed it, but in the hands of a not so talented storyteller, I didn't enjoy this book all that much. A decent premise here with a secret underwater Soviet base in the Aegean sea and their plans to poke at the Greeks and Turks in order to get these countries at war with each other. The first 100 odd pages were actually pretty good, and I was beginning to wonder if this was even the same writer, as I had no issue with the writing, and was enjoying the start of this larger SOBs tome. However, as experience with this author's other novels has shown, it was not a matter of if, but when, things were going to turn into a muddled mess. And sure enough, the book turned into a muddled mess. There were several moments that were decent, I particularly liked the underwater action with the submarines, and some of the battles on the islands were all right. More characters and groups were thrown at the reader than were necessary, and the book went on for 100 pages too long, Lee Hatton gets naked in the middle of battle for no reason, and too many scenes were either confusing or the plot would get lost for too long. In general I just didn't care much for the story after a while, but at least there were enough moments that were not too bad, I was able to get through this book, but just about any other book in this series would be better used for your time.

Well Russia have a major plan to start a war between Greece and Turkey because well its just one of the things they did well before the end of the Cold War and if you are good at something why stop? Gotta admit I was struggling with this one for the first 140 pages or so until the Spetnaz launch their strike on the island where the SOB's are located. Following that attack the title cranked up nicely and was very readable to the end. Heaps and heaps of good characters introduced throughout from all the opposing sides as the SOB's go all out to try and avert a war starting between the Greeks and Turks. The Fixer plays a major role in this title which was good as was the underwater stuff which features heavily as the Russians have a secret underwater base from where they are launching their attacks on either the Turks or Greeks and blaming the other side. Pretty good read after a slow start worth a read I reckon.