Able One- The Finale!

"To read is to fly; it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience and the the fruits of many inquiries."
- A C Grayling, Financial Review (in a review of A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel)

So I buckled down a read this thing like crazy for the past week in my spare time between waking up at 6 a.m. and getting to X-Scream Halloween (the haunted house I help work on building over the summer) at 9 a.m. to begin the hard labor. Okay so it's not that bad, but I did hunker down and read the book this week and it was worth every moment. If you have read my first post, you will know that the book I had read and enjoyed last was Ben Bova's "The Leviathans of Jupiter", so it should come as no surprise to you that "Able One" (another of Bova's beautiful works) was another intense and amazing book. But I'm catching myself rambling, so I'm going to get on with my review of the rest of the book.

We left off with the Emergency Action team meeting in the Pentagon and Jamil arguing with the Generals (General Schieb and General Higgins) that there is a large possibility that one of the two missiles on the launch pads in North Korea could be aimed at San Francisco. Right where the president is headed for what is supposed to be a live speech, broadcasted across the country. As we know though, that won't happen thanks to the rogue DRPK army faction that had sent a nuke into orbit and knocked out most of the satellites.

So in order to try to defend America and test out the new ABL-1, the order is sent for the ABL-1 to head for North Korea. The crew has a general reaction of 'I-- buh-- Aah fine!' so they head in that general direction.

Down in the laser housing, while the plane is in the air, after some small talk and a little bit of character development, Harry finds out that the ranging assembly had been taken out of it's housing.

Before I go any further, I just wanted to tell you that from right here, I had predicted who had stolen the ranging assembly.

From here, it tells you the story of Harry. He was one of the nerds in school, paying a tough guy by doing his homework to protect him from the other bullies around school. He graduated and eventually went to work for Anson Aerospace Corporation. There he was selected as part of the small team to build a high powered laser, capable of shooting down missiles while in the 'boost' phase.

The development team was eventually visited by General Higgins to show him that the laser was fully operational, but that night, a speck of oil was leaked into the lasing cavity and the entire thing exploded, killing their boss, Pete. Months later, Harry and his soon to be ex were invited by Victor Anson to a party where Anson secretly informed Harry that he would be the new boss-man and he was to travel everywhere the plane went.

From here, you learn over the next few chapters that Colonel Christopher had an affair with General Schieb, Harry is in the middle of the divorce with his wife, Harry's team is semi-resenting him because of him accusing one of them trying to sabotage the laser (while they still knew it was a test run, though. Harry made it clear that nobody on the plane would try to blow it up), and that there is a LOT of tension in a tiny space! Harry eventually finds the ranging assembly though, but keeps it hidden and an eye on the lavatory to see if whoever did the deep would co to wipe it down at some point during the flight.

Now to the real action. The president (along with Harry's almost-ex and two daughters) is on the ground in San Francisco despite two advisements by his staff that landing in San Fran would not be a very advisable idea, and ABL-1 is flying exactly 20 miles off of the cost of North Korea. The ever-cautious DPRK sends two fighters out to escort the ABL-1 to land in North Korea. Keeping radio silence, they coast along (the coast) until they see one of the missiles launch. Moments later, the laser takes out one of the missiles, and one of the ATA missiles takes out one of the planes left engines!

They regain control and are barely able to take out the second missile before the plane stalls, then level back out and follow the DPRK planes. For the moment. Once behind one of the planes, they fire the laser at the engines, causing the fighter pilot to eject and the other fighter to follow him. The ABL-1 then proceeds to turn tail and get back to Japan as fast as possible.

After the fight, and on the return trip to Japan, Harry confronts his long-time friend, Monk. He accuses Monk of removing the ranging assembly, being paid by a competitor of Anson Aerospace Corp., and killing their boss Pete. Monk tries to scare Harry into forgetting about it, but Colonel Christopher comes by at the right time and takes Monk down in a brief fight.

The  story concludes with Harry and the Colonel on the verge of a relationship, Monk in custody, and Anson about ready to profit from the tons of Satellites out of comission in orbit.

This is the super abbreviated version, but it honestly was an amazing book, and worth every penny if you buy it!

Now for the assignment part of this.

The authors intent was varying obviously, but mainly Bova tried to keep you on the edge of your mental seat, always ready to fall into the action! The organization was spatial and the book divided up by Major heading (like 'Engagement' for the last part)- then Location (pentagon, ABL-1 cockpit, San Francisco...).

I hope you enjoyed reading my little Blog and I'll probably start posting again once I have found a new book to read! Take care people!