• The Delta Solution by Patrick Robinson

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      A2_Matelot
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      How topical is this coming in the aftermath of the US SEALS parachuting into Somalia and rescuing two hostages from a Somali stronghold not a million miles away from Haradheere which features in this book.

      The premise of the book is centred upon an enterprising Somali ‘warlord’ who operates his own private ‘marine’ force and an equally enterprising form of stock exchange which allows the locals to buy into and fund pirate operations taking a share of any ensuing profits. Operating with blissful impunity the pirates take one step too far and anger the mighty US who decide that its time to show the pirates that they won’t tolerate their actions.

      Step in the US Navy SEALS – not Delta force as the title may suggest – who retask a platoon of SEAL Team 10, Delta platoon, to operate against piracy. This brings to the fore a character previously introduced in earlier books from the same author, who is simply nails! All a bit odd to my mind as I understood the US SEALS to be trained and experienced in Maritime Counter Terrorism operations which surely have fairly common SOPs as counter-piracy operations, quite why in this book they need to undergo explicit training is quite odd?

      Equally odd are some of the random and unnecessary mistakes, for example: An Adm and the SEAL Cdr being met by a Cobra and being given a ride into a meeting – not sure where they sat, perhaps the author was thinking of Jugroom Fort when he was typing? Random changes between Cdr and Lt Cdr (I know the USN colloquially refer to a Lt Cdr as Cdr but in writing they wouldn’t necessarily), SEALS using RPGs as standard weapons and so on.

      The story itself isn’t particularly well balanced, we meet the pirates (and their Al-Queda cousins who are portrayed as hapless, opportunistic thieves), they undertake no less than three piracy operations all following a very similar pattern and see off a raid by Al-Queda, in the background the SEALS story develops but the book is thin on this, in fact the ‘action’ component featuring the SEALS really only unfolds in the latter 50 pages of the book as so much of the story is devoted to the piracy aspects. In my opinion the balance should have been 20-30% acts of piracy and 60-70% involving the SEALS.

      If you think McNab and Ryan then this is the genre you’re in less their real world experience, perfect for whiling away time when travelling or when you want to just read fluff.

      Readable but perhaps not an author I’ll stick on my Xmas list – 2½ tattie heeds.

      A2_Matelot



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      This article was originally published in forum thread: The Delta Solution by Patrick Robinson started by A2_Matelot View original post
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      Comments 3 Comments
      1. Auld-Yin's Avatar
        Auld-Yin - 04-02-2012, 13:43
        Read this and agree with A2_Matelot. One point he did not bring out was the blatant anti-Brit theme that the book threw up. SAS was portrayed as incompetent and not up to the job, RN were no good etc. Several digs at UK forces while bigging up the SEALS as the only special forces capable of operating in today's terrorist climate.

        Very much written for the audience over the pond and a grated slightly to read something that did not need to be put into a book, just showing up the bias of this "American" (actually he is British) who loves the USofA so much that he lives and works in Ireland!! I have read several of his books before and there was not that anti-British theme apparent so maybe he has been given the bums rush by someone at MoD

        Having said that, it is an easy book to read and does give a good picture of life as a successful Somali pirate! As ever timing is all and this book will no doubt sell well due to the recent US operation in Somalia.
      1. petergriffen's Avatar
        petergriffen - 05-02-2012, 03:57
        Quote Originally Posted by Auld-Yin View Post
        Read this and agree with A2_Matelot. One point he did not bring out was the blatant anti-Brit theme that the book threw up. SAS was portrayed as incompetent and not up to the job, RN were no good etc. Several digs at UK forces while bigging up the SEALS as the only special forces capable of operating in today's terrorist climate.

        Very much written for the audience over the pond and a grated slightly to read something that did not need to be put into a book, just showing up the bias of this "American" (actually he is British) who loves the USofA so much that he lives and works in Ireland!! I have read several of his books before and there was not that anti-British theme apparent so maybe he has been given the bums rush by someone at MoD

        Having said that, it is an easy book to read and does give a good picture of life as a successful Somali pirate! As ever timing is all and this book will no doubt sell well due to the recent US operation in Somalia.
        It's Patrick Robinson..author (if you can call him that) of the worst military thriller ever shit out on a page, "ghost force". The Argentinians and the Russians taking the Falklands while obliterating the RN task force. The day is only saved for the SAS guys stuck behind enemy lines on the FI by a bunch of SEAL's rescuing them.
      1. chrisg46's Avatar
        chrisg46 - 05-02-2012, 18:58
        Yep, some of his initial books were ok, such as Seawolf and Nimitz. But his blatent name dropping (he wrote Adm Woodward - he of Falklands fame - biography, and is constantly bigging him up as one of histories great naval commanders) and his ignorance of facts have really shown up lately. The afore mentioned Ghost Force is just awful and the one before that where France wipes out Saudi Arabian oil infrastructure in order to get the rebuilding contracts is not much better.
        He has a serious hard-on for the SEALs and the US Navy though, and cant write in other languages such as Australian! His lead character is just annoying too.