Wings of Fire

Former Air Force General Patrick McClanahan and his Night Stalkers are a freelance commando team that operates outside the American government--way outside--for reasons that author Dale Brown never makes entirely clear. Hired by a petroleum cartel to protect its interests in the Middle East, the team is testing new weapons developed by Sky Masters, McClanahan's private company, in the skies over Libya. Defending themselves against Libyan missiles, they get involved in a conflagration sparked by the new Libyan leader, who's convinced a radical Muslim faction to assassinate the pro-Western president of Egypt and help him take over the country's oil fields in return for his promise to unite all of Arab North Africa under theocratic fundamentalist rule. But his plans are foiled by the American-born widow of the slain president, with the timely assistance of McClanahan, the Night Stalkers, and their laser ray guns, plasma bombs, exoskeleton battle armor, and other weapons that Brown, an acknowledged master of the techno-thriller, describes in painstaking detail. The cumbersome plot and convoluted relationships among the central characters don't make much sense, and the action is so far over the top that it's barely believable, but that won't matter to Brown's enthusiastic readers, who've made his previous 13 books best sellers. --Jane Adams