Kill Zone: A Sniper Novel (Kyle Swanson Series Book 1)

This isn't a bad story, but there are so many technical errors and stupid schoolboy mistakes in the text that it really makes you wonder about the author's stated credentials. What makes it worse is that almost all of these could have been eliminated if either the author or his co-writer, the man who presumably knocked the story into coherent English, or the vast team he apparently had working for him at Macmillan, had spent about five minutes on the Internet checking some of the alleged 'facts'.For example, somehow or other the author managed to not only squeeze a second engine into the fuselage of an AV-8B Harrier – that aircraft has, and always has had, only a single engine – but he's even managed to fit afterburners to them, something never done outside the pages of this novel.He's also obviously never seen a Harrier take off in a combat environment, describing it as lifting vertically off the deck of an aircraft carrier and then – mysteriously – it 'changed the position of its wings and engines, then thundered away'. Wrong in every single particular.Harriers do not take off vertically except for demonstration purposes or at air shows and the like. They always launch horizontally, because if the aircraft is to carry any kind of a useful weapon load – and in this section of the book they're supposed to be carrying iron bombs, cannon and missiles, an unusual mix at best – it needs the lift generated by its wings to get off the ground. And both the wings and engine – single, not plural – are fixed, not moveable. All that moves on a Harrier in this context are the four jet efflux nozzles at the side of the fuselage, which simply rotate, and the pilot will not alter the position of these until well established in the climb, which means at least a mile or two from the ship or airfield.The author also implies that surveillance satellites can somehow hover over a particular location, which is impossible. The only fixed satellites – and actually they are travelling very quickly but at a speed that exactly matches the Earth's rotational velocity – are the geostationary birds that beam TV pictures into our homes, and they're over 20,000 miles out. Spy or surveillance satellites are very fast-moving – you can sometimes see them at night as pin-pricks of lights as they whip overhead in low polar orbits – and will only be overhead a specific location for a few seconds on each pass.There are massive errors when it comes to tactics and other aviation issues. Under no conceivable circumstances would two CH-53 helicopters come to a hover side by side in a restricted landing area. The first one would land or come to a low hover to allow the troops to de-plane, then climb away. The second one would then follow it and repeat the process. And even if for some reason, in defiance of both normal flight operation procedures and common sense, the two aircraft were close together, a 'freak wall of wind' (whatever that is supposed to mean) would affect them both at the same time, not drive one aircraft – which would be moved by the wind – into the other – which for some reason would not be moved by the same wind. That incident was very clumsily handled, but essential for the plot.The author introduces a 'little Kawasaki motorcycle', fitted with a 1200 cc engine. 200 cc, maybe. 1200 cc never. That's a multi-cylinder road bike, capable of doing well over 150 mph, probably nearer 200 mph. Again, no attention to even the most basic detail. Military radio procedure is another area where the author falls down. No pilot would ever say 'Rooster Two to Rooster One'. The invariable procedure is to give the name of the unit being called, because that's what people on the net are listening out for, before giving your own name, so it should read 'Rooster One, this is Rooster Two'.There are blatant errors in tactics as well. Having placed bombs in several buildings in a village in the middle of the night, the hero waits until they blow up before getting into his vehicle and driving away. Why? Why not drive away and get well clear before they explode and the village wakes up? Simple. If he'd done that, there wouldn't have been a gunfight and a chase, but in the real world, that would be a nonsensical thing to do. Get out quietly while the going's good and let the chaos explode behind them. There are lots of other mistakes of the same kind, too many to list here, especially towards the end of the book, and particularly with regard to the final evacuation.Books like this depend absolutely on credibility with regard to weapons, tactics and military matters in general, and the moment the reader encounters this kind of sloppy and inaccurate writing, that credibility is immediately lost.On a practical note, the version I read was the ebook, and that's marred by a lot of unnecessary hyphenation, indicative of sloppy editing by Macmillan.Would I read another book by the same author? Possibly, as long as I was reasonably certain he'd had the text vetted by military specialists who actually knew what they were talking about, because in so many areas the author obviously doesn't. As I said at the start of this review, the story isn't bad, but I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to find another of his books.

I enjoy Jack Coughlin's stories. Unlike many American writers he is not tunnel visioned on 'America First and Greatest'. For that you only need to read Chris Kyle 'Americann Sniper'. Coughlin gives other SF notably the Brityish SAS a siginficant place in his stories. He is well aware of the ME as an historical, geographical and cultural entity in irs own right. He is an intelligent writer, but keeps the action/thriller element well paced. He seems to bring his own experiences as a sniper into these stories. I likee the humour. it is also intelliugent and enjoyable.His writing style is straightforward and unassuming. He obviously knows about being a sniper in combat and describes this very well in his stories, esp. Kill Zone. Its as if you are there with him as his partner. At the same time he writes chapters involving highh level US politics and international politics plausibly and coinvincingly. One can learn much from his stories about US poltics esp. re the military and foreign adventures.All in all I cannot recommend Jack Coughlin too highly.

I read many reviews before reading this. One or two took too much time pointing out where facts about planes and wotnot were wrong. Rather than sitting and enjoying a good book that for the majority of us was a really good easy reading book! I found this book by accident but I will eventually purchase the full series. Great book and a big thumbs up from me!

You probably have to have an interest in the military to read anything similar to this. Clearly sanatised versions of real experiance events, the book is quite readable and I got through it quite quickly although I was lying by a pool. That said there where totally unbelievable sections (helicopter crash) but that is what fiction is about it was interesting enough to keep me going and choose not to dump it and start one of the several hundred other books I have loaded unto my kindle. Some of the weaponry, super duper sniper rifle is highly believable. Clear that a series of stories will probably follow. I will certainly read number two and see if it will be worthwhile with any more of a series.

Okay, I liked it, took some getting into with there being so many masters of this type of book, Chris Ryan for one.However, once I had read a couple of chapters I got to liking Kyle, he is a lone man who is employed or not by the US Government, to do all of those tasks that we like to hear have happened but don't know, or care really who has done it.Kyle is tasked to rescue a high ranking US Commander after he has been kidnapped in a "hot Country". However, it is clear that the US are also involved and it has to do with new fuels and high ranking officials trying to get their goods onto the open market.A good introduction to a new man.

This is the first book I've read by Jack Coughlin, I only bought it because it was so cheap. I must say, I was extremely surprised how good this book was, I read it in 2 days which is quite quick for my busy life! A very clever story and a few shocks along the way. I love a book that isn't so predictable that you can guess the ending after the first two chapters! If you enjoy a good war/conspiracy story then I thoroughly recommend this book!

I recently acquired a Kindle and like most people am flat broke until the end January so the free book section in the Amazon Kindle store was my first stop. Being free I expected the books to be mainly awful or mainly chic flicks and they were but this was the exception ! A good action thriller with the bad politicians trying get what they want and getting what they deserve, the good guy saving the day and plenty of action. The story had plenty of military terms and slang it to satisfy people looking for a good shoot email up !It's free and you won't be wasting your time downloading and reading it !!!