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Overview
Afghan "soldiers of God" bring the world to the edge of nuclear Armageddon when they steal a Russian hydrogen bomb, vowing to detonate it if the West fails to comply with their demands. At stake is a vast strategic territory: the rich but unstable states of the Islamic Arc, from Africa through the Middle East and Pakistan and ultimately the seething Moslem enclaves of the former Soviet Union. Only a handful of people know how to recover the warhead before the rebels unleash the powers of the twenty-first century in the name of their thousand-year-old struggle: a U.S. Navy nuclear detection team, flying a highly modified P-3 Orion commanded by an American man and woman, and a retired Russian Special Forces captain with painful firsthand experience in the uncharted wilds of Afghanistan. Together they must outwit the soldiers of God, Russian opportunists, and American intelligence operatives who turn their backs on their own secret war. In a desperate final battle fought deep inside one of Islam's holiest shrines, all three discover the key to powers far greater than those locked within a hydrogen bomb: the powers of faith, of honor, of courage. A brilliant new technothriller, The Sword of Orion is the story of the next global war...one step ahead of tomorrow's headlines.Afghanistan holds the key to nuclear Armageddon. Afghan "Soldiers of God" have stolen Russia's most devastating bomb. Only a U.S. team flying a modified P-3 Orion can stop them. From professional test pilot and the author of Angle of Attack and The Flight from Winter's Shadow.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
In the near future of this somber, fast-moving techno-thriller, Afghan guerrillas capture a Russian hydrogen bomb. Capt. Aleksandr Belenko, a burned-out Russian veteran of the Soviet engagement in Afghanistan, joins U.S. Navy Cmdr. Richard Donovan and Lt. J.P. Harper in a desperate search for the weapon. They are aided by a P-3 Orion patrol plane modified to detect nuclear emissions at long range. White ( Angle of Attack ) solidly establishes the environment of a post-Cold War world in which old truths have given way to new uncertainties. He convincingly presents a group of nicely fleshed-out principal characters, the most notable among them being Lt. Harper, a hotshot multi-engine pilot who happens to be a woman. Describing conflict in the mountains of Afghanistan and danger in the cockpit of a P-3 during a lightning storm with equal vividness, White falters only at his novel's melodramatic conclusion. (Mar.)Library Journal
The author's first two novels, Flight from Winter's Shadow ( LJ 1/91) and Angle of Attack ( LJ 2/15/92), featured glamorous fighter aircraft and Top Gun -like flying. Here, in his best book to date, he has chosen to highlight the workhorse P-3 Orion--specially equipped, to be sure, and commanded by a young woman eager to demonstrate her piloting talent. U.S. Navy Commander Richard Donovan must evaluate the ability of young Lieutenant J.P. Harper after her assigned co-pilot has refused to fly with her. Aided by a likable crew, the two take the Orion, which is armed with sensors able to detect nuclear warheads, and head for Afghanistan to hunt for a renegade group of Afghanis who have stolen and hidden a Russian hydrogen bomb. A Russian soldier and Afghan woman seeking the same quarry provide a poignant counterpart. Although White's plotting still occasionally gets out of control (where did those mummies get to?), he deserves a wide audience of aviation lovers. Recommended for popular fiction collections.-- Elsa Pendleton, Boeing Computer Support Svces., Ridgecrest, Cal.Book Details
Published
December 31, 1995
Publisher
Fawcett
Format
Paperbound
ISBN
9780449287095