I found the cute comments on naming military operations a bit tiresome. There are also needless details about the restaurants and the shopping mall on Hail’s container ship that added nothing to the story.

The story is interrupted with long technical discussions about the drones and nuclear power that could have been condensed. The story is a little bit preposterous and difficult to believe as well. Outside of the main two characters in the book, none of the minor characters were memorable. That was a great example of “show, don’t tell,” and the book needed a lot more of that to make sure the reader is invested enough in the story to continue reading. A North Korean guard comes close to seeing the drone, and Hail must face the moral dilemma of whether or not to kill him. The first emotional involvement I had with the book came when the main character, Hail, was running a drone strike in North Korea. I found no character that I could identify with in any way, and the characters seemed cardboard. The characters in the book are poorly developed. This was very well-done and is worth looking at. The author provided a link to a promotional video. The use of North Korea is certainly current given recent events. The author is well-versed in the use of drones. I enjoyed the final drone strike near the end of the book. The scenes involving drone strikes were well-written and compelling. I found the author’s use of drones plausible. The discussion and use of the drones in this book were very well done. I must add here that techno-thrillers are a little bit out of my wheel-house, and I am an infrequent book reviewer. I gave the book three stars because there were some aspects of the book I liked very much, and many aspects that I did not like. I received an unsolicited free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. The edition I reviewed was copyright 2016 by Brette Arquette, Classroom Edition, First Printing (Rev 3). He did have an outstanding video as a promotional tool.

I had a lot of issues with this book, but I do have to admit parts of it were very enjoyable and very well done, particularly the drone strike at the conclusion of the book. He is bent on taking revenge on terrorists on the top-ten list. For some reason, his ship is staffed by video-game teenage outcasts. The premise is that a revenge-seeking techno-genius has a fleet of ships and a number of highly-developed drones capable of just about anything. It was a techno-thriller that I obtained as the result of a solicitation on Goodreads by the author. I finished “Hail Storm” by Brett Arquette.

Hail Strike by Brett Arquette