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Summary
Summary
New York Times bestselling author Dale Brown--"the best military writer in the country" (Clive Cussler)--is back with Starfire, a masterful military thriller that explores a future all too possible and all too close: the weaponization of space.
With the death of his heroic father, bomber and space warfare veteran Patrick McLanahan, Bradley McLanahan must now fly solo, leading a team of young engineers designing Starfire, the world's first orbiting solar power plant.
Starfire will not only deliver unlimited and inexpensive electricity anywhere on planet Earth, it can also transmit power to the moon, and even to spacecraft and asteroids. It's a crucial first step in the exploration of the solar system, and Bradley and his team are on the cutting edge.
But U.S. president Kenneth Phoenix's plans to militarize and industrialize Earth's orbit sparks an arms race in space that eclipses the darkest and most terrifying days of the Cold War. Before he can prevent it, Bradley and his team are caught at the center of a battle that threatens to become an all-out global conflict for control of space.
Author Notes
Dale Brown was born on November 2, 1956 in Buffalo, New York. He graduated from Penn State University with a degree in Western European history, where he wrote a column for the University's newspaper, The Daily Collegian. He went on to freelance for computer magazines, such as Run and Compute's Gazette for Commodore.
He received an Air Force Commission in 1978 and while there, he received the Air Force Commendation Medal, the Combat Crew Medal and a Marksmanship Ribbon. He also wrote for several military base newspapers while he was still enlisted. He left the Air Force as a Captain and remains a multi-engine and instrument rated private pilot. He is a director and volunteer pilot for AirLifeLine, a nonprofit national medical transport for needy people who cannot afford to travel for medical attention.
He is the author of several series including Dale Brown's Dreamland and, Patrick McLanahan. Dreamland. His title Tiger's Claw made The New York Times Best Seller List for 2012.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Bestseller Brown's exciting 19th entry in his loosely connected techno-thriller series (after 2012's Tiger Claw) focuses on Bradley McLanahan. As a precocious and well-connected engineering student at California Polytechnic State University, Bradley devises, with the help of his brilliant team of young scientists and fellow classmates, the blueprint for Starfire, an unparalleled source of solar energy in Earth's spatial orbit. The project at first sounds like a teenager's imaginative daydream, yet President Kenneth Phoenix's intention to turn the Armstrong Space Station into a weapon of mass destruction suddenly puts Bradley in the crosshairs of the dangerous Russian government. Entangled in a potentially catastrophic war stretching to the outer reaches of space, Bradley and his friends must formulate a new plan-one that could potentially save all mankind. While encumbered by too much jargon and a dizzying number of characters and plot developments, the novel does manage in its descriptions of spaceships, warfare, and the so-called "final frontier." (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
The development of an orbiting solar-power plant leads to conflict between American and Russian military forces.The newest military thriller from Brown (Tigers Claw, 2013, etc.) continues the saga of the late, legendary fighter pilot Patrick McLanahan and his rapidly maturing son, Bradley. In the not-too-distant future of 2016, Kenneth Phoenix is the first American president to fly in space, and he implements a plan to expand the U.S. space program. This decision infuriates the Russian president, who's still recovering from emotional wounds inflicted during the battle between American and Russian forces a decade prior. To complicate matters further, college freshman Bradley McLanahan is leading a team of gifted scientists and engineers working on an orbiting solar plant, which would be a boon to Americas interstellar presence. With his father dead, however, Bradley is left vulnerable to Russian agents under orders to settle an old score with his family. To protect himselfand the future of his cutting-edge projectBradley hooks up with his fathers old allies while developing the skills necessary for his own emergence as a first-rate fighting man. In a world where old vendettas merge with global tensions, Bradley learns that every step could be his last and political intrigue can quickly turn into an outright war. With no room for extraneous character development or expansive narrative details, this story rests on the authors deep knowledge of flying and the space program.A page-turner filled with an insiders knowledge of military aircraft. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
The president of the U.S. makes a bold move and delivers a surprising address from a space station in orbit. The ramifications of that speech lead to a race to weaponize the skies in Brown's latest military thriller. Still grieving the death of his father, Patrick, in Tiger's Claw (2012), Bradley McLanahan leads a team charged with designing an orbiting solar plant called Starfire, which will solve all of the nation's energy problems and propel exploration of the solar system. But it could also become a military space station that could result in nuclear missiles raining down from space. Brown tells a compelling tale about how cutting-edge technology could be used in terrifying ways. This shockingly plausible scenario drives what is another fine thriller from Brown, who demonstrates again why he is one of the best military writers in the business.--Ayers, Jeff Copyright 2014 Booklist
