Knowledge Brings Fear

Stephen Coonts: Liberty

To my defense: I have the problem not to be able to read serious literature in airplanes without falling half asleep. Apparently the thiner air (even if it is pressurized, a normal airplane atmosphere is like living at 2500 meters) makes me think slower. I seem to be not the only person on this planet suffering from this, judging from the shelfs full of trivial literature on any airport bookstore. Anyway, I bought this book from exactly such an airport bookstore, having among other things forgotten to pack something decent to read.

To make the pain short: the book is moderately suspenseful, the characters are wooden and patriotic beyond remedy and the whole book is american in a way that makes me wonder why someone even bothered to translate it into german (in german its called "Fluchtpunkt New York" for no apparent reason). The plot is simple: Some islamic terrorists bought nuclear warheads from a corrupt russian general. A group of US heros with the help of a right-minded russian intelligence officer successfully stops them in the last minute from detonating, despite interference from some ingrate children of vietnamese immigrants and Washington bureaucracy turf wars. I remember having read books from the same author (which I also purchased at airport bookstores), so I was not that surprised or disappointed. I would not recommend any novel from Stephen Coonts (dont know about his non-fiction books) if you have anything useful to do with your time or are allergic to US military patriotism spread thickly across every third page.