Fallout

by James W. Huston

Devastated at being reprimanded for a midair collision, TOPGUN instructor Luke Henry quits the Navy to start a private aerial combat school in the Nevada desert, where he and a number of his buddies, all former TOPGUN fliers -- part of the Old Bro network -- train fighter pilots for the U.S. government. Prior to leaving the Navy, Luke discovers that the United States has purchased twenty MiG-29s -- Russia's front-line fighter -- from Moldova, of the former Soviet Union. These are the very planes he wants to use for his own school, flying the Russian MiGs from an abandoned Air Force base.

But Luke's lucrative contract with the U.S. government comes with a caveat: among his students are a group of Pakistani Air Force pilots -- handpicked by the Department of Defense -- whom he must instruct. Luke is hesitant to train fighters from another country in the skills he learned at TOPGUN, but he won't be allowed to start the school without agreeing. The school opens, but the closer he gets to these students, the more he suspects that they may have an entirely different, and malicious, agenda in mind. They have a bone to pick with the United States and may be using Luke's school as their Trojan Horse to get into the country and launch an attack that would cause more damage than that sustained at Pearl Harbor. It falls to Luke to discover their plan and to stop it before it spirals out of control.

With Fallout James W. Huston scores big with his most riveting and thought-provoking thriller yet. Filled with exciting twists and turns and characters whose motivations will keep readers guessing until the startling conclusion, Fallout is a story of domestic terrorism that is as realistic as it is terrifying.

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Military Fiction, Audiobook, Action, Politics, Ebooks

384 pages, Hardcover

First published June 5, 2001

About the author

In addition to being the author of Falcon Seven, Marine One, Secret Justice, Shadows of Power, Fallout, Flash Point, The Price of Power and Balance of Power, I am a partner in the international law firm of Morrison & Foerster, and head of the Trial Practice Group, and a former Navy Flight Officer in F-14s.

I grew up in West Lafayette, Indiana, and attended the University of South Carolina on a Navy ROTC scholarship, majoring in history, with a minor in English. During my senior summer, I did an exchange cruise with the French Navy on a destroyer, the EE Kersaint out of Brest (which was a wonderful experience and reinforced my decision to go into the Navy), and then attended the University of Warwick in England, to study English Reformation history and English literature.

After college, I received my Navy wings as a Naval Flight Officer and after F-14 training in San Diego, was assigned to VF-84, the Jolly Rogers, on the USS Nimitz. While in VF-84, I participated in making the movie, The Final Countdown, starring Kirk Douglas, Katherine Ross, and Martin Sheen. The filming for the movie was done in several places, but most of the flying was done out of Naval Air Station Key West, Florida. The entire movie crew was in Key West, and we would review the dailies (yesterday's filming) every night. I was asked to help direct a couple of scenes—the blowing up of the yacht by the Zeros, and the F-14 low-level flyby over Katherine Ross—as well as filming several other scenes with a Panavision camera in the back seat of the F-14. The DVD version of The Final Countdown was recently released. The producers pulled together the Jolly Rogers guys who did the flying, to create and "behind-the-scenes" bonus cut.

I did two Mediterranean cruises while in the Jolly Rogers, and other shorter cruises to the Caribbean and the North Atlantic. I was selected to attend TOPGUN and graduated before my second cruise.

After six years in the Navy, I left active duty in 1981 to attend the University of Virginia School of Law. After graduation, I joined the San Diego-based law firm, Gray Cary Ames & Frye, and began flying in the Navy Reserves. After a few years in the Reserves, I transferred from flying to Naval Intelligence. Naval intelligence was quite interesting and allowed me access to top secret information about world affairs and military developments. I was on active duty at JICPAC, the Joint Intelligence Center, Pacific Fleet, in Pearl Harbor, when Iraq invaded Kuwait, leading to Desert Storm. I got to see a lot about what happened behind the scenes in an event like that, and how much of importance never makes it to the press.


My writing career started in the form of op-eds for the Escondido Times Advocate and the San Diego Union-Tribune, covering current affairs topics. After numerous editorials, I decided to try fiction. Neither my first novel nor my second were accepted for publication. I went through several hundred rejection letters, and labored almost every night for five years before I had any hope of getting published. I've gone back and looked at those books since, and I could make them publishable now, but they weren't very good back then.

My third novel was different. It combined many areas of my personal experience into one story—military action, political intrigue, and Constitutional Law. I found a clause in the U.S. Constitution that hadn't been used since 1812, and asked the simple question: "What if it was used today? What would happen?"

The first published novel, Balance of Power (William Morrow, 1998), was optioned by Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney. The novel was adapted into a screenplay by Mark Baumbach, but was never made into a film.

Five more novels followed in the next five years—The Price of Power (William Morrow, 1999), Flash Point (William Morrow, 2000), Fallout (William Morrow, 2001), The Shadows of Power (William Morrow, 2002), and Secret Justice (William Morrow, 2003).

Reviews

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

My rating: 2 out of 5 (fiction about top gun pilot starting his own school and being a hero, blah, blah, blah)

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

My second James W Huston title. Huston graduated from TOPGUN and served as an F-14 pilot on USS Nimitz.
Now an author and attorney with Morrison Foerster.

[RJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

U.S. Navy Lieutenant Luke Henry, call sign Stick, wanted nothing more from life than flying fast jets. He had reached a pinnacle in his career as a TOPGUN instructor. During a graduation exercise, Luke’s FA-18 struck a student’s F-14 wing, forcing the student to eject. The student was taking a photo of Luke’s plane at the time, making matters worse. The incident netted Luke a letter of reprimand in his file, thus permanently damaging Luke’s career. Devastated, Luke resigns from the Navy. All is not lost, Luke has envisioned a daring plan. The scope of the story expanded to global proportions. Pakistan entered the tale and its desire to hurt the U.S. became a major point. I found the story quite interesting although some parts may lack reasonable authenticity. I didn’t realize Pakistan had it out for us, they’re not the usual villains. I thought Pakistan was concerned with India but according to the story, we militarily cut Pakistan off so they are upset with us. So the tale continues, with Pakistan’s Major Khan the lead antagonist. I believe the story is plausible given the reasons in the story itself. It would give more aviators the chance to attend TOPGUN training for one, as the admissions probably are limited. And two, the training would benefit pilots ‘before’ their active service, not ‘after’. I agree with many other reviewers that a talented narrator would have improved the story a great deal. Morgan’s monotone, impassive rendering diminished Huston’s tale.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

TOPGUN instructor starts his own school and has adventures. It's more than just fantastic flying--there's also political intrigue in a part of the world that's not often considered by US readers/listeners. Out hero "Stick" is believable; his wingman "Vlad" is questionable. The antihero "Khan" is a real ass. Air to air airplane action got old after awhile.

[Kym Gamble · Rating 4 out of 5]

High intensity and good characters. Join in on a new flight school that teaches, of all things, how to fly a MIG. That's what Luke is putting together. But when the Department of Defense approves 4 Pakistani pilots from the Pakistani air force, Luke and his brothers (Other top flight teachers) and their ever suspicious intel man, they don't realize what their in for.

[James Baynes · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ve read most of Huston’s books, but has to take a break from reading this one. It seems as if connecting parts were left out in order to keep the book at a reasonable length. And American pilots wearing flight suits with Russian rank/insignias on them? Why? Just because they’re flying Russian jets? That’s ridiculous. Why not create their own insignia? So far, this book isn’t doing it for me.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exciting story F16 fighters. India and Pakistan.

[GeneO · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book, lots of fighter aircraft stuff that I can relate to. Some of the stuff is not believable but over all very engaging.

[Katie Martin]

Semi-interesting fiction audiobook I consumed for a reading challenge

[David A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did not finish.

[Sagar Godbole · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good writing but an outrageous plot, not an iota of which sounds even remotely plausible.

[Dazz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad little book.
Its well written and engaging.
But the overall story is rather unbelievable

[Lorraine Mathews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story about the back story of Indian, Pakistan, Russian, Israel politics and nuclear concerns. Story starts by showing the U.S. Nuclear weakness and how easy a nuclear terrorist threat could be because of the lack of a major nuclear decision by the U.S. Government. The story was outside my wheelhouse. It opened my eyes that the U.S. Government has severely dropped the ball in protecting us by their lack of making a decision about nuclear waste. One more thing to put on my list for when I am President!

[Cherie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pakistani terrorits inflitrate a "Top Gun" flying school, manage to steal several jets, bombs, and air to air missles, and bomb a nuclear power plant in California. As bad as that is, a even more insidious plot is revealed, and a young U.S. former Navy pilot is secretly sent to India to prevent a terrorist act that would surely start World War III.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Military novel - Luke Henry - a naval aviator and Topgun instructor, leaves the service to open a Topgun alternative school with leased MiG-29s. Vlad, a cashiered Russian flyer, signs on and together they face terrorist Pakistani fliers masquerading as students.

[Tom Wruble · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK book. Several very unexpected plot twists, which were cool. Not entirely believable, and I suppose I still miss Clancy – at least his early stuff.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read about some Topgun pilots saving the world

[Charles Mudge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Huston is not Clancy, but that’s ok. This book is an enjoyable “popcorn read”. I loved it years ago, and I still love it now.

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disapointing after Marine 1 and Falcon 7. This book's plot felt contrived and there was too much writer intrusion. All the airplane talk became boring.

[Boots S · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was much technical information regarding fighter planes which I thought was tedious. It was half way through the book for the plot to start

[Alisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book. This is a pre-9/11 book, but seems to predict much of what happened that day.