Leviathan's Fall

by Fergus Bannon

General Olomo, on the face of it a tinpot West African dictator, squares up against the most powerful military on Earth. Provoked by Olomo's outrages against a US medical group vaccinating African children, the US President sends in the crushing might of a Supercarrier Battle Group. The outcome seems a foregone conclusion, but then the trap closes as Olomo ruthlessly exploits the weaknesses of hi-tech warfare.
In the midst of spiralling violence only Joey Beck, a federal agent, suspects Olomo's true motives and must risk all to right a terrible wrong.

334 pages, Paperback

Published July 24, 2016

About the author

Fergus Bannon writes fast paced thrillers which take a jaded and heretical view of what we think we know of science and technology.
Following graduation, he ran away to sea, his merchant shipping line taking him to some of the choicer trouble spots around the world. Rich though the seafaring life was, it could also be rather dangerous. After having a run-in with a death squad in South America (the basis of a key scene in his book 'Heretic'), and then nearly getting his throat slit in Jamaica, he began to harbour doubts about his long term prospects. A hurricane in the Atlantic, and a major fire on board ship in the Pacific, only reinforced this view.
Nursing an ambition to live until the age of forty, he therefore came ashore and eventually became a professor of physics. Fergus Bannon is a pen name for his fiction, but he has also published a non-fiction book called 'Science for Heretics' under his actual name of Barrie Condon.

Reviews

[Shelly Donaghey · Rating 3 out of 5]

LEVIATHAN'S FALL by Fergus Bannon is a rather too long-winded polemic about American political and military stances. This is thinly disguised as an action thriller, but essentially the author does not like how the U.S. fails to temper it's power in the world with understanding, letting arrogance lead in decision making.
A West African military force, led by the brilliant but severely underrated General Olomo, takes a small group of medical missionaries hostage. is plan is to humiliate the U.S. Government and unite the warring factions of Africa into one united country. The hostages are tried in a military court and found guilty of using experimental drugs on the African peoples. One by one the hostages are executed.
The U.S. responds by sending a nearby Carrier Strike Force (CSF) in as a display of might. A few missiles aught to stop the locals but things only escalate. Olomo's forces have almost nothing but AK-47s and machine guns and a couple of RPGs, but they also do not a real base of operations in a blatant place for the U.S. to strike.
The U.S. military and government do not understand the rules of this game (think Southeast Asia) and have to adjust their though process to stand a chance. Admiral Macik, commander of the CFS, is a micro-manager with little or no flexibility left in him with which to out-think this new enemy. He is a not too subtle representation of draconian processes in place with a major weapons system ruled by politicians and the gross need for political correctness in all things. He is more of a cartoon figure than a true reflection of the military commander, but the cartoon is too close to reality to be comfortable.
This book feels too long by about a third to be effective vis-a-vis the action/thriller genre. As a screed about the U.S. military planning it is effective, but judicious editing by a brutal hand might have caused a superior book.
I won this book through GoodReads.

[Wanny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Action packed booked through out. Rather affecting at the end. Could not put the book down.

[Ann McKInlay · Rating 5 out of 5]

A solid thriller with some neat twists