Sword Point

Scott Dixon #1

by Harold Coyle

From the White House and the Kremlin to the battlefield--the life of each character is changed or brutally ended by the rapidly escalating war. And then the stakes are Iran is on the verge of assembling a nuclear device.

Genres: Fiction, Military Fiction, Thriller, War, Historical Fiction, Adventure, Action

412 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 1988

About the author

Harold Coyle is an American author of historical, speculative fiction and war novels including Team Yankee, a New York Times best-seller.He graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1974 and spent seventeen years on active duty with the U.S. Army.He lives in Leavenworth, Kansas.

Reviews

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good read. This concerns a Middle East War the idea being a "Soviet" invasion of Iran. The book is a 1988 novel so predates modern political and geopolitical situations. It is interesting and well written a fast moving plot with accurate facts. the soldier's point of view war theme is here as it is in other Coyle novels.

After Team Yankee Coyle placed another book "sometime" in the 1980s with The U.S. facing off against the U.S.S.R. in Iran. This of course isn't the only conflict. While the ayatollahs don't care for the Soviets...they're not overly fond of the U.S. either.

I like Coyle, good read if you like action, techno-thrillers, even alternate history. Recommended.

[Richard Schwindt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was trying to remember whether I had read any techno-thrillers by Harold Coyle, while sitting on the beach reading one. I felt a whiff of desperation in my book choice; wondering why I would read a story about Soviet tanks invading Iran in the late 80s and ending up fighting the US, other than because someone had left it on a table in the hotel. In the end, when the shooting was done I found it dated but well written, and the Russian and American characters surprisingly relatable (the Iranians, not so much). The book is still worth reading, possibly with vodka and a toy tank by your side.

[Steve Haidet · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book does a good job of showing the terror of war. Also it's refreshing how often the American protagonists screw up.

[Ralph Neville · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was strange to read a book written before everything that has happened to us since 1991.
I liked it because I worked in a TOC when I was in the 2nd ACR, when Germany was still split in to East and West. It made me wish I had some big SITREP map and follow the flow of the battles.

[Mark Adkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first book in the Scott Dixon series. When he wrote the book I don't think he envisioned a series based around the character I think it was afterwards that marketing branded it a series. This book is about the US and USSR fighting in Iran with the Iranian forces fighting both sides.

One of the things to remember when reading any of Harold Coyles' books is that they are a product of the time they were written in, this one in 1988. So the political climate, technology, and the tactics used reflects what was current at that time.

In terms of writing, I consider this to be a Tom Clancy "Red Storm Rising" clone. I don't mean it as an insult just that is what you can expect (Tom Clancy is more detailed and his character are more developed). There are some rather predictable situations and some characters come off better than others but it is an enjoyable read.

[Michael Toleno · Rating 3 out of 5]

I probably enjoyed this enough to warrant 4 stars, but I read this so long ago—at least 30 years—that I have little memory of the book or my reaction to it, even after I read a brief summary on line, which jogged my memory a bit.

A few hundred books from now, I’ll probably read the rest of this series of five books, but won’t likely attempt to read all of Coyle’s novels.

As with all of my pre-2000 books, the “Date finished” may be several years off.

[Guillaume · Rating 4 out of 5]

J'aurai craint que ca soit totalement dépassé, mais le fait que ca s'attarde surtout sur les personnes que sur les inventaires de matériels ou les descriptifs technique compense bien un contexte daté de 40 ans (guerre Iran IRak, URSS, etc..)

Du coup, c'est assez plaisant, peut-être un peu long et d'un auteur encore débutant, mais une bonne surprise quand même.

[Elly Stroo Cloeck · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have started reading this book a few times but couldn’t concentrate enough to get into it. So I brought it with me on vacation: lots of free time, enabling me to focus. To no avail, it’s just to technical for me with all the gear and the ranks.

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid novel about a war between the US and the USSR. I think I read a metric ton of these during the 80s, and this is a little better than most.

[Greg Oaster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Along the lines of Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy. Well researched and written

[Cüneyt · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yazarın harita bilgisi sıfır, iran şehir isimlerini dizip random yazmış. Çok zayıf dağınık bir dili var.

[Veljko · Rating 2 out of 5]

Scott Dixon seris with no Scott Dixon...How many POVs you need to tell a story, gazillion apparently. Not a good book.

[Scott Mattson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, but seems lacking.

[CASPER HILEMAN · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Soviet Union invades Iran in the 1980s to control the flow of oil to the Western World. How do the United States and the rest of the world respond?

[Alen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this back when it first came out. On second thought, no way the Soviet army was as good as portrayed in the book

[Stavros Pechlivanidis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brutal read that will smack you in the head and make you come back for more.

[Mike Nicholas · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was good

[Jacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.35

[Jenna M · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

[Hilmi Isa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ulasan Bacaan Kali Kedua (27 September - 04 September 2021)

Sword Point merupakan novel pertama yang menampilkan watak Scott Dixon oleh penulis buku ini,Harold Coyle.

Seperti novel yang pertama iaitu Team Yankee,novel kali ini masih menjadikan military - thriller sebagai genre utamanya. Cuma,apa yang membuatkan Sword Point berbeza daripada Team Yankee adalah skop penceritaan yang lebih meluas dan tidak hanya terhad kepada satu pihak saja semata-mata.

Novel yang bergenre sebegini sememangnya tidak begitu mementingkan perkembangan watak-watak utama,baik protagonis atau antagonis. Walaupun masih ada perkembangan watak,aspek ini bukanlah keutamaan. Sebaliknya,aksi-aksi pertempuran lebih menjadi tumpuan dan sesungguhnya,saya sendiri selaku peminat genre sebegini,tidak ada masalah dengan pendekatan penceritaan yang sedemikian rupa. Inilah kekuatan genre ini yang menarik minat saya untuk membacanya. Malah,ada watak-watak yang saya fikir boleh dikembangkan oleh penulis di masa hadapan 'dimatikan' oleh penulis. Sesuatu yang agak mengejutkan juga pada saya!

Premis dan latar belakang cerita di dalam novel ini menyaksikan Amerika Syarikat dan Kesatuan Soviet berperang di dalam peperangan konvensional yang terhad. Medan perang utama adalah di Iran yang menyaksikan negara itu diserang dan ditakluki sebahagiannya di sebelah utara oleh Kesatuan Soviet sebelum turut menyaksikan pendaratan tentera Amerika Syarikat di sebelah selatan dan timur Iran.

Selain itu,Coyle cuba memaparkan secara hipotesis tentang apakah yang akan berlaku sekiranya dua doktrin ketenteraan yang berbeza bertembung antara satu sama lain. Doktrin ketenteraan Kesatuan Soviet menekankan kepada disiplin dan kepatuhan yang bersifat rigid kepada hierarki ketenteraan. Yakni,pangkat bawahan kena patuh dan menuruti arahan yang diberikan oleh pihak atasan tanpa soalan dan melaksanakan arahan tersebut sebaik mungkin. Manakala,doktrin angkatan tentera Amerika Syarikat pula lebih longgar dan memberikan kebebasan kepada unit-unit kecil untuk bertindak sendiri jika tiada arahan dari pihak atasan. Coyle berpandangan bahawa kedua-dua doktrin berfungsi dan kejayaan kedua-dua doktrin bukan sahaja bergantung kepada peralatan ketenteraan sahaja semata-mata. Malah,yang paling penting adalah sumber manusia itu sendiri.


Ulasan Bacaan Kali Pertama

Berbanding Team Yankee,Sword Point ditulis dengan lebih baik oleh penulis bagi kedua-dua buku iaitu Harold Coyle.
Sepanjang pembacaan saya,penulisan Coyle didapati semakin matang dan skop penceritaannya juga semakin meluas. Jika di dalam Team Yankee,fokus utama hanya diberikan kepada peranan dan perspektif yang dimainkan oleh Team Yankee dan komandernya sahaja. Manakala,di dalam Sword Point,fokus penceritaan dipelbagaikan spektrumnya. Ini adalah satu kematangan yang ditunjukkan oleh penulis. Malahan,beliau bersikap lebih 'adil' ketika menggambarkan keupayaan dan etika ketenteraan tentera Soviet Union. Tentera Kesatuan Soviet diperihalkan cekap dan mampu memberikan tentangan yang hebat serta tidak dijangka kepada tentera Amerika Syarikat.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another solid Harold Coyle effort predating todays post-'91 changes in the geopolitical balance of the world...excellent story of a Soviet invasion into Iran & the US response...provides both strategic & tactical levels...examines pressures at command & the "small unit" levels...I really like coyle's stuff!

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second book by Harold Coyle after Team Yankee . The story pits the US and USSR in a war in Iran. Apparently, the Soviets wanted to take Iran's oil fields. Given that Coyle admitted to setting Team Yankee inside of another book, namely The Third World War, August 1985 , Sword Point gave me the feeling that Coyle read Red Storm Rising and decided to write a book about the invasion of Iran the Soviet's had planned in that book. That might explain why Coyle never explains in the book why the hell the USSR is invading Iran to begin with. Most likely, he was too eager to get to the war itself to be bogged down with exposition, or causation in general.

Which, to tell you the truth, is fine. Sword Point's strength is in chronicling the fighting of this war that never happened. Unlike Team Yankee , which only dealt with the given conflict at the company level, Sword Point shows Coyle discussing the conflict as a whole. Both sides as a matter of fact. If you want a quick and dirty story about modern warfare that gets the technical parts right, find a copy of this book. Otherwise, don't bother.

[Rich Putnam · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sword Point was an interesting an even good read about a hypothetical clash between US and Soviet forces in Iran, and then the race by a joint US-Russian unit to stop an Iranian nuclear device from being detonated. It was good until he described the wounding, rape, torture-mutilation and murder of a female US Army officer by Iranian bandits, and the simultaneous death of her boyfriend on a hospital ship hit by a cruise missile. It was this that turned me off completely to ALL Harold Coyle books. It seems that he was taking pleasure in the gruesome killing-off of these two characters, and I don't know why, unless he personally disapproved of the relationship or doesn't care for women in the military. If he was trying to shock readers, he overdid it. As far as I'm concerned, it was gratuitous and absolutely needless. I would not advise anyone to read this unless they share Mr. Coyle's pov onn women in the military.

[Kym Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first book in the Scott Dixon saga, It is also in my opinion the best. A good story which sustains an action pace all the way through. I found this to be a real page turner full of intense action and good characters.
One refreshing quality to Coyle's writing is that he does not attempt to glorify warfare, this is ever present in his gruesome depictions of the consequence and tragedy experienced by the books characters. While other authors gloss over the true nature of warfare in an all too sanistised and candy crusted way, Coyle tells a good story while also reminding you that War ultimately is not entertainment. It is tragedy.

One of Coyle's best.

80 %

[Steve Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book while serving in Germany. It made me feel the need to warn my soldiers in my unit. I was moved by the believable writing and stirred by the events that were unfolding at the time. Shortly after the Berlin wall came down and I finished this book, I felt strongly that we would soon be off to war.
That was December 1990. Shortly afterwards we received word of the intentions to liberate a village in the middle east and push the Iraq's back to the hole.
See if the book churns that kind of emotion in you.

[Edwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know this was written back in the day, but reading it today it felt like an alternate history type of book of what could have happened.

I did enjoy seeing the battle from both the US and Russian sides, I would say my favorite character ended being a commie! lol.

Some very brutal aspects of war a depicted, which in a sense is good because war should not be glorified as it is a horrible thing to behold.

[Marc Herbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in 1988, this book describes combat between the Soviets and Americans during the former's invasion of Iran.

Vivid depictions of the carnage and chaos of modern combat, with a few sub-plots (including an unnecessary romantic sub-plot) that were probably designed to relieve the tension of so many violent skirmishes and battles.

Kinda "Tom Clancy light" with alot of detail about equipment and the "fog of war". Good escapist action throughout; a solid beginning to a series

[Momdad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better sequel to Team Yankee. What would happen if the Soviet Union invaded 1980s Iran to secure its oil fields and control the Straights of Hormez ? This follows the wartime efforts of frontline armour, airborne, and infantry troops trying to follow their orders, outwit the enemy, and stay alive in the hostile environment.

[Rora Melendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm confused by the publication date because I know I read this back in the very late 80s, in response to a challenge to try a different genre. Very well-written. Coyle is an excellent storyteller, allowing those who pick up his books knowing nothing about the military or warfare to understand the human costs if choices made.

[Cameron · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite novels about way and the men who fight. Coyle gets you right there. A little dated now as the world situation has changed since the 90s, but still very entertaining.