Dale Brown is “one of the best at marrying high-tech military wizardry with a compelling plot,” according to the Houston Chronicle. The Tulsa World says Brown “writes about weapons beyond a mere mortal’s imagination.” All of that is on display in this 2008 edition from Brown and co-writer Jim DeFelice’s Dreamland Series.
Try to imagine a mammoth B-52 loaded with laser weapons and command and control centers directing unmanned fighter drones loaded with missiles and bombs. Try to imagine a B-1 bomber in a dog fight with Russian-built Mig-29’s. Try to imagine jet packs strapped to the body of a lone skydiver who’s shot out of a B-52 at 32,000 feet. Try to imagine Skype-like video communications from flight helmet to flight helmet. You get the idea. The Dreamland Series is more like Star Wars or Battlestar Gallactica on steroids.
Dreamland Revolution isn’t all about the military hardware. Brown and DeFelice mix in a little drama and even a dash of romance here and there. Spoiler alert: there’s a lot of dramatic tension between Major General Terrill and his predecessor at Dreamland, Lieutenant Colonel Tecumseh Bastian. There’s even tension between Bastian’s underlings, Major Jeffrey Stockard, (his son-in-law), and Bastian’s daughter, Captain Breanna Stockard, Jeffrey’s wife. Not to mention the political intrigue in Romania between its president and one of his treasonous generals.
Beyond the “high-tech military wizardry” that jumps out of every page here, (which is beyond this mortal’s imagination), I found a couple of other plot points that crossed over the line of believability. Could a paralyzed paraplegic be put in command of a real-life U.S. Air Force unmanned bomber program? Could that same injured airman be married to an active duty Air Force officer and both be under the command of the woman’s father? Could all three be involved in air combat over Romania together? Would today’s Air Force allow such nepotism? I'll let the reader decide.
If you can swallow all that and also put up with Brown and Defelice’s insistence on using military nicknames for all the main characters and if you can keep up with the mind boggling maneuvers “Earthmover, Dog, Zen and Rap” perform while fighting off incoming Soviet, air-to-air missiles over Romania, then in the words of the New York Times, you’ve got yourself “quite a ride.”