Welcome to another great Karma Media Book Tour, where you will find honest reviews and insights into today’s authors and books.
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Thomas Block has written a number of aviation-oriented novels, many which have gone on to acquire best-seller status in numerous countries. His novel writing began with the publication of “Mayday” in 1979. That novel was rewritten with his boyhood friend, novelist Nelson DeMille in 1998 and remains on DeMille’s extensive backlist. “Mayday” became a CBS Movie of the Week in October, 2005.
Other novels by Block include “Orbit” (a top bestseller in Germany, among other nations), “Airship Nine”, “Forced Landing” (also done as a radio serializatoin drama in Japan), “Skyfall”, “Open Skies” and “Captain”. Thomas Block is still writing both fiction and non-fiction, and has edited and updated his earlier novels into ebooks of all the major formats and also into new full-sized (trade soft cover) printed versions.
‘Captain’ is his most ambitious, intricate and action-packed aviation tale yet . It is a chilling and all-too-real story about a routine Trans-Atlantic airline flight that suddenly turns absolutely insane. In the doomed airliner’s cockpit, inside the passenger cabin and on the ground, a complex array of characters have been propelled at jet speed into a sudden and frantic race for survival. ‘Captain’ is about the individual and collective struggles of each of these men and women as they attempt to deal with and ultimately fight against the odds and circumstances that are stacked against them.
‘Captain’ is a novel that pits man against man while also pitting man against machine. It is a story about the need for human judgments, hard-learned experiences, gut feelings and unbridled perseverance in an effort to rise up against a world where the strict adherence to written rules, regulations and procedures have been accepted as the norm.
‘Captain’ is about the way real airline pilots think, feel and react, especially after those giant airliners that they’ve strapped themselves to have suddenly turned vicious and unpredictable.
I was pretty excited to be given the opportunity to read this book. Although I do read novels as an English teacher, I am partial to non-fiction personal finance books. This book intrigued me because it was about a pilot. Most of my husband’s family are pilots, either having military pilot experience or a private pilot’s license. Therefore, this novel piqued my interest. I had my husband read it as well.
Our verdict is right down the middle with a three out of a five star rating. Admittedly, we set our expectations quite high. We both had difficulty getting into the book initially. However, as the “plot thickened” so to speak, the novel did become more interesting. My husband thought the main character, Captain Jack was not comparable to a “real-life” pilot because he didn’t always follow the rules as a good pilot should at all times. I personally like the fact that Block gave Captain Jack a personality and didn’t just make him a crotchety old pilot.
All in all, the book was a decent read. However, it isn’t a book I would feel the desire to read a second time. If you like suspense and realize upfront the story takes awhile to get going, I would recommend taking the time to read it.
Disclosure: This tour was brought to you by Karma Media. As a participant of this book tour, I received a copy of the book in hardcopy or ebook format for the purposes of sharing my honest review with you.
