Black Eagle Force: Eye of the Storm

By: Buck Stienke, Ken Farmer

Narrated by: Ken Farmer

Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

Black Eagle Force is a fast-paced series of military techno-thrillers about a top secret Special Ops team created for missions that are not, and cannot, be officially approved. The BEF is contracted to the Department of Defense to protect America's interests where ever they might be. You never saw us. This never happened. We don't exist. We are the Black Eagle Force.

Black Eagle Force explodes out of the current day violence now occurring on the US border with Mexico, involving Mexican drug cartels and terrorists. President Annette Henry Thompson calls on the BEF to intercept 'suitcase nuclear devices' headed to a Mexican terrorist group planning to detonate the nukes in the US. The nukes and 20 female sex slaves are being held by a notorious terrorist arms dealer and human trafficker on his heavily defended island in the Gulf of Mexico. Dare Phillips and Mike Hermann deploy their elite Special Ops force with their unique and deadly Black Eagle VTOL's in the path of Hurricane Ellen.

©2012, 2013 Ken Farmer and Buck Stienke (P)2015 Ken Farmer

Fast paced story with almost continuous action

If you could sum up Black Eagle Force: Eye of the Storm in three words, what would they be?

1. Exciting 2. Inventive 3. Action

What did you like best about this story?

The history of the land and people who lived on and fought for it in the beginning.The ongoing story of the family who still fought for it.

What does Ken Farmer bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The story is great. Ken does the voices very well even with only small inflection or tone changes. The addition of the sounds of the gun, explosives etc. make it feel like you are there and his detailed descriptions of what is happening make you see it.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I felt sad for the family because they had to fight so hard to keep the land.I felt proud of them because they never quit. They stayed connected and worked together as a team along with others who came to help them.

Any additional comments?

I have read all their books. Buck and Ken always give you a great story. When you have to put it down you still think about it and wonder what will happen next.

I wanted to like it...

TL:DR=Good idea, knocked down by "perfect" Adonis style characters. Just run away from this one.

Sorry Buck and Ken....but I couldn't make it past three or four chapters. I hate to say that about any book as my wife and I have some thousand titles in our library and some are stinkers for sure. But this one just takes every cliché and trope to heart. Every good guy is either a lantern jawed, chiseled, retired/active service member who loves his country, momma and pretty girls and big trucks oh, and also works on special projects and is apparently a millionaire or close to it because his family did things right and invested in something back in antiquity that made the family filthy rich. Every female is tall and strong with a body you can bounce quarters off of and has their PHD (in five years lmfao), oh and they happen to be working on a pet project of theirs...it's a hobby really...like every girl has their FIVE GIGAWATT LASER they're building in their spare time. Dear authors....gigawatt lasers aren't for man portable weapons, they're for >>shooting down satellites or ICBMs!!<<. Hell at that rating it would probably burn your skin when you discharge it and you'd have to wear eye protection so dark you couldn't do anything because you couldn't SEE anything when not discharging the beam.....which would be visible from space it's so much energy.

I digress...

So, this is one of the things that for me is a pet peeve. Hate to say it but a lot of authors fall into this style. One of my favorites, Heinlein, was pretty bad about it as well but there he at least had semi-believable stories and characters.

It's just too much. When your characters are all perfect (18 on all stats!), what's left to challenge them? Look at iconic movies we all love for example. A lot of people >LOVE< the scrappy guy who can never seem to get ahead in life. Some of the best characters are often ones who struggle through their lives. Look at characters like Han Solo, Ash from Army of Darkness, the entire cast of Close Encounters, Ralphy from Christmas Story....no gigawatt wielding PHD marine millionaires here.

As to the narration, Ken tries his best here and his voice is fine. That said I think his talent is better suited to westerns as he'd be a natural there. He's kind of got that Sam Elliot vibe going but with more Texas drawl.....and it kind of ends up sounding like Captain Kirk trying to do a Texas accent.

So, sadly....ya....avoid this one. It isn't even what I'd consider a popcorn movie style book. But I find that I'll have to return this one :(