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Eagle Station (Patrick McLanahan, Book 24) by Dale Brown

As the McLanahan series enters outer space, the slog of outer space enters the McLanahan series. 🌙😩

Previously, in my review of The Kremlin Strike:

I would love to see Dale Brown write an actual hard science fiction novel. With his military expertise and prowess for fast paced action, I have no doubt it would make for some interstellar warfare that’s actually interesting (because it often isn’t).

Previously, in my review of Planetside:

A lot of military jargon about what’s going on, who’s doing what, what they need to do, why they need to do it, what their next step is, and what will happen if they don’t. [...] Stop talking about some random attack, or the consequences thereof, or the danger of what’s to come, and let me actually see these events unfold.

Eagle Station gives you the slightest fraction of the former, but not before a near endless onslaught of the latter.

Starting with the ending, it's about 5 pages of awesome 👊. The type of climactic action you'd expect from Dale Brown, and on the freakin' moon no less 🌙. It's fast paced, explosive, and reminiscent of that CID action I've come to love (and did I mention it takes place on the freakin' moon 🌙?) The problem is that it's over so quick.

In the beginning the story takes on this vibe of political nuclear chess (I mean that in a good way). Pieces are being moved around, overtaking one another, and each side trying to stay a step ahead of the other in this newfound space race. Every tension filled move is coalescing and building to a crescendo. Then about halfway through everything comes to a grinding halt.

Dale Brown said "NOPE! 🛑 We're going to cancel this mission that the reader would've loved. I got a better idea for the next 200-something pages." And then continues with why they can't do it. What the enemy is capable of. What their options are. Here's something they can do, but not yet ☝️. Why? They need time to invent the technology to do it. While we're waiting on this technology, lets check-in on our bad guys. Oh, they're just gearing up and waiting because they know an attack will eventually come... eventually. But since we're here, let have them talk about all the things we already know, that'll kill some time. The technology is ready, YAY! Hold on, this is experimental technology, they only get one shot so they have to plan this out. Planning... planning... okay, now we're ready. 🎉

At face value, this actually seems like an okay structure for writing a story. But it takes so long for all of this to happen (no joke, this is literally about half the book). Trust me, the good parts are there, but dear god it takes forever to get to them.