Type of bind: Hardcover
EAN num: 9780450406591
ISBN number: 0450406598
Label: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
Manufacturer: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
Page Count: 340
Printing Date: September 01, 1987
Publishing house: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
Studio: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
I went into this book with high hopes after reading Block's (and friend, Nelson DeMille's) outstanding novel, "Mayday". Sadly, this novel, "Skyfall", pales in comparison to the action found in the aforementioned book. "Skyfall" deals with a terrorist endeavor to blow up a jetliner on its way from the US to Japan. The terrorists' motivation for blowing up the plane is sketchy and nebulous at best. It was rather hard for this reviewer to clearly see why the act of blowing up the plane would reach the desired global effect for the terrorists. Enough of that, though.
The book does have good moments after the crew is incapacitated by the terrorist's actions. To the rescue, comes a retired pilot with a heart condition who, while traveling with his wife and daughter, discovers that his former mistress, is a stewardess on the flight. And, he thought flying the plane was going to be tough! One of the best plot twists of the entire book occurs shortly after the plane's original pilot is nursed back to consciousness.
As the make shift crew consisting of the retired pilot, his wife, (still unknown at that time) mistress, and daughter try to keep the plane in the air, it is discovered that there may be yet another bomb on board. As mentioned earlier, Block does a nice job painting a clear picture of the cockpit of the ficticious (at that time anyway) 787 and the trials faced by the group in attempting to keep it aloft.
If you're new to the work of Thomas Block, I would suggest that you start with "Mayday" which is the better of the two novels and then move to another of his works entitled, "Orbit".
Rated by buyers 
-
I picked this book up when snowbound in a vacation home, and had to put it down several times when the cheesiness was too much to bear. The story of an airliner stricken by a bomb motivated by global politics, and the struggle of people in the air and on the ground to resolve the situation, is an intriguing premise. But the execution has something to disappoint fans of strong plots, of engaging characters, and of technical accuracy. The wreckage just happens to fall in a place to cut off a section of the plane from future involvement in the plot. One flight attendant after another takes centre stage, then disappears as the plot moves on. When the passengers with pilot training take over the damaged cockpit, neither thinks to set the transponder to the distress code (7700) or transmit over the international distress frequency (121.5 MHz). When the bomb blows a hole in the airplane, the oxygen masks don't drop. These goofs make one appreciate those writers who can score home runs in all three areas.
One touch that I did get a kick out of is the name of the fictitious twin-engined aircraft, made by a consortium of Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, and Airbus: the 787, a name now in use by today's Boeing company (which has taken over McDonnell Douglas, though not Airbus).
Rated by buyers 
-
Thomas Block had a huge hit with his best seller "Mayday" co-authored with his (more famous) friend Nelson DeMille. Block, an long-time pilot by profession, then cranked out five more books of varying sucess on his own. We just completed the reading of his bibliography and were quite disappointed with his 1990 swan song "Open Skies", a weak detective story that only came alive toward the end when the principals are fighting head to head inside an airplane! "Skyfall" was his subsequent to last effort published a few years earlier, but is a much better, exciting novel! An attempted hijacking of a jumbo jet flying from the U.S. to Japan goes really bad: a lot of people are killed by an onboard explosion -- but not everybody. A "nice guy" ex-pilot traveling with his wife and daughter, who happens to be the ex-flame of the very first class flight attendant (for added sexual tension), winds up flying the disabled craft at low altitude. Trouble is, he has heart problems and the stresses are starting to render him helpless! Meanwhile, we readers get to enjoy the background of the disaster as the scenes alternate between the plane and the Chinese Embassy villains who are monitoring what is happening via computer link. Whether a second bomb on board will finish the job, and whether the bad guys will achieve a clever endeavor to recoup their losses and twist the whole caper to a different political front, sustains suspense till right near the end.
Block is always most effective when writing about action in the cockpit and "Skyfall" is no exception. The intrigue created by what we learn as readers about the whole plot versus what the people on board are trying to figure out, plus belated efforts by airline HQ control room efforts to help, combine to create a first-rate thriller that entertains throughout. Following a poignant conclusion, a movie-style capsule summary of what happened to all the leading characters about a year after the incident was a neat way to tie up the whole story with ribbons. We commend this niche effort, but enjoyable novel, to your attention!
Find other books like this one:
