The Mullah's Storm by Thomas W. Young

Non-stop action from start to finish.

The Mullah's Storm is an action adventure set in Afghanistan. It features U.S. Air Force Major Michael Parson, a navigator of a C-130 Hercules transport plane and a female army interpreter named Sergeant Gold.

The book starts on the run with the plane transporting a high value elderly mullah to the prison at Guantanamo Bay right before a once-in-a-lifetime snowstorm. But, on page 4 the plane gets hit by a handheld rocket and crashes. The survivors are attacked by Taliban forces who are trying to free the mullah. Gold, Parson and the reluctant Mullah flee the wreckage and the chase commences.

Young has a great ability to describe action sequences so that the military layman can understand what is going on. A variety of weapons, tactics and pieces of technology are used throughout the book (including a nifty description of how airdrops are guided to the ground) and Young never made me feel lost.


The author, Thomas W. Young, who
served in the Air National Guard in
Afghanistan and Iraq.

On the negative side, Young does absolutely no character development. The reader learns nothing about Parsons except that he is an experienced hunter and his father was also a pilot. Gold remains a mystery throughout. If her first name is mentioned, I do not remember it. We do not find out how she learned to speak Pashto or learned about the cultures of Afghanistan.

But, does it matter?

In this case, no.

Certainly, the book would have been better with more detail about these characters, but I plowed throught this book in about a day and a half - it pulled me in and I just had to know what happened next. Any book that pulls you in and engrosses you so thoroughly has to be recognized.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5 stars.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Mullah's Storm.

Reviewed July 28, 2010.