The Korean Intercept

By: Stephen Mertz

Narrated by: Tim Danko

Kate Daniels is a co-pilot aboard the space shuttle Liberty. Liberty is to deploy a space defense system satellite created with the latest American technology. The shuttle crash-lands in the uncharted, mountainous frontier between North Korea and China.

As the ranking able-bodied officer, Kate takes charge, evacuating the crew from the crash site. A mountain warlord captures the Liberty's crew, intending to sell the shuttle and its cargo to the highest bidder. On the world stage, this crisis rapidly escalates. The North Koreans forbid an American search and rescue operation, sending their own troops into the region instead.

The technology on board Liberty is invaluable to both the North Koreans and the Chinese. The U.S. President orders American armed forces to full alert, preparing for a military incursion to locate the shuttle. This could be the flashpoint for the long-feared nuclear showdown between North Korea and the U.S.

Monitoring these spiraling events with a personal interest is Major Trev Galt, Kate Daniels' estranged husband. Since his breakup with Kate, Galt has become romantically involved with Meiko Kurita, White House correspondent for a Japanese news agency. Galt had thought he was over his wife, but Kate and the shuttle disappearing without a trace re-ignites his unresolved feelings for her.

While Kate and her crew struggle to survive, Galt and Meiko risk their lives to untangle the Korean Intercept; a race against time that pitches them into a labyrinth of treachery reaching from the corridors of Japanese corporate power to the blood-splattered back alleys of Tokyo, from the White House to the barren, hostile mountains of North Korea.

©2006 Stephen Mertz (P)2013 David N. Wilson

Needs polishing...

I tend to be one that critiques the author's writing style/mechanics and the narrator's reading more than the story itself but I will touch on everything for this one.
This book is about a US space shuttle that gets diverted by a coalition of enemy forces. I'll break my review down into three pieces: Story, writing, narration

Story: My advice...do more research. The author states there were weapons (handgun) on the space shuttle. I looked into it and NASA has NEVER put any weapons on a shuttle...unlike the Russians. It took me all of 30 seconds to find this. Second, I am 99.9% sure there are no "specialists" (the military rank, not the qualification) on a shuttle. The only ranks NASA lists are astronaut candidate and astronaut. Tons of other unbelievable/inaccurate things too...

Writing: TOO many coined phrases and clichés. Also, can someone "draw a rifle"? You can only draw a weapon that is in a holster as far as I know. They can unsling, raise, aim, etc...but I am pretty sure no one can DRAW A RIFLE...well, not unless you are using a pencil to draw it. And the worst part was the DIALOGUE. It was laughable at times...it's hard to explain just how awkward and unrealistic the dialogue was in about 80% of this book. The author has some decent skill writing a scene...when there isn't dialogue...until he really messed up a few of them with one bad word choice. There was one scene where someone was dying, and it was a really well written scene until he threw in the word "puked" and ruined it all. PUKED does not fit with a somewhat touching scene...the word choices need to match the mood/feeling.

Narration: Like the writing, the narration was OK for straight narration, but when it came to dialogue, YIKES! STOP, PLEASE! Of course, that could be due to the fact that the dialogue was so horribly written.