Books like Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.

Much better than one would expect from a video game tie-in novel written under a pen name shared by several different authors. Sure, it's Tom Clancy Lite, but, if you're a fan of the movie TOP GUN, you owe it to yourself to check it out. I guarantee you'll be humming "Highway to the Danger Zone" the entire way through.This could have easily been a four-star read, were it not for some very poor writing and the fact that all the characters felt bland: generic action hero man (an ex-football star, of course); elegant-but-tough romantic interest girl (raised in the country, always substitutes "y'all" for "you," even when talking to another individual); Stable-but-boring boyfriend of romantic interest girl; egomaniacal arch-villain; etc. None of the characters feel unique, none are particularly interesting.Author Grant Blackwood (the man behind the pseudonym) excels at describing dogfights and getting all the military- and aviation-related details right, but his prose is often fumbling. Sometimes, even laughably bad. "She relished the feel of his wide receiver arms as he wide-received her" is without a doubt the worst line I've read all year.The way that relationships work in this novel is a little disturbing. Girl A cheats on Guy A with Guy B, so Guy A decides to sleep with Girl A's co-worker, Girl B, until he can finally sleep with the girl he really wants, Girl C, who is using Guy A to cheat on Guy C, who is close buddies with Guy A. Girl C actually prefers Guy C, but she just can't resist Guy A because he's got SUCH A HOT BODY and is SO DAMN GOOD IN BED. But it's all good, because, you know, women's lib.I'm sure Tom Clancy would've written it differently.The plot of HAWX is a bit meandering; although, personally, I thought the long set-up ultimately served to make the rest of the story more meaningful and more believable. So, I was totally OK with it. Things do get pretty far-fetched and comic-booky toward the end, but at no point does the book ever cease to be fun and attention-grabbing. As long as you don't compare it to vintage Tom Clancy novels written by the man himself, you're bound to have a good time.