At twenty-three, Jazen Parker has completed his Legion hitch a hero. But in four months, he'll have a price on his head. Worse, he's lost his past, and he can’t find his future. Worst of all, he's chosen to search for them on the deadliest planet known to mankind.
When Jazen reluctantly hires on to a Trueborn Earthman tycoon's safari to bag a deadly trophy, the reluctant mercenary finds himself shipped out to Downgraded Earthlinke 476, the outpost at the end of the universe known to everyone except its tourism bureau as "Dead End."
But the hunt goes terribly wrong, and Jazen must survive a tough, beautiful local guide who hates mercenaries, an eleven ton beast that can crush main battle tanks with one claw tied behind its back, and the return of a nightmare that has haunted Jazen since birth. Then Jazen learns that the stakes are not merely his own life, but the fate of an entire alien race.
About the Author
Robert Buettner was born July 7, 1947 in Manhattan, grew up in Cleveland and eventually slid west to Colorado. He earned a B.A. from the College of Wooster, with Honors in geology, then studied as a National Science Foundation Fellow in Paleontology at the University of Cincinnati, earning a Juris Doctorate. He worked in mining as a rig hand and prospector in the Sonoran Desert of Southwest Texas and the mountains of Alaska, and worked his way through law school as a petroleum geologist. He practiced natural resources law while serving out his Army Reserve Intelligence Commission as a Captain. He has been writing fiction since 1994. When not writing, he’s run marathons, climbed mountains, snowboarded and scuba'd. He currently lives in the foothills of the Blue Ridge north of Atlanta with his family and more bikes than a grownup needs.
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Product ReviewROBERT BUETTNER'S RESPONSE TO DAVID'S COMMENT
Dear David:
Thanks for giving Overkill a look, and for your evident past service. I'm sure the two "errors" that form your entire comment are how you recall the Abrams tank.
But I'm so sure that Overkill got those two facts 100% right, and you got them, well, wrong, that I offer a wager. If Overkill's right, you correct your comment. If you're right, you get a signed copy of any of my books. Or Baen's recent Robert Heinlein Green Hills of Earth/Menace from Earth collection, for which I wrote the Afterword. Signed by me. Heinlein can't.
Deal? OK, game on.
You wrote, "It would have been nice if the writer knew that ammo is NOT stored in an unarmored sponson box on he [sic] vehicle's sides."
I RESPOND: I know most main gun ammo's stored in the turret's rear. Overkill says exactly that, often. Jazen teaches Kit how to load the main gun from the main ammo ready rack inside the turret bustle (the turret's big rear).
But the Abrams also stores extra, emergency main gun rounds in a locker called a hull box, with a deliberately unarmored blow-off lid, on the vehicle's right side, outboard of the turret. Here's a pic: http://www.dejawolf.com/steelbeasts/gallery/M1.html (Scroll to 7th drawing, right side view, see "emergency rounds blowoff panel.")
I touched an Abrams' emergency rounds box blow-off lid last year, courtesy of the tankers of 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, who interrupted prep for Iraq deployment to bring this old intel puke and tanker's son up to date.
But don't take my word, read this: "The tank carries [34 or 40] rounds in the turret bustle...and [6 or 8] in a...hull box." http://www.inetres.com/gp/military/cv/tank/M1.html; and M1 Abrams at War, Green and Stewart, Zenith Press, 2005, p.109.
Overkill only mentions the Abrams' additional ammo once, in Ch.12, p.57: "Like the Abrams before it, the Kodiak [FICTIONAL HOVERTANK] carried additional main gun ammunition in an outboard locker." THAT'S 100% TRUE. You got confused by the next words, "in the sponson above the impeller skirt." Overkill never, ever said that the Abrams' outboard, unarmored, blow-off lid extra ammo box is in its sponson (fender). The fictional Kodiak's is, because it's a hovercraft, with a vastly different hull/sponson.
So, extra ammo's stored in a (deliberately) unarmored sponson locker on the vehicle's [Kodiak's] side. Just as the Abrams stores extra ammo in a (deliberately) unarmored locker on its side. Bottom line? Overkill's right on "error" 1.
You also wrote that it would be nice if the writer knew, "that the driver got in the vehicle through the driver's hatch in the hull, not the commander's hatch in the turret. Also that it was not normal to crawl back and forth through the turret basket to get in and out of the driver's compartment."
I RESPOND: True, UNLESS the Abrams' gun's turned backward, as it is for transport ("opposite lock"). Then the big turret bustle overhangs and obstructs the driver's hatch. Entry via a turret hatch and through the turret basket becomes easier than squeezing under the bustle.
That's exactly the situation in the scene you refer to, in Ch.12, starting on p.44. Jazen enters the Abrams, TO DRIVE IT OFF OF A TRAILER UPON WHICH IT HAS BEEN TRANSPORTED. He drops through the commander's hatch on the turret, worms forward into the driver's seat, then backs the tnk off the trailer, as Zhondro guides him. Zhondro replaces Jazen in the driver's seat, also entering via the turret. Then, on p.46, Zhondro "rotated the turret out of opposite lock, so the main gun tube swung from its position pointing aft until it pointed ahead."
The scene resembles these pics:
http://www.tankmastergunner.com/images/military/Abrams/m1a1/5/m1a1-94.html
http://www.tankmastergunner.com/images/military/Abrams/m1a1/1/m1a1%20rail%20load-8.html
http://www.tankmaster gunner.com/images/military/Abrams/m1a1%20rail%20load-2.html
Aside for other readers: Abrams are transported and unloaded gun-backward (in "opposite lock") for several reasons. A big one's to shorten the tank overall, saving space.
David, I respectfully think you make scooting forward from the basket sound too hard. I did it myself easily last year and I'm no gymnast.
Bottom line? Overkill's also right on "error" 2, and so 100% correct on your "errors."
Actually, I'll be honored to send you a book either way, because you served.
So what do you say, David? - RobertPosted on
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Product ReviewJust a few notes. The M1A2 Abrams is a major factor in the book. It would have been nice if the writer knew that ammo is NOT stored in an unarmored sponson box on he vehicle's sides. Also, that the driver got in the vehicle through the driver's hatch in the hull, not the commander's hatch in the turret. Also that it was not normal to crawl back and forth through the turret basket to get into and out of the driver's compartment. This lack of knowledge was VERY jarring.
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