Fortress

Tom Kelly #2

by David Drake

Tom Kelly, a former CIA agent, is sent to infiltrate the Kurdish contras, in order to learn about the alien being whose body, along with a contra soldier's, is found in Turkey

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Alternate History, Espionage

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

David Drake is an American author of science fiction and fantasy literature. A Vietnam War veteran who has worked as a lawyer, he is now one of the major authors of the military science fiction genre.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the second of two near-future alternate-world spy thrillers with science fiction trappings that Drake wrote featuring Tom Kelly. (The first was Skyripper from 1983.) The suspense/thriller aspect gets more emphasis than the science fiction, with a bit of romance and military adventure thrown in for good measure, but then there -are- aliens. It's not at the top of Drake's work compared to Hammer or Leary, but it's a captivating page-turner from many years ago. As with Skyripper... the politics and technology have passed it by, of course, but that always happens.

[Scott Holstad · Rating 1 out of 5]

In a word: stupid. Waste of time. You know how some sci fi books age well and others don't? Well, this book isn't even that old, as it was published in 1987, but it feels so dated, it's not even funny. I stopped reading this book early on shortly after I found out that the protagonist was training Kurdish rebels in Turkey for the ... NSA! Um, hello people. The NSA is not the CIA. That's what the CIA does. The NSA is an electronics intelligence gathering agency specializing in cryptography and basically eavesdropping. They've got the best computers and computer people in the world. What they DON'T have are military field agents training rebels in foreign countries. That's what the CIA does. Why in the hell would the US have two gigantic agencies like that exist to do exactly the same thing? As stupid as the government is, surely it's not that stupid, is it? But that didn't stop the "cutting edge" novelists of the late 1980s, early 1990s, who had just found out about the NSA, which has been in existence for decades, but whose existence had been officially denied until the late 1980s as it was deemed classified. It appears when writers started finding out about the NSA, there were all sorts of stories and books published featuring NSA spooks assassinating people, training military rebels, etc., just what the CIA does and not at all what the NSA does and it's totally, utterly stupid. It was stupid then, it's even more stupid now and I'm sure as hell not going to waste my time on a book whose protagonist fits this role. Aside from that, the writing seems fairly poor, the dialogue bizarre, the plot unlikely, and the character is just flat out annoying. All in all, a loser of a book. Most definitely not recommended.

[Steven Jaeger · Rating 2 out of 5]

The more I think about this book, the lower my score gets. As far as a generic reading experience goes, I started at a 3 and after two minutes of reflecting on the story have dropped it to 2. It really is not good, but not in a way that makes it obviously bad, it's more subtle than that. Spoilers ahead.

None of the plot elements ultimately have any meaning and it seems to be plug-and-play story telling. Need bad guys that everyone knows are bad regardless of the fact that they have no discernable motivation? Nazis. Why are they blowing up the planet rather than trying to take control of it? Because Nazis. How did they get a base on the moon? Their Nazis.

And, of course, any plot holes that couldn't be smoothed out by their generic antagonist could be covered over with aliens. If you think this is going to be a fun romp with aliens everywhere, don't get your hopes up. 80% of the book occurs without any real interaction with the aliens. When they are involved it is just to fill gaps where Nazis weren't a proper solution. How does Kelly get to the space station? Aliens. How does he escape a billion nuclear bombs going off? Aliens. How does he return home from an impossible mission that includes guns and flamethrowers in outer space? Aliens.

Sprinkle in a vulgar, disappointing sex scene that adds nothing to the story whatsoever and a "flip a coin to decide what happens next" ending, and you're good to go.

[Elemental · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read this book a few times since it was first published. I think my younger self was more easily impressed or more forgiving. 30 years ago, I probably would have given it a full five stars. 15 years ago, maybe 4. Now? It feels like three is pretty damn generous.

Tom Kelly is an antihero's antihero. He's going to kick some ass. All the ass, actually. But you aren't going to like him. And he doesn't care. That whole attitude just brings me down these days.

More disconcerting, to me, is the bizarrely limited vocabulary Mr Drake displays in this book. I gave up counting the number of times Kelly is named 'The Veteran' somewhere around 200. It is on almost every page. Once I noticed, it became distracting. That's not the only example, just the most egregious.

This time around, I listened to the audiobook. I don't remember the name of the narrator but he should not do that to humanity ever again. He's not the worst narrator ever but he's definitely top 3. Case in point: the sexual interest of our plucky asshole of a hero is an extremely sultry blonde belly dancer. The voice our narrator uses for her sounds exactly like my 68 year old Romanian coworker, who is a cranky old man and most decidedly not a hot young blonde.

I think I might not read this one again.

[Bob Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tom Kelly isn't necessarily fun to have as your porthole on the world, but it is safe with him acting

[Neil · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have had this book on my shelf for some time now, but never got around to reading it. I think I would have been better off not reading it. Its format is kind of weird, it seems to take forever to pick up the pace, and the ending seems worse than anticlimactic [considering what you have to wade through to get there]. There is zero character development; none of the characters are truly interesting; I did not really care about anybody. If I did not 'suffer' from this stupid mentality of 'once-I-get-to-a-certain-point-in-a-book-I-cannot-help-but-finish-it', then I might have saved myself some time by not finishing it.

It is one of the few books of his that is set in an alternative version of 'the modern world' [in that America has a floating fortress that orbits the Earth and apparently has nuclear weapons onboard].

Was there anything that I 'liked' in the book? Um, no, not really. It was hard to follow, at times, and I'm not a very big fan of confusing books. I don't mind a little confusion, or where the author fakes me out and reveals there was stuff behind the 'smoke and mirrors' that I either missed or never saw. That's okay. None of that happened in this book; it seemed like the author was throwing a large batch of stuff together and hoping something stuck enough to make sense.

What did I dislike? I did not like the 'format' of the book. It has a 'prologue' and then one big 'section.' That could just be me, used to having chapters to break up a book. There were no chapters in this book; it was almost like one giant run-on sentence. Obviously, this works in a movie, but not so much in a book. But that is more a matter of personal preference.

I hated the ending. Maybe because I read Voyage just before reading this book, but the ending between the two books is quite jarring. That book builds up to the ending, and you can see it coming a mile away. This book just seems to end. He has these crazy moments, and then it ...ends. It was frustrating. I felt like I'd invested too much time, effort, and 'energy' into reading this book for it to end the way it did.

It felt like one of his 'angry' books, and was not quite so enjoyable as a result.

It was one of his weaker books, by far. I greatly enjoy his Hammer's Slammers series [although I don't care for some of the stuff that happens in the stories]; I loved his Time Safari, Redliners and Killer books; I also loved his Northworld series. I enjoyed most of his General series [again, minus some stuff that happens throughout the series], and I enjoyed the duology about Venus. There were other books that I did not care for so much [Lacy and His Friends, Grimmer than Hell; I had a hard time getting into his Lt. Leary stories], and his The Reaches series was okay. So, yeah, I was a little disappointed with this book, but I'm still glad that I finally got around to reading it [as I now know how bad it is and probably will not read it again. Ever.]. I can't say I would ever recommend it to anybody, and I doubt I'll read the 'first book' of this 'series' if it is anything like this one.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this is technically a science fiction book, in some way it's probably better to think of it as a spy action/thriller. The SF aspects are either background or simple plot devices, and the stuff that diverges from ordinary science (other than the alternate timeline - Kennedy wasn't killed in '63 - in which the book is set) doesn't appear much until the end of the book. The protagonist, however, is a classic type for a spy caper - former agent with a military background and some serious character flaws, brought back in, despite having burned a bunch of bridges, because he has the right set of contacts in Turkey from when he was stationed there before. This story follows a pattern that will be recognizable to anyone familiar with James Bond (more the movies than the novels, actually), until fairly late in the game. That's not bad, really, because it's fun pattern, but still, it doesn't seem particularly original. Then again, the book is nearly 30 years old at this point, so maybe it was a lot more innovative when it was written. This is apparently a pretty early book by Drake, and it shows in a lack of subtlety. Still, it's an enjoyable read, and while I'm not going to rush out to find more books about the protagonist, it's certainly not going to stop me from reading more of Drake's work.

[B. Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

More espionage than science fiction, Fortress hits hard with action and enough plot twists to keep the story exciting despite some pretty un-shocking developments and foreshadowing.
Drake's writing is choppy and perhaps dated. I frequently had to re-read sections to ascertain whether I had missed something or if critical information was truly left out.
I read this book while on vacation, and it served perfectly as a summer break easy read, not just for it's light fare but also because the action kept me glued to the pages during every moment of inaction on my trip. I started it on day one and just now finished it prior to landing back at home.
Fortress will please those who appreciate well-detailed military thrillers, and will most likely disappoint anyone looking for fine prose, deep plots or hard sci-fi.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great little action-adventure Sci-Fy style with another Tom Kelly story by David Drake. Usually, this series has been about straight Act-Adv-Mys-Thrillers with Tom as a one-man or sometimes partnered up killing machine for the good old U.S. of A. but this one has a twist, not just your usual suspects, like the Rusky's or Nazi's, this time there are also ALIENS. Will Tom be able to take care of business as usual or will he be stopped in his tracks along with the rest of the world by invading aliens from outer space? You'll have to read it to find out. As usual David Drake has done a well-thought-out and researched job on tactics, weaponry, etc. I don't expect otherwise from this or any other Baen writer and you shouldn't either.

[Ari · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of Drake's first novels. Has weaknesses; it's a little too self-consciously gritty, the plot is a little strained, and the alternate-history element I thought was unhelpful. But it's a fun read, and if you like Drake in general, you should like this novel.

[Tie Webb · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of good books out there. This is not one of them.