Targets of Opportunity

Michael Z. Williamson extends his modern military action/adventure series with Targets of Opportunity. As the second book in the series, this book is more complex, a bit slower-paced, and full of the same layered complexity Williamson brings to his characters regardless of genre. This is not a mindless shoot-'em-up. These characters are real, and they live and breathe on the pages of Targets of Opportunity as their non-fiction counterparts live and breathe in Afghanistan, Iraq, and wherever else their country needs them to be. If you want bang-bang, go read something else. This is bang-bang PLUS! Walt Boyes The Bananaslug. at Baen's Bar

The second book in this series was everything one could expect from a good author. The main characters remained the same personalities intact. The author also presents them in an entirely different environment and faces them with different challenges. He avoids the most common trap of this style of work, i.e. having the same situation occur over and over again. I consider this work a worthy incarnation of the original Mack Bolan works.....

If there's one thing Michael Z. Williamson does well, it's take you INTO the environment about which he writes. In Freehold, he plopped the reader square into a libertarian society on another planet - a picture so vivid, that you feel like closing your eyes and taking a deep breath and half expect to open your eyes and find yourself on Grainne. In Scope of Justice, he dropped us off in Pakistan, in the middle of tribal warfare, a Muslim society, dust, danger and despair. In his latest, Targets of Opportunity, Williamson gently places his reader in Romania - a meld of old world charm and modern-day crime. Once again, we join Army snipers Kyle Monroe and Wade Curtis as they take their next assignment - the elimination of terrorists who are planning the mass destruction of innocents. Just as in Freehold, when you felt that you were with Kendra Pacelli, fighting the tyranny of the UN on Grainne... Just as in Scope, when you could almost feel the dust of Pakistan on your face and the smell of tribal warfare and native food on your clothes... So it is in Targets. You feel like you are descending along with Kyle and Wade into the darkness of Castle Bran. You feel their tension and revulsion as they discover human remains in what was once apparently the castle of Dracula. You feel fear, stress and adrenaline, as the snipers are discovered. And you are fascinated with the melange of old and new as Williamson transports you inside an ancient castle at one point in the book and into an Internet chat room during another. Once again, the action in the novel keeps you turning pages, unable to stop until you've devoured the entire work. Once again Williamson effectively and realistically describes weapons, missions, breaches of security and ultimately, success. Targets of Opportunity is a fun read. It's a page turner, but, once again, a realistic one. Mike knows his guns. He knows his security. He knows his military. And you can tell he loves it.

In this book you see the return of the two heroes of "The Scope of Justice",Kyle Monroe and Wade Curtis.After their very sucessful mission to Pakistan where they assassinated an al-Quaida terrorits leader they are given another mission.The two are sent to Romania where there is going to be a gathering of several terrorist leaders.This also the home of the legendary Count Dracula.The sniper team begins stalking their terrorist targets.The terrorists are awaiting a delivery of explosives which they will use for bombings on civilian targets.After a high speed chase they discover that the explosives have been hidden in Castle Bran,Count Dracula's castle.Of course a gunfight erupts.The sniper team next has to track the remaining targets.They are joined by the Romanian DGIPI.The book concludes with a gun battle between the snipers and the DGIPI against the terrorists.This was a very entertaining book that used the Draculs castle very effectively.Our two sniper heroes are very good in this book as well.This is definitely a good book that you will enjoy reading.

This is a sequel to the author's earlier (and excellent) "Scope of Justice." The team of Kyle Monroe and Wade Curtis are being sent out again, this time to chastise a ring of terrorists who seem to delight in blowing up children. The book is slower-paced than "Scope", but but the pacing is perfect for the theme, which is more about the stalk than the kill, and about the obligations of warriors toward the innocents who may be caught in the crossfire. The heroes come across as craftsmen, who care about their work in the world, their obligations both to themselves and to those they protect, and ultimately, to why their jobs are important. This is a book about winners, and while the ending doesn't have the slam-bang finish of "Scope", the tension level is, if anything much higher. I read the climax with little beads of sweat on my forehead, and it certainly put the normal troubles of daily life (dodging traffic and unreasonable demands) into a new perspective. A fun book, solid storytelling, and it was muchly worth the time spent reading it.