The Islamic invasion of Europe has begun....

....or so the book says! I've just finished an advance copy of INVASION
(DC Alden, Matador Publishing) and it is SUPERB!
Anyone who enjoys Clancy, Forsythe, Reilly, will enjoy this. It's a bit
of a hybrid between adventure fiction, techno-thriller with a dash of
sci-fi thrown in, but the author mixes it up with style and
plausability.
The story starts in London nearly two hundred years from now, where an
Islamic government rules, and the British people (what's left of them)
work as manual labourers and domestic staff. The descriptions of London
as a walled city and the wastelands that surround it are very detailed.
But we don't linger in the future too long because we are suddenly
transported back into the present day - well, sort of - the author
dives into the meat of the story in London, 2019. It's a countdown
scenario, where the characters are placed at various points around
London at certain times, all leading up to the explsosive violence that
hits the streets later on. We've got airliners crashing into city
streets, the Prime Minister trapped beneath Whitehall, riots, secret
tunnel systems, stealth ships, you name it. It all happens in this
book. We follow various characters as they try to escape the cities
(reminicient of Berlin in 1945 - anyone read the superb book by Anthony
Beevor?) The invasion itself, carried out by the ficticious Islamic
state of Arabia, is detailed and the battles that rage across England
seem very realistic. As for the 'final battle' along the Scottish
border...? Well, I was gripped. The epilogue jumps back to the future
where the loose ends are finally wrapped up - and there's a nice little
kick in the tail.
All in all this was an excellent read, very fast-paced and full of
excitement - a real page turner. If you're interested, the ISBN no. is:
1-90523797-9, go to the Matador Publishing website or the Invasion web
site itself - www.invasioneurope.com