Wings of Steele - Destination Unknown (Book 1)

This was a story that gripped me right from the start. There were a few spots that I felt slow but you need to sleep and eat sometimes too so no harm done. This book should appeal to those who loves airplanes, dogs, spaceships. I has made me tear up and also smile. I think it stands as a complete story on it's own. Enjoyed my 3, or was it 4 days reading and if you have the time I bet you will too.

I think it takes a special kind of courage to mix all the elements the author used: k9 kop and his dog, while at the same time that cop is a pilot and the dog is with him in a cabin, secret agencies in pursuit of the main character, plus Bermuda triangle and aliens. I don't think the blurb about this book serves it right, because it's a bit confusing, and if I hadn't read the book before taking a look at it, I would be reading it yet. Anyway, nice and original story - at least all the elements are connected in an original way.

The author does a great job of creating the Steele universe. He makes it believable and understandable, as well as fun and exciting. The character development and the interaction of the characters are most enjoyable. The plot is coherent, and proceeds with a logical flow. All in all, this author stands out as someone who can put together and tell a great story.The problem I have with this novel is that the proofreading is terrible. The author does a wretched job with his use and overuse of commas. This is an extremely annoying element of his writing, and takes away from my overall enjoyment of the story. Good proofreading would clean up this problem, although the problem is not nearly enough to keep me from enjoying and rereading this novel. I look forward to reading more from this author.

In the world of sci-fi, you have the science heavy-hitters (like Asimov) & you have other authors who bring more fiction to their sci-fi. If you're looking for a science-heavy book, this is not it. In the vein of other adventure-packed space operas on both page & screen, Wings of Steele has a strong, charismatic, man's man hero/lead character. I felt bits of Hope Hubris (Bio of a Space Tyrant), Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Firefly/Serenity), Captain James T. Kirk (Star Trek), Captain Dylan Hunt (Andromeda), & "decampified" Buck Rogers & Flash Gordon all rolled together with a hint of James Bond, Jason Bourne, & Magnum PI thrown in for good measure (maybe a lot of Magnum PI with Jack Steele's physical description, love for fast cars, & beachy home base, though Magnum had multiple German Shepard security dogs vs Jack Steele's single German Shepard companion, Fritz). The book starts out with a little flash-back to Jack's childhood, then jumps into the story: Jack's a divorced ex-cop who's taken some time out to rethink his life. Fell in love with flying which led to helping rebuild a WW II bomber, & now delivering said plane to a filming location with his German Shepard, Fritz, & friend, Brian. But things go sideways, then downright pear-shaped. Jack & crew find themselves with a couple of other Earth natives on an alien pleasure cruiser with a gregarious & easygoing captain who puts them to work & helps them on the path to understanding the universe outside of Earth. Alien pheromones fly; action galore; space pirates ensue! In the end, Jack & co are just the type of people the universe needs: some fresh perspectives willing to fight for what's right, but there's still family back home that also needs him. While the book is complete by itself, I got wrapped up in the characters & want to know more. What happens next? As I write this, I'm 1/4 of the way through the next book in this series & enjoying it even more than this first one! If you're looking for an enjoyable romp through space in true space opera fashion, I suggest you give Wings of Steele a go!

Ok, let me start out by saying that the story was very, very entertaining. I'm more drawn to the high-techno sci-fi stories, so this was, as far as my tastes go, a tad different. The characters were decently developed, although, several could definitely use some more background developing. The story itself was fairly fast-paced and kept me pretty well entertained. I honestly had a hard time putting my Kindle down once I started reading.So why did I rate it only as 3 stars rather than 4 or 5 if I liked it so much. Let me explain. I don't know if the author reads the reviews here, but I really, really hope he does. Like I stated in my review title, Mr. Burger's story suffers the same fate of virtually all self-published books here on Amazon. There's serious typos throughout the story, such as "you're" when it should've been "your", misspelled words, words being hyphenated when there's no need (such as "dis-jointed" rather than "disjointed") and double words (such as "there there" instead of just a singular "there"), among others. And please, please, please...if you're going to talk about a location or a famous person in the past, please ensure you're using correct spellings (in this case talking about Wyatt Earp--spelled "Wyatt Erp"--and Langley--spelled "Langly" in the story). Nit-picking? Perhaps. But considering how often/famous both are, I consider it a bit of laziness on the author's part in not getting both spelled correctly. Also, the author SERIOUSLY needs to read up on proper comma and capitalization usage. The story was riddled throughout with both errors...badly. The worst of the two is the improper comma usage; it makes the story hard to read since the sentences don't flow as they should. And as one of the previous reviewers stated...there's one major loose end pertaining to one of the major characters in the story.So...in summary...very good and entertaining story. It just seriously needs some polishing. I hope Mr. Burger reads the reviews and takes this criticism as constructive. Please, for the love of all that's holy, get a proof-reader. Nothing will kill a story, and fan following for that matter, faster than when the story looks like a high-schooler wrote the story as a last-minute assignment for English class. Fix these problems and the story is EASILY a 4 or 5-star rating. Aside from these problems, I'm looking for the next book in the "Wings of Steele" saga (assuming, that is, there are more books planned for it).

I'm writing this review whilst about a quarter of the way through the first book, so perhaps I'm being a touch unfair, but my experience of it so far is that the female characters exist purely to titillate the male characters and serve their desires, especially the desires of the main character. It is understandable that we want to indulge in fantasy and sometimes, some of us do so by writing out those fantasies through stories - we grant ourselves the best cars, have an awesome career flying beautiful aircraft, and women find us irresistible, falling madly in love with us within a day - but these elements, if they are to be there, should, in my humble view, be subtle, and here, in this book, they are a sledgehammer.Ultimately what I've read so far seems quite sexist too. There a few comments that suggest women lack emotional control and perspective, which won't impress any women reading this book. It is designed to appeal to the fantasies of certain men, who view women as objects.

When Jack Steele accepts the job of delivering a WW II fighter bomber Smerica a film set in South America, he little suspects that he is a pawn in a CIA plot to capture a Russian agent. A gunfight in Costa Rica forces a desperate flight across the Bermuda Triangle where, chased by a pair of US Navy fighters, he seeks to evade them by hiding in an electrical thunderstorm.The storm is not what it seems, and hel finds that it has acted as a portal to another world where others have gone before.Teaming up with the Navy pilots he and his co-pilot, Brian, find themselves thrust into a galaxy-wide war against pirates that the UFW coillition is loosing. Unorthodox tactics are in order and Jack is perhaps just the man for the job

Well, at first I was all for the hero, a guy who is a pilot, has an AC Cobra and most important of all, a German Shepherd! What's not to adore? However, as soon as he started chasing anything female - even if she was an alien - his charm started to wear off! Then when he lost his Shepherd and was off chasing women instead of looking for his dog, hmmm, I don't love him anymore!However, since the author didn't commit the deadly and unforgivable sin of killing the dog - then I am sticking with him, and I'm off to get number 2 in the series.I will add though, that in my humble opinion, having lived with Shepherds all my life, enabling them to think and act like a human being is a considerable DOWNGRADE!!!!!

Interesting story premise, with a good plot, bit it is quite often very VERY overly contrived though. The main character seems to turn from a good guy into a bit of an anti hero at one point threatening a medic on his own side with death if they don't save one of the other characters whose got half their head blown off. Alas like most "doggy" people the character (and presumably the author) assumes that anyone who doesn't love his mangy mutt must be plain weird.The storyline deals in part with alien abduction - which the characters pretty much accept straightaway as being normal. Whilst the government of the home world are shown to be bungling blood thirsty people who don't care for their own citizens. Having said that, overall it is well written and engaging. It draws you in but it is hard to be sympathetic with the main characters. Naturally the people from earth turn out to be better at strategy and fighting than the existing aliens and soon earn senior officer status just for flying in a straight line without hitting a planet.It's a good length and a good read - I bought book 2 just to see how they develop. Book 2 is better so press on!

Excellent. At 1st I thought it wasn't going to be SF but when he got taken aboard the UFO it became very interesting with different species and an ongoing battle with pirates. In fact this 1st book of the series was so good I bought the rest of the series at full price - although they weren't very dear fortunately. Something i almost never do after reading one of these free books. It just goes to show how good this 1st book was.