Audible Book Review: Trident's First Gleaming: A Special Operations Group Thriller by Stephen Templin

This is a fast-paced and engaging action thriller.
Trident's First Gleaming:
A Special Operations Group Thriller
Written by: Stephen Templin
Narrated by: Brian Troxell

Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
Release Date:09-24-14
Publisher: ListenUp Audiobooks
Genre: Military Thriller
My Rating: 4.0 of 5.0

Publisher's Summary
Former SEAL Chris Paladin leaves SEAL Team Six to become a pastor, but CIA spook Hannah Andrade pulls him back into Special Operations Group, the ultra-secret unit that SEAL Team Six operators and others served under to eliminate bin Laden. Chris and Hannah are joined by Delta Force’s Sonny Cohen to stop a new terrorist threat from launching a deadly cyber-terror against the United States.©2014 Stephen Templin Recorded by arrangement with the author c/o Trident Media Group LLC (P)2014 ListenUp Production, LLC.

Review:
Chris put his former life as a SEAL behind him and is serving as a pastor when a prior operations teammate seeks him out. Chris always like CIA spook Hannah but they could never interact socially due to their job restrictions. Chris is hesitant to be puled back into a Special Operations Group until he learns that they are seeking his help to stop an enemy well known to Chris. Chris and SEAL Team Six had captured Professor Mordet in Chris’ last assignment. Chris was close to killing the terrorist for his heinous actions, including chewing off a part of Chris’ ear, but instead he turned him over for imprisonment.

Now Professor Mordet has escaped and is believed to be involved in trying to acquire new and secret US military drone technology, known as the ‘Switchblade Whisper’. The drone has been misdirected by Mordet and is now missing. Whoever gets their hands on this technology could conceivably break through military defense security to cause havoc in military and other major infrastructure systems.

Chris agrees to step back into service for the mission. He meets with Hannah and two other operatives to fly to Afghanistan to recover the equipment. Although they retrieve the Switchblade something goes wrong. Chris is abandoned in a field filled with insurgents. Before he can reach his car it blows up when an enemy opens the door. Now Chris is seriously worried about his team mates, especially Hannah, as it appears that there has been a major betrayal.

Chris heads back to the rendevous point to find another team member dead. Chris faces off with the traitors who plan to frame him. Along the way to find Hannah, Chris runs into (literary) a strange man on a donkey. The man, Sonny, helps Chris restart the stolen van and it soon is apparent Sonny is a skilled operative. Sonny is a helpful, rascally addition who joins Chris in his escape from enemies as he continues to hunt down Hannah and the Switchblade. After plenty of action and before the story gets to its suspenseful ending, Chris has to face the extreme dark madness of his enemy.

I enjoyed the fast-paced action and conflict. Some of the escapes that Chris makes seemed a stretch but I suppose it is possible for a SEAL. He wasn’t quite a one man army but close to it. Of course, in my opinion, it helped that he had prayer support on his side. The author did a good job of putting the reader into the action and especially into the thought process as Chris dealt with the dangers, decisions and emotional conflicts of war, including how his faith in God impacted his actions. There was romantic tension between Chris and Hannah without any overt sexual scenes. I also appreciated the fact that the bad language was minimal.

I would be interested to listen to more by this author. I recommend this to readers who enjoy fast-paced thrillers and especially military action.

Audio Notes: Brian Troxell does a fairly good job of narration. He managed a variety of voices for the characters, especially getting distinct personalities for Jim Bob, Victor, Sonny and Mordet. I didn’t feel his interpretations were as strong for Hannah or the main character. Also there wasn’t as much intensity in the action as I felt there could have been. Still I was well engaged and am glad I listened to this on audio.

I received this title from Audible through AudioBook Jukebox for an honest review. This qualifies for my Audiobook Challenge.