In the fashion of other John J. Nance novels, this one keeps you turning pages. "Turbulence" is an exciting adventure that takes place on an airplane of Meridian Airlines. The flight attendants are contemplating strike, the customer service agent hates passengers, Meridian, and his job, while the pilots seem to be lacking in sufficient training. There are many angry people within the pages.

In "Turbulence", both the action and the inaction of various characters in the story brings about bizarre and dangerous interpretations by other of the story's characters. Incredible danger aboard an already malfunctioning airline is the result of such far-fetched translations.

Not only is the cockpit crew lacking in qualities usually attributed to those flying passenger airplanes, but this flight has a "nurse Rachet"(from Ken Keysey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest") as the head flight attendant. Add some terrorists, paranoia and undisciplined behavior from disgruntled passengers and you have "Turbulence".

Nance's novels are quick to read because you don't want to put them down and "Turbulence" follows suit in this respect.

I have finally faced the fact that a Nance novel can't be put down, and so I plan a special day for one. My "Turbulence" day was great - and, like the rest of his novels, I was captured. He taps that fear of being trapped five miles above the earth with no way out except a safe landing.

Most of his plots involve political intrigue or seriously disturbed crews. Turbulence, however, hits very close to home for anyone who has recently flown on "Cattle Chute Airways" (and there is a lot us). Customer neglect and now the stress of terrorist fears, pack airplanes with passengers on the dangerous edge of revolt. Nance crams his plane with believable characters and builds the story to a gripping peak.

Turbulence carries a definite message. It is like Blind Trust (Nance's nonfiction book about air safety) but in a very pleasant tasting pill. I hope that airline operators and passengers get the message. This experience is much more pleasant as a novel.

John Nance has written several good, suspense-filled stories about troubles in and around airplanes. Turbulence may be his scariest. In part, this may be because of the times, when we are much more conscious of security and when that heightened security has increased the time passengers spend processing in for their flights. As I read, I remembered the promotional line for the horror movie Jaws II, something like "Just when you weren't afraid to go near the water again."
Recall all airline employees - ticket agents, flight attendants, pilots, security staff, baggage handlers - whom you ever encountered who were having a bad day and wanted to share their frustrations with you. Put them all together in a busy airport and on one single flight - Meridian Flight Six, Chicago to London and continuing on to Capetown - and delay the flight for hours. Add a mix of passengers with all of the wide range of characteristics you might find on any jumbo jet, but especially the African student who is returning home suddenly because he can't locate his mother; the Asian-American dot.com millionaire who built his fortune on customer service and can't stand the behavior of many airline personnel; and a physician who is suing the airline because his wife and newborn died when the pilot on an earlier flight refused to land so that the wife could have medical attention. Stir in a little more spice when the crew changeover in London brings on a captain who is new to international flying and very tentative, a first officer who is impatient and who is having domestic troubles, and a senior flight attendant who just doesn't like people but who keeps her job by constantly accusing others of harassing her.
As the pot begins to boil, take a national security concern that terrorists might take advantage of an incident of "air rage", and throw in a tip that something big is imminent and it will involve a major airliner and an African flight.
The result is a well-told story that generates anger, apprehension, thrills and excitement. And also an appreciation for many, many people - airline employees, passengers, and just plain folks - who go out of their way to help others and who far too often are overlooked as we focus on all the bad things that happen.

A beautiful financial whiz gets more than she bargained for when she agrees to help bring Pan Am back from airline oblivion. (the real Pan Am had just gone under when this book appeared, and hardcore aviation enthusiasts were finding it hard to let go). The new Pan Am has a novel idea - fewer passengers per flight, leaving more room for lounges. Unfortunately, the idea is a dangerous one (more on that), and somebody has now set their sights on grounding PA for good. A series of elaborate accidents - so effective that heroic and quick-thinking piloting just barely save the day - plague PA planes in the air. On the ground, the mysterious conspiracy works to undercut PA's financing, requiring equally heroic and quick-thinking accounting methods. Will PA survive?

Will anybody care? "Phoenix Rising" is the typical example of a book that tries to come off as gripping and edge of your seat even as its prose and marketing are aimed comfortably within a well-established market (the market for readers who cares about an airline being named Pan Am; readers who know that there is a "big three" of US airlines; readers who care about the inner workings of aircraft financing). The premise itself has a big hole in it - why would somebody care enough about Pan Am to ground it? The heroine's explanation is utterly illogical: because it would prove you could fly planes with fewer passengers and with greater amenities and still turn a profit. Forgetting that that's pure wish fulfillment, were it true, the other airlines could just copy Pan Am's idea and profit just as easily as Pan Am. (Because the other airlines' position couldn't be as precarious as Pan Am's, they'd be even better positioned to profit from the idea than Pan Am, so the idea is simply illogical). The mysterious conspirators could also simply buy Pan Am outright. What really kills the book is...who cares? This isn't a book about a horrible air crash ("Final Approach") or some doomsday weapon ("Medusa's Child"). This is a book about airplanes flying with sleeper seats and treadmills - hardly earthshaking, and not worth anybody's time.

I listened to the audiobook and my question is: "what factory makes the robot who read this book?

Airplanes get de-icing treatment when there is a risk of icing. Not simply because it's cold.

At cruising altitude the temperature is colder than 50 degrees below zero. Is every flight de-iced? No.

As a commercial pilot, maybe the author knows more than you think.

... because I love airplanes. Other than that, a reader with average intelligence will always be two steps ahead of this rather predictable tale. However, Mr. Nance has a lot of insight into how the aviation industry is regulated, and it was a pleasure to read a novel written by somebody knowledgable about the inner workings of the FAA and airlines.

After reading Nance's thrillers, such as Pandora's Clock and Medusa's Child, this book was a major dissapointment when I finally forced myself to read it. It started out excellent, with a very good crash scene. However, by the middle, continuing through the end, no action occured at all. It is a book that can educate you on the inside of the FAA, NTSB, and airline industries, but if you want action, this book will leave you feeling deflated.

"Final Approach" follows the fictional investigation of an air disaster in Kansas, an idea that promises explosive tension, and then punks out. This is because "Final Approach" is simply an example of the sort of thrillers to be churned out in the information age, where the heroes and villains are just bureaucrats. By the time we've finished "Final Approach", flying remains an experience as alien as when the book opens, but now we've become smarter in the bureaucratci workings of the FAA and NTSB among others, not to mention that the government hides information (huh? ) and that the media will exploit stories for their ratings value rather than invetsigate them (no way! ). Even as a bureaucratic-mystery, "Final Approach" fails. Though the heroes are meant to represent the most efficient resources the government can use to prove the cause of the fatal crash, the solution is not revealed by intelligent ivestigators and dogged investigation, but because somebody just gives up and blabs the truth. The conspiracy theories and hysteria by which the author condescends to non-experts (The media is bad for feeding us stories it can't really stand by, and we're bad for accepting it so easily) make it convenient for his protagonists to look busy, even as they remain oblivious to the truth. Anybody could have solved this mystery.

I loved John Nance's first few books, but his previous one, and now this one, have zero thrill! I still have a few chapters to read in Skyhook, and if I lost the book and never got to finish it, I truly wouldn't care. I don't like the characters...and therefor don't care what happens to them. What ever happened to the old John Nance that could write a book that you just couldn't put down? This is the last one that I will pay for!!

First off, you should throw to my comments a bucket or 2 of salt since I have not read this book nor I intend to do so. I just happenedd to hear this author on the Radio today and was hoping for some insider's view of things, but this book turned out to be fiction and a gargantua one at that.

Tom Clancy's are so mesmerizing 'cuz what he writes is so plausible. The airline insdustry is not high-tech, and it's not thrilling. Not when the technology used today was created when you thought digital watches are the coolest thing. Not when just asking an airline employee where your bag is gets you a blank stare (he doesn't know, the system doesn't track it like Fedex does), not when the U.S. system still fly planes single-file fashion so when there is a simple delay with one flight, the whole column is messed up. Not when you request a simple change and it takes the agent 1/2 hour to accomplish the task (what are they doing back there you wanna ask?), and planes can't fly through fog - huh? They get you there more or less on time, be grateful about it, but thrilling? well, I have a few jokes about that... for another time.

John Nance has given us several lawyer/aviation stories, beginning with the excellent Pandora's Clock about disease spreading quickly worldwide through airline travel (SARS anyone?). Many of his books have been suspenseful and gripping. Some have not been as good as others. Skyhook, unfortunately, tends more to the latter than the former. The first half is a very slow read, and I came close several times to putting it down. I persevered, however, and was satisfied at the end.
This book is more lawyer than aviation, and the protagonist is neither. April Jensen is a cruise line executive based in Vancouver. Her best friend and almost-sister is a young, rising lawyer with a prestigious Seattle firm. Her father is an airline captain who owns a restored, made into a recreational vehicle, WWII flying boat. When her parents disappear while flying in Alaskan waters, April practically has to force authorities to make a search. When they find her parents afloat in a life raft nearly dead from exposure, her pressure appears to have been justified. Then a belligerent FAA inspector accuses her father of all sorts of violations, including drinking, and gets his license revoked. This is serious, because flying is not only his occupation, it is his life. The lawyer friend becomes involved to try to save his career.
Meanwhile, there is a secret Air Force research project going on, to create the computer software and links to enable a ground-based pilot to take control of a plane in flight, ostensibly so that a plane with incapacitated pilots can be landed safely. The civilian applications post 911 are obvious, but not stated until later. The project is in trouble, and the chief software developer is having real concerns about sabotage. These two plots just avoid a midair collision, and merge into a common trajectory, with a smooth three-point landing. You may have to buckle your seat belt to get to the ending, but on the whole, this is a good read.