Review of StratosFear

[Ashley M Murphy]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "StratosFear" by Steve Sloat.]

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3 out of 5 stars

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DISCLAIMER: I read a draft of the book prior to the final draft being submitted for publishing.

Stratosfear by Steve Sloat is a crime thriller that follows Air Marshal Trevor J. Parkes on a doomed transoceanic flight with passengers and crew dropping like flies. Transoceanic Flight 18 begins like any other flight randomly selected to have two United States Air Marshals flying along. There does not appear to be anything special about this flight – until first class passenger dies, followed very quickly by a coach passenger. Nobody knows what caused these deaths and nobody knows what threat could come from allowing the plane to land, especially as more passengers and crew die. With no one willing to let the plane land, it is up to the air marshals, the flight crew, and all agencies on the ground to determine what is causing these mysterious deaths and how to solve the problems associated with keeping a plane airborne much longer than intended. Fuel, food, water, and the overall weight of the plane create secondary concerns. No part of the plane is safe, and neither is anyone on board. Is this a terror attack? Is it biological warfare? Will these passengers ever make it off the plane? Only Air Marshall Trevor J. Parkes can solve the mystery and save all on board the plane.

The concept of an unknown, potentially biological, threat on board a plane makes for a good basis of the story, but I felt like there was too much racial profiling. It seemed like the only people that Air Marshal Steve Chandler perceived as a threat were those of Middle Eastern origin. About halfway through the story, I wanted to scream and throw the book every time one of the characters referenced Middle Eastern conspirators or how they would have to keep an eye on the Middle Eastern couple headed for their honeymoon destination. This subplot did not add to the story and just made it seem like the author was just using stereotypes to push prejudices into the minds of the reader. Because this caused a drop in interest in reading the story, I have to deduct a star.

This draft has a great deal of grammatical and typographical errors. There are also scenes of the story that repeated. One particular scene was word-for-word identical in two locations of the story. Various parts of the story felt like they were in the wrong order or were confusing to figure out the actual timeline. For example, this book clearly takes place after the real-life event of discovering COVID-19, but there is no specific year given for when this takes place. The way the pandemic gets discussed could indicate the story takes place in early April 2020 or it could be today. Another example is that the problem of refueling the plane was solved early on, but then the rest of the characters acted like nobody knew about the solution until the miraculous last minute. This inconsistency did not make sense and made the story difficult to follow. I am pretty sure that these issues were addressed during the editing process prior to publication, however, I must take these issues into account and subtract another star.

This story was written with a limited omniscient presence, but it almost feels like you are channel-surfing related television shows. You are a viewer looking in, but occasionally are privy to a character's thoughts on trivial matters. Sometimes, the switching felt like it was just the author’s attempt at finding a way to provide details, but it was not always necessary. This type of information dumping just made the story repetitive.

There are too many coincidences throughout the story that make it difficult to find the story believable at times. The coincidences are explained towards the end of the story, but it seemed like too much of a perfect storm of events. Descriptions of the action sequences, military training, and fights were not accurate and created question of the credibility of the author and his research.

This story has the potential to be great, especially for those who enjoy thrillers and disaster fiction, but it would need a lot of editing and revisions done first. Overall, I give this version of the story a 3 out of 5-star rating.

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StratosFear
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[Kibet Hillary]

It appears Trevor has a lot on his hands, and I hope that the cause of the deaths will be solved. What is even concerning is what would happen if such were to happen, as we live in a world where the wall separating fiction and reality can collapse anytime. The novel, in a way, reminds me of The Last Ship. Thank you for the review, @Ashley M Murphy.

[Onyemuwa-dave]

This is a very detailed and honest review of Steve Sloat's Stratosfear! It's clear the initial concept of a mysterious airborne threat was engaging, but your points about the racial profiling and the numerous grammatical and timeline errors are crucial. It's a shame these issues detracted from the story's potential. I may not read the book because of these issues. Thanks for your review.

[NetMassimo]

The fact that this review is about a draft leaves hope that some good editing work can fix the problems you mentioned and do proper proofreading. This novel seems to have the potential to offer an engaging story, so it's about the quality of the editing. Thank you for your honest review!