In The Lion’s Paw by Stephen England, the newest Russian stealth fighters are deployed to Syria for field tests and the Israeli foreign intelligence agency cannot afford to pass up the opportunity to gather intel. David Shafron, former assassin and head of an elite group within Mossad, must send a man into the war torn country on a perilous mission to recover whatever data is possible.
This is a relentless, edge of your seat reading experience. Blending some of the greatest attributes of a large scale warfare saga, with the deeply personal and perilous nature of a traditional operator novel, The Lion’s Paw is an absolute must read for fans of military thrillers.
If the last couple paragraphs don’t get you excited to read this book, let me try and describe the scope and writing in a simple phrase… ‘Warheads on foreheads’. I know, it’s not what you’d expect a book to be characterized as, but hear me out and let me tell you why this is one of my favorite books of the year.
Warheads:
Most large scale warfare books devote most of the real estate on the page to explaining large scale concepts, such as the geopolitical consequences of any action, the struggle between global rivals, and to a more focused point, battlefield tactics and mission planning. England does this as well as any author in the game today.
His effective and efficient descriptions of the insanely complex power balances and loyalties at play in Syria makes readers feel like they’re in a Reaper, soaring at 50,000 feet with a full view of the landscape below. With the parameters of the battlefield set, the pace of the writing rockets the reader like a hellfire missile from chapter to chapter.
What is usually missing in similar books is personal investment in the characters down in the dirt and dust below. That is not an issue in The Lion’s Paw. The vast array of characters and motives fighting against one another is mindblowing… which leads me to the next part.
Foreheads:
On the opposite end of the spectrum, many military/operator books and series (some of which are my absolute favorites) tend to be light on the larger strategy and instead are hyper focused on an attachment to a single protagonist and the precarious situations they find themselves in. I would put England’s ability to craft compelling characters right up with my favorites in the genre. While there is an easy connection to Shafron and Mohamed Taferi, his Druze operative, England manages to make you, if not care about, at least understand and sympathize with almost every single character in the story. That is no easy task, especially when you consider he’s working with a cast of individuals including rebels and jihadist, spetnaz commanders and Assad regime special forces, and slew of bureaucrats and station chiefs.
The motives and morals coming in infinite shades of gray, loyalties and alliances shifting like the sands blowing across war torn Syria, readers are given a front row seat the emotional and physical turmoil that comes from living in a constant state of danger. When the mortars are falling all around and the sound of incoming fire passes over your head, you sense it all… right up until a bullet hits a character you’ve come to care about right in the… you guessed it… forehead.
Make sure to check out my review of The Lion of God: Complete Trilogy and then go pickup a copy as well. This will give you an even greater appreciation for David Shafron and his actions.
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Purchase The Lion’s Paw
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