cover image Seals the Warrior Breed: Silver Star

Seals the Warrior Breed: Silver Star

H. Jay Riker. Avon Books, $6.99 (464pp) ISBN 978-0-380-76967-4

War hero cliches--including gratuitous sexual encounters, barroom brawls and impossibly long death scenes--run amok in this bloated first installment of a trilogy chronicling the rise of the U.S. Navy's elite commando team. During WW II, Lt. Joe Galloway is charged with the task of assembling highly skilled sailors into a crack demolitions unit. Those chosen for this hazardous duty, including girl-crazy rich kid Hank Richardson and street-smart wiseacre Vince Tangretti, are forced to overcome their differences to form a team known as the Naval Combat Demolitions Unit. Also along for the ride is troubled ranger scout Frank Rand, an Annapolis dropout eager to prove his valor to his blustery war-hero dad. These warriors are to advance ahead of the Allied lines and eliminate such obstacles as tank traps and mine fields. To this end, their training, which commences with the hackneyed greeting ``Ladies, welcome to Hell,'' is an ordeal of protracted suffering, intended to prepare recruits (and readers) for the upcoming Allied invasion of Normandy. H. Jay Riker is a joint pseudonym for literary agent Bill Fawcett and Kevin Dockery ( SEALS in Action ). (Dec.)