Iron Tigers: 5

Fans of tank action who didn't get enough in Farmer's Tin Soldiers (2003) will be delighted with the many, vividly described battle scenes in his latest-as American M1A2-SEP tanks go up against a superior force of Russian T-80Us on the border between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The political ground has shifted a bit: as Farmer says in a foreword, he was a young captain in Kuwait in 1996 when the first book was begun; ""I'm a senior major now and sitting in a very different geographical location-Baghdad, Iraq."" (That the foreword is dated January 2004 indicates that perhaps the war didn't go quite as he expected in the following months, turning Iraq into what the cover blurb calls ""a stable new Iraqi government."") In this sequel to Tin Soldiers, the Iraqis team up with the U.S. Army to fight an alliance formed between the Saudis and a repressive new Russian leader. Readers who can buy into this idea should find the ensuing desert tank battles a source of excitement and satisfaction.