The Flight from Winter's Shadow

In White's impressive first novel, Excalibur is a potentially invincible first-strike bomber combining Stealth capacity with speed and altitude surpassing even the SR-71 Blackbird . To test its capacity in nuclear winter, the U.S. plans to simulate the results of an above-ground atomic blast by crashing a fuel-laden aircraft in a remote forest area. Russian hardliners plan to smuggle an actual bomb onto the doomed plane, hoping a nuclear ``accident'' will encourage American denuclearization and restore the balance disturbed by the collapse of the Soviet empire. Air Force Major Pete Barnes and FAA investigator Brian MacHenry are swept along on the tides of multiple intrigue. Although Excalibur's link to nuclear winter is postulated rather than explained, dramatic cockpit action and excellent high-country hide-and-seek in the Sierra Nevadas redeem the failings of this eco - techno-thriller that emphasizes the environmental, as opposed to military or political, impact of high-tech gadgetry. White's conclusion will leave readers with a chill that is more than a mere frisson. (Jan.)