A storm is a brewing in...The Mullah's Storm!

Major Michael Parson is co-piloting a C-130 Hercules across Afghanistan. The crew is transporting a highly dangerous and valued Taliban Mullah prisoner. Things were going just fine until they were shoot at by a oncoming missile. The C-130 is shot down. Help is on the way but it a long way a ways. Now it is up to Major Parson and Master sergeant Gold, an interpreter to transport the prisoner across the snowy plains of enemy territory to safety. It will be one of Major Parson’s most dangerous missions. He and Gold had better hope and pray that the Taliban insurgents don’t find them of they will wish they were dead like the rest of the C-130 crew.

The Mullah’s Storm is Mr. Young’s debut novel. The adrenaline/intensity levels in this book were insane…they were off the charts. The dynamics between Parson and Gold were good. Both Parson and Gold were strong characters. Parson was the leader in this story. I can’t imagine being in their situation. Talk about thinking on your feet while under huge pressure. This book reminded me a bit of the movie, Behind Enemy Lines. Just like that movie, I could picture this book being turned into a movie on the big screens. A storm is a brewing in...The Mullah's Storm!


Thomas Young on The Mullah's Storm

When writing fiction, your best work may come from what scares you the most: you take pen in hand and imagine the worst. When I first flew into Afghanistan, what scared me the most wasn't the thought of getting shot down and killed. It was the thought of getting shot down and not killed.

For most aviators, an encounter with the enemy usually happens in the form of lights streaming up from the earth. It has an air of unreality about it, almost like a video game. If those lights don't hit you, they don't hurt you. But what if you had an airplane blown out from under you and you met the enemy on his terms, in his territory? What would you face on the ground? What would your buddies need you to do? Under conditions of extreme duress and hardship, would you make decisions you could live with later on?

When I went to the Air Force Survival School years ago, an instructor gave a briefing I have never forgotten. He said, "Every Air Force flier shot down in Vietnam, captured, and dragged to the Hanoi Hilton sat right here in this auditorium and thought, 'It won't happen to me.'"

I still think it won't happen to me. But if it did? The Mullah's Storm is an imagining of that fear.