by Adam (link)
Genre thriller/suspense, comedy
Pairings none
Length 13 parts
Status Completed
Male authors are a rare thing in hanfic. Whey they do appear, frankly, you can count on their stories being one of two things: slash or what other fandoms call “gen,” featuring no romance at all. Operation Tulsa Thunder falls into the latter category, and is probably the first and biggest story to tackle the war on terror. It’s a heavy subject, and a genre that I imagine many female fans wouldn’t enjoy.
Of course, I never claimed to be the typical female fan, so I dove right into the story. Adam claims the prologue isn’t essential, but does provide some important backstory. The prologue is amusing, but a little confusing, I’ll admit. I assume the questions it raises will be cleared up later. As it turns out, the story has a lot more humor than I expected, but I suppose in a military sort of story, you need humor to keep things from being too grim. It’s practically like reading a hanfic version of M*A*S*H… or the cheesy, Adam West version of Batman (complete with a HanCave — no, really).
Although the premise of the story lies in national security and terrorism, and was no doubt spurred on by the attack on the US, it’s really more of a silly spy story than anything is. The plot is deliberately absurd, but with a less absurd narrative lying beneath the premise of Hanson as secret super spies. The writing gets a tiny bit sloppy at times, but the humor is absolutely solid, and that’s what this story relies on. When every other line has me laughing out loud, nothing else matters. The humor makes this a story that I think could have plenty of appeal outside its seemingly narrow genre.
Review by Bethany (website)