Fulminata reviewed Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy
Review of 'Red Storm Rising' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
A novel of a war that might have been. Clancy's take on WWIII is probably the most optimistic made, which also makes it likely to be one of the least realistic in terms of the big picture, but still a mostly good read if you like techno-thriller style fiction.
The focus is mostly on the war for the North Atlantic, rather than the land war, which sets it apart from other works in the field. Not that it ignores the land war, just that it doesn't focus on it.
The Wikipedia page for the book lists 24 characters, and those are just the main ones. There are a host of supporting characters with just a line or two. The main point of view characters are mostly officers on both sides of the conflict, ranging from an US Army Sergeant, to the Soviet General in charge of the Western Front. We …
A novel of a war that might have been. Clancy's take on WWIII is probably the most optimistic made, which also makes it likely to be one of the least realistic in terms of the big picture, but still a mostly good read if you like techno-thriller style fiction.
The focus is mostly on the war for the North Atlantic, rather than the land war, which sets it apart from other works in the field. Not that it ignores the land war, just that it doesn't focus on it.
The Wikipedia page for the book lists 24 characters, and those are just the main ones. There are a host of supporting characters with just a line or two. The main point of view characters are mostly officers on both sides of the conflict, ranging from an US Army Sergeant, to the Soviet General in charge of the Western Front. We also get a good look at the Politburo on the Soviet side, but interestingly, no equivalent look at NATO civilian decision making.
Out of probably around 100 total characters, exactly three are female. One of those is a Navy wife with only a couple of lines near the beginning of the book. One is an Air Force pilot banned from front line combat because of her gender, but who still manages to participate. One is raped for the purposes of a male character's character development, to introduce a romance subplot, and to remind us that the Russians are the bad guys. Yeah, not exactly great representation of women in this book. Something I could overlook in a book written in the 80s about a military conflict set in the 80s if it weren't for that last example.
Leave that aside, and we are left with a competent techno-thriller/war story with some interesting ideas about how WWIII might have gone. As a gamer, I appreciate that the author claims to have gamed out a lot of the naval battles using a wargame to determine the likely course and outcomes.
