Classic late cold war novel from the creator of the game Harpoon. I have read the book several times and find it still to be entertaining. ( )

In the aftermath of a series of student riots in Seoul, the U.S. Congress rushes a bill into law which calls for complete withdrawal of American troops from South Korea. This sets off a chain reaction: North Korea attacks across the DMZ, Russia supports North Korea, the Chinese remain neutral, and the United States fights again with its South Korean allies.

I admit it, I am fond of military "what if" novels, and even though some of them are terrible, this is one is fine. Larry Bond was the co-author of the classic [b:Red Storm Rising|318525|Red Storm Rising|Tom Clancy|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1173729031s/318525.jpg|5054712] book by [a:Tom Clancy|3892|Tom Clancy|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1407672935p2/3892.jpg] so he knows what to do.

The story here is, in short, it is around 1989 (publication day of the book) and North Korea invades South Korea, with enough pre-politics/actions to make it possible. As a reader you are left with the "can this actually happen" thoughts, and I think, hmm, probably not.

As usual the authors try to weave some personal stories and some romance into the books. Also as usual, that is not the authors' strongest cards. Personal parts, fine. Romance and female view... not the worst I have seen by far, but not great either. I guess, it is a male military history buff writing this in the late 1980s so from that point of view it is surprisingly really well done.
( )

Not bad, if certainly dated at this point. A covertly Soviet- (and Chinese-) backed North Korean conventional offensive into South Korea is repelled at great cost to the undermanned U.S. and ROK troops already there. The great power patronage is perhaps the most interesting angle, even with the Chinese deficiencies of the time, while considering this in anything like a modern light is difficult given the total lack of nuclear weapons or indeed, even ballistic missiles possessed by the North.

Suffers from the usual techno-thriller drawbacks of characterization (including an awkward love story subplot), and some early-on period racism mars things a bit (I can't speak to the "accuracy" of including it in this timeframe). But some sequences, particularly those focusing on the submarines and P-3 Orion aircraft involved in the cat-and-mouse play of ASW, are very engaging. At the very least, a great primer for the next round of Command: Modern Air and Naval Operations.

I may be being a bit harsh on this! With the current Stupid Missile Crisis in the news, some things that might otherwise be overlooked jump out in this. This is also a tighter read than the other novels of Bond's that I've made it through, Vortex and Cauldron. ( )

My first contact with Larry Bond was via Harpoon, great strategy focused on naval warfare. Then I read "Red Storm Rising" he wrote in cooperation with Tom Clancy.
Although I like techno-thrillers thing that annoys me the most is that political maneuvers are always very highly polarized - you have good guys and bad guys (no gray area) and soldiers fighting (but commendably soldiers are never declared as bad guys because they are always ordered to war by the bad guys) - it is just not the way things are on the greater scale (IMO books with more grasp on reality regarding this factor are Dragonstrike/Dragon Fire/Third World War (all by Humphrey Hawksley)).
This one is not very different but nevertheless it is an interesting read. ( )