Richard P. Henrick

Crimson Tide by Richard P. Henrick is a gripping military thriller that dives deep into the tension and drama aboard a nuclear submarine. The novel is excellent for studying leadership dynamics, decision-making under pressure, and the psychological conflicts in high-stakes environments. For fantasy writers, this book offers valuable insights into crafting intense, suspenseful narratives and complex character interactions. The way Henrick handles authority, loyalty, and moral dilemmas can show more inspire similar themes in fantasy worlds, making Crimson Tide a surprisingly rich resource for creative storytelling. show less

In a word: cheesy. In another word: dated. In yet another word: entertaining. This book, published in 1987, is about a nuclear showdown between the US and USSR. America has a satellite up at all times overseeing Russia and their nuclear threat. When that satellite goes bad, it falls to earth and another one replaces it. Only this time, it doesn't. And one of the top Soviet generals takes notice. And decides he wants to take this opportunity to nuke the hell out of America while they can't show more spot what is going on over there. The US tries to launch another satellite on a Trident missile, only it's apparently shot down. They then decide to dust off the space shuttle, "Condor," and launch it manually via that. Word gets through to a terrorist organization and to the Russians and they both send teams to dismantle things. Meanwhile, this book is about subs. Our heroes are on a diesel powered sub called the Razorback, shadowing a Russian nuclear sub. And they want to take it out. Yep, they want to start WW III by sinking a Russian nuclear sub. Brilliant. As one of the crewmen puts it toward the end of the book, "...why didn't they blow away both vessels and be done with it. These were their waters. Another foreign nation had absolutely no business there. How much better it was to be safe now than sorry later." So they sink a French sub, thinking it's a Russian sub. With absolutely no ramifications. None.

There are a lot of discrepancies in the book. The dialogue is wooden, at times, and hardly believable. The situations are absurd. The feared Russian Spetsnaz are shown to be total pansies when the chips are down, thanks to American military police heroes. Uh huh. An oceanographer discovers an old college flame who's now a paleontologist with students on a dig near Vandenberg air base. So they immediately start up where they dropped things off 15 years previously and the reader has to suffer through lines like, "...he slowly gave himself until all was given. A whimper passed her lips as this gift was received deep in the tight, warm recesses of her womb." I'm not kidding. Worst sex scene ever. And there's an earthquake in Alaska that causes a tsunami to hit northern California. I have yet to figure out how this added to the plot. The oceanographer and an engineer fear sabotage and try to warn the Air Force higher ups, who won't listen, so when the Russians and terrorists are defeated and the shuttle makes it up and the satellite is launched, Russia backs down and the day is saved. Cheesy. Yet still somewhat entertaining. I wanted to put this book down and did a couple of times, but found myself drawn back to it every time, wanting to know what happened next. Not sure why. It's poorly written, the plot is bad, the dialogue choppy, but I still kind of liked it. A guilty pleasure? Sorry. I can't recommend it. But if you happen upon it in a used bookstore like I did and can get it for a buck, it's probably worth it. show less

My one-line summation of this book would be Great interesting plot with lots of detail and realistic characters, but it started a little slow and has some large predictability issues in trying to make the attack plausible. (You know there's an attack, it's in the title, that's not a spoiler!)

So. First off, let me say that I did enjoy this book. The overall plot was well conceived, it's clear that plenty of research was done to make everything as realistic as possible, and the end was nicely show more done. I loved the characters - even the small roles came with just enough background to make you want them to succeed. And they were all completely realistic; they had fears, they made mistakes (even some whoppers!!), they struggled on to do their jobs. It's hard for authors writing these sort of books to not allow their characters to be too over-the-top heroic, able to overcome all obstacles, never wavering, etc. Henrick didn't fall into that trap, and I give him major points for that.

However. It started rather slow. It wasn't that I disliked the first half, but it took me a while to get through, I was more hesitant to pick the book up, there wasn't enough going on to really pull me in. It wasn't until more than halfway in that the pace really picked up. And the big problem: you could see specific things near the beginning of the book from a mile away, which these characters who are supposed to be Secret Service/security detail should never have let them by/not noticed the connections. If you're putting multiple world leaders on one boat with limited security available, do you really let any coincidences slip by unchecked? Not do an excessively thorough check of every single thing that was not on an original plan?? Even if it were to make them late, they'd never let unchecked things on board (and I don't consider this any kind of spoiler because it's blatantly obvious)! I mean come on! I get that Henrick had to "slip one by" them in order to make the entire thing possible, but if I were those guys I'd be ready to throw myself overboard for being so utterly stupid as to let this all happen so obliviously!

Slight SPOILER ALERT
If he'd just had everything transferred in through the laundry like some of the stuff was (which we find out at the end because that part was sufficiently non-obvious!), then it would have been fine. Yes, readers would likely surmise a connection between the new arrivals, the Han sub, and the forthcoming attack, but it'd be far less blatant, and far less suspicious of a thing for Secret Service to "overlook." But no, he had to hide stuff in the new machines [that they would never have let on in the first place w/o a thorough check first, they'd have held off until after the summit!] and twice have the dog interrupted/unable to get near them so they go miraculously unchecked! There's just no excuse for that!
END

Anyhow. I was, clearly, irritated with that cheap way of arranging the attack to be able to happen. But regardless of that, I did enjoy the read and I would pick up more by Henrick in the future. show less

If you've seen the movie by the same name, you pretty much know what's going on here. That being said however, this is still a fairly well written novel.

It's been a while since I've sat down and watched Crimson Tide, so I wasn't one hundred percent sure of exactly what happened anymore. This novel is fast-paced, exciting and thrilling and keeps the reader involved from beginning to end. The author's experience with submarines is readily apparent and he tells his story in a way that makes show more sense and is totally believable. The characters motivations and actions also seem true to form.

All in all, I found Crimson Tide to be a decent and entertaining read. show less