Red Storm Rising | Tom Clancy | This is Clancy's masterpiece

Red Storm Rising | Tom Clancy | One of Clancy's good ones

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Red Storm Rising

	Red Storm Rising Tom Clancy Berkley, 1987 - 736 pages average customer review:based on 287 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

This is Clancy's masterpiece

I have just recently re-read this book (the first go around was back in high school, some 15 years ago) and I was once again enthralled by the extremely vivid descriptions and very tense environments created in this book.

Red Storm Rising describes a scenario for World War Three, between the Soviet Union and NATO. Keep in mind this was written in the mid 1980's, when the Soviet Union was still alive and kicking. The scenario is very well thought out, well researched and developed, and somewhat plausible. The political machinations of the Soviet Politburo prior to the conflict is described, as are the military preparations and the justifications for starting the war.

The character development necessarily must focus on only a small handful of characters in the book, but I did not think that was a detriment, because to flesh out several dozen characters would have made the book 2000 pages long, which I'm sure nobody would be brave enough to read. Of course, if you want to read this book, it's probably because you enjoy books about war in general and understand at least a little bit about tactics and strategy, but if you're looking for an easy to digest read with complex characters, you're going to be disappointed. If you're looking for a taut, suspenseful, well-written thriller, than I definitely recommend this book.

Even though it's a long read, it's well worth it.

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One of Clancy's good ones

Probably one of the best of Clancy's books, before he went into mass production of hyper-chauvinistic fantasy pulp fiction.

So many reasons not to go to war

I bought this book right after I reported to Germany in 1987. Wow, what a read. Like a few others said, it did start a little slow but it didn't take long to cause me sleepless nights getting through it. Never strayee from my mind when I was pulling duty up on the East German border or reacting to an alert, going to the ammo point and drawing a combat load of ammo for who nknew what?? Riveting book, made me feel like I was in it. Old school combat for us old school soldiers. Buy it now, maggot! Then drop and give me 20 pages!

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A good "modern war" book

Although the book is a bit dated, it is still a fun book to read. I thought he presented a somewhat plausible initial scenario to explain the reason for the war. Too often in wartime books the "why" aspect is completely ignored in favor of excessive heroics and impossible scenarios. What was nice about this book is that the initial "why" played a pivotal role throughout the story. It wasn't a war just for the sake of war.

It was also good for bringing back the old cold-war jingoistic feelings. During some of the more intense parts of the book I couldn't help but think "U-S-A, U-S-A!"

Additionally, the "bad guys" aren't simply bad guys. There is a sense of humanity on both sides of this conflict that made it more interesting than just a plain war book. I've read it more than once and one day when I'm bored I will probably pick it up again.

It's a great airplane/vacation book. It's broken up enough that you can pick it up and put it down often, without losing what is going on in the story. And it's long enough that you won't finish it on one plane flight.

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