Jun 13, 2002 08:24 AM
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(Updated Jun 13, 2002 08:24 AM)
Tom Clancy emerged as a writer of repute in the early 90’s with a flurry of thrillers revolving around conflicts between superpowers armed to the teeth with loads of nuclear arsenals. Clancy, here, continues from where he leaves off in the previous book, “The Hunt for Red October”, albeit with the same ingredients and the same mind-numbing action.
Back to the future?
Set in the latter stages of the 21st century, the book is another thriller and narrates a tale of greed for power and a stunningly diabolical political subterfuge. Clancy goes to great lengths in explaining the fibre of the economic and political strata prevailing in the USSR at that time. The economy is severely crippled and on the verge of an imminent collapse. Inflation is in stratospheric levels and unemployment is rampant. Faced with the prospect of a complete breakdown all around, the power masters at Kremlin hatch a daring conspiracy which, if successful, could drastically tilt the balance of power from the west to east.
The immediate problem on hand is the fast dwindling supply of oil, a commodity more precious than gold and the Russian Politburo soon hatches a plan to tide over the problem. The solution is simple and involves seizing oil supplies from a gulf country without directly arousing the suspicions of the UN and NATO. What however is difficult is the way this is to be done. Kremlin ingeniously masterminds a plan that and remote-controls the blowing up of it’s largest petrochemical plant by a group of Muslim terrorists.
It then takes umbrage under this attack by calling it an attack on democracy and shrewdly pins the blame on the target gulf country from which it wants to seize the oil supplies by launching a full fledged war on it. Realizing the imminent threat arising from the NATO bases in the nearby European countries, Moscow aims to nullify these bases by cutting off their supplies and launching surprise attacks to destroy them.
Operation “Red Storm”
The attack on the NATO bases is diligently planned down to the last detail and crack guerilla teams are dispatched to destroy critical NATO ground installations like the Anti-aircraft guns and airfields. Everything goes according to plan and the airforce then flies in for some target practice. The description of the air battles are too detailed and are extremely realistic. One literally gets the feeling of playing a video game just by reading about it.
The sea battles are equally impressive in grandeur and Clancy stuffs them with all modern war vessels and armaments. US and its allies wake up too late in the day to realize the magnitude of the attack and the reinforcements and convoy of supplies sent to the NATO bases are blown right out of the seven seas. The Third World War is declared and the superpowers battle it out for supremacy on land, in the water and in the skies – one for its lifeline of oil and the others for thwarting a tyrannical rogue state from taking control of the world oil supplies.
Still want to know what happens later? Lol, ever heard of the villains winning a war? If that were to happen, we would all be sitting in the nether world and indulging in unknown vocations.
Cheeky’s Opinion
I had a great time reading this book and rank it next only to “The Hunt for Red October” in terms of a breathtaking plot and narration. Clancy, very mesmerisingly brings out a very realistic situation that cannot be entirely ruled out sometime in the future (how do we know it’s not happening right now?). Quite thankfully, Clancy desists from deviating into too many sub-plots as he so often does (especially in the Secret-Op series) and deviates just once here by hitching a hike to the icy wastes of Iceland.
Tremendous emphasis is laid in explaining the political and warfare terms (indicating a deep and thorough research) and the rampant use of Russian terms lends a touch of authenticity. Clancy is also one of the few writers who unerringly tends to “carry forward” many characters from one book to another and that helps a regular Clancy reader in identifying the character as one is already aware of him/her.
This was one of his first works and he naturally gives it all his very best, something that’s strangely missing in his later works. If you’ve latched on late to the “Clancian” world of cold wars and nuclear battles, this book is not to be missed. Read it and let me know your opinion later. For now, I’ll be happy with your opinion on the review ;-)
