In 2016, China and an alliance of South-East Asian nations go to war
over the Spratly Islands.
A return to form after the slight disappointment of Exit Plan;
this is straight naval fiction on the grand scale, reminiscent of Red
Storm Rising.
Jerry Mitchell is one of the viewpoint characters here, now in command
of a Virginia-class attack boat. This puts him in a good position to
observe several key events, though because of the political situation
he's rarely able to intervene.
The politics continue to be superficial but interesting: neither of
the combatants is in a particularly good strategic or moral position,
and the other world powers take a hands-off approach at first. The USA
is somewhat more drawn in because of its defence treaties with Japan
and the Philippines, and submarines are sent to observe and later to
act. Once again we see Carlson's trademark use of carefully selected
leaks to push around public opinion.
Characterisation is still superficial at best, but let's face it, one
doesn't read these books for the characterisation. The technical
details are decent, both on current and on (pretty limited)
hypothetical future tech. The naval tactics are consistent with what I
know about. The action sequences (both submarine and surface; there's
not much aviation here, with the Chinese carrier Liaoning
effectively taken out of the action early on) are reasonably
thrilling. If you're after large-scale naval war fiction, this is
pretty much what there is, and I at least enjoyed it.
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