ARmy Rumour SErvice

Originally Posted by maguire

as for red storm rising, the russians strike me as anything but stupid in it - I dont have the knowledge regarding the subject some of you lot no doubt will, but it struck me that NATO only just pull through the war on the european mainland, and then partly because the sovs are handicapped by having to answer to the zampolits and the politburo at every turn - not through any intrinsic shortcomings on their part.

And of course (although it was never alluded to in the book) the moment the Sovs tripped the wire, 7 Panzer Div headed off to Magdeburg and destroyed, then held, the main GSFG reinforcement and resupply transport hub. Even at the time, it was a reasonably held belief that the WP air forces would not be able to achieve the air sovereignty they would need to allow proper free movement on the German battlefields. A lot of this was due to the enormous resources the Germans, US, Belgians and Dutch threw at the AD effort.

gsfg? and I take it by ad you mean air defence?

TBH, I am suprised Tom Clancy while writing RSR, didn't go nuclear.

Originally Posted by maguire

slightly off period, but those who are looking for some additional reading at the minute, can I recommend 'piece of cake' by derek robinson? it's a very good (and blackly funny) account of an RAF squadron from the beginning of ww2 through to the battle of britain - really well written.

Agreed, excellent book. I've read it often. I also have the TV series on DVD which (although not bad on it's own) ruined some of the characterisations and accents I had developed in my head for the characters.

I read the first 10 of his books and like many others enjoyed RSR, probably because, with a stretch of the imagination, the plot did have some grounding in the geopolitical situation of that time. From about number 6 to 10 it was going downhill and I never got further than the first 100 pages in Executive Order. By then I'd had enough of Super Ryan and would have happily taken out a contract on him. I've never been back to finish it and it will be a long time before I pick up another of Clancy's books.

Originally Posted by Legs

Agreed, excellent book. I've read it often. I also have the TV series on DVD which (although not bad on it's own) ruined some of the characterisations and accents I had developed in my head for the characters.

The use of x Spitfire marks in France in the series annoyed me as Spits were not deployed to France in 1940, I suppose that the fact that the number of airworthy Hurricanes can be counted on one hand excuses that though. Be that as it may, I can recommend any of Robinson's novels.

Back to Clancy, my favourite is Red Storm Rising.

Red Storm Rising. Superbly written, and almost as interesting is the story behind it; it came out of wargaming sessions. IIRC Larry Bond was the technical 'brains' behind the book, Clancy the writer. And a good dose of Hackett's "The Third World War" in it.

Hunt For Red October was quite entertaining, and focussed on the technology and tactics as much as the people. I assume this is the Amiga game referred to earlier (the Amiga didnt have a cassette deck... unless the OP meant C64). Game was quite good, too. And spawed 688 Attack Sub.

As for the rest, I agree... they declined steadily until Bear And Dragon. Red Rabbit was awful, and the ghost written stuff is cack. What I really detested about the later stuff was how Clancy felt the need to include just about every character ever used before.

First used when Mr Clark says to Ryan "I met your father once"... sorry, it just screams "author intrusion" and jolts you out of the book. He screws up royaly with this rubbish tho:

Without Remorse - he is friends with a Coast Guard PO called 'Portagee' Oreza
Portagee turns up in Clear and Present Danger, as Portagee Ortega
Debt of Honor - Clark is on Siapan, when he bumps into Portagee, now back to Oreza

What makes me laugh in Patriot Games is the Robby Jackson character offering check flights to all and sundry, and the poor use of the word processor when the Prince visits the Ryans home:
"The view is marvelous," the Prince observed followed by
"The view is spectacular" His Highness observed (in my book version its actually the same line again)

Admit though, I did enjoy reading them back in the late 80's and early 90's. the literey equivalent of chewing gum for the eyes.

feel much the same about Dale Brown. Flight of the Old Dog was superb, but after two "sequels" it became writing by numbers.

Team Yankee was good, as were the Eric L Harry novels. And its good to see Hackett actually being acknowledged as a reference.

Just bought "Locked on" after the sample first couple of chapters available on Kindle, will start it next week and pop done thoughts on here as I go along,


On another track as someone mentioned him above, Just finished Dale Browns " Strike Force" remarkably average, except for the ending that wasn't that good