Customer Reviews

2013: World War III

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As of this writing the New York publishing houses continue to boycott books critical of the People's Republic of China. In spite of this and because of the importance of the subject, works such as Berryman's continue to be published in America by smaller publishing houses or by authors across the nation.

Berryman has written a voluminous work (650 pages) about future conflict with China in the year 2013, with a lot of food for thought. Nuclear strikes, EMP attacks, computer viruses , biological assaults, spy networks, sabotage, terrorism and other non-direct methods of war likely to be used by China in a possible confrontation with the US under the `Assassin's Mace' concept are depicted with bone-chilling realism. Berryman (an army officer) has really done his homework.

The book has been criticized for errors but I found only one during the careful reading of this book. The book is actually a very clean read. On the other hand, the author could have used an editor to organize some of the material. The book tends to become sidetracked by a storyline dealing with murderous Chinese-sponsored Mexican raids across the US border. This material is so voluminous that it could easily constitute a whole other book in and of itself. In my opinion, this sub-plot interrupts the main plot: a Chinese offensive to conquer most of Asia.

The author starts off very strongly with an especially fascinating is the description of the Chinese view of America by a high ranking Chinese military leader which seemed very well researched and considered. It struck me as so insightful that I had to read it over several times. One should really put oneself in China's shoes to get a totally unexpected view of America. The book continues with the secret development and eventual implementation of a Chinese military plan to take over most of Asia. The factor here is China's unexpected (yet strangely unforeseen) ability to mobilize tens of millions of soldiers in very short order (a very real yet neglected threat in today's world). It is easy to see how such a mobilization can overwhelm both the forces of those Asiatic nations on China's border and any allied forces sent to help by friendly nations. The world has simply never seen a fully mobilized China, and has no concept of the scale of the full mobilization of a `People's War.'

More fantastic is the concept of China planning a campaign of genocide across half of Asia (yes, literally to wipe out the people of conquered territories) to make room for China's population. Genocide on such a scale would require entire armies just to carry out the killing. All this without mentioning the total hostility and isolation it would create against China on an international scale. On the other hand, the 1975-79 Cambodian genocide was carefully orchestrated by Chinese agents, so might genocide on some scale still be a Chinese option?

A good point is made by the author in calling attention to the massive numbers a fully mobilized China could deploy (more than 100 million men). The Western mind simply does not comprehend such numbers. The author makes an effective attempt at giving us a scale of such a deployment and its effects.

Berryman is familiar with South Korea and his description of the disastrous human consequences of a Northern invasion of South Korea are sobering. One really gets a sense of the scale and the dread when reading his passages on the results of such an attack. The description of an invasion of South Korea is one of the books finer parts, and outdoes other works on this speculative subject in that it fully details the human tragedy.

Surprisingly, the United States plays a rather small military part in the proceedings (limiting itself to an invasion of Panama and a showdown off Taiwan). The book takes a `to heck with it' attitude on Asia, as most all Asian countries (including South Korea) have already "kicked us out" by the time the book begins. This leaves little the US can do, and indeed, the author seems to take a view that Asia deserves what is coming in the form of a Chinese juggernaut.

The Asian satellite nations themselves are depicted as neither smart, brave, nor decisive. Japan, for example is put across as inactive and pusillanimous. South Korea as confused and contradictory. Pakistan and India come across as dummies, easily goaded into a mutually destructive war by China

The present day perception of Russia as a weak and (for some reason) friendly country is perpetuated. Indeed, Russia plays a major role in helping produce a happy ending for all. An ending that might seem unlikely with Russia's present-day allying with and arming of China. Yet the author takes note of this alliance and still proceeds to write that Russia will somehow become China's enemy. It's a nice thought. It helps pull out a happy ending, without too much drudgery and sacrifice on the part of America.

The nuclear ultimatum card plays a disturbingly big role in the book. But the nuclear ultimatum card has two faces: one has a happy ending on it; the other has a horrible and lingering death. Is it worth playing? The author seems to think so. I hope this is not the case with our actual leaders.

Troublesome is the arrogant nuclear posturing by the US and Russia. Since we can't do anything tactically, we'll just straighten up our backbone, stick out our chest, raise our chin and threaten total nuclear annihilation. Fantastic. This is the type of thinking just might destroy most of the planet in the next world war. If it works, it works great. But if it doesn't, we lose either our credibility (or worse) half our country to nuclear holocaust. Is this reasonable? The US (or any other nation for that matter) have no real missile defense. Whose fault is it if we find ourselves unable to confront the enemy tactically? Painfully, in evolving this scenario, the author is dealing with real political factors which could actually happen.

As mentioned, the use of nuclear weapons in the book is liberal, even by countries that do not now have nuclear weapons (but, according to the book, will by 2013). Without giving anything away, it is safe to say that large parts of Asia and South Asia are devastated, and that the countries doing most of the bombing are not the big three.

Overall, the book offers some fascinating military fiction, ranging from possible `Assassin Mace' attacks on America to the devastation that another world war would bring to the world in more aspects than one. The story underlines the necessity to not only begin considering China and the US as military adversaries, but to begin determining the parameters of such a confrontation.

The book is a good read, Berryman brings up many solid points concerning China's almost hegemony in manufacturing. His connecting of the many "factoid dots" to draw the conclusions that he does is interesting and scary to say the least. A good read.

However, what was a good read is almost destroyed by the sloppy editing of the type. Many words left out of sentences, inapprpriate words used in the sentences. Huge spaces between words in a paragraph, etc. Believe me, I am not an english major or a grammar expert (just ask any of my teachers), but these mistakes are glaring and really slow down the read.

Story wise this is probably one of the best future war books I have ever read. The author paints a clear, vivid and scary picture of why why China needs to expand (overpopulation, scarcity of rescources, need for oil instead of coal for energy) and why it thinks it can get away with it (none existent European armed forces, a corrupt russia, a politically divided and military weak US). The political intrigue China uses on the unsecured US sourthern border, as well as the Korean and Pakistani/Indian conflict is very interesting. The author lays it out in the open that the US due to military budget cuts and just the sheer number of Chinese can do little, besides letting loose our nuclear weapons, to stop the hundreds of millions of Chinese streaming throughout Asia. Really frightening.

The bad part however is not enough editing occured for this book. I'm horrible at proofreading and pretty bad at grammer, but even I got bogged down with with the amount and type of editing errors. The author also has a habit of telling you information and telling you it again and again; I get it the revenge code of the Pushtun tribes is important! But usaully only does this with important information. I think that 20 pages must have been added due to this, but thats relatively small considering its a 600+ page book.

If you can look past those small shortcoming I highly recommend this book.

Two things Carl, first pay to have someone qualified to proof your book, your wife doesn't count. Second, hire a real artist for your cover art. It looks like your teenage son created it on a pirated copy of Photoshop.

Ok, now that's off my chest let's get to the book.

Overall. not too bad. The opening of the book began well. The tale of the Mexican diversion, North Korean aggression and provoked hostilities between Indian and Pakistan were complex, detailed and descriptive.

I got through half the book I began to wonder when the US would confront the Chinese.In fact no nation did anything to stop the global genocide. When I reached the 3/4 mark I realized it just wasn't going to happen. It wasn't until the last 25 pages or so did the U.S. and it's allies finally get some cojones and advise China to halt their advance.

The book portrayed the Western nations as weak and undecided in the face of clear danger. Blaming the "previous administration" for many of the current military woes and I found this a little bothersome.

At times the dialog seems unrealistic. Would would a Presidential Adviser really have to explain to the POTUS what DARPA stood for? The references to past conflicts also seemed unnatural to me, almost text book-like with unnecessary dates and locations. I suspect it was done for the benefit of the reader but as an author of a WWIII global political thriller, one would have to assume his reader's are familiar with modern military history.

Not bad, maybe 6 out of 10.

The nonexistent proofreading,unbelievable Western hesitation and no actual combat between the Eagle and Dragon detract from what is a real good story and well thought out world conflict.

Finally, I am no Geography Major so I would have loved to have had a few maps outlining the conflicts and their progression around the world.

Tom

As a general trend, I have noticed that more and more books are being published nowadays with some pretty glaring editing and/or proofing mistakes. This work, however, absolutely takes the cake. After awhile, I started to see if I could find a page without an error....there were very few. Its not that I'm a perfectionist...far from it...but the mistakes are so jarring its extremely distracting and takes a lot away from the story. Editing should never be outsourced to any country that does not have english as a primary language.

I found this to be a very engrossing read - I couldn't out it down! Yes, it does suffer somewhat from a less than complete job of editing but this does not rise to the level of significantly interfering with the story. Berryman does an effective job of connecting related events (a la Tom Clancy but not quite at Clancy's level of mastery) in a plausible future with an imperialistic China run amok. The exploration of the relative cultural and political strengths and weaknesses of the various nations involved as they would impact such a scenario make for an interesting enhancement to the storyline. One warning though, if you consider yourself among the progressive, socially enlightened or politically correct, then you probably won't enjoy this book very much - Libertarians, Neo-cons and other foreign policy conservatives dive in and enjoy!

I enjoyed reading this book. The best in this genre I've read. But... There were so many typos, mispellings and a general lack of professional editing. Almost every page had a problem. It made for tough sledding. I would still recommend it though.

After reading the first 100 pages I realized this author has joined the long list of scared, right wing extremists who use the promise of a "military thriller" in order to advance their own right wing, racist views of the world. If you are looking for a good read and don't care about extremist views, then save your money. If you believe the Republican party is the greatest party on the face of the planet, all Democrats are evil and all minorities, with the exception of the very few who vote Republican, are evil and have a hidden agenda in order to destroy this country then by all means, waste your money and buy this trash.

But that is not all, this novel suffers from poor editing. It is broken down into chapters, but there is no spacing to the action. One minute you are reading about how the "evil Democrats/Mexicans/blacks" are destroying our country and the next you are suddenly in China or on a farm in Mexico. It would have been an easier read if it flowed better so the reader knew when he was moving to another character or scene.