Customer Reviews

China Attacks

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was looking forward to this book as I had not read many simulations showing a war between China and Taiwan. The scenario is fascinating and daring and is a generally fluid read. The beginning of the book moves quickly and pulls you effortlessly along. Of course events of the last two years have made this scenario a bit more unlikely but these guys don't claim to be seers, they're writing a story that among other things gives a good idea of how alot of military equipment works.

Yet, the book contains several flaws that grate. First, the characters are generally bland, one dimensional people that are hard to relate to. The "good guys" are pure good, they do everything right all the time and always seem to know what is actually happening. The "bad" guys are pure evil, always plotting and schemeing. The good characters are almost flawless while the bad have absolutely no redeeming virtue whatsoever. Not only is this fairly unrealistic but it gets tedious. Many people are not black and white and to have a book full of them gets old fast. When you start a scene with Character X, you pretty much know what they're going to be up to and what they're going to be about. The dialogue coming from their mouths was also quite predictable.

Second, the book seems to have been written by a pair of Clinton-haters. While never calling him out by name, the author spends no little time doing everything possible to show that Bill Clinton was an utter traitor and despicable human being on all levels. Say what you want, think what you want, but this book went way over the top on that angle to the point of silliness and yes, tediousness. I began to think that if Clinton were really this bad then the military was run by fools for continuing to obey him.

The book skipped around in time in a rather herky-jerky fashion. For instance, the first few chapters focused on a meeting that lasted a few days. Then all of a sudden months pass but you're not told this immediately, you have to figure it out from the reading! Then the Chinese invade Taiwan and it almost gets down to a minute by minute play by play, and then speeds up again and the authors skip over a few days in the space of a paragraph! While wasting time on a boring & tepid romance (between a 27 year old CIA analyst and a 51 year old father figure general) the Taiwanese were marshalling a counterattack and the Cinese nuked them with neutron devices. That however got a small mention as there was "love" in the air. C'mon! I didn't read this for a poorly worded, implausible, and boring romance!

The authors would focus on the nitty gritty of certain things (like the love story) that offered little but then offhandedly refer to major events happening in the background. The Marine Unit that fought to defend Taiwan for several days gets evacuated, but we don't get the details, we just happen to hear about it. No word on how (since the authors told us there were no US Navy surface assets nearby) or why or anything like that, just that one day, they were gone! They started an interesting thread about an LA class sub sinking some shipping in the straits between Taiwan and China but then stopped mentioning it. Did it get sunk? Was it recalled? Where did it go? One minute the sub has half the Chinese navy after it and then they just stop discussing it. What about the XO of the Marine unit (a stereotypical "bad" guy who was given no redeeming qualities)? He started out as a regular character but then vanishes halfway through. Did he die? Did he do something right? Was he relieved? What happened?

I did finish the book and in spite of the flaws I did enjoy much of it. But the flaws are major and the writing is generally poor. If you can look past that or aren't looking for much complexity this is fine but you're not getting Tom Clancy here, nowhere close.

Once I got into it, I couldn't put it down! The battle and weapons descriptions are just right, while the character development is deeper than the usual techno-thriller (I love that one of the lead characters is a young, female CIA analyst.) The plot twists are fun too. At every turn the authors insert a bit of real history and current fact, just enough to add credibility, but never too much to be boring.

The authors seem to really know what they're talking about, and that's the scary part!

Interestingly, the book is on sale in Taiwan and Hong Kong; that's how I first heard about it.

Co-author Steven Mosher's most recent non-fiction book on China, "Hegemon" makes a good companion to this book. I read them both in a week.

"China Attacks" takes the reader onto the front lines of what may be the world's next major war: China's invasion of Taiwan. Exploring the themes of China's singleminded purpose in "recovering" its "renegade province" while America's global distractions keep it busy elsewhere, "China Attacks" is an engrossing read. If China invades Taiwan in the near future, as the authors' obviously contend may happen, the world may be shocked but the readers of this novel won't be. The book shows how the Chinese can do the job -- and makes it an edge of the seat adventure. It also looks at many of the intagible or unexplored issues of modern conflict: morale, deception, unconventional tactics, and domestic politics.

This print on demand book took less than 2 weeks to arrive after I ordered it. I devoured it in three days. (Who needs sleep anyway?) Good character development. Fun plot line with many surprises. Kind of like other techno-thrillers, but with more of a human face. In this book, not everything the U.S. does works and not everything the bad guys do fails. The ending was certainly a surprise.

Maybe we'll hear more from Devore and Mosher in the future -- if this effort is any indication of how they write, I hope so.

China Attacks is an entertaining, action-packed and provocative novel of the techno-thriller genre that bucks the current groupthink relating to China/Taiwan/United States relations.

Is Chinese aggression against Taiwan and the US unthinkable? You may wonder why they haven't attacked yet when you finally put this book down. Chuck DeVore, a respected Army Intelligence Officer, and Steven Mosher, a well known author of Chinese culture, weave high-tech military action and insightful human drama into an engrossing story that challenges your notions on Chinese strategic goals, culture, and even the use of modern military technology.

This book is a fast page-turner and just plain fun. I would recommend it to anyone interested in Tom Clancy-type books, as well as people interested in China and/or Taiwan. Good reading!

Wonderful novel! China Attacks is an exciting novel about a future war with China. Chuck DeVore and Steven Mosher paint a plausible scenario that may indeed draw the United States into conflict with the People's Republic of China. These two writers make a great team! I only hope they continue to turn out additional novels. Their writing is every bit as good as Tom Clancy and W.E.B. Griffin.

At first I wasn't very impressed with the cover of the book BUT the cliche of "You can'tjudge a book by its cover" was created for this situation.

I found the first 20 or so pages of character development to be a little slow but they did provided valuable information about the characters as well as historical information about the relations of China and Taiawn that are part of what made this book great. Once the action began I couldn't put it down and practically finished it in one sitting.

This was a fascinating read. DeVore and Mosher wrote a great book that also serves as a warning of legitimate potential Chinese aggression. If it happens and America is surprised, we have only ourselves to blame: our politicians ignore the saber-rattling of the Chinese and prefer to take their political contributions; our businessmen like the profits from their Chinese-made consumer products; our academicians still live in Marxist fantasyland and wouldn't dream of Chinese hostility; our press is reflexibly liberal and doesn't decry Chinese human rights abuses at the top of their lungs; and the rest of America is intoxicated by our strong economy. At least DeVore and Mosher are unafraid to be provocative and state the obvious -- that China is America's primary 21st century threat, and that a weak and accomodating foreign policy will embolden them to military conquest in Asia.

On another note, the Devore/Mosher book is well-written and a fast read. The combat descriptions are detailed and the invasion strategy they ascribe to China is fascinating . I wish them well!

In this book, set in the 1990s (and therefore during the Clinton administration, although he is not mentioned by name) the People's Liberation army is hurled against Taiwan, which the People's Republic considers a "renegade province."

A small U.S. unit winds up on Taiwan during the invasion, placing the U.S. President in a position where he cannot simply write off the U.S. ally (although he'd like to!). The book winds up arguing for missile defense when the PLA, in frustration, fires a missile at the United States containing what is in effect propaganda leaflets, causing a panic in California.

A real eye-opener, especially in some of the speculative aspects of some of the technology involved. A pretty decent book.

The first three-quarters of this book are as riveting as any Clancy work. The authors introduce bold military strategies for the PRC and weave a backdrop where they could be plausible. They depend only a little on coincidence to align the forces that play out in the book. And, early-on in the book, the view of the Chinese people rings true.

In fact, the view of the Chinese rural family may be more accurate than the view of the US defense establishment. A reader could easily come away with the impression that every US military servicemember has a very low impression of both President Clinton and the US State Department.

Just as this book depicts a culminating point in the PRC invasion (that point beyond which the attack cannot be sustained), it also seems to hit its own culminating point in the storyline. For some reason, the last quarter of this book is unable to sustain the wonderfully high quality of the first three-quarters.

And that's the margin by which China Attacks falls short of five-stars.