Customer Reviews

Invasion

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

One of the best page-turners I've read in YEARS. The basic scenario is one where China has become a gigantic expanisionist power at a time when American Baby Boomers were more concerned with Social Security than increasing military funding to meet the Chinese threat. The result of this was a shrinking of the American military establishment at a time when China increased their standing army to about 60 million men. The Chinese in quick succession invaded Korea, whose shipyards allowed them to build dozens of 500,000 ton megacarriers, then Indochina, Japan, India, and the Middle East...all while the U.S. stood idly by. Finally, the Chinese invaded the Caribbean, destroying much of America's navy and Marine Corps in the process, landed 5 million men in Cuba, and were then poised to invade the defenseless Gulf Coast of the U.S.

The book centers around the actions of the new President of the U.S. and his daughter, an Army infantry soldier. It also focuses on several characters on the Chinese side who have a far-fetched family relationship with the President and his daughter.

The book continues on a breakneck pace and is great fun. The only objection I have about it is it's inplausibility. Although the date of the invasion is at least 10 years in the future, it really seems impossible that China could have the technology or the wealth to build an army and navy of the magnitude portrayed in the book. It is equally far-fetched that even a liberal Democratic administration could stand idly by and allow the Chinese to take over half of the world.

The book ends off at a place which allows for many sequels if the author so decides. I'm looking very much forward to reading them.

Albert

I have read through nearly 50 reviews of this book and have noticed a reoccuring complaint that only substantiates my belief that most Americans are ignorant of the world outside of their television sets. I contest the arguement that this book is implausible.

As a United States Marine and a student of International Security in college, I would confidently state that China does have the technology to match ours, is significantly upgrading its military, and is training it to fight the United States. the facts are out there. Particularly in the area of naval power where Chinese shipyards are now designing and constucting amphibious assault ships and aircraft carriers. Unfortunately after 1992 the Russians were willing to sell the Chinese anything in the arsenal to include an aircraft carrier, nuclear submarines and the latest generation main battle tanks and air superiority fighters to match what we have. They (the Chinese) then reverse engineer these weapons, retool their factories and start cranking them out like GI Joe Dolls (made in China). The Chinese have ICBM's (our latest technology stolen right out of our labs) and launch capability for spy satellites (they are close to haveing manned spaceflight).

If you think they can't build guided munitions look at the country of origin for that GPS you may have in your closet. Smart bomb technology is 30 years old here in the States, trust me they have it. The Chinese military can't match our latest toys you say? Whatever...I merely have to look at where this brand new Dell laptop I'm typing on, US Government issue which the Navy and Marine Corps is switching to servicewide, was made...yep China. Our latest tech is MADE IN CHINA.

I think of all the Marines that died in the Chosin Reservoir fighting the Chinese during the Korean War and it saddens me that we ever let them get this strong. They have the numerical advantage, they are closing the technological gap. Americans are too arrogant to think it can ever happen here. So were the Romans, right? Thank you Eric Harry for pointing this danger out.

Side note...There are over a billion Chinese, most of whom are peaceful farmers. It isn't racist to be against the tens of millions of warmongering party faithful. And last time I checked my "Middle Kingdom" history, the upper Chinese socio/economic classes have been racist towards all foreigners for over 2000 years. A society with a superiority complex. Harry hit it right on the mark. (The other day, 12/12/02, the US reprimanded a visiting Chinese General for making a veiled threat to nuke Los Angeles if the US interfered in a Chinese military takeover of Taiwan...disturbing interpretation of peaceful behavior)

I actually greatly enjoyed reading this book, but where most books in this category have at least some factual basis, Invasion absolutely none. It is simply impossible for China to become as powerful as the book portrays it becoming. Some of the glaring problems I had with the book are as follows:

- China invades India..Why? They have virtually no industrial base, few raw materials, and virtually no food for export. Plus they would have to attack over the Himalayas, a logistic impossibility (one of many in the book).

- The Chinese Navy....I understand that in the book Korea was invaded and their shipyards were used to make the 500,000-ton super-carriers and super-transports, but how could they possibly build so many? The book talks about landing 700,000 troops a week in America. It is at least a month trip for a transport to travel from China to the American Gulf coast. Even if 20,000 troops were on each transport, calculating travel times, at least 300 half-million-ton transports, not to mention escorting carriers and warships would be needed to support this. And this is at a time when Europe is being blockaded and our West Coast is being invaded, and American submarines are sinking 1,000,000 tons of Chinese shipping a day in the Pacific! Add up the numbers and there is no way China could produce enough steel to do all of the above even if they could somehow get the raw materials from the West to do so.

Also the book talks about a Chinese Army of 60 million. How do they feed these guys? All of the food exporters of the world (US, Australia, Canada, etc.) would not be supplying them with food (to say nothing about iron ore and other materials). China can barely feed themselves now. How could they do so with 50 million more of their farmers in uniform?

A good deal of the American Navy was slaughtered when a wolfpack of 100 Chinese diesel submarines ambushed them in the Florida Staight. Does anyone really think that a huge American fleet could possibly sail blindly into that many submarines(or even one?), especially since diesel subs have to rise to snorkle depth every day or so to replenish their air? Come on, Eric, you can do better than that.

- The president got a call in the White House saying that a giant Chinese fleet just landed huge numbers of troops in San Diego. How can a fleet with a million men just sail up to America's biggest Pacific Navy base and just unload an invasion army without being noticed beforehand? Give me a break!

I understand that the book takes place 10 years or so in the future, but it must be kept in mind that China basically imports all of their warships at this time, and doesn't even manufacture a first-line fighter aircraft. Also, China is a very poor country on a per-capita basis and would get much poorer after they began invading their neighbors and America stopped buying toys from them. They simply would not have the capacity from a manufacturing, food producing or technological standpoint to do most of the things attributed to them in the book.

However.....I'm looking forward to the sequel. The book kept my attention, and the battle descriptions were first-rate. If you don't mind pure fantasy as opposed to plausiblity, then Invasion is a book for you.

Albert

"I understand how. I do not understand why." writes Winston Smith in his diary in George Orwell's classic dystopian future novel, 1984. The same could be said for this book, in which the Chinese launch an overwhelming and highly disciplined attack on half the world before finally assaulting the United States. I understand that building motives is difficult, (I myself attempted to write about a war in the United States and gave up, lacking a suitable motive) for wars typically have complex reasons for getting started, with the notable exception of World War One, when there really wasn't any solid motive. However, perhaps Harry was correct in not putting any motive at all nstead of a flimsy one.
Thankfully, the battle scenes are so well-crafted, following the combat unit of Stephanie Roberts as they retreat from Alabama to Georgia to the Carolinas and keep retreating as the Chinese pour more and more troops into the battle. More scenes follow Stephanie's father, United States President Bill Baker, as he tries to man the defense of his country while silent enemies plan a coup in the name of America's future. Meanwhile, Special Forces Sniper Jim Hart stays behind Chinese lines, doing his best to disrupt the enemy and stay alive. A last story follows some of the higher-ups in the Chinese army and politics, and is not nearly as effective as the other stories. The narrative grinds to a halt whenever Han Wushi or Han Zhemin come into the story, which is not only boring but convoluted as Harry tries and fails to weave a rift between the Chinese civilan leadership and military.
Moreover, these four stories lead into an ending that is more along the lines of a soap-opera than a military page-turner, inducing more cringes than cheers of victory.
So how, asks the reader of this reveiw, could I have given this book four stars? Because the battle material is so well-written that it is easy to overlook the numerous holes in the narrative and poor characterization at times. When the novel ended I did not sit around and ponder the holes of the story; I sat around and wished it was two hundred pages longer.

Harry wrote what I thought to be a good book. I picked up the book at a [local store]in Burlington, VT, and read it front to back over the next couple of days.

Here's why the book didn't get the elusive fifth star. There wasn't enough background information to suit me. I would like to have a few chapters, or even a half-decent website devoted to the timeline in which this book takes place. Like other reviewers, I would also like to see a sequel to this book.

Why wasn't more made of air battles? Well, in the book mention is made of advanced man-portable missiles that can destroy tanks and airplanes so easily as to make use of tanks & planes very costly.

Here's how much the book hooked me in. For a couple of days after I finished the book, I had dreams in which I was a character in this timeline, whether an infantryman helping to thwart the Red Chinese, or a researcher devising superweapons.

... even my limited knowledge of war tells me that this book isn't slightly grounded in reality. There's no way China could possibly conquer so much of Asia and right to the US mainland all the way to Washington. Such a thing as supply lines come into play, stretching them as far as the US mainland in ridiculous. plus the fact that a technological superiority acts as a force multiplier over numbers. A naval invasion would have been chewed to pieces. The US still has that the great technical advantage this book. Also, anyone invading an island or over sea needs a 3 to 1 troop advantage to have any success. I find it especially funny that somehow the Chinese manage to launch a surprise amphibious assault on Florida AND California simultaneously.

In a nutshell, even an army as sophisticated as the US could not defeat the combined armies of the US, Europe, India, Pakistan, Israel etc etc etc. Which China is not, even in the vastly improved size of their army, the US still has a technical superiority.

Anyway, the story is about the President's daughter who is a grunt in the US who somehow keeps avoiding getting killed as the Chinese overrun more of the US right up to the capital, the President who has to find the means to repel the invasion and various Chinese leaders on the other side. I won't even begin to try to explain how one of the up and coming Chinese army leaders is a cousin of the President's daughter.

Good for pulp entertainment but not to be taken even slightly seriously. Doesn't end satisfyingly either, you'll see what I mean if you get there.

Also, I found it very odd that in this book, Taiwan and Russia were not mentioned even once.

Eric Harry has done it again! He has written another solid book on a hypothetical war. I have been looking forward to Invasion for quite some time and it was a generally good read. There were some things that I didn't like about this book that other reviewers have pointed out too. I don't see China enjoying this kind of success for another 20-25 years. The massive supercarriers and transports proves that point. I was a little surprised that China was not bled white from all of its military campaigns in SE Asia, India, Israel, etc. Even with Pakistan's all-out support, I still think the Indians would have inflicted more than the 500,000 Chinese casualties that they suffered in this book. The character development could have been toned doen a bit, in favor of better descriptions of the massive battles involving millions of troops. I also would have liked a better description of the West Coast battles. But I complain too much. This is still a solid military fiction book. Highly reccomended!

...author. The only reason I haven't given this book 5 stars is because I'm still in the middle of reading it.

Mr. Harry has topped himself this time, by delving into a scenario that has, surprisingly, not often been explored by writers in his genre; a massive conventional invasion of the USA. The aggressor in this novel is China, which, in Mr. Harry's scenario, set some 10 to 20 years into the future, has developed into a superpower with a regular army numbering in the tens of millions and a navy based on dozens of 300-plane supercarriers, and has, through diplomacy and force, succeeded in conquering most of Asia, humbling the European Union (thus causing its breakup), and establishing lodgments in the Western Hemisphere.

Now it's time for the final confrontation.

Mr. Harry, as always, looks at the struggle from both sides. In this particular book, he focuses on four main protagonists; the US President, his daughter (an infantry soldier), the Chinese bureaucrat sent to administer the conquered American territories, and _his_ son, an army lieutenant. Mr. Harry gets better in developing characterizations, and I think readers will particularly like Stephanie "Stephie" Roberts.

Another area where Mr. Harry particularly excels is his depiction of modern ground combat, which is at once unromantic, unsparing, and overwhelming. The scenes in this book may hit home particularly hard with many readers because they take place in the Southern states. I know it gave _me_ a real turn to see the US and China locked in a death struggle over Atlanta and South Carolina.

My only real nit to pick with this book is, as at least one other reviewer has noted, that the background scenario hasn't been developed enough. We know _what_ happened once China assembled its huge armies, but we don't know _how_ exactly things got to this point. If you're not the sort of person who wants to know everything about the whys and wherefores of how things come to be, though, this shouldn't deter you in the least from enjoying this novel.

Definitely get this book.

Eric Harry is a master of the global war novel, but this time he doesn't take us to Russia or Korea. This time the battles take place on U.S. soil as the Chinese invade the Gulf Coast and work their way north to Washington, DC. The book focuses on a female infantryman who also happens to be the estranged daughter of the President, but there are plenty of other characters, both American and Chinese, that allow Harry to keep the action moving on mutiple fronts as well. Plenty of military details but also well-drawn characters to keep things on a human level. Harry's fans won't be disappointed and those new to his books will reach out for Arc Light and Protect & Defend as quick as they can

When one reads a book like this, you want crisp compelling prose, thats excellently researched, great concepts, suprises and i think to some extent a sense of the "that couldn't happen!, could it?" .
Well did any of us think pre 9/11 that could/would ever happen?.
I had no knowledge of Mr Harry's book and picked it up at a borders whilst waiting for a movie, i read 50 pages in an hour and then had to buy it. All for the above mentioned reasons. Looking fwd to reading his other novels. An excellent summer beach book!!!.
I highly recommend John Birminghams "Weapons of Choice" and for non Fiction any Stephen E. Ambrose