Customer Reviews

Larry Bond's Red Dragon Rising: Edge of War

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

 

 

I really enjoyed the first book to this series and was really excited for the second installment of this four-book series. There wasn't as much action as I would expect from a book involving a Chinese invasion of Vietnam, and the US's covert involvement. There wasn't even very much international diplomacy, political intrigue, or policy-making that would also be interesting to read. There was instead a small, hackneyed espionage/action plot. But it was still a good read and I assumed the bigger-picture stuff would come in the next book.

Unfortunately, my enthusiasm quickly died out as I reached about a quarter of the way through and realized this was going to be the same exact freaking story as the first book. Exactly the same. The same cast of characters, and some new ones, continuing to try to get the same scientist out of the same country for witnessing the same Chinese war crimes from the first book. And, again, their pursued by the same Chinese Special Forces soldier, whose also an extremely spiritual monk (and a cool character). Except this time, instead of the Chinese chasing them through the jungles, they're running around Hanoi most of the time.

The early promos for this series portrayed it as a large-scale techno-thriller, akin to Red Phoenix and Red Storm Rising, about a near-future war with China that would spread to encompass India/Pakistan and the Korean Peninsula. Sounds good, right? Definitely. This genre hasn't had a big, epic story like this in about twenty years. And it's something Larry Bond does well. But when you're halfway through this series/story, and still reading about the same small cast of characters trying to get out of Vietnam with no hint of bigger things to come and with little combat in this war, well it doesn't exactly bode well for the last half.

I'll still buy the next book in hopes, which seem unlikely at this point, that the story is finally getting closer to the dogfights and naval battles and ground combat and nuclear weapons that a series marketed as a global war against China would surely have to include. Hopefully the series will redeem itself, because there's lot of potential here for a great series.

I just really wish Larry Bond had just taken all these scenarios and characters and written another giant 900 page epic like his early books, instead of creating a four book series written by someone else.

This is a fine second installment in Bond's Red Dragon Rising series, keeping up the tension of a near-future world where oil and food shortages cause China to invade Vietnam.

In the first book scientist Josh MacArthur witnesses a Chinese massacre of Vietnamese near the border as the invasion begins. The White House backs Vietnam to counter Chinese ambitions but has no military presence nor political mandate to start one. The president now believes MacArthur's account, and that of the little Vietnamese girl he rescues, can swing public opinion against the Chinese, who have promulgated the false story that Vietnam invaded them.

CIA agent Mara Duncan and a SEAL team, who reach the scientist and child during the first book, now must try to evacuate them from Vietnam. That means traveling the length of the wartorn country to be extricated near Saigon. The CIA thinks Vietnam so penetrated by Chinese moles that the mission must be kept secret even from Vietnam. So they embark on a harrowing journey in a land so uneasily allied it might as well be an enemy. The Vietnamese suspect foreigners and the Americans stand out.

After them is Chinese commando Jing Yo, whose military unit failed to get MacArthur in the first book. He is now inserted on a solo mission to track and kill him. Yo, trained as a monk before joining the Army, is more Kung Fu than Cultural Revolution as he pursues MacArthur with a single-minded and fatalistic focus. He enlists an old girlfriend's help against her own country, finds himself irresistibly drawn to her, and then wishes he hadn't entangled her.

Meanwhile, US Army officer Zeus Murphy leads a cover mission on the Chinese island of Hainan, carefully faking a Vietnamese show of force to deter an imminent Chinese landing.

The writers do a great job. You can feel the little band's bone-weary fatigue and hunger as they make their way with few resources across a war-wracked land, having to improvise their way out of trouble. Duncan, the girl spook, predictably has touchy relations with SEAL leader Ric Kerfer as they grapple again and again over her tradecraft and subtlety versus his team's firepower and macho. At the White House, McCain-like President Greene must buck resistance from his own party against any involvement, while secretly helping the Vietnamese as much as he can get away with.

I like the pervasive sense of fear and instability that the authors bring to every aspect of their plot - their embattled group, the wartorn country of Vietnam which the US ironically now supports, and even the US, where life has deteriorated so far that a cup of coffee costs $8 and a subway ride, $20. Bond and DeFelice create a realistic story; this is how war might incubate in the not-too-distant future, because this - shortages of food and resources - is how wars have always started.

I found myself really into this series from the time I started reading it. This is just one of the books in the series. I do wish the author had continued the ending a bit, minor let down, though nice enough. Still, a good series overall.

I have read several Larry Bond books and this was the weakest by far. I have also read a few books with Jim DeFelice as a contributor written by several authors. Usually there is a good plot that is going somewhere and here it didn't. Book starts in the middle of the story and I kept thinking it was going to develop in to a much bigger event. I finally realized it wasn't going to go very far. It was an OK story and I would still read it again but it was the weakest book yet from Larry Bond.

If you read the first book in this series then you have pretty much read this one except the chase is through cities and not jungles as much and the scientist doesn't come off as a whiny crybaby like he did in the first book. Of course any real action takes place near the end, just like the first book. As a matter of fact, you can skip the first 100 pages, because other than some Vietnamese Soldiers getting killed by the SEAL team nothing much goes on.

The characters are weak, with the exception of Mara Duncan. She seems like the only one at least putting forth an effort to make this story worth reading. The SEAL team are idiotic and do things I doubt a real SEAL team would do while trying to remain under the radar in a country at war. As for Ma, What is the point? Dump her at an orphanage. Of course the US President comes across as a nitwit whose hands are convienently tied from taking any real action like deploying actual US forces to combat the Chinese - something that I hope Mr. Bond has planned for further novels in this series.

Overall it gets a 1 star because he just re-wrote the first one and slapped a "new" label on it. If further books in the series are like this one, then I won't be buying them.

I did not understand some of the actions of the team that is trying to extract Josh from VietNam. If we were trying to help VietNam why did we not go to them for aid in getting Josh and his video out of the Country. But having said that this is a very excitng book telling of the Female CIA Agent's attempt to get Josh out or the country, and the Seals arttempts to help. Also there is detail on the Chinese couple's attempt to kill Josh. Especially endearing was the relationship between Ma, the young Vietnamese girl and Josh. The co authors have a feel for meshing the human side of the participants as well as keeping the excitement going. GREAT conclusion.

Good continuation of the story, bringing the action to America, along with a covert attack on Chinese territory.
I think the characters are deeper in this book than in the first installment.

What we don't see much of (at least not yet) are big set-piece battles. The authors have chosen to focus on individuals and their own struggles. At the same time, books one and two are about the prelude to the war, so it's possible that those scenes are to come.

I especially found the evolution of the scientist and the female CIA officer (not agent!) interesting. The SEALs are interesting minor characters and deserve more of the storyline. The story also raises some interesting moral questions, though to discuss them would give the plot away.

(Side note: I see this was available as an ebook. I got it locally at ********* in hardcover. I'm not sold on ebooks.)