Red Storm Rising

Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy

Russia is facing an oil shortage after the destruction of their newest and largest refinery, which only adds to the deficit they were already experiencing from the lower-than-expected production from both Eastern Siberian fields. Faced with the grim facts that they may not have enough oil to support their country, the Politburo decides to take action. What ensues is a long, drawn-out battle between NATO forces and the Soviets, and only one side can win.

I hate to say it, but I really didn't enjoy this novel. I have read another of Tom Clancy's works (Without Remorse) so I was eager to try another, but I came out of this one very disappointed. Perhaps it is only that I found it very hard to follow the story - it bounces back and forth not only between NATO (mainly American) and Soviet forces, but also between frigates to submarines to helicopters to land, etc. Keeping track of Commander so-and-so in charge of such-and-such Submarine, and Comrade something-something head of [enter strange acronym here] got very confusing for me and I think that was the biggest discouragement when it came to reading this novel. I am embarrassed to admit that this 725-page novel took me about a month to finish. I had no motivation to keep picking it up and reading it, although I readily admit that there were parts that I was really eager to read more about (namely the brief parts following Mike Edwards who was leading a small group of men on Iceland) but they were few and far between.

Despite the fact that I didn't enjoy this novel as much as I had hoped, Without Remorse was so well written and is a story I still recall often that I would be willing to give another of Tom Clancy's novels a go - perhaps one that isn't quite so war based. If I had to recommend this novel to anyone, I'm sure it goes without saying that men would definitely enjoy this novel and perhaps there are women out there who are able to follow all the military titles and acronyms and weapon names easier than I did.