Shadows of War (Larry Bond's Red Dragon Rising) [Mass Market Paperback]

I'm a fan of both Larry Bond and Jim DeFelice. I first came across Bond when he, anonymously, co-authored Red Storm Rising with Tom Clancy back in the eighties. His solo follow-up's to that novel,Vortex and Red Phoenix, although dated by events now, were arguably even better. Jim DeFelice I encountered for the first time when he co-authored Larry Bond's First Team (Bond, Larry), with Bond and have since read and enjoyed several of his solo efforts, including Threat Level Black.

Based on this past experience of both author's work, and their very successful pairing on the enjoyable First Team series, I was looking forward to their latest collaboration, Red Dragon Rising. Based on what I could glean about the novel, this would represent a return to the 'future war' genre that Bond had mastered back in the late 80s and early 90's, combined with some of realistic close up combat and espionage elements of the First Team novels. If done right it promised to be a great mix.

Its a pity therefore, that the resulting book is such a hit and miss affair. Set in a possible near-future where climate change and economic turmoil has significantly changed the current geo-political balance, it has China on the brink of famine and economic collapse poised to invade Vietnam as a first stage of an attempt to dominate SE Asia by force. Pitched into this turbulent world are a disparate group of characters, from a Lieutenant in the Chinese Commandos to an American scientist on the run in Northern Vietnam to a female CIA officer to a US Special Forces officer. It is through their eyes, as well as those of the US President, some senior Generals in China, the US & Vietnam and the Chinese Premier, that we see the conflict unfold.

As such it very much follows the model laid down in Bond' earlier novels, Vortex, Red Pheonix and Cauldron, but with a significant twist. Whereas those dealt with comparatively limited conflicts in the space of one book, and were primarily focused on military engagements, Red Dragon Rising is intended to be the first in series dealing with China's ongoing attempts to conquer SE Asia and places far more importance on diplomatic efforts and espionage that actual combat between oposing forces.

On the face of it these differences may not seem that important, but they have a big impact on the success of the book. For a start by making this the first of a series the book is robbed of some of its impetus. The narrative is allowed to drift, with time being taken to bring all the main characters properly into play. The CIA agent, Mara, for example spends half the novel stooging around Vietnam to no real effect, accomplishing little apart from being shot down. The only plot strand that starts with and maintains any real sense of urgency is that involving the scientist Josh; although he spends a great deal of time just wandering around lost in the jungle.

This is indicative of the problem with deciding to bring espionage and diplomacy to the fore at the expense of military action. Fundamentally neither the espionage plot or the diplomatic angle are terribly interesting or action packed for much of the length. There's only so much of Josh wandering around the jungle, Mara traipsing around Vietnam in general and various US military types discussing how they can help Vietnam diplomatically before things become tedious, which they begin to at times. As if realising the danger of this happening Bond and DeFelice include action packed sequences where the Chinese Commandos defend a bridge at night and assault a Vietnamese airbase, between stints of hunting for Josh. Its at these times that the book really comes alive and makes you even more sorry when they are over and you're back to Josh complaining about his fate or Mara doing not very much.

Things do perk up in the final third of the book as all the various disparate strands begin to pull together into a single plot thread, but this just brings it home even more forcefully how the lack of focus and action had harmed the earlier stages. Had the characters been more compelling then the meandering nature of the book's first two thirds might not have been as much of a problem, but they aren't. Bond and DeFelice try to inject them with some depth and complexity, avoiding the usual cliches of having Mara be drop dead gorgeous, Josh be ridiculously capable or Jing Yo, the lead Chinese Commando, be a moustache twirling personification of evil, but they never become fully rounded human beings who we care about. They also make the fatal mistake of telegraphing Josh's eventual fate early on, robbing his predicament of much of its tension and danger.

So overall Red Dragon Rising; Shadows of War, feels like a missed opportunity to create a punchy, compelling opening to a new series of novels. By the end there are signs of promise, now that the various characters have been introduced and the conflict is hotting up, suggesting that the next volume in the series could be a vast improvement. For that to be the case however, Bond and DeFelice really need to tighten up the plotting and focus on what made so many of their previous works so enjoyable.

This is another entry into the sub-genre of military-action futuristic thriller, a field that Tom Clancy has dominated for some time. This book tries to match Clancy in the areas of military technology, spook intelligence, and world geo-politic, but doesn't quite reach that level.

The scenario is a world that has been severely impacted by global warming; changes have happened rapidly and has made China's food production fall drastically, to where its leaders feel they have no choice but to try and grab resources from other countries. This, perhaps, is the first problem with this book, as I found it hard to believe in this scenario happening in just five short years from now, as contrary as it is from all but the most scare-mongering predictions about the effects of global warming.

But taking this starting point as a given, Bond does a pretty good job of setting the scene and the opening moves by China into Vietnam. Even better is the look he provides into US military planning and computer simulation of possible world events, an area that I felt this book should have spent more time with, as it is really forms some of the most interesting parts of this book. However, most of the book is spent on the ground, tracing the actions of a scientist on the run from the Chinese who has some very politically damaging video of Chinese army massacres, and a CIA agent attempting to rescue the scientist. While this makes for some good action scenes, and presents a nice look into the mind of one Chinese commando, I often felt that this focus was too narrow, and wanted to see more of the overall strategy and movements by all parties involved. Characterization for the major players is reasonable, enough to where I could care about their fates, but are built out of fairly stock elements.

Apparently this is merely the first book in a planned series, and perhaps the broader picture will be presented more in later books, but taken as a stand-alone work its focus on the smaller picture left me feeling a little cheated.

---Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

This is my third Bond book. I liked the previous books so I decided to try this book as well and I enjoyed the start.

The time is the near future and the framework of a conflict driven by climate change is an interesting concept. It sets out with an intriguing storyline with China as the global power seeking to increase its influence sphere. It is quite believeable but it should have been more focused on the political side then the focus on one individual American trying to save the day.

I do not want to give too much away, but it was a bit of a let down. There were it could have been a Red Storm Rising kind of book it is a story that skips the interesting aspects and focuses on a few people making up for this by implying they will avoid the conflict if they survive.

Nice read, but a bit too light ... could have been more intriguing