hugh 's review for:

Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy

---

This one's pretty good! It's set in the cold war, so there's less scope for weird Boomer politics. The KGB get the blame again, but this time that seems pretty fair! Lots of interesting technical detail, especially about radar and sonar systems, and how they fit into modern(ish) military doctrine, and I was fascinated by how much automation there already is smart weapons, without the new generation of drones.
That said, one subplot that was just awful...

(CW) there's a kind of romance subplot with Vigdis, an Icelander who US troops rescue from soviet forces, who've murdered her family and are sexually abusing her when the troops get there. The narrator immediately goes into how attractive she is, and how he totally wouldn't make a move on her under the circumstances, but also that she is totally sexy and he would otherwise. The whole thing is pretty awful.

The other thing that stood out for me is the respect for the soviet armed forces - one of the key figures is the son of a Russian politician who insists on fighting with the army, and makes his way (absurdly quickly) up the ranks. That whole arc makes it seem like TC is basically down with soviet soldiers, that anyone who actually fights in the war earns his respect. So the two sides are basically morally equivalent, other than a few senior politicians.