Viktor Robotov the terrorist is finally dead. Only he has left behind a plan to destroy the world. Six nuclear bombs have been hidden around the Mediterranean. The plan is these bombs will manage to drain the sea. The salt flats will reflect sunlight into the atmosphere and melt the icecaps. Thus, flooding the world. Hawk Hunter and the United Americans send the carrier USS USA to find and recover these nukes before they detonate. They have Viktor’s daughter Viktoria on their side. She deciphers torn drawings from when she was a child to find the hiding places. They have to fight mercenary armies hired by Viktor’s widow known as the Black Widow. She has inherited her husband’s terror network and has nefarious plans of her own. It ends with a big battle at the pyramids.
Another fun entry in the Wingman series. This one has all the goofy stuff you expect in the series. Over the top action and villains. The three big villains are Khan, Sven-Sven Gunnar and Crazy Norman. There are these C-130 airplanes converted as gunships that are remote controlled to guard the nuke sites. Known as dragons thus the title. I enjoy this series as fun and hope that Maloney continues it.
WWIII continues to rage on. Discount Patton has managed to break out of the Dortmund/Bielfeldt pocket and drive Soviet forces back to their border. Yet the Soviets have slowed NATO forces with a new submarine offensive with new technology. They also have success in the Aleutians. Now the Chinese have entered and attacked American forces. Once again Discount Patton has to come to the rescue and uses nuclear artillery shells after Chinese forces use chemical weapons. The Brentwood family has their own adventures. Robert goes on his honeymoon in Scotland and has to avoid Soviet agents out to kill him. David Brentwood joins the SAS under a new program recruiting from all the NATO armies. Jay the captain whose face was burned gets a command of an oil sludge boat.
The war heats up when the Soviets decide to use chemical and nuclear attacks on NATO. The SAS with David is sent to attack the Kremlin and assassinate the President and his cabinet. Discount Patton gets captured leading a patrol. Jay discovers two diesel subs off the California coast and gets promoted to admiral to stop them. It escalates into a limited nuclear exchange that destroys Omaha, Seattle and some other places. America retaliates against targets and Leningrad. The Soviets decide that America’s technology is too superior and surrender. The war is over, or is it?
The third book comes to an end. At least the end of a traditional war between the Soviet Union and NATO. A few months later the real Soviet Union would implode. It has some crazy stuff with the Soviets poisoning the water supply in the U.S. A limited nuclear war. The hit Detroit and the Japanese are worried because now America can rebuild with the latest technology their auto industry. I do think they would do the country a favor by nuking the place. In fact, they could nuke a whole bunch of cities and it would improve the country.
So, this series at the time looked to have come to a conclusion. I mean the war was over, but Slater had plans which we will see in the next review.
It is the near future and Russia is at war with China over territory in Siberia. The Russians at great expense have pushed back the Chinese. To decisively defeat them they are going to launch a nuclear strike. They warn the Americans about this. The President decides to warn the Chinese. During the strike a nationalist Russian general stage an attempted coup. He gets the nuclear codes just as the nuclear attack commences. Only the Chinese manage to get some of their missiles off with the early warning to strike around Moscow. The general thinks the Americans are attacking and launches a strike. The limited nuclear war causes millions of deaths.
The American people want revenge. Congress impeaches the current President for warning the Chinese and refusing to prosecute a war to disarm the Russians. The Americans with their allies invade Russia and are about to encircle Moscow. Only the nuclear submarine fleet in the Bastion of the Kara Sea may launch a devastating attack that could destroy America.
I had to end my exploration of Soviet invasion novels with this post-Soviet book. I think it is the finest one ever written. A new author who is an expert of Russians delivers an excellent look at a limited nuclear war and the ramifications. Back in the nineties Russia was a basket case. It was broken politically, economically and culturally. Seventy years of Soviet management left a mess. The events portrayed in the book are something that everyone had a fear about. An unstable nuclear power was more dangerous than the more stable Soviet Union.
Reading this again after all the Soviet books from the seventies and eighties, it strikes me how far the country had fallen. They were a shell of their past power. America in this book is the invading aggressor against a nation that can’t effectively fight back. Sort of struck me back when I first read it how they had fallen. Thankfully the events never occurred. Hopefully there won’t be any future nuclear war in spite of the drumbeating by the Globalists to save their bankrupt system. I highly recommend this book in spite of the 600 plus pages. It is worth the time.
It is an alternate future where Reagan and Bush were assassinated, and President Carmody assumed the office. Under his administration the nation’s nuclear defense was reduced to practically nothing. The Soviets launch a preemptive strike and destroy the countries nuclear silos in the west. Defenseless the U.S. must unconditionally surrender. The Soviets waste no time in setting up a Communist state. One where people are drafted into work projects. Mass arrests and executions of potential troublemakers. Martha Adams a U.N. employee finds out her husband worked on a secret project during the Reagan administration. A nuclear weapon so powerful it could destroy all of Russia. She and an Israeli agent make the dangerous trip across an occupied America to find this weapon in Utah so they can force the Soviets to withdraw.
This is my favorite standalone novel of a Soviet conquest book. The premise of a weak government and the sudden attack was done very realistically. What I found most disturbing was the way people just meekly accepted the surrender and actively participated in the Soviet’s plans. We get a very brutal occupation of forced labor, resettlement of populations and the eventual dismemberment of the United States.
This book did remind me of the novel Not This August. It has the same basic premise of America totally defeated and occupied. One person finds a secret weapon and uses it to free the country. This book is of course updated for the eighties. China is not an ally and in fact the only country actively opposing the Soviets. They get in a limited nuclear war and hold their own against them. This book also doesn’t just limit the point of view to the main character. We get to see the occupation from the Soviets side. There are three individuals put in charge. Marshal Borunokov the military planner behind the attack and presumed future premier. Virinsky the KGB head of North America and Ramon Perez the Castro like ruler of Cuba. Each of these men constantly jockey for power with delusions of grandeur. They even argue about remaining Washington after themselves. The name eventually becomes Hall City after the American Communist leader. The book holds your interest from beginning to end and never lets up in the middle. I highly recommend this book for it’s story is very relevant even though the Soviet Union is no more.
It is ten years after a Soviet sneak attack has decimated the United States. The cities are destroyed, and the rest of the country is occupied by the Soviets. Yet a resistance network has slowly formed and ready to launch a general uprising. The mysterious woman only known as Juanita has become a mythical figure in the resistance. She travels around the country organizing and rooting out traitors. A former Air Force Lt. Col becomes her companion and lover as they travel organizing the big uprising code named Azriel. Finally, the big day arrives, and they attack the Soviet garrison at Valdosa, Georgia.
This book has a simple idea. The Soviets have launched a surprise attack. The attack was obviously one sided as they seem to have totally caught the country off guard. The main character is a beautiful but driven woman to drive the Soviets out. This book reads like a travelogue as Juanita and her companion travel from Florida to New Hampshire and back. Along the way we find out about her past life and why she is so cold. The story ends on a high note although a major character dies.
The post nuclear world is believable with what seems to be a Soviet state in decay. The only thing we find out about the rest of the world is at the beginning there is a brief mention of an incursion by the Soviets across the Canadian border. The Canadians apparently have the political and military clout to get the Soviet commander court martialed. There is also one sentence that mentions the border wars with China and the use of human waves. Otherwise, we are left to wonder what the state of the world is. At the end during the big uprising the American rebels reveal themselves to have jets and a B-52 to transport their provisional government representatives. I would have liked to explore this further, and it would have made for an interesting sequel. Unfortunately, this is as far as I know Allyn Thompson’s first and only novel. An enjoyable standalone novel of a Soviet invasion of America.
It is the near future of 1983. The United States has a grain embargo on the Soviet Union for their invasion of Afghanistan and Poland. The embargo is effective as the Soviets had crop failures and have daily food riots. The US though is in a severe recession and the embargo is hard on the farmers. The President was the Vice President who was elevated to the position on the sudden death of a popular President. He faces an uphill reelection battle where he might not even get his party’s nomination.
Thus on Christmas a Soviet brigade parachutes into Alaska under the cover of a massive storm. The objective is to hold the oil pipeline hostage in exchange for the lifting of the embargo. A rogue KGB has initiated this without the knowledge of the Soviet premier. Now there is brinkmanship to see who backs down first. Into this a Lt. Colonel and a company of Alaska National Guard try to hold off the superior Soviet force.
This is an adaptation of a TV miniseries. I didn’t originally see it when it came out but caught it a few years later when it was rebroadcast. I was captivated about a series that actually dealt with a Soviet-American conflict. It had some good actors and fun action sequences. Back when it was filmed in 1981 the US was in a recession and the Soviets had recently invaded Afghanistan and the military declared martial law in Poland. There was also a grain embargo that Carter initiated for the invasion. Only it was a failure as the Soviets bought from other countries and never effected the farmers in America. The writers envisioned that the US was able to persuade other countries to join the embargo. Now looking back you can see that the whole strategy was a bit goofy. How you can invade Alaska and get what you want seems a bit unrealistic. Still it made for a fun story if you don’t think about it too much.
The novelization was written by Harold King under the pseudonym Brian Harris. It adapted the screenplay by Robert L. Joseph. The original director Boris Segal was killed in a helicopter crash early in filming and was replaced by David Greene. Segal was a Ukrainian Jew who emigrated to America. His plans were to end the series open ended to leave room for a possible future miniseries or even a TV show. Wow how cool would that have been to have a TV series about WWIII back in the eighties. Needless to say, it wasn’t a ratings hit and the new director decided to end on both countries launching a nuclear war.
The book itself is good. It manages to include stuff that the series due to budget constraints couldn’t. The battle scenes are much more epic in scope. There is actually 800 Soviets with multiple tracked vehicles. They battle ambushes by a 100-man company using their helicopters. At the end when they reach the pumping station, the American commander opens the pipeline and burns up the Soviets. This contrasts with the series small scale battle with men using pipes for cover. Also, the Soviet premier never died in a car bomb but was shown to be basically powerless as the KGB seized control of the country. There is also more characterization for the characters including the Soviet political officer being portrayed as a much bigger jerk.
It is after The Zap which is the explosion of a nuclear bomb(s)? that scrambled people’s brains. Nobody can remember their past. Some have special abilities like readers who can read the old words. Some are memors who can recall everything they heard since The Zap. Holmes Weatherby Aye Aye Aye is a reader. He knows his name because he read it off his ID. He has come to the People’s Republic of Alaska (PRAK) and gets involved with some crazy people on a dirigible called the Wonderblimp. They go around collecting nukes and giving them away. Only the catch is the code is implanted in the heart of a close family member. Anyway, the goal of these anarchists is to find a Zap bomb on Mt. Denali. Holmes has to battle through religious fanatics and the various crazy people that inhabit this post-Zap world.
I remember seeing this when it came out and thought about getting it. For some reason I decided not to. I saw it recently and decided to pick it up at Half Price. I will say that my younger teenage self knew what he was doing. This is a weird book and not in a good way. There were some stuff that had potential. Everyone is a bit crazy because their brains are scrambled. They give themselves names like Nike and John Deere because they were wearing something with the name on it.
Still, it was a confusing mess. I didn’t really understand the whole reason for the Zap. Was there a war or just some huge bomb. They talk about the government implanting codes into people’s hearts and giving them nukes. It has some stuff about radioactive cocaine and sled dogs that have a power to transport themselves through some type of dimension jump. The main character was revealed to be a scientist responsible for the Zap bomb. Also, apparently Japan manufactures all the guns. They are all made by Nissan. Mitsubishi and Suzuki. I have to say the writer of the book kept me interested enough to see how it ended. Only the ending wasn’t very satisfying. I don’t really recommend this book.
It is the future after a nuclear war has devastated the planet. From the ruins rises a man who calls himself Tamerlane after the conqueror of old. His horde lays waste to the Eurasian continent. Now his sights are set on America. With his horde he crosses the Bering Strait and sacks New Anchorage. Other cities soon follow. Katherine Magruder is the founder of the Citadel in New Arizona. She gets correspondence from her grandson on the horde. She has a son who is a scientist at Los Alamos and combines time travel technology with Apache shamanism. He is able to bring back three people from the past. George Patton, Stonewall Jackson and Amelia Earheart. Plus, a triceratops egg that gets hatched by the pet bald eagle Betsy Ross. They manage to organize a defense against Tamerlane and his evil horde.
This was a book I just had to get when I found it back in 94′. I mean it was a post-apocalypse type book which I always love. But the whole idea of bringing back these historical figures to fight a guy who thought he was the second Tamerlane is just batshit nuts. It is indeed batshit nuts but in a good way. A very epic saga that has no grey shades in it. There is clearly a good and evil side. Tamerlane is just pure evil. He rapes and kills on a massive scale. He has The Cuddler which is his chief torturer and a sidekick Englishman named Forsythe. This combination of the three historical figures and a triceratops raised by a bald eagle sound nuts but actually works. I loved this book back then and still love it now. If you want something unique to read I would highly recommend this book.
Liz Mendoza is an 18-year-old who accompanied her parents to an alternate that destroyed itself in a nuclear war in 1967. Her parents got a grant from UCLA to study why this war started. They live in the Westside which is its own little country. The Westside gets into a war with its neighbor the Valley over blocking the Sepulveda Pass. The Valley wins because they were able to find a working .50 cal. machine gun. Now Liz has to deal with one of the Valley soldiers who has taken an interest in her. The family has to deal with spies from the Westside government in exile and the occupation soldiers of the Westside.
The final book in the Crosstime series is my favorite. For one thing it deals with a post-nuclear apocalypse which is my favorite type of books. This one has plenty of action that the others lacked. I love that everyone still talks like hippies such as “far out” and “groovy”. The society is a realistic portrayal of a post-nuclear world. It is on a level of the medieval times with its various petty little kingdoms. Technology is lacking as everyone scrounges for leftovers in the ruins.
I enjoyed this series. It had some weird stuff like Turtledove’s thing for portraying that everyone in the future has a serious aversion to fur. Granted fur is a dead industry nowadays but I don’t think the young even today give fur any thought. Just one of the things he decided was something hip. I also wonder if it appealed to the target teen audience or just older alternate history buffs like me. The series was solid with some plausible alternate histories that were portrayed realistically. If you like Turtledove or alternate history this is a good series for you.
Paul Gomes has graduated High School and works with this father for Crosstime Traffic. His assignment is an alternate where Germany won WWI. They eventually went on to develop the atom bomb and conquer America in 1956. Now 140 some years later they rule America and the world with an iron fist. Crosstime Traffic runs a shop called Curious Notions in San Francisco. They sell electronic record players and games. The devices are just slightly better than what is available, and they use the money to buy much needed food for the home timeline.
The Germans in this alternate have similar advanced technology but keep it from others to hold them back. The Imperial German occupation authorities start to take an interest in these more advanced items. They want to know where they come from. The father says China and randomly picks a merchant in Chinatown out as the supplier. Lucy Woo a sixteen-year-old who works at a sweatshop gets involved when her father is arrested by the Germans. She joins forces with Paul Gomes to help their fathers and also have to deal with the Tongs. The Tongs are also interested in Curious Notions and hope to get technology that can help China to a more prominent level.
The second in the Crosstime Traffic YA series gives us a look at what the world would look like if the Germans won WWI. This is a much more plausible world if the Schlieffen Plan worked as it should have. A world without Hitler but one that is still pretty grim. America a defeated nation with 12 cities destroyed by atomic bombs. It is stuck in the 1950’s economically, culturally and technologically. Turtledove does a good job of giving us a look at the world with child labor and 65-hour six-day work weeks. As with the standard format it gives us a teenage boy and girl. This time ones that have a romantic involvement. This one deals with the added tension of keeping alternate travel out of the hands of a society that is technologically advanced enough to understand and use it. I found this an interesting and tension filled book. Different from the first book but no less interesting.
THE BOOKS THAT TIME FORGOT. 