It is 1997 in this alternate future where the Soviet Union managed to reconstitute itself. NATO has been disbanded and the resurgent Soviets have invaded Norway. The country valiantly fights back but it is obvious they can’t win. Enter U.S.S. Thomas Jefferson America’s newest carrier of CVB-14. The Soviets have declared an exclusion zone in the Norwegian Sea and America decides to ignore it. Tombstone Magruder is back and now deputy CAG (Commander Air Group). An incident occurs that starts a shooting war between the Soviets and America. Keflavik is destroyed and the carrier attacked with many planes lost and one destroyer. The CAG is killed elevating Tombstone into the position. Now they have to fight off a Soviet carrier and figure out a way to stop an amphibious invasion of Bergen.
The fourth book in the series has decided to go old school. They have a future where the Soviet Union managed to reconstitute itself and stay a world power. They start a war with Norway and invade Finland. It seems logical the writer of this series would decide to have the carrier battle the enemy it was originally envisioned to fight. No third-rate country this time but one with weapons that could seriously defeat them. The battle for Norway was a common scenario in the old Harpoon wargame so everything seems very familiar to me. This is where the series really came into giving us a true workout for the Carrier.
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.
World War III continues as the Warsaw Pact has NATO forces trapped in the Dortmund/Bielefeld pocket. The US and British navies continue to bring over the much-needed supply convoys to save western Europe. Robert Brentwood the commander of a Seawolf sub has a run in with a cruiser and a whirlwind romance with an English girl. David Brentwood is captured parachuting into Germany but manages to escape and destroy a fuel depot. Lana Brentwood in the Aleutians has to deal with a Soviet invasion of the islands. Luckily Discount Patton comes to the rescue and takes control. He miraculously manages to break out of the pocket and rout Soviet forces.
The second book continues with some improbable scenarios. I don’t see how the war would last so long. To be honest modern war is very expensive and the weapons very time consuming to make. Also, all the Americans are completely incompetent and have to wait around for Discount Patton to save them. There is also a subplot of them using mass executions of Estonians to find the saboteurs of munitions. Other small subplots of a suicidal teen who fingers his father-in-law as a spy. The Russian population of Alaska joining the Soviets. Now there are no Russians in Alaska. There were about 100 trappers living a subsistence life before the territory was sold. When it was sold all left for Russia.
In spite of the goofiness of the book I remember enjoying it as a young man at the time. It was clear the Warsaw Pact was finished when it came out and I was a bit nostalgic for these Soviet invasion books. It drags is some places but still good for a bit of laughs.
In the near future the North Koreans invade the south. They have advanced weapons and manage to infiltrate guerrillas into the south to destroy vital aircraft. They manage to lure the American M-1 tanks into an ambush in a rice paddy and destroy them. Soon they capture Seoul, and it looks like they will overrun the country. The American president doesn’t want to commit to the fight so South Korean intelligence agents stage an attack on Communist volunteers gathered in East Berlin. The Soviet forces gain stunning victories and NATO forces are trapped in a pocket in West Germany.
The only hope is an army colonel with a daring plan. Colonel later promoted to general Douglas Freeman a sort of Patton clone who I will refer to as Discount Patton launches an airborne attack on Pyongyang. It disrupts the North Koreans and saves the country. Now America is in a total war with the Soviets and the outcome is in doubt.
This book came out just after the fall of the Berlin Wall and basically the whole Warsaw Pact alliance. It even has the wall all abandoned in the book. Yet the author envisioned that Communist would still survive and thrive in the future. The Soviets are back under hardline rule and more competent than ever. In fact, everybody on the American side except Discount Patton is completely clueless. I mean I can see that there are incompetent officers in every army but for the North Korean general to be so certain that the American commander would drive his tanks into a rice paddy to get stuck is a bit unrealistic.
The story is mainly told through the eyes of the Brentwood family. A family with a naval tradition. One son commands a cruiser that gets hit by the North Koreans and he is badly burned. The other son a commander of a Seawolf submarine and the third joins the Marines. The daughter in a bad marriage to an industrialist becomes a Navy nurse. Ian Slater a former Australian Naval intelligence officer seems to not be very knowledgeable about stuff. In spite of later proclamations on his books that they are superior to Tom Clancy he seems more of a poor man’s Tom Clancy.
Still, I enjoy the books if you don’t take them too seriously. When they came out, I was already a bit nostalgic for the evil Soviets since that was what I loved in the eighties. The Commies are deliciously over the top evil. I found it an interesting way he started the war. If you want something not really believable but fun give this series a try.
In the near future the United States and the new Soviet Confederation are at peace. Only there are problems. The Soviets are running out of oil. This will endanger their new economy and they need to secure new reserves. Invading Iran is the logical step. The Americans have developed a new weapon. As powerful as a nuclear bomb but without the fallout. This would stop their planned invasion. Yet the only source of the material for this weapon is in Antartica. Right next to McMurdo Station. The Soviets launch an invasion to seize the base. Stationing their sole aircraft carrier there and flying in hundreds of planes. The Americans respond with three carrier battlegroups. They succeed in sinking the Soviet carrier and taking back McMurdo. The Soviets respond with a new submarine launched ballistic missile that turns into a torpedo. They destroy the American carriers and the 6th Guards Airborne Division lands. Yet there are bigger problems as the active volcano Mount Erebus is about to blow.
This is probably the last techno-thriller that portrayed the Soviets as a credible threat. Sort of a last hurrah for them. It was written in their final year and came out after they collapsed. So, it was a bit dated when I bought the paperback version in 1993. It envisions the Soviets as being able to reform themselves economically and politically to become a stable and prosperous country. While China in this future is mired in a destructive civil war. Of course, the opposite happened. The Soviet Union collapses and the successor states became basket cases. China became more stable and prosperous.
Well besides getting the future wrong, the author does deliver a very solid book. He puts the action in the unique place of Antarctica. He gives us a story filled with plenty of action. It seesaws from the Soviets winning to losing and winning again. Then a shallow President who was a former news anchorman has a nuclear bomb detonated which sets off the volcano. At the end the two superpowers are the losers and the rest of the world forces them to sign a peace treaty. A very enjoyable story with believable action and compelling characters. I would not mind reading more from this author.
In 1996 the Soviet Union is facing severe problems. A successionist revolt in Ukraine is backed by Germany. The United States backs an economic embargo for the Soviets movements in Poland. Meanwhile Larry Farnes is an immunologist who works for a secret germ warfare program. He decides to expose it after a woman he loves dies in an accident. For this he is sentenced to a federal facility on an island off the coast of Georgia.
The Soviets decide to survive they need to strike at the United States. The President is unpopular and facing a tough reelection. They lose a deadly germ in America which kills millions. To further distract a leaderless America, they launch an invasion with eight thousand men landed in Florida. Farnes manages to escape his prison after most of the people die of the plague. He teams up with a woman that is immune and heads off to the CDC in Atlanta. They have to fight the various lawlessness along the way. They reach Atlanta but the invading Soviets do too and destroy the CDC. Farnes is captured but the general of the Soviet invasion needs his help. Another plague was released on his invading troops and they are dying. They have to capture the secret research base to find a cure and stop the impending nuclear war.
A book written in the final year of the Soviet Union. A very sympathetic one that sees the Soviets justified in committing genocide because they were being bullied by the west. I wonder if he cried when the Soviet Union collapses. Anyway he did foresee that if the Soviet Union continued on they would face some serious problems to their existence. The book is an OK one. Nothing really special but does keep the reader’s interest. I did find it a bit unrealistic on the whole. I mean I can see them releasing a virus but the whole invasion plan was a bit farfetched. Even though the civilian leadership died, the nuclear command was still intact, and they were about to launch until Larry Farnes convinced them otherwise. So everything ends with them finding a cure. Millions of dead in America and a growing plague around to world but at least the Soviets weren’t being bullied anymore.
In the near future the Soviet Union has decided to invade West Germany. The First Western Front will attack in the north and head toward the Rhine. The plan is simply to force the West German government to ask for a separate peace. They gather their forces and attack. The Soviets engage various West German, British, Dutch, Belgian and American forces over a period of three days. They succeed in forcing the West Germans to ask for a separate peace and seriously weaken NATO.
While there have been books on a future NATO/Warsaw Pact conflict, I believe this is the only one to solely focus on the Soviet side. Peters a former Army Intelligence officer specializing in Soviet affairs has a firm grasp on the Russian character. It is told from a variety of viewpoints from the top general, to battalion commanders and airborne troops. Fighter pilots to the common conscript. Each of the characters has his own unique personality and motives. From Russian nationalists to a Jew that has to suffer the discrimination even though he has rejected his religion. Idealist young true believers of the system to the corrupt cynics out to take advantage of the system. He gives us a look at what it was like to serve in this system. A dreary life where they have to units have to grow their own food. Ethnics that can’t understand a word of Russian but somehow manage to function.
Peters takes the bold decision to have them win. His argument is that while NATO has excellent men, equipment and tactics, their greatest weakness is lack of unity. Each of the nationalities operates independently and undermines a cohesive strategy. The Soviets have filmed a phony destruction of a village to demoralize the West Germans and then have to make sure this village is really destroyed even though there is no strategic reason to destroy it. I can actually see the West Germans losing their political will and throwing in the towel.
Now this book had the misfortune of coming out at the end of the Warsaw Pact. In fact, the paperback came out three months after the Berlin Wall fell so it was dated when I bought it new. He had the misfortune of some of his best work coming out a time of fast change. His next book The War in 2020 that dealt with a future civil war in the Soviet Union came out literally after the fall of the Soviet Union. Still these books are enjoyable reads, and you can look at them as an alternate history that never materialized.
The Soviets have decided to invade Iran and seize their oil. The invasion starts off with them steamrolling over the weak Iranian army. The Americans of course won’t stand for this and send troops to stop them. The Iranians hate both sides and fight them as both invade the country. The Iranians are a minor nuisance to both sides as the two superpowers fight their first head on conflict.
This was Coyle’s second novel after his first Team Yankee. Like that first book the story deals with the men fighting this conflict. While the first dealt solely with the perspective of one tank platoon in a war in Europe, this one gives us a variety of viewpoints. From both the Soviet and American side. We get to see it from the generals in charge to the common enlisted man. From pilots to submarine crews. Coyle does a great job of giving us characters that are unique with their personalities, strengths and weaknesses.
His greatest is capturing the feel of actual combat. The confusion and terror of the battle. You have moments like where an American and Soviet group join forces to stop the Iranians launching a nuclear strike to start a larger war. Being an army officer, he has a firm grasp of the men and tactics in the army at the time. His choice of Iran was a realistic one as many speculated the Soviets did want to invade Iran for its oil and warm water ports. The Middle East was considered the flashpoint for any start of WWIII. The ending where they have a ceasefire and partition the country was also very realistic. This was probably one of the last books written about a Soviet invasion when the country was still at its peak. Next year would see the Berlin Wall fall and the slide toward the dissolution of the Soviet Union. This was Coyle’s best book in my opinion and I highly recommend for any fan of military fiction.
In the near future the Soviet Union decides to invade Saudi Arabia and seize their oil. A large air fleet has left Afghanistan headed for the oil fields at Dharan. Another fleet loaded with Cubans is headed for Riyadh from Yemen. The Saudi air force is completely helpless as their weapons are no match for the Soviets. The American President a history professor decides that America must invade Saudi Arabia first. With the marine contingent in the gulf, they stage a fake invasion with the reluctant consent of the Saudi king. Only elements of the Saudi military resist and decide to massacre a compound of westerners. Anyway the marines manage to set the airfields at Dhahran on fire which disrupts the operation. A Saudi prince leads his fellow countrymen on the airport tarmac at Riyadh with their cars to drive off the Cubans. Everything works out as the Americans use this to install a more pro-western government and drive the Iranians out of Kuwait.
A techno-thriller without any thrills. The whole setup of this kooky invasion is just ridiculous. The scene where they use cars to drive off the Cubans is absolutely hilarious. I get the feeling that the author really has no idea how a military operation works. He has the Soviets so overpowered that the Saudi’s lose over two hundred of their advanced fighters without losing a single plane. Yet they land on an airfield soaked with oil and burn up. I won’t even talk about the goofy car scene. Or the convoluted reasoning about having to invade first. I am pretty sure that the Soviets were aware of the importance to America of the Saudi oilfields.
Actually, rereading this when we have been involved in the region for decades was quite interesting. The Iranians invading Kuwait and being able to continue to occupy it is obviously something America wouldn’t stand for. The author has such a positive outcome in the region with a more liberal government for the Saudi’s. They even decide to confiscate their foreign reserves as punishment for the massacre and give it to the IMF to give out third world loans. Wow is this a globalist wet dream. Of course, we know the real outcome of our involvement and it was anything so successful. A strange book from a more simpler time that was mildly interesting.
In the near future the Soviet Union comes to the conclusion they are losing the cold war and drastic measure must be implemented. They detonate nuclear explosions over America and the EMP knocks out America’s communications and nuclear defenses. America has no choice but to surrender. They are to disarm the military, destroy the dollar and in effect become a client state of the Soviet Union. Ten years later America is divided into regions and the puppet government controlled by the People’s Progressive Party(PPP) maintains a Communist style economy and political structure. The nation is also occupied by the UNSSU(United Nations Special Service Unit) comprised of Warsaw Pact and other Communist forces.
Now that the Soviets control the world things are not doing well. Rebellions all over threaten to unravel the victory. The Politburo wants to detonate nuclear explosions over select American cities to demonstrate their power to the world. The general in charge of the occupation comes up with a less extreme plan. The congress will be destroyed in a staged terrorist attack and the regions will declare their independence. In effect the country will be several smaller client states.
The story follows three men in the Central Administrative Region in the Mid-West. Devin Milford a former Presidential candidate who tried to oppose the takeover and ends up in a prison camp in Texas. He gets released and returns to Milford, Nebraska. The other is his best friend Peter Bradford who is the town administrator and one who believes in cooperation with the new order. He is the first to be chosen to lead the new country of Heartland. The third is Colonel Andrei Denisov the KGB agent in charge of the region. Through these three we see the various viewpoints of the resistance and pragmatism to the new regime. All comes to a head when the Heartland secedes and a big fight with the UNSSU.
This miniseries from 1987 came about when Ben Stein suggested this as a counterpoint to the movie The Day After. Well four years later they succeeded in getting it made. By 1987 thought the evil empire was looked on more favorably with Gorbachev and his policies of glasnost and perestroika. There was the usual shrill condemnation from the various media. The Soviets of course condemned it as the UN who were portrayed as tools of the Soviets. Yet its worst enemy was the script. A series that was 14 1/2 hours long broadcast over seven days was a flop. The ratings were big in the beginning but quickly dropped and they never delivered to the advertisers as promised.
This book is an adaptation of the screenplay by Donald Wrye who also directed the series. Now it has been over thirty years since I saw this but remember I liked it. I can see though why it might have not been a success. The book can be a bit drawn out at times and a bit preachy. The book goes into detail how the Soviets gained control where the TV series was bit vague. I think the vagueness was better as the reason explained. The military is well aware of EMP and all our systems are shielded. Plus the launching of nukes over the country would have been detected and probably lead to a nuclear war. The series was spot on that the Soviet Union was losing as a few years later became very obvious. I think my biggest surprise is that a series like this was ever green lighted by the entertainment industry. They are notoriously left leaning even back then.
Anyway this was a fun nostalgic look back to my teenage years. The series is available on youtube if you are interested in checking it out.
THE BOOKS THAT TIME FORGOT. 