Rating: 
Summary: Worthy of the hype!
Review: This book is a highly gripping account of what a war between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. might have looked like. Tom Clancy keeps the story fresh by alternating between several sub-plots, which ultimately all converge. Clancy is a master storyteller who puts the reader right in the middle of the action. He provides just the right amount of technical detail when it comes to military equipment and operations. As a former Army officer, I learned quite a bit about the Naval tactics from this book. Clancy is also very good at choosing and developing his characters. The story could probably have been a little shorter without losing any of its punch, but overall a great work and a pleasure to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Five Stars Hands Down
Review: I picked this up one day never haven read a Tom Clancy Book. I know what the hype is about. This book takes you right into the action and gets your oriented what World War III would have been like. You'll go from American Subs and Carriers to the German/NATO Front Lines to the Soviet Ground and Air Assault. This book has everything!! Submarine and navy warfare, land and air based, and probably the deadlist, political warfare. If you're like me it'll take you longer than usual to get through this book because I was looking in a Atlas or on the internet for more research into the all the machines, acroynms, maps, and so forth. At the end of this book you'll have new respect and love for geography, world affairs, global warfare, Military structure, Militaries and their cool toys, and the master knowledge and penmanship that is Tom Clancy. A+++
Rating:
Summary: Perfect Reading
Review: A look into a very possible future is what this is all about. The idea of Muslim terrorists operating in "the former Soviet Union" is a reality - not a possibility. The notion of ethnic problems is also a reality. And the possibility of parts of the former Soviet military rising and acting independently is a nightmare waiting to happen.As usual, Clancy deals with international capitals, intelligence gathering, detail-packed war plans and battles as well as all the political ramifications. The battlefield shifts across huge areas but throughout, he keeps the story unified without bulging apart at the seams. The real problem is that Russia extremely weak economically, politically and militarily but still has lots of deadly hardware just waiting for an owner. The Iceland scenario was really daring if not exactly plausible. Oil and resources will continue to cause problems in the future. Great personalities / great battle scenes. Vintage Clancy.
Rating:
Summary: Thrilling Scenario
Review: What if the US and USSR had gone toe to toe militarily in the 1980's? In "Red Storm Rising", Tom Clancy takes a hard look at a frighteningly plausible scenario for just such a Third World War. Including combat by land, sea, air, and even space, this is an action packed scenario that looks at two superpowers locked in combat. Mixed in with the exquisite technical detail are many plot threads, with excellent story-telling and narration that help make "Red Storm Rising" a non-stop pageturner. Although dated now, almost some twenty years after its publication, this is still a great look back at a very unstable point in our history. Luckily a confrontation like this one was avoided, but at the time the threat was very real, and Clancy clearly did his homework before writing this thriller.
Rating:
Summary: ONE OF THE BEST CLANCY BOOKS!
Review: Red Story Rising is one of the BEST Clancy books. This book was when Clancy was in his prime, and this is truly Clancy at his best.
The book starts out with a terrorist attack on the Soviet Union in their oil fields, then the top men in the Kremlin in the now gone U.S.S.R., they now decide in order to save their country, they decide to take out the West in order to get the oil fields in Saudi Arabia.
Then the novel goes through much detail about what would happen if the U.S.S.R. did go to war with the West, and if this really happen, then it would turn out just like Red Storm Rising without a shadow of a doubt.
This is more a action novel by Mr. Clancy, if you like Red Stom Rising, then you would like Rainbox Six, Executive Orders, and Debt of Honor.
But if you like the political type of novels, then Patriot Games and Clear And Presend Danger is the novels you want to read by him.
Rating:
Summary: The real war
Review: This is what war is like. If you wanna read what woulda happened in 1980ish if the Soviets had pressed the red button, this is what would have transpired. From the deep deep oceans, to the endless reaches of outer space, the battle rages on. Tom Clancy is incredible in his detail of the military hardware that the US and USSR both control, and he communicates these details intestingly to his reader. AMAZING read.
Rating:
Summary: By Far, Clancy's Best
Review: This book is , I believe, destined to become an American classic. It is certainly Clancy's best, even topping "Debt of Honor" and "Executive Orders". From beginning to end, this book is unbelievably thrilling. The story is excellent, and doesn't focus on one particular character, but instead devotes an even amount of time to several. Because of this, this may be the one book Clancy wrote where his notorious excessive detailing actually paid off, and made the story even more interesting and thrilling. Clancy also proves he knows what he's talking about when it comes to military tactics and strategy. The buildup prior to the conflict is also intensly thrilling and very realistic, as is the whole story. It has long been difficult for people to imagine what a conflict between NATO and the Warsaw Pact would have truly looked like. This book is probably the closest glimpse we'll ever have of the war that never was. Highly recomended.
Rating:
Summary: What if Cold War Had Gone Hot?
Review: Although 17 years have passed since Tom Clancy's second novel was published and the Soviet Union is no more, Red Storm Rising is still one of my favorite adventure novels. It is always a challenge for writers to top a blockbuster hit like The Hunt For Red October, but Clancy and his co-author Larry Bond (Red Phoenix, Vortex) gave us an E-ticket ride with this tale of World War III. If Hunt's chase of a defecting Typhoon-class sub was impressive in its scope and believability, Red Storm Rising is even more impressive in scale and ambitious plotting. While the familiar aspects of U.S.-Soviet confrontation are back, this time the Soviets are not simply after a runaway submarine but the oil fields of the Persian Gulf. After Islamic radicals sabotage a large oil production complex in Siberia, the Politburo decides that the West will not let the USSR purchase oil to make up for the shortfall. Deluded by their own propaganda and by KGB reports written by a faction which sees war as the quickest solution to the problem, the hardliners decide they must invade Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. 'If we cannot purchase oil,' declares one minister, 'then we must take it.' But the operation can't take place, the Soviets decide, if NATO and the United States intervene. Following the maxim that the best defense is always a good offense, the move south on the oil fields is put on hold until another operation, a strike against the West, takes place. So begins a complicated series of operations centered on a Third Battle of the Atlantic. While Soviet ground and air forces invade West Germany, the Red Fleet uses its surface, submarine and naval air forces to sever the sea lanes between America and her NATO allies in Europe. Clancy's canvas is large and vivid, taking us from the secret meetings of the Politburo, to the attack center of a Los Angeles-class SSN, to the lonely trek of a small group of Americans trapped on Soviet-occupied Iceland, and the bloody battlefields of West Germany. Clancy and Bond create a wonderful cast of characters who, even 17 years after they were created, still capture the imagination. Also recommended: Executive Orders, by Tom Clancy; Red Phoenix, by Larry Bond; Debt of Honor, by Tom Clancy
Rating:
Summary: very good military thriller
Review: Clancy swings more to focusing on military detail and plot in Red Storm Rising. This is one of the exceptions in the Jack Ryan series. There's not as much with character development here; it's pretty much a down and dirty all-out World War III scenario. Because of that, it is probably less likely to be enjoyed by a general reader not interested in the technothriller detail. But for what it is, it's hard to beat. The description of the chain of events and Soviet decision-making that gets the ball rolling is well-done. So are the accounts of battles on and beneath the seas, as is the account of a strategic campaign on Iceland. Few writers can tackle what Clancy does in Red Storm Rising and be able to pull it off.
Rating:
Summary: The Tolstoy of the 20th Century
Review: When Tom and Larry got together on this one, someone should have vidieotaped the first meeting. This is the classic non-end of the world war novel. WWIII is fought in this book, from the perspective of Land sea and air, and it all rolls together nicley. I have read this book at least 50 times since 1986. Mabye more.
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