Rating: 
Summary: Not Up to Red Phoenix's Caliber but absorbing fare.
Review: With Red Phoenix Larry Bond launch a new era in combat fiction. One in which the author thoroughly researches not only combat hardware, but local color and the diplomatic climate of the theater in which the novel is to take place. In his second novel, Vortex, Bond employs this format which propelled his first novel through the roof. How does the follow-up fair? One of the unintended consequences of Bond's formula is that it makes for a LARGE book, a long read. So the reader better like the premise of the book before he even starts plodding through it. And this book does plod at times. By the very nature of the type of combat depicted in Vortex, the action sequences are gritty and lack much of the techno-ga-ga stuff of Red Phoenix. this is not a criticism mind you, but if you're expecting the aerial dueling of Red Phoenix with high tech fighter aircraft, you'll be out of luck. What you will get is in your face ground war that works well, but there's so much of it! Bond's knowledge of the geopolitics of the region shine through the novel. Although history has played out (the book is five years old) and the odds of such a thing as a White Supremisists rise to power in South Africa are quite a stretch these days, in 1995, such a power grab as that which is depicted in the novel was not outlandish. And the international response to a coup might have resembled Bond's response in this novel. Bond is less adept at developing his characters. That was a flaw that could be overlooked in Red Phoenix, but in this novel, its villian is much more central to the plot. Vorster is too one dimensional. He doesn't seem to have any human motivations. This is the only thing Bond would need to work on in future novels. The good guys don't ellicit enough empathy from the reader, and the bad guys look to be made of paper. They're after-thought creations made to justify the crackling, sweeping events that Bond covers in such detail. One dimensional characters aside, Bond's Vortex is worthy of a few late night's reading! Got thoughts about the book, email me!
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