Rating: 
Summary: This is the book to have!!!!!!!!!
Review: "Red Phoenix" is the authority in the world of "What if's" as far as the Korean theater of operations is concerned. The "puzzle palace" was probably wondering how he figured all this out. I'd originally read this amazing story when it first came out and was just floored by the realism, the character interactions and the author's knowledge of military operations. A few years later I was scheduled to go to South Korea on tdy and picked it up to read again. It was amazing to be reading this book and seeing a lot of the areas he'd talked about in the book, in person. To see the river's and the rivetments on the banks, to see the tank barricades all around Seoul and all the bases north of Seoul and be reading this book again at the same time. Absolutely amazing! Thank you very much to Larry Bond for an excellent book.
Rating:
Summary: This is the book to have!!!!!!!!!
Review: "Red Phoenix" is the authority in the world of "What if's" as far as the Korean theater of operations is concerned. The "puzzle palace" was probably wondering how he figured all this out. I'd originally read this amazing story when it first came out and was just floored by the realism, the character interactions and the author's knowledge of military operations. A few years later I was scheduled to go to South Korea on tdy and picked it up to read again. It was amazing to be reading this book and seeing a lot of the areas he'd talked about in the book, in person. To see the river's and the rivetments on the banks, to see the tank barricades all around Seoul and all the bases north of Seoul and be reading this book again at the same time. Absolutely amazing! Thank you very much to Larry Bond for an excellent book.
Rating:
Summary: As good as "Red Storm Rising"
Review: ...and much less dated. In "Red Phoenix" Larry Bond has written an astonishing novel of The Second Korean War. I say astonishing because while, as one would expect, his technical/tactical writing is dead on, it is in the characters that this book really shines. Unlike many techno-thrillers that have cardboard cliches for characters, Bond's are deep and emotional. The reader really comes to care for them and thus reads not only for the awesome scope of the novel, but to find out what will happen to individuals.This juxtaposition between macro and micro serves the novel well as the reader sees the campaign driven forward through the narrative, and then captures the true horror of combat through the dialogue. Larry Bond has a superb appreciation of strategy/politics and the application of weapons, but he never loses sight of the fact that war is an endeavor of individuals. He really captures the humanity and esprit of men in combat. Finally, "Red Phoenix" has held up remarkably well. In spite of being ten plus years old, it's portrayal of combat on the Korean Peninsula is as valid as ever. Some of the weapons have changed and the actors are a little different, but at its core, the premise of this novel is still valid. The fact that it is a great read doesn't hurt either!
Rating:
Summary: A chilling, prescient novel of a Second Korean War....
Review: A few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Larry Bond and Patrick Larkin's first collaborative effort, Red Phoenix, became a New York Times bestselling novel. In this novel, Bond (Tom Clancy's uncredited co-author of Red Storm Rising) uses his superb writing skills, experience as a former Navy intelligence expert and talents as a war game designer (he is the creator of Harpoon) to write a terrifying scenario for a second and even more destructive Korean War. Red Phoenix is set in the early 1990s. North Korea's elderly Great Leader, Kim Il-Sung, is still alive but clearly frail. Day to day control of this isolated and paranoid Stalinist nation is now in the hands of Kim's ambitious son, Kim Jong-Il, the Dear Leader. Ruthless and mercurial, the younger Kim seeks to surpass his father and accomplish what the old man had failed to do in the 1950s: the reunification of the Communist North and the capitalist South. At first, Kim's plans almost become undone when a team of South Korean and American soldiers discovers a tunnel dug under the DMZ by North Korean combat engineers. In it is a vast stockpile of weapons, ammunition, and even Soviet-made tanks, enough for a battalion of invaders. But events elsewhere, including the office of a Michigan Congressman and the Interior Ministry in Seoul, soon create a perfect convergence of events that enables North Korea's nefarious Dear Leader to mobilize his forces and launch a lightning invasion of South Korea. Bond and Larkin's novel depicts units, weapons systems, and tactics which were state-of-the-art 14 years ago, and the political makeup of the world has changed since its publication. (Modern day readers might see as archaic Bond's references to the Soviet Union, East Germany, and other Warsaw Pact nations. In early 1989, these may have sided with North Korea, at least nominally. Today, of course, the USSR is no more, East Germany reunited with West Germany and is part of NATO, as is Poland.) However, considering the current and alarming situation as the real Kim Jong-Il races to build and openly deploy nuclear weapons, Red Phoenix is no longer a relic of Cold War-era popular fiction; it is a chilling vision of what a conventional conflict in the Korean Peninsula could have been like before North Korea upped the ante and developed weapons of mass destruction.
Rating: 
Summary: Boom
Review: A thundering, unsubtle, and hugely entertaining novel of a new Korean war, concentrating on a set of characters (a soldier, an F16 pilot, and the general in charge of the US armed forces) caught up in the turmoil. It isn't high art, but it's excellent at what it does - after a slow, ominous build-up (which takes up the first half of the novel) it's pretty much constant action from then on, on land, on sea, and in the air. The book's only real downside is the abrupt ending - after building the enemy up for 650 pages, they seem to collapse very quickly. This was Larry Bond's debut novel, and it has some rough edges - Bond is more concerned with the ebb and flow of brigades than individual people, and personal crises (of the 'I'm scared', 'Pull yourself together', 'Okay - I'll try' level) are resolved in a few paragraphs. There's a stab at romance, too, something his subsequent novels steer clear of. Nonetheless, Bond's talent is fully-formed, and this is the best novel to start with (both 'Cauldron' and 'Vortex' are less immediate - South Africa seems less gripping, somehow, and 'Vortex' is set in a near future world which seems increasingly abstract). As a footnote, it makes a fascinating companion-piece to the PC/Mac 'Falcon 4.0', a simulation of flying an F-16 over just such a conflict, with the same locations and technology. Is it an unwritten rule that novels of this ilk always start off with an isolated commando raid?
Rating:
Summary: Excellent techno-thriller! A riveting page-turner!
Review: After reading Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising, I wanted to learn more about Larry Bond, who collaborated on that well-written book. So I picked up Red Pheonix -- and couldn't put it down until the final word was read! Interesting plot, well-researched storyline, exciting and totally plausible scenarios -- this is a fun book to read, all the way around. Bond's later work in Vortex and Caldron are also very good, but this remains my favorite Bond book by far. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Read: Full of Blood and Political Intrigue
Review: As a Korean, and a Political Science student in college, I must say that his knowledge of politics of the two Koreas are very accurate, and realistic. A superb mix of military hardware, blood and gore, and international relations, but with a flawed strategic thinking. The story begins with the political upheaval in South Korea, following the discovery of a North Korean tunnel, and the consequent border clash between the ROKs and the NKPAs. A highly placed North Korean agent within the South Korean internal security apparatus manipulates the police into firing M-16 rifles indiscriminately at the crowds during a riot-control operation. A superb description of the riot scene, and the consequent political turmoil triggered by it, is to be commended here. This is THE trademark of his novel.
The police massacre in Seoul triggers off an economic sanction by a few Congressmen who wish to humble the economic might of their trading partner. A group of ROK generals, fed up with the political and economic turmoils following the police massacre and the consequent economic sanction, attempt a coup against the incumbent administration. But their attempts are thwarted at inception by the clever American commander of the theater, and the ROK JCS Chairman. What follows is a witch-hunt of the ROK officer corps, thus rendering the ROKs demoralized, and combat-ineffective.
Kim Jong Il, taking advantage of the political turmoil south of the border, plans a full-scale invasion of the South with the aid of the Soviet advisers. (Note that the book was written in 1989, during the Cold War.) The NKPA commandos paralyze the crucial strategic targets in South Korea, while the joint US-ROK forces are tied up at DMZ by waves of NKPA blitzkrieg attacks. The allied naval task forces fare no better, for they lose a several combat ships to a North Korean submarine fleet, and an entire carrier air wing to the Soviet-trained North Korean Air Force. (The Soviet advisers participate in the dogfight against the US Navy jets.) The story is fast-paced, and full of blood up until the last pages.
However, the story takes a downward spiral as the American commander-in-chief of the Theater, decides to make a last stand at Taejon. In days of street-to-street fighting between the allies and the NKPA, the NKPA is decimated at Taejon, with all of its naval and air force wiped out by the allies. In the end, Kim Jong Il is ousted by a pro-Chinese faction within his military and the Politburo.
This goes to show that the book has a predictable ending. That's what troubled me the most about this otherwise superb book. The plots are organized by dates. What would be years-long bloody war ends in a matter of weeks. More than anything else, the story reflects the mainstream strategic thinking by the US-ROK strategic planners.
A vast majority of the American and ROK officials believe that they would initially be overwhelmed by the lightning speed of a Communist offensive, but that their superior industrial and logistical capability would enable them to repulse the NK attack eventually. However, a war is never predictable. It may well be that the NKPA will resort to a protracted guerrilla warfare in the South and in their own turf using their commandos and highly-disciplined infantry, should the situation prove unfavorable to them. They have learned very well that they cannot beat the Americans head-on. Moreover, through this book, Bond shows very well that the Americans want quick results, and are unwilling sacrifice their interest in a long protracted warfare.
In any event, a superb story, full of blood and gore, wich rich lively characters and a very accurate political analysis of the region concerned, however flawed the strategic thinking. Two thumbs up!
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Read: Full of Blood and Political Intrigue
Review: As a Korean, and a Political Science student in college, I must say that his knowledge of politics of the two Koreas are very accurate, and realistic. A superb mix of military hardware, blood-and-gore, and international relations, but with a flawed strategic thinking. The story begins with the political upheaval in South Korea, following the discovery of a North Korean tunnel, and the consequent border clash between the ROKs and the NKPAs. A highly placed North Korean agent within the South Korean internal security apparatus manipulates the police into firing M-16 rifles indiscriminately at the crowds during a riot-control operation. A superb description of the riot scene, and the consequent political turmoil triggered by it, is to be commended here. This is THE trademark of his novel.
The police massacre in Seoul triggers off an economic sanction by a few Congressmen who wish to humble the economic might of their trading partner. A group of ROK generals, fed up with the political and economic turmoils following the police massacre and the consequent economic sanction, attempt a coup against the incumbent administration. But their attempts are thwarted at inception by the clever American commander of the theater, and the ROK JCS Chairman. What follows is a witch-hunt of the ROK officer corps, thus rendering the ROKs demoralized, and combat-ineffective.
Kim Jong Il, taking advantage of the political turmoil south of the border, plans a full-scale invasion of the South with the aid of the Soviet advisers. (Note that the book was written in 1989, during the Cold War.) The NKPA commandos paralyze the crucial strategic targets in South Korea, while the joint US-ROK forces are tied up at DMZ by waves of NKPA blitzkrieg attacks. The allied naval task forces fare no better, for they lose a several combat ships to a North Korean submarine fleet, and an entire carrier air wing to the Soviet-trained North Korean Air Force. (The Soviet advisers participate in the dogfight against the US Navy jets.) The story is fast-paced, and full of blood up until the last pages.
This goes to show that the book has a predictable ending. That's what troubled me the most about this otherwise superb book. The plots are organized by dates. What would be years-long bloody war ends in a matter weeks. More than anything else, the story reflects the mainstream strategic thinking by the US-ROK strategic planners.
A vast majority of the American and ROK officials believe that they would initially be overwhelmed by the lightning speed of the Communist offensive, but that their superior industrial and logistical capability would enable them to repulse the NK attack eventually. However, a war is never predictable. It may well be that the NKPA will resort to a protracted guerrilla warfare in the South and in their own turf using their commandos and highly-disciplined infantry, should the situation prove unfavorable to them. They have learned very well that they cannot beat the Americans head-on. Moreover, through this book, Bond shows very well that the Americans want quick results, and are unwilling sacrifice their interest in a long protracted warfare.
In any event, a superb story, full of blood and gore, wich rich lively characters and a very accurate political analysis of the region concerned, however flawed the strategic thinking. Two thumbs up!
Rating:
Summary: So Why Should I Read This Old Book From 1989?
Review: Because North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il may STILL believe he can pull off an invasion of South Korea in a way similar to what is described in "Red Phoenix". This is a very enjoyable and readable military techno-thriller written by Larry Bond who collaborated with Tom Clancy in writing "Red Storm Rising" in the mid 1980s. This book mixes remarkably accurate details of military activity and combat planning in Korea to create a very plausible plot in 1989 for the start and action in a Second Korean War. Some of the details are now dated by the introduction of 'smart' technology but, speaking as the US Air Force veteran of Desert Storm that I am, this is what it was like in military culture towards the end of the Cold War. Larry Bond uses his knowledge of the geography and politics of the Koreas to create very plausible events and characters that make this book a real pageturner. He tries to get you into the minds of the 'Cult of Kim' so you can understand why North Korea acts in the belligerant, Stalinist way it still does to this day. Time, so far, may not have proven this book accurate, but it will help you to understand about why Kim Jong Il and North Korea are still threats to Asia and America to this day. I have been told that "Red Phoenix" is still 'required reading' for many American military personnel who get assigned to posts in and around South Korea. Give it a try if you enjoy military thrillers and like to be up on world events.
Rating:
Summary: So Why Should I Read This Old Book From 1989?
Review: Because North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il may STILL believe he can pull off an invasion of South Korea in a way similar to what is described in "Red Phoenix". This is a very enjoyable and readable military techno-thriller written by Larry Bond who collaborated with Tom Clancy in writing "Red Storm Rising" in the mid 1980s. This book mixes remarkably accurate details of military activity and combat planning in Korea to create a very plausible plot in 1989 for the start and action in a Second Korean War. Some of the details are now dated by the introduction of 'smart' technology but, speaking as the US Air Force veteran of Desert Storm that I am, this is what it was like in military culture towards the end of the Cold War. Larry Bond uses his knowledge of the geography and politics of the Koreas to create very plausible events and characters that make this book a real pageturner. He tries to get you into the minds of the 'Cult of Kim' so you can understand why North Korea acts in the belligerant, Stalinist way it still does to this day. Time, so far, may not have proven this book accurate, but it will help you to understand about why Kim Jong Il and North Korea are still threats to Asia and America to this day. I have been told that "Red Phoenix" is still 'required reading' for many American military personnel who get assigned to posts in and around South Korea. Give it a try if you enjoy military thrillers and like to be up on world events.
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