Cauldron (SoundValue)

Rating:
Summary: Action-packed and rather intriguing!
Review: An interesting scenario is put forward by Larry Bond here. A world recession, which strikes the dissolving European Community hard. Neo-Nazis blame illegal immigrants for job losses and rioting ensues, especially in Germany and France - a plotine which reflects real events. The US is too concerned with its own problems to aid Europe, and the Republican senators make their right-wing views heard.
When the US supplies oil to aid Poland and the Eastern bloc countries, a tanker is blown up by French paramilitaries. The CIA send an agent to investigate - he is taken out. Martial law is declared throughout the newly formed EurCon - US ships escorting the oil convoys are attacked and here we go! A shooting war blows up and escalates into some spectacular action. Despite a slow start at times and rather drawn-out tank scenes(I preferred the naval and air force and also the brief space sequences) on the Polish-German border, the story is highly convincing and sometimes frighteningly feasible. And best of all, it`s great to see the Frogs take a pasting from allied forces! The French satellites are put out of action by the GPALS Star Wars weapons, the French nukes are blown up and their subs sunk! Serves them right for blockading the cross-Channel ferry ports and ruining our trips abroad! But seriously, folks, this is a great war novel. The British side could have been better explored - the RAF and Royal Navy are quite well featured though. (Loved the Mirage being shot down over London too!) All in all, a highly recommended read, although `Red Phoenix` is still better. The Russian involvement towards the end does reflect on the aforementioned actually. I`ve yet to read `Vortex` yet though, I`ve got it on order and can`t wait . . . Ah, well, in the mean time it`s up into the skies with a Dale Brown book!

Rating:
Summary: Fs all around for this work
Review: I have read Bond's previous work, Red Phoenix and Vortex, and IMHO, they are the best military novels ever written. So when I picked up Cauldron, my expectations were high. Unfortunately, all I got for my 8 dollars was a poor and boring and predictable plot, with annoying and self righteous characters babbling about why they are entitled to start WW3 (see the CIA agents in Russia and the president). The action was anything but exciting, with American led forces kicking everyone's butts easily. The portrayal of the French was especially horrible. Throughout the whole novel, the French people are vilified and bashed throughouly, and they are portrayed to be so incompetent and cowardly that one has to wonder how in the world they managed to climb their way to the top of the European ladder in the first place. But somehow when the shooting starts, the French armed forces fight with the same skill and tenacity as your Sudanese militia. I was sorely disappointed with this work, and my opinion of Larry Bond has been substantially lowered as a result of this book.

Rating:
Summary: Europe turns into a "Cauldron" of war in this novel....
Review: The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 was a blessing in disguise not only for the Pentagon but for writers of military fiction. Just as the armed services have had to develop new doctrines, strategies, tactics, and weapons systems to contend with new enemies (potential and real), authors such as Tom Clancy, Stephen Coonts, Harold Coyle, and Larry Bond have had to look at the world situation, read the proverbial "tea leaves," and write plausible scenarios pitting American soldiers against foes that are very different from the by-now all-too-familiar Soviet "Ivan."

The writing team of Bond and Patrick Larkin (Red Phoenix, Vortex) was one of the earliest practitioners of "the-Cold-War-is-ending, let's-look-at-other-story-possibilities" idea. Although the Soviet Union was still in existence when their first two novels were published in the early 1990s, its role in Red Phoenix (about a second Korean War) and Vortex (conflict breaks out in South Africa) is very limited...think of it as an old Mafia don giving limited amounts of money and guns to a younger up-and-coming capo.

In Cauldron, the international situation is very different. NATO has dissolved, its mission as Western Europe's shield against a massive Soviet invasion having been achieved. France and Germany have formed a loose military alliance, and right-wing elements now begin reviving the old empire building instincts most Europeans thought had died out with the end of the Second World War. But the wars in the Balkans and greed in the hearts of many government officials in France and Germany -- and even impoverished Russia -- have awakened the old demons of imperial ambitions and diplomatic arrogance. And when the new Franco-German alliance starts bullying the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe for financial gain, Hungary and Poland soon become the first victims of full-scale aggression. Only the United States and Great Britain, aided by a few other smaller European allies, stand in the way of a Third World War.

Long time readers of the genre -- and of the Bond/Larkin novels in particular -- know that the eventual outcome is never really in doubt. The techno-thriller, in some ways, is sometimes just as predictable and conventional as a Harlequin Romance novel....only instead of ripped bodices and heaving bosoms there are camouflaged fatigues and flying missiles. Still, the premise of American and British troops facing off against former allies is (while far-fetched) intriguing and a bit disconcerting.