Rating: 
Summary: Bond dropped the ball on this one
Review: After reading Red Pheonix, a flawed but easy to read and very entertaining novel, I picked up Cauldron, expecting much of the same. I got what I asked for, that's for sure. This book holds nothing new as far as the action sequences, with the possible exception of the French attack on the carrier group, it is rather dull. I really enjoyed the combat in Red Pheonix, and though it, saw Bond's influence in Clancy's Red Storm Rising (still the best all-out-war in Europe novel), but this time around it seemed recycled and boring. Also, Bond's depthless characters and annoying sideplots (the BS relationship between the U.S. officials in Moscow) started to get in the way. He would have done us a world of good if he had just eliminated all non-nessecarry dialogue.The other issue of dispute is the paper-thin justification for the action that does take place in the book. The behavior of the French and German officials are totally irrational, unless you Bond means to assert that they are Hitleresque madmen. The Russian intelligence types were all cliches as well. As much as a kick-ass, no brains story (which this painfully tries to be at times) can be fun, this novel merely flops in its own rediculousness. Stick to the old style technothrillers, when the missiles were the stars and the politics seemed to, at least at a distance, make sense! Of course, Clancy's been pretty poor in recent years also.
Rating: 
Summary: This is his best!
Review: Cauldron was not Bond's first book. It is his best though. Undownputable! Unforgettable characters and a scary scanerio to say the least. A humdinger of a plot!
Rating: 
Summary: Exciting but...
Review: Good book. Larry Bond writes a book that will keep you wanting to pick it up to see what happens next. The only problem I had with it is that he always assumes that the US is going to come out the winner. Not to give anything away but read the part about the nuclear missle attack on the us carrier. Also the ending was kind of fast but overall an enjoyable book. A get it from the library...
Rating:
Summary: He still is irrisistible.
Review: Hids books are non stop reading. You cannot put tghem down and Cauldron is no exception. Characters You can relate to. I loved the ending!
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining
Review: I am not a big fan of the war/thriller genre. However, Larry Bond's "Cauldron" does something that very few of the novels in the genre do, approaches the subject intelligently. The premise of "Cauldron" is that Germany and France, buoyed by a rising tide of nationalism, attempt the economic colonization of the newly independent former Soviet Bloc countries. The threads of European nationalism seem to have been wiped out by the horrors of World War II. Only a fool could be tricked into believing this. European nationalism is alive and well, it has just been redirected outside of Europe as opposed to the inner-directed nationalism of years past. While I don't really see either the French or Germans taking the steps they do in "Cauldron", most of the tragic events in world history have occurred because people didn't see some obvious signs of danger for what they were: obvious signs. The fact that a far-right nationalist garnered 18% of the vote in the most recent French presidential election only underscores that the causes of Europe's many wars has not entirely gone away. It has only gone underground. The political basis of the book aside, "Cauldron" is an exciting read. Like most books of this genre the characters are one-dimensional, the dialog unusual, and the descriptive language uncomfortable. All that being true though, "Cauldron" will keep you entertained.
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: Tercera guerra mundial entre EU y europa
Review: Los nacionalistas de extrema derecha toman el poder en Francia y Alemania. Estas dos paises liderean una confederacion de naciones llamada "EuroCon". El "EuroCon" trata de atraerse a los paises de europa oriental... hasta con la fuerza si es necesario. Francia se enfrenta a las fuerzas combinadas de Hungria y Eslovaquia. Alemania aplasta a Polonia. EU e Inglaterra intervienen para detener el derrumbe de sus aliados centroeuropeos. Francia y Rusia tratan de formar una polemica alianza... de lograrse, Rusia se apoderaria de Ucrania y Bielorusia. La intervencion anglosajona provoca la irritacion del "EuroCon", por lo que las fuerzas francoalemanas lanzan un ataque termonuclear a las Fuerza de Tareas norteamericanas. "Caldera" es la ultima obra de Larry Bond, al estilo de "Fenix Rojo", "Voragine" y "Tormenta Roja".
Rating:
Summary: Good reading, but without clancy's political skills
Review: The books starts off a bit slow in trying to "set the scene" -- Bond does so less believably than Clancy, who is the master of such set-ups. However, as the action picks up, Bond's skills shine through. The action, the tactics of manuevering military forces is where he is at his best. The ending is a little too
pat, but I still recommend the book.
Rating:
Summary: Fs all around for this work
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.
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.
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