I first read Red Storm Rising 35 years ago, after being blown away by Hunt for Red October. I eagerly consumed each subsequent Tom Clancy novel until he pretty much ran out of things to write about, though, like Larry McMurtry, it didn’t stop him from churning out substandard offerings.

Having pretty much run through my reading list, I elected to go back and reread the early Clancy novels, to see if they were as good as I remembered. I skipped Hunt for Red October, because I’ve seen the movie a dozen times and began with Red Storm Rising.

Set in the 1980s Cold War, a domestic terrorist has destroyed the Soviet’s largest refinery and put its largest oil field out of production for many months, with potentially disastrous effects for the Soviet economy. Faced with this existential crisis, the Politburo elects to seize Middle Eastern oil fields, but first must destabilize NATO.

The novel follows the military and political machinations that follow. As everyone concedes, Clancy is extremely well educated and conversant on military systems and equipment. His scenarios are well presented and believable. If anything, Clancy becomes so technical and verbose in his explanation of military engagements, that the action itself tends to take a back seat.

I think that I originally gave this novel 5 stars. Upon reflection I would downgrade to 4 1/2 stars. A very good piece of work, but not the equal of a few of his others, in my opinion. ( )

I read this long ago. I don't even remember what it was about, so I won't give it a very high rating. But I'm pretty sure I enjoyed it, FWIW. ( )

Tom Clancy knew how to tell a story. This book is wonderful jumping off point for Tom Clancy novels. Engaging characters, solid action and a brilliant insight into how cold governments operated. ( )

25-Jan-2020 4-Feb-2020 ( )

4/7/22

Boring and outdated. If I would have read that book 20 years ago when the time was still with West vs Soviet and I would have been younger I probably would have loved this book. But times move by and some stuff just feels antiquated and wrong. Not as horrible as the first book I read from him, but I can't even go up to a meh reading. ( )

Frankly, this is Tom Clancy's magnum opus. If you're going to read only one Clancy novel, read this one. ( )

The procedural book of what could have been World War III. Told through the eyes of a wide array of people from an Air Force meteorologist in Iceland, a navy reservist who works for the CIA, a stealth bomber pilot, a female aircraft courier, a submarine captain, Russian politicians, and others the war between the Warsaw Pact And NATO erupts. Not your typical war story. Recommended for those who lived through the Cold War. ( )

I first read this book in 1988 when the Iron Curtain was firmly in place and thoughts of a war between the USSR and the USA seemed like a possibility. To add interest, I read it while living in Germany and my father had just returned from a deployment in Iceland where he flew a P3 Orion (the planes that hunted the subs in the book). In thought it would be boring... All that war stuff. But Mr Clancy has a way of making technology interesting Anna humanizing both the good guys abs the bad guys. Reading it more than thirty years later I still found it griping, though the technology is woefully outdated. The basis for the crisis seems every bit as likely today as it did thirty years ago. ( )

first Clancy book I ever read and I was hooked. ( )

Re-read after many years, the reason why I enlisted in the Navy and volunteered for submarines. Held up fairly well, still a good read. ( )

Far from being Clancy's best work, he gets too bogged down in acronyms & technojargon. This is completely unrelated to any of his Jack Ryan books.

A former CIA analyst I met years ago told me that at the time this was written, Clancy disclosed some classified information in the text just to show that he had high-level sources & could do it . Subsequently, he went into hiding for a while, until things cooled down, and he patched things up with the feds.

The guy who told me the story might have just been a blowhard for all I know. It made for an interesting story though, LOL. In a way, the story seems to fit since this book is so different from Clancy's other books. I'm used to reading acronyms & military jargon in his novels, but it was excessive in this, his second novel. Red October wasn't nearly as bad in that regard, and neither were his subsequent books. ( )

A great cold war adventure of a world that "Could have been". The book lists several weapon systems that were planned but never introduced, and ultimately suffers from a lack of detail and action during the actual combat but is overall a hell'va read for those who still wonder what the Cold War going hot would look like. ( )

If you've ever wondered what the cold war of the 1980's period turning into world war 3 would be like, this is the book for you.
The Hunt for Red October was a far easier film to make than this, which is probably why even now this is one Clancy story that has not made it to the movies.
Watch the military technology at the command of NATO and the old USSR collide. ( )

Thriller about WWIII between NATO and the Warsaw Pact ( )

Probably the best Clancy book I've ever read. Essentially, the Russians start World War III and provides a sneak peak into technology that was previously top secret. ( )

This was my first introduction to Tom Clancy, and remains my favorite book. The opening chapter is Clancy at his best: terrorists attack and destroy an oil refinery in the Soviet Union. This forces the Soviets to essentially launch an offensive against the rest of the world to secure their energy future.

The weapons systems, military strategy, and various points of view on both sides of the conflict kept me riveted the whole way through this massive volume. If you liked The Hunt for Red October, this one's just as good. ( )

This is one of the best single-volume war novels I have ever read. The action is tense and non-stop once the shooting starts. It's a large novel, but reads quickly.

The novel spans the cause, buildup, commencement, execution and completion of a short WWIII between NATO and Soviet conventional forces. Using the then-state-of-the-art in technology, arms, and doctrine, Clancy and Bond weave a very taut tale imagining how these different technologies and tactics might interact once unleashed. Some promising technologies are brought low, others are used in unintended ways by the inventive minds in the field and staff, thereby shifting battlefield advantages.

Red Storm Rising's primary story is the action. As such the different theaters (air, sea, land, intel), many characters, geopolitics, and other facets are subservient to driving the action. You may see reviews which critique Clancy's handling of this or that (no strong characterization, wish there was more focus on this or that theater, the politics wasn't as fleshed out as desired...) but the reviewers miss the point that the action is the story. Readers unfamiliar with the techno-military jargon will be able to sort through the zoo of Bears, Badgers, Tomcats, Hornets, Eagles, Falcons, Aardvarks, Sea Stallions,... and the numerous alphanumeric designators. You'll get the concepts from the contexts.

This is a great book I could not put down. No obvious typos or other editorial sloppiness ( )

A chillingly plausible scenario for WWIII. And I agree with him: WWIII will have no nukes. ( )

Once again Tom has done a great job. The format allows one to keep in the book from all angles. He brings out what might have happened during the cold war. Tom's research pays off as he has all the correct military equipment and such doing the right job. He keeps the story up front and personal. ( )

I finished my second Tom Clancy novel in three weeks. And I've become a fan.

I enjoyed "Red Storm Rising" more than "Clear and Present Danger". "Red Storm Rising" was Clancy's second novel and doesn't include either of the characters that make up much of the core of his fabulously popular high-tech military thrillers: Jack Ryan and John Clark. Clancy builds credible motives for the Russian-fueld World War III, and the plot drives all 600+ pages of this novel that bounces between perspectives of characters ranging from military leaders, to intelligence officers, to the most engaging of all, an Air Force weatherman thrust to the fore of the international battle.

I'm not a military guy and I've not read much around a modern military (though I've read my fair share of ancient Roman Legion battles), but I became hooked on Clancy's details surrounding the tactics of all branches of the military and the somewhat less fulfilling political machinations that drove the bigger picture war efforts. Clancy's mostly able to differentiate a multitude of battles, though seemed to struggle a bit with an ongoing series of submarine engagements.

There's no character depth here, and quite frankly, I was perfectly happy to let the detailed plot drive the story. "Red Storm Rising" is an exciting and engaging read. It's not great, but it's a whole lot of fun. ( )

Usually I read books by Tom Clancy with great pleasure. I like the many plot lines and the fact that I have to think things through when I am reading.
These and the fact that the Gulf War is a subject of interest, are the reasons why I bought this book.

Boy, was I mistaken!! 50 pages, 100 max, I didn't get any further. It is just not for me... ( )

I believe this was my least liked of the Tom Clancy books I have read - it dragged on in a few sections, and the military maneuver details were overdone to my taste. However, since it was the second one I read and the first was really good, I kept going, and was glad I did. ( )

I've read books by Tom Clancy before, and found them to be engaging and entertaining and complicated, and Red Storm Rising is no exception.

As this book was first published in 1986, many things are obviously dated, but it's still a very good read. There is no one protagonist as in the Jack Ryan books, but a cast of many characters (you DO need a score card!). The plot twists, bobs and weaves so much, if you try to read this story in short increments, you will get "lost"...

My favorite character was probably the weatherman in Iceland, who finds an inner strength as he meets obstacle after obstacle.

Well recommended! ( )

Start on Nov 2012, now I was finished on Mar, 2013...Very long long time to read.I never been read other books long long time than this before. First 200 pages have some interesting idea but when it's go on and go on it's very dull.Clancy show some military techno weapons, ships and airforces I don't have an idea to sort them out. ( )