Larry Bond's Red Dragon Rising: Shock of War
The third novel in Bond and DeFelice’s Red Dragon Rising series suffers from middle-book syndrome. Josh MacArthur testifies to the UN about the horrible events he witnessed after China invaded Vietnam. The president of the U.S. wants Congress to act, but not enough legislators believe that China is a real threat to America. Meanwhile, working on secret orders, two American soldiers, Zeus Murphy and Win Christian, find themselves trapped behind Chinese lines. The narrative jumps between on-the-ground action as Murphy and Christian try to shoot their way out of China and the political build-up to World War III. The pages fly by at a furious pace, but the story ends abruptly, almost like a television serial.  This one will definitely appeal to military fiction aficionados, though really only those familiar with the series, since the majority of the novel is incomprehensible without knowledge of the two books that precede it. --Jeff Ayers