by T.J. McFadden
Amazon: Kindle Direct. Pp. 467.
Dramatis personae.. $0.90. ISBN:
Dragon Storm
is a Clancyesque technothriller based around a
near future attempt by China to conquer Taiwan with conventional forces.
McFadden, author of several other thrillers, such as
Landing Party
,
Brother King
,
and
Forge Valley,
had done an earlier version of this scenario in his Formosa Straits, and in this expanded version undates the technology and order-of-battle.
McFadden gives us a very good mix of characters sketches, a fast pace, and lots of bang bang. Of special merit is the way he deftly handles infowar operations from the macro level down to the granular level, showing how a news team functions and how a host nation plants stories. Anyone who liked the early Clancy novels [before they turned into a mass produced product line] should enjoy this.
As with most technothrillers, the end/wrap-up is a tad deus ex machina, but that is the nature of the genre.
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