Red Metal

Once upon a time I remember believing that Robert Ludlum was on the government payroll and that his fiction was partly paid for by our intelligence services just to scare the enemy into thinking about how we might be thinking. Then I started reading Tom Clancy, so I thought no it's not Ludlum, it's Clancy. Then, if you can believe it, for a short time I thought it might be Dick Marcinko. Now who knows? I mean there are writers like Littel and LeCarre and my new favorites Jason Matthews and Ben Macintyre all who know quite enough history to have their work reviewed for approval. 

None of that approaches the verisimilitude of Greaney's new book with Rip Rawlings. These two in combination have done to the genre what Speilberg did to the war movie with Saving Private Ryan. Suddenly everything prior seems fake, staged and artificial and 'tacticool'. 

This collaboration is stellar. It puts together a complex timeline, memorable characters, geographic settings, strategic consideration, battle details in a compelling narrative. It works on multiple levels with remarkable precision that doesn't sound stilted and it doesn't force you to suspend disbelief while delivering just the right amount of drama. It is not romantic, nor pessimistic and it is far from far-fetched. The duo have set a new high water mark for the military thriller. 

The way this turns out I even wonder if there is much of a market for this kind of fiction written in Russia. I feel sorry for Russian authors. 

This one gets tanks, militias, choppers, close air, infantry, submarines and artillery operations down with stunning precision (as far as I could possibly tell) and by doing so takes a great combined joint strike at the genre of the special forces that do it all. What a refreshing take. The story itself is certainly plausible and it gives the reader a new take on how quickly things can go from bad to worse. No book I have read has ever done a better job of dealing with the fog of war in the manner this one does. 

A stellar effort.