Very long and very good read. However, this book seemed almost identical to Red Storm Rising except with China instead of the USSR this time, even the ending was almost identical. While Clancy is an amazing author I am starting to get sick of his novels for the mere fact that there is very little variety in them. But don't get me wrong, it was still a very good book. More than 75% of this book is just building up to the action. It takes an extremely long time to get to the actual climax of the story, but that just builds the anticipation and makes the plot line even better.