Empire Rising (Trident Deception, #2) in SSG: Spy/Spec-Ops Group

Mar 13, 2015 Samuel rated it it was amazing

THE ART OF WAR

“Quantity has a quality of its own”.- Josef Stalin

"It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle."- Sun Tzu

The age of the classic military thriller ended during the Cold War and the rise of Vince Flynn’s creation, the counter-terrorist thriller g THE ART OF WAR

“Quantity has a quality of its own”.- Josef Stalin

"It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle."- Sun Tzu

The age of the classic military thriller ended during the Cold War and the rise of Vince Flynn’s creation, the counter-terrorist thriller genre. Authors like Clancy suffered a short metaphorical midlife crisis during the early years of the post 9/11 era. However, in this decade, we have the rise of “great powers”, countries which have utilized resources to be in a position to challenge the world’s only super power, the USA. The first of the “great powers” which has since been the most focused on is the People’s Republic of China. Awash with cash from the success of Deng Xiaoping’s original plan to turn the country into an economic super power in 2 decades, it has been putting large portions of that money to use, namely in conducting a massive modernization of the PLA service branches. This combined with actions annoying most of the ASEAN group has caused political tensions in the region to reach high levels as of 2015.

I first came to hear about Rick Campbell from the twitter feed of Dalton Fury, military thriller writer and friend of one of my favourite counter-terrorist thriller authors, Brad Taylor. His recommendation caught my eye, but after seeing the teaser for the second book, I decided to wait and instead check that one out instead. I’m a sucker for thrillers set in Asia, especially ones focusing on the most watched country in the region, and the description presented a fascinating worst case scenario which intrigued me greatly. After reading it, all I can say is this. Rick Campbell is the new Larry Bond, the navy veteran who got his start as the co-writer on Tom Clancy’s Red Storm Rising but leveraged that stature into writing some of the best classic military thrillers of the 1980’s, books with all the research but less bloat than the man he worked under. Mr Campbell’s second book “Empire Rising” is phenomenal. The author has blended an incredibly well researched cocktail of geopolitics, high tech-weapons systems, well rounded characters and one heck of a war plan. It’s the second best thriller focusing on China that I’ve read, easily displacing Tom Clancy’s Threat Vector, which is no mean feat. Now to the review. What are the dangers of driving a nation state to use extreme measures?

We start the story at a wedding. The Prime Minister of the PRC is watching his daughter get married. Suddenly, seconds before his security detail can get him out of the kill zone; a large bomb detonates, killing him. We then cut to the White House where National Security Advisor, Christine O’Connor is fighting a losing battle about a contentious diplomatic agreement. Said agreement, signed by multiple East Asian nations is aimed at securing America decent oil shipments in return for providing military protection against attempts by the PRC to enforce territorial claims. But a side effect of the agreement is that it actively intends to deprive the PRC of natural resources it needs to keep its economy humming along nicely. We then cut to China where President Xian Chenglei and the top brass of the PLA are putting the finishing touches to a war plan designed to save their country from total economic collapse. Anti-ship missiles are readied. The PLA’s cyberwarfare unit goes on war footing and other components, successfully primed over the span of several years in absolute secrecy go live. Finally concerned, the President sends O’Connor to Beijing to find out what is going on and stall for time. Unfortunately, the moment she arrives in the Great Hall of The People, the fireworks start and she’s taken into protective custody. Barely managing to escape with the help of a high ranking CIA asset, she’s just in time to watch the first Sino-American war commence, with a result that no one saw coming.

In terms of plot, “Empire Rising” is sublime. The pace in this book is simply perfect; the author knows how to prevent things going sluggish while keeping things interesting. He wisely doesn’t go down the route Clancy did in the 90’s, namely turning the story into a bloated paperback brick, but makes things understandable enough for us mere mortals, while at the same time showing off his expertise in naval warfare. From submarines stalking each other off the Chinese coast, to the PLA’s anti-ship missiles turning the Taiwan Strait into the ultimate killing ground, Campbell has written some of the best contemporary naval engagements in recent memory, and the first ones I have enjoyed in a very long time. The research Campbell is done (barring a few errors) is also pretty good. He’s clearly done his homework (or taken a trip to Beijing) and brings to life a plausible depiction of, the great hall of the people. And then there are the top notch descriptions on how cyber warfare can be plausibly applied in a conventional war, which were fascinating. There’s so much more to savor, but I suggest you read the book to check out this fantastic, narrative. Even the scenario the author has dreamed up is very sound. It takes into account the PRC’s known strengths, and weaknesses (no blue water capability so the battle has to be closer to home) for starters and then throws several other components which China could easily afford to purchase or build into the mix.

In terms of characters, “Empire Rising” was genuinely surprising. Most spy/military thrillers involving China have psychotic nationalists and hardline Maoists running as the opposition. My favourite spy thriller focusing on the PRC, (The Ghost War by Alex Berenson) is perhaps the only one, up until this book, which gave the Chinese “antagonist” incredibly sympathetic motivations. “Empire Rising” joins this group with the Chinese side stealing the show from the protagonists, with the author wisely avoiding dated tropes and caricature. Let’s start with Xiang Chenglei, the PRC President. A patriot, dedicated to serving his country, unlike PRC politicians in other books, he genuinely appreciates his underlings and the PLA grunts going into battle on his behalf. His personal motivations are also very understandable and in the second stage of his war plan, he makes the effort to explain to the troops what they’re fighting so they don’t repeat the past mistakes of China’s greatest historical enemy whom they’re about to invade. And unlike his equivalents, even the antagonist of Berenson’s “Ghost War”, he’s a smart leader who knows when to quit while he’s ahead, namely at the point when things start to go wrong, in order to prevent needless sacrifices. Then there’s the double-act of General Huan Zhixin and Admiral Tsou Deshi of the PLA. Huan, while power hungry due to pretty understandable reasons, is competent at his job while Tsou acts as the brains for their war effort, a proper, professional military man who effectively coordinates the assets they have to be used in an efficient manner. Next, on the American side, the people who stood out most were the crew of the USS Nimitz Aircraft carrier, especially their Captain Alex Harrow. In the section of the book they feature, they won my sympathy as what was supposed to be a simple dust-up, turns into a nightmarish, modern day “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot”, and their efforts to survive for as long as possible have to be seen to be believed. In short, Campbell does not neglect the most important part of a genre dedicated to inanimate ordinance, the human factor. This is the mark of a good writer, and it’s safe to say Mr Campbell will soon be a great writer.

Now, let me be clear. I consider this book one of the finest military thrillers I’ve ever read. However, there were a few things which detracted from my reading experience. So here’s a little criticism. First, at one point in the novel, O’Connor is handling a subcompact Glock 26. It’s an excellent choice for someone like her, a civilian, with its decent size, stopping power and capacity (compared to the likes of a “ladies gun” like the Walther PPK or SIG-Sauer P232). However, the problem was, the G26 described……had a manual safety catch. As someone who has had a chance to fire the compact Glock 19 variant and knows that Glock has never made a model with a manual safety, this error was glaring. However, since it was in the climax and I had enjoyed myself up to that point; it was easy to brush aside. Also, the Heckler and Koch MP7 was labeled an "assault rifle". It isn't. It's a PDW/Submachine-gun.
Next, we have Christine O’Connor herself. Something Larry Bond was never able to do despite his undeniably good writing abilities was to make a well-rounded female character. It appears the author was positioning her as the female equivalent to Jack Ryan (he even occupied her job during Debt of Honour), but in my opinion, he did not succeed in making me connect with Christine. She came off as rather obnoxious and impulsive. I also don’t mind some suspension of disbelief but there are several situations, due to her own recklessness, bordering on foolishness that would have gotten her killed several times over if she wasn’t lucky. And then there are her interactions with an old flame, a Navy SEAL. Making a decent romance in the spy/military thriller genre is hard to do. Only a handful of authors know how to integrate one into plots that are about guns and warfare. Over the past few years, I’ve become increasingly cynical about romances in spy/military thrillers. The one in this book between O’Connor and her former boyfriend felt like it was shoehorned in and read like the arguments of two immature pubescent high schoolers and made me cringe with every paragraph they interacted in.

Despite these small issues, Rick Campbell has crafted one of the best military thrillers focusing on China, a story which distinguishes itself from Threat Vector and Brad Thor’s “Act of war”. The plotting seemed like it was done by a seasoned pro, rather than an author on his second book. The research (barring that glaring error with the Glock and some suspension of disbelief in the parts featuring O’Connor) is well done. Forget the Tom Clancy continuations; Mr Campbell has outclassed them with easy to follow but sufficiently epic large scale warfare in this book. And most of the characters are well rounded and on the Chinese side, sympathetic, rather than cardboard cut-outs who need to be blown off the face of the planet. Empire Rising is a relevant, complex and timely novel which proves that you don’t need to write something the size of war and peace to produce something which ranks with the classics.

ABSOLUTELY RECOMMENDED.
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Apr 19, 2021 Mark rated it it was amazing

Shelves: military, tech-thriller, current-affairs, political-thriller, spy-thriller, economics

Loved the 1st entry of the "Trident Deception" series and I loved this 2nd in the series as well...Rick Campbell again gives us a Tom Clancy-ish page-turning thriller along the lines of geopolitical thrillers like "Red Storm Rising"...Very au courant in today's Cold War with China...China is threatened by a U.S. trade/environmental treaty that will restrict its access to energy resources along the lines of the pinch Japan was put in during the 30s & 40s...The PRC similarly launches an attack on ...more

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Feb 18, 2016 Jim Morton rated it it was amazing

I really liked this book. The overall subject (war in the Pacific) intrigued me, the battle descriptions were detailed and exciting, and the characters interesting. I would highly recommend reading this fast paced book.

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Apr 24, 2021 Greg Oaster rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Amazing

Story. With the fall of he Soviet Union, it seems that the natural enemy of the United States would be be Chinese. I really enjoy reading these techno thrillers that play out the different scenarios. Hopefully it will always be fiction.

This is a very well written book, good character and plot development. I did find myself looking up he different Chinese weapons platforms just to get a point of reference.

Highly recommend this book, it’s tough to put down

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