RED PHOENIX, HOWEVER, LEAVES READER BREATHLESS

14 — Wednesday, July 5, 1989 - North Shore News

Panjang thriller doesn’t deliver

THIS WEEK we have two visions of potentially disastrous
confrontation: one excellent and one pedestrian.

And, just like afl those sensa-
tionalistic TV shows that tease
viewers with the promise of dy-
hamite segments ‘coming up
shortly’ — but which always ap-
pear at the end — we'll start off
with the weakest component of
this deadly duo and build toa
climax.

Charles Ryan’s The Panjang in-
cident (Signet/Penguin; 399 pp.;
$5.95 in paperback), a naval
thriller set on and under the
waters off the Austrafian coast, is
hot all that bad, but it’s up against
some stiff competition.

The Americans are, with the col-
lusion of the Australian prime
minister, setting up a secret nu-
clear base on the isolated conti-
nent. En route the naval vessel

book review

carrying the nukes is attacked, the
crew slaughtered and one of the
missiles armed and programmed
for detonation. All of this occurs as
a western summit meeting is
scheduled to be held in — where
else? — Australia.

. Well, we can all imagine the
embarrassment that char-broiling a
lafge segment of the Australian
population would entai! (Foster's
Alight anyone?), not to mention
the chaos that would ensue when
the American president plus the
Australian and British prime
ministers were turned into bri-
quets-af-state, but The Other Side
hasn’t reckoned with the hor-
monally-driven team of Cas Bon-
ner and Napah Gilchrest, marine
explorers par excellence.

The Panjang Incident has its
good moments (the anti-submarine
warfare postions come to mind),
but ultimately sinks into the abyss
of the mundane. .

oy eee.

INDARAVE.

:

And now for the most atten-
tion-riveting, armchair-gripping,
action-packed novel of the year:
Larry Bond’s explosive Red
Phoenix (Warner/Random House;
585 pp.; $27.50 in hardcover).

Frighteningly realistic, incredibly
fast-paced, you’Il have to force
yourself to put it down occasional-
ly just to catch your breath — be-
fore plunging headiong back into
one of the best darned war sagas
in print.

Chillingly weaving modern
geopolitical tensions into the fabric
of this fictional work, Bond has
succeeded in crafting a novel of
potential warfare that will impress

.the most jaded and cynical readez.
Not since Tom Clancy's The Hunt
For Red October has a thrilier of
this calibre been lobbed into
bookstores.

Red Phoenix opens with the
discovery by American and South
Korean troops of a massive tunnel
under the Korean Demilitarized
Zone. There’s nothing unusual in
the tunnel’s presence: North.
Korean ‘moles’ aie a routine ir-
ritation in the Demilitarized Zone.

_ But unlike similar passages, this
one is crammed with the latest
Soviet-supplied battle tanks and
support vehicles. Attempts to
remove some of the alarming
hardware results in a vicious,
subterranean fire-fight, a skirmish
that presages all-out war between
the two Koreas.

_ Shortly thereafter, North Korea
launches a staggering offensive
against South Korea, Battalions of
communist troops steam-roller
across the South’s forward
defenses; submarines and surface
vessels engage in devastating
marine combat; air battles rage in
a blizzard of missiles and cannon
fire. Unprepared for the scope of
the invasion, the South’s opposi-
tion crumbles under the relentless,
bloody onsiaught.

Readers will almost immediately
forget that they‘re reading a work
of fiction, so compelling has Bond
written Red Phoenix. There is
simply no chink in this writer's ac-
count of a possible war on the
strategic Korean peninsula.

Whether describing the trials of

|".

pee

Strolling the

West Vancouver

Seawall
Drop by for a

Cappuccino or Light Meal
Guitarist. Harpist’ =. @ Very Casual Lunch,

Saturday Sunday
Brunch Brunch

Brunch, Dinner

Open 7 Days & Nighis a Week

(2427 Marine Drive, West Van.

926-8838 |

aerial warriors, battling mariners of war historian Cornelius Ryan's
or ground troops locked in morta! _ finest works. From brutal beginn-
combat, Bond brings to bear a ing to shell-shocked end, Red
wealth of war detail that com- Phoenix grips with talons of steel.
pletely embroils the reader in this Even the most skeptical of readers
swiftly unfolding story. will be dazed by the ferocious re-
So authentic are the interlocking —_alism that permeates every page.
scenes in Red Phoenix that it Grab your helmet, hole-up ina Specializing in top-fused
seems less speculative than nar- -well-fortified position and prepare _ | SOllar and cui.
rative; the occurrences smack of to be blooded: Red Phoenix has 2531 Granville Si, Vancoure,
the immediacy and human drama __risen. 731-919

Culinary
Excellence

Lunch, Dinner
and Sunday Brunch

efron

926-8922

445 13th St., West Van.

Casas

aid Bess
Creative dishes inspired by a spectacular setting

Live enteztainment
every Friday and
Saturday night.

Hey Yall!
COME
"N JOIN US \ » sony Rides _ :
FOR 4 FUN- go ima
FILLED DAYS | _

cinmer
* Don't miss if