markk

In an effort to reestablish détente between his country and the Soviet Union, the President of the United States agrees to send the Seventh Fleet on a visit to Vladivostok. This intended gesture of goodwill, however, is part of a complex plot by the Soviet Union designed to seize control of the oil fields beneath the South China Sea. Worried about Soviet intentions, the director of naval intelligence, Admiral Thomas Magnuson, recruits four ex-sailors to serve as covert agents in an operation designed to uncover the Soviets' plan and aid the Chinese in response. But will Magnuson's men succeed in unraveling the Soviets' plot . . . or will the Soviets succeed in unraveling China's friendship with the U.S. and driving the Chinese out of the Pacific?

Years before Tom Clancy became a bestselling author, Charles D. Taylor wrote a number of Cold War novels depicting brave Americans standing up to Soviet machinations. Reading them today, though, it's easy to see why Clancy eclipsed him. While Taylor's premise in this novel is interesting, he fails to develop the level of suspense need for a thriller of this type. Part of the reason for this is Taylor's awkward approach to developing his characters, which consists of long flashbacks dropped throughout the first half of the book. These extended digressions add little to the book, as the main characters are largely indistinguishable from one another: the Americans are all fit Navy or ex-Navy servicemembers, the Chinese brave and proud, and the Soviets conniving and drinkers of copious amounts of vodka. Better developed action scenes might have addressed this, but even the climactic naval battle at the end of the novel — ostensibly Taylor's forte as a writer — is tepid and predictable. To the extent it deserves to be read today it's as representational of a genre of literature now three decades in the past rather than an exciting works that still holds up well today.