Red Metal

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars | 8,311 ratings

Price: 30.57

Last update: 05-13-2024


About this item

From the New York Times best-selling author of the Gray Man series comes a startlingly realistic novel of World War III.

A desperate Kremlin takes advantage of a military crisis in Asia to simultaneously strike into Western Europe and invade east Africa in a bid to occupy three rare Earth mineral mines that will give Russia unprecedented control over the world's hi-tech sector for generations to come.

Pitted against the Russians are a Marine lieutenant colonel pulled out of a cushy Pentagon job, a French Special Forces captain and his intelligence operative father, a young Polish partisan fighter, an A-10 Warthog pilot, and the commander of an American tank platoon who, along with his German counterpart, fight from behind enemy lines.

Through grand land, sea, and air battles to a small unit fighting hand-to-hand in the jungle, Russia and the US face off in a terrifying but thrilling battle for world dominance - with constant the threat of a Russian nuclear detonation ever present.


Top reviews from the United States

Steve Lancaster
5.0 out of 5 stars TOM CLANCY STYLE
Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2019
Red Metal

Mark Greaney, and Lieutenant Colonel Hunter R. Rawlings IV, USMC
An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019 Kindle Edition.

If you are a fan of Tom Clancy style, speculative present-day military fiction like, Hunt for Red October, and Red Storm Rising. Red Metal is just your cup of tea. The plot is a simple one, but most good stories are. Russia deems itself in a potential financial and technical crisis due to the loss of a rare earth metals mine in Kenya. The Russians develop a complex plan to regain control of the mine, embarrass the US and NATO by winning a short, limited war in Europe over a Christmas holiday.

The usual global actors are involved. China is pushing the envelope on Taiwan; seeking to undermine the government and take back control of the island. The response from the US is predictable. Military assets are moved from Europe to the far east. CSG (carrier strike groups) move from the middle east and the US to counter the threat. The Russians take advantage of the US attention away from Europe to implement the plan, Red Metal, to seize the REM (rare earth metals) mine in Kenya.

The plan is to take focus off Africa by invading Europe with a limited but focused strike on the headquarters of AFRICOM in Stuttgart. Russia believes that they can invade Europe, fight a limited war and by distracting NATO and also invade Africa with a strike army sent through Iran and across the Indian Ocean unnoticed by war fighters in Europe or the US.

The goal is to seize the REM mine and hold it. Failing in that, the Africa army has been equipped with nuclear artillery and instructed to either hold the mine or make the ground unusable for generations. What could go wrong with that?

The story outlines what are called the myths of war.

1.The myth of the short war.
After over 15 years in Afghanistan, Vietnam and Korea can any American ever believe that any war can be short, with low causalities and victorious.? Russians should not be any prouder of their record. No war meets the expectations of the planners they are always costlier, bloodier, and politically more costly than planned.

2.The myth of win from afar
It has yet to be proven that standoff weapons can win a war. It is possible to shape a battlefield and get inside an enemy decision cycle, but it takes people on the ground to hold territory.

3.The force generation myth
It has always taken time to build a force capable of fighting. You can take 10,000 men, put them in uniforms and call them a fighting division, but that does not make it so. It took Lincoln four years to defeat the South from the time he called up 70,000 volunteers in April of 1861 to victory four years later and the largest Army in. the world. In WW I it took over a year to bring forces to Europe and many of those were raw recruits. The same is true in WW II. In rough terms it takes at least one year to turn a division of recruits into more than a mob in uniforms. This myth can be restated as; you go to war with the force you have, not the force you wish you could have.

4.The myth that armies go to war
Nations go to war; armies are the tool.

As you read Red Metal every one of these myths is explored and disproved. The Russians achieve success in Europe through strategic and tactical surprise and destroy AFRICOM. However, getting out of Germany and Poland is more of a problem (myth 1). Although, the Russians have ample anti-air assets their ability to egress is hampered by the forces in the theater, especially militia. (myth 2, 3, 4)

The action is Clancy style, moving from Asia, Europe, Africa, Russia US, and Africa, highlighting individual characters in these locations. The fighting in Africa is very intense and Marine centric. The influence of Colonel Rawlings I assume. However, the defense in depth of the mine by a Marine MEU from the USS Boxer is very realistic.

The book is long, over 600 pages, so set yourself in for a long read, average about 12 hours. The action is fast paced and will keep you wondering about the outcome. The book ends with an oblivious sequel to China. Do not be surprised to see many of the same characters back for part two in Asia.
PigHippoMomster
5.0 out of 5 stars Red Metal!
Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2024
Excellent character twist and turns spanning from Europe to East Africa. I look forward to book #2!…..and Grey Man:)
JC
4.0 out of 5 stars If you like Clancy stuff, you will find this fun
Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2022
If you enjoyed early Tom Clancy you will find this one fun.

Book is written in third person, past tense: Tom jumped from the helicopter and ran to Susan.

Chapters alternate between a variety of characters who show us what is going on on both sides of the conflict. For some reason, it may just be me, I never got into any of the Russian characters at all and skipped ahead a bit early in the book in some spots.

The first quarter or third of the book is slow. The Russian plan is a little dumb IMO; It is a bit crazy to send a strike into Poland and then just have it go back to Russia just to keep people's eyes away from another plot. Why go in and blow up stuff and people and then just go home? Weird, but ok.

Then the second half of the book is really fast moving and filled with action as all the military conflicts in Europe and Africa erupt. There is tons of blow by blow tank battles and air raids and helicopter runs etc... So lots of action!

I think the main weakness is that there are few characters we really care a lot about. The main character is a nice guy and he and his partner are the intelligence people who against their superior's wishes ferret out what is going on. OK, that is fun. Then the one guy goes overseas and the first guy is pretty much out of the picture until the last five pages in the book. So the one main character is the intelligence guy who figures it out and then goes off the fight, sort of like the Jack Ryan character in Hunt for Red October. But this character is not developed much and so it is hard to care a lot about him, even though he does have a family. There are some other people and story lines that are ok: the French Special forces guy and his spy dad, but again we start to learn about the older spy dad and then he is out of the story.

There is lots of military jargon thrown around. Lots of T-4s running around and BRVs and M4s and M240 and Javelin missles firing off. The soldiers "slap in a new magazine" and pilots "pump chaff" and the machine gun fire "chews up the dirt" but Clancey was smart when (in HFRO) he had that main technology issue with the silent motor to use as an excuse for some techno-babble.

This would have been better if it had a central, developed character about whom we cared about.

It is not a bad book if you like this kind of thing.
Vernon Beatty
5.0 out of 5 stars Tremendous Reading
Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2024
Inspiring, well-researched book that brought me back to my days serving in Germany during the Cold War. I rarely read a military story that I does not distract me by reading mistakes and Hollywood exaggeration. But this book is spot on. Thank you to the authors for the meticulous detail. The story itself is realistic and riveting. I look forward to their next endeavors.
Anamika
5.0 out of 5 stars The book you wish had more pages…
Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2024
Brad Thor had commented that you can’t put the book down and that’s a true statement. The plot is complex but very well laid out and counter actions keeps you engrossed. I had the pleasure of reading an amazing book and bought another copy as a gift to someone whom I know would enjoy reading it too.

Question to the authors - why did you kill the one character which made us feel optimistic about the whole mess?
jamie
5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting Action
Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2024
Greaney has done it again with an amazing new cast of characters. Fantastic descriptions of weaponry and battle strategies. His character development and movement from setting to setting had me playing it in my head as a movie screenplay. I have already casted my the roles with some great actors for his bigger than life characters.

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