Battlefield Ukraine

Red Storm Series, Book 1

By: James Rosone, Miranda Watson

Narrated by: Joel Richards

Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's Summary

Why do wars really start?

In Battlefield Ukraine, all the usual suspects are hard at work: battles over resources, money, and miscommunication. This predictive novel explores a potential war between NATO and Russia over the fate of the separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.... You'll hope this realistic scenario doesn't become a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

Lines have been drawn in the sand, but how firm are they? Will the massive disinformation campaign by the Russians trick the new American administration to do their bidding? Will the new American president back down, or will the world creep one step closer toward global war?

©2017 James Rosone and Miranda Watson (P)2018 Tantor

A Young Adult Disinformation Fantasy

Hey, this is fiction. I get that. But so many of the characters "torn from today's headlines" are absolutely cartoonish. The story is so chock full of Russian talking points ranging from the fascist anti-Russian regime in Ukraine to US election interference it had me wondering if the author was an unwitting dupe or a paid Kremlin employee. The thoughtful and insightful president who constantly outwits the bad guys, the lying media, the intelligence community, his political rivals and is surrounded by incompetent military leadership is the literary equivalent of photoshopping President Trump's head onto the picture of Rocky. If you have no experience with the military and are looking for a young adult political/military novel as a break from watching Russia Television and One America News give this a try. The reader really does a decent job.

Outstanding Story!

Great techno thriller, can't wait to buy more in the series! Edge of seat thriller!

Disappointing

Not well researched. Politically, 'fake news'. Enjoyable enough ; if you like the genre, it'll do.

Accuracy and plot holes

Overall the story has a good premise. However its the execution and general knowledge of how these battles are conducted that lacks accuracy. its all to convient how the western allies and intelligence fail at the right moment for the Russian government to succeed.

Interesting story

Very interesting, mostly plausible premise. Some of the details were a little Slavaboo biased, but if you dont seriously follow defense news you probably won't notice.

Not bad, not Clancy

I have always gone for speculative military fiction and so this peaked my interest.

The story/scenario is pretty great but the character building, dialogue, and prose is often lacking. (Some of this I would place in the narrator. Often felt like someone was reading a newspaper more than an article.

I’ll check out the next one but hope the dialogue and character arks get better.

Over one of the better WWIII plausibilities.

newsweek or novel?

Gods this book is dry. has the vibe of a logistics power point presentation.

lame

A worthy homage to Red Storm Rising

I applaud the author for taking the Red Storm Rising task of trying to novelize something as complex as WWIII. They really did an excellent job in creating a plausible scenario and working the details in the technology. This is the meat and potatoes of any good techno thriller series and it is well done here. I really look forward to the next in the series.

That being said, there are a number of logical inconsistencies and clichés. The Russian and Chinese military leaders come off as something akin to Boris Badanoff and Dr. No. The authors attempt to tie the story into current events also falls a bit flat. The American president is a thinly veiled sketch of what conservatives hoped Trump would be, which just comes off as naively comical considering the actual facts. Likewise, the attempt at depicting liberal/left leaning politicians and citizens is cartoonish and comes off as "what conservatives like to think liberals are like". To be fair Tom Clancy had the same lack of craft to do it too. Honestly much of this aspect of the book is ham-fisted and can be skipped without loss to the story.

Unless you have military jargon, info and equipment memorized keep a laptop handy to Google up what you need. It is worth it to get a visual on the latest in 21st century next gen kit.

Could have been written by a robot

It’s more of a battle simulation then a plot.
The book could use a wider view of the events playing out, More consistency in following characters and better avoiding of cliche’s.

Slow

If I've tried to listen to a book three times and still can't get into it it's not for me.

Very very good

Realistic premise based on reality ie; NATO bases in former WarPac countries provoke Russian military aggression. There is no comfy blue v red victory just the beginning of a realistic scenario of the start of WWiii with a whole series of books to get through before all is played out on a world stage. looking forward to the rest of the books

Right up my street

Brilliant first book if you like military thrillers. it sets up a good atmosphere for the next book in the series