Red Ice

Rating:
Summary: Far better than average, BUT...
Review: The author is clearly influenced by Tom Clancy - but manages to take the genre a step further by running two stories simultaneously (they do intertwine briefly, in an rather interesting manner) but coming up with a far better ending to these stores than anything I've ever read from Clancy.

The writing is good and the technical research is better than average. The only problem with the book is that in terms of research, TECHNICAL research is where the research stopped. To me, this only costs Mr. Largent one star because the more gaping holes won't be noticeable to people who don't speak Russian and have never been to the former USSR, but:

1.) The names of the Russian characters are not, in most instances, Russian or Ukranian. One gets the sense that he either made them up or put the last names of friends in the book just for kicks. Ditto for most of the placenames, product names and Russian words. The only one he seemed to get correct was Sheremet'evo Airport. For example, the "Zaporozhets" automobile was repeatedly referred to as "Zaporozhet." I doubt the author knows that "Zaporozhets" is singular. Most product names seem to be made up, and Russian words are butchered.

2.) There were some minor (but annoying) errors that spell check didn't catch - but which an editor should have. Examples from the paperback edition include "aids" instead of "aides" on page 227 and "site" instead of "sight" on page 257.

If you can get past these errors, the book is well worth a read. One of the two stories Mr. Largent runs in the book is the one described on the back of the book. The other - a story about a woman bent on revenge and willing to go to any extreme to attain it - was a highly pleasant surprise and superbly crafted. Only the author's failure to hire a native Russian to help him out with language and placenames keeps this from a fifth star, and those who don't know the language or country won't know the difference anyway. All in all, this book is an excellent read and highly recommended.