Red Ice

Rating:
Summary: In this genre, definitely a five-star book!
Review: A friend recommended this book to me, and it exceeded his praises. "Red Ice" is a combat story, an adventure, a thriller - altogether a first-rate read. Carefully plotted with strong, well-defined characters, it shimmers with an authenticity only those with actual experience in military special operations and the raw talent to vividly describe them can achieve. The author, R.L. Crossland, led special operations in Vietnam as a Navy SEAL officer, and his service there forms the basis for the hero of Red Ice, ex-SEAL officer Quillon Frazer.

The Vietnam war is over, and Frazer is living in Japan attempting to make the transition to peace by operating a diving business. He is jerked out of this new world by a well-known Russian dissident who fears for the life of a friend consigned to the Siberian gulag - the pre-Yeltsin gulag. He offers a fortune if Frazer can rescue this prisoner, rescue him from the very heart of Siberia. The plan is brazen, the objective seemingly impossible, the conditions brutal. There is no margin for error.

Frazer views the problem as presenting three distinct aspects - equally essential, interrelated, and all with their own unique difficulties. He must locate the prisoner, arrange transportation to and from a suitably near strike-point, and recruit and train the raiding party. Each of these is thoroughly explained and explored by Frazer, and the reader is capably guided through the respective netherworlds where such things are routinely considered.

To find the prisoner, Frazer negotiates the byzantine world of international intelligence and diplomacy, explaining his contacts in intriguing detail. His military planning and logistics are especially interesting, applied as they are to the harsh Siberian climate which is perfectly described. When the wind blows across the snow and ice you hear it in these pages. Frazer calls upon a coterie of acquaintances, a facinating variety of combat specialists, to assist him. He draws these people from the elite fringes of conventional military personnel, ranging from the French Foreign Legion to British Gurkha to Royal Marines and SEALS. To assemble a cohesive unit from these strong-willed, disparate types is among the many challenges Frazer faces. His success in doing so constitutes a worthwhile study in itself apart from the compelling story he tells. Each of these specialists carries his own story within him, and Crossland writes with the authority of one who has known such men. Their training is rigorous and designed both to prepare and to cull the unreliable.

Told in the first person, one gets to know Frazer's mind in great detail which further serves to give him a reality so often missing from war stories - where heroes often become mere caricatures, their stories cartoons. Not here. This is a gripping tale, suspenseful but unpretentious, written with a sure hand and a wonderful economy of expression. It is filled with riveting observations as cold and hard as the land Frazer must travel; for example, observing prisoners milling about two bonfires following an attack on the prison, Frazer notes that "In Siberia, holidays were where you found them."

There is nothing superfluous in this book, nothing to distract the reader from the adventure unfolding before him. Although Crossland is quite at home with the intricacies of military intelligence and covert operations, his narrative never descends to endless acronyms and needless detail as a substitute for action, good dialogue, and plot. Nor is all as straight forward as it seems - a final twist invigorates the entire tale, giving even a second reading additional appeal.

I heartily recommend Red Ice to anyone who enjoys a careful, tight plot, well-drawn, unusual characters, and the unique challenges of military special operations. It is a perfect fit with the great tradition of The Guns of Navarone. It's hard to put down, even harder to forget.

R. Richard Livorine

Rating:
Summary: A Great Book
Review: A friend recommended this book to me, and it exceeded his praises. "Red Ice" is a combat story, an adventure, a thriller - altogether a first-rate read. Carefully plotted with strong, well-defined characters, it shimmers with an authenticity only those with actual experience in military special operations and the raw talent to vividly describe them can achieve. The author, R.L. Crossland, led special operations in Vietnam as a Navy SEAL officer, and his service there forms the basis for the hero of Red Ice, ex-SEAL officer Quillon Frazer.

The Vietnam war is over, and Frazer is living in Japan attempting to make the transition to peace by operating a diving business. He is jerked out of this new world by a well-known Russian dissident who fears for the life of a friend consigned to the Siberian gulag - the pre-Yeltsin gulag. He offers a fortune if Frazer can rescue this prisoner, rescue him from the very heart of Siberia. The plan is brazen, the objective seemingly impossible, the conditions brutal. There is no margin for error.

Frazer views the problem as presenting three distinct aspects - equally essential, interrelated, and all with their own unique difficulties. He must locate the prisoner, arrange transportation to and from a suitably near strike-point, and recruit and train the raiding party. Each of these is thoroughly explained and explored by Frazer, and the reader is capably guided through the respective netherworlds where such things are routinely considered.

To find the prisoner, Frazer negotiates the byzantine world of international intelligence and diplomacy, explaining his contacts in intriguing detail. His military planning and logistics are especially interesting, applied as they are to the harsh Siberian climate which is perfectly described. When the wind blows across the snow and ice you hear it in these pages. Frazer calls upon a coterie of acquaintances, a facinating variety of combat specialists, to assist him. He draws these people from the elite fringes of conventional military personnel, ranging from the French Foreign Legion to British Gurkha to Royal Marines and SEALS. To assemble a cohesive unit from these strong-willed, disparate types is among the many challenges Frazer faces. His success in doing so constitutes a worthwhile study in itself apart from the compelling story he tells. Each of these specialists carries his own story within him, and Crossland writes with the authority of one who has known such men. Their training is rigorous and designed both to prepare and to cull the unreliable.

Told in the first person, one gets to know Frazer's mind in great detail which further serves to give him a reality so often missing from war stories - where heroes often become mere caricatures, their stories cartoons. Not here. This is a gripping tale, suspenseful but unpretentious, written with a sure hand and a wonderful economy of expression. It is filled with riveting observations as cold and hard as the land Frazer must travel; for example, observing prisoners milling about two bonfires following an attack on the prison, Frazer notes that "In Siberia, holidays were where you found them."

There is nothing superfluous in this book, nothing to distract the reader from the adventure unfolding before him. Although Crossland is quite at home with the intricacies of military intelligence and covert operations, his narrative never descends to endless acronyms and needless detail as a substitute for action, good dialogue, and plot. Nor is all as straight forward as it seems - a final twist invigorates the entire tale, giving even a second reading additional appeal.

I heartily recommend Red Ice to anyone who enjoys a careful, tight plot, well-drawn, unusual characters, and the unique challenges of military special operations. It is a perfect fit with the great tradition of The Guns of Navarone. It's hard to put down, even harder to forget.

R. Richard Livorine

Rating:
Summary: In this genre, definitely a five-star book!
Review: R. L. Crossland's novel is a thriller about a daring rescue attempt in the Siberia of the Stalinist gulag - a kind of Saving Private Ryan for the Cold War era, while ranging in space and time from Viet Nam to Algeria to the Sea of Japan. Most of these kinds of books are written by writers who do tremendous research, but admit that all their knowledge is book-learning. Crossland is a retired Navy SEAL officer, diver, parachutist, etc., so the story has an immediacy that comes from experience. It is also singularly intelligent. Even if you don't catch the classical references, the book will still captivate you.