Book#60 : Invasion: Alaska

From the first page, Invasion: Alaska grabbed me. I had read a bunch of Heppner's Doom Star series, and grabbed a sample of this as I headed out the door for camping. I found myself hooked and purchased the book while in camp, reading at night and then finishing it when I got home.

It's the future, not too far away where China is the major superpower, and while the US is strong, they're much weaker than in the past, having cut so much defense spending. After the glacation of the world has changed weather patterns, China is struggling to feed their people. China had previously attacked and annexed Siberia, and is the largest country. One of the ministers, seeking to grow his power, has an oil well off California blown up and then boldly suggests invading Alaska, taking the Northern oil slopes and also Anchorage to force the US to send grain to China.

The book reminds me of Clancy a bit, though it has Heppner's realistic style. We get close to some characters, learning some back story and then they're killed. That's how war goes. We see people in China and in the US being killed as the invasion blitzkriegs through the state, but then bogs down for various reasons.

The writing isn't fantastic, and you can almost predict things as they come about. We can see the mistakes being made, and guess where the battles might go one way or the other, but it's an exciting read, reminiscent of Red Storm Rising.