Mark GreaneyRed Metal

Red MetalMark Greaney, and Lieutenant Colonel Hunter R. Rawlings IV, USMCAn 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.

Couldn’t put the book down! Wanted more!

He is a good writer. Easy to read and interesting stories.

You can't put it down!! Looking forward to the followup.

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.

I really enjoyed this book. It has it all. Suspense, intrigue, and adventure. You name it and it has it. I appreciated the even handed treatment of other than US forces in the story. They were presented as courageous, efficient, and worthy warriors. I especially liked the way the characters were woven together in the plot of the story. This book kept me on the edge of my seat anticipating the next twist or turn. I highly recommend this book.

This book was every bit as fast paced as the many Gray Man novels by Greaney I've read. Clearly the partnership writing this was a grand success!

I really enjoyed Red Metal. I wasn’t sure I’d like it as much as The Gray Man series, but I did—sure hope Mark writes more in this series. This book is great for book readers who love action, the US military, people who have served in Europe/Africa and live adventure.

I have only given this book two stars not because it is not a good story – it is, rather akin to Gripping Yarns. But the claims that it is well researched etc are just so wide of the mark if one has a bit of background or time to do a bit of checking up. I will detail a few examples of why this book goes into the fantasy bracket, rather than the techno-thriller bucket.The French Army in Kenya. The French Army has never been in Kenya, it has always been safely inside the UK sphere of influence. It was originally part of the Empire from the late 1800s until independence in 1964, after which it joined the British Commonwealth. The French “bit” of Africa is over in West Africa and consists of a huge amount of desert. It is also keeping the French armed forces fully tied up trying to contain various Islamic fundamentalist Jihadists wandering the desert pathways. The UK is involved over there providing strategic airlift to France, something they lack themselves. In addition to these points it is also worth pointing out that the UK has a battalion training in Kenya for something like 6 months of the year, so if the Kenyans were to request anyone’s support, it would naturally be the army that has experience working in their environment and with their army.Russian Army Structure. The authors make a great deal about the Russians employing a Brigade for their strategic Operational raids into Germany and Kenya. Throughout the narrative, however, the authors continuously refer to Regiments as part of the brigade. I suggest a quick Google search of Russian Rifle Regiment to get some background. A MRR is in every other army’s terminology, a Brigade. It consists of 3 or 4 combat battalions with supporting arms. A Motor Rifle Division consists of three or more MRR plus supporting arms (artillery, engineers, AD etc). It is therefore quite clear that the Russian forces in each theatre are a strong divisional sized formation with a full range of supporting arms.Russian hacking. The authors have the whole gamut of NATO communications taken down by elite hackers. Unfortunately this is just not going to happen since NATO secure communications are not connected in any way to the internet so cannot he hacked by the Russians. So in the event of a Russian attack NATO forces would be in communication with each other and their Supreme Operational HQ at Mons in Belgium from the very first moment, and certainly by the time the Russians bounce the early Polish forces.Russian Air Attacks. As the opening stage of the Russian attack, Russian Air Force aircraft penetrate NATO airspace to attack satellites over Germany. There is some hat tipping towards the NAEW force in Germany, but it does not get off its backside. This is a travesty of the real situation. NATO maintain an Air Policing Mission at all times (24/7) over the eastern border. This consists of at least two two ship patrols north and south and backed up at all times by at least one AWACS. While it is possible for Russia to attack satellites over Germany they would e unable to do this with detection and a rapid escalation of the NATO postureAmerican counter attack. This is formed by a scratch force of logisticians and maintainers at Grafenwohr. I remain confused how a Brigade level force of non-tankers are able to continuously engage with and effectively defeat a formation 3 to 4 times larger composed of combat arms specialists. I was a military maintainer so am happy for my side of the house to get some recognition, but steady boys.Route in Africa. For some reason the authors have the Russians, with Iranian support decide to invade and take over Djibouti. After securing the port and surrounding area the Russian Brigade (actually read as Division) sets off for Kenya. Unfortunately the only usable road out of Djibouti takes the traffic to Addis Addaba, the capital of Ethiopia. There is no way around this as south and south-east from the port is the Ogaden desert. For reason unknown, the Ethiopian army is not involved is trying to stop a Russian force invading their country. No explanation of this is given and no side bar demonstrates that the authors understand this. If you ever visit Ethiopia you will discover that the infrastructure does not support the sort of forces being deployed here, and getting a force of this size and complexity over the Ethiopian escarpment would be a major achievement in its own right. Given that Mogadishu in Somalia is not defended by an army and is very close to the northern border of Kenya, one has to wonder why that was not the chosen drop odd spot – easy to reach, no local opposition and shorter travel to destination.My last comment is about the NATO response. There is none, even though SACEUR would have the following forces at his disposal from day one: French Rapid Reaction Corps at Lille, German Dutch Corps at Munster, Westphalia, UK 1st Armoured Division North Germany, EuroCorps at Strasbourg, plus additional US Forces throughout Germany – and that is just the army boys. As already identified above, NATO secure comms would have been buzzing from the moment the Russians crossed into Poland and SACEUR in Mons would have taken very strong and immediate action to marshal Allied forces and respond quickly.US Marines. I thought the whole Marines thing worked well, the dialogue was robust and punchy, just what you expect from good troops of this type. The combat sequences were very authentic and well written and I had no problem with that aspect of the story. It is a pity that the strong effort here was let down by poor research on these other points.

I do not do reviews unless it is very good or not very good. Very good. Well written. From the first page to the last. Really like it. Thanks Mark

I have been a fan for years and have read all his books. This did not disappoint, Well written and i couldn't put it down cant wait for another one

I have really enjoyed this book. Once I have started I could almost not stop reading.The story is well driven and managed. I really recommend it.However I have to say that I have given this book just 4 stars because in some cases the lack of research on some military matters is clearly evident. Leopard 2 tanks with "130 mm uranium depleted APFSDS" or Marine F-35 being shoot down like flies by old ZSU-23-4 Shilkas or Russian nuclear submarines surfacing to make radio transmisions and being detected by "radar" by a USN Submarine withouth this one being detected by its radar use.....Let's say it is surely not Red Storm Raising on research level but surely exciting and very nice to read if you are not really "picky" on such details. I am and for this reason I gave it just 4 start but again I have to say that despite this issues, the book is very exciting, nice to read and I really recommend it.

As others have mentioned, this is a worthy successor to Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising. It very well may be the superior of the two novels. Yes, I found it to be that good.The authors are as comfortable describing big picture strategy and tactics as they are describing in detail weapons and weapons systems. Action occurs on land, sea, and air on (primarily) two continents and there's LOTS of it - probably 75% of the book is combat, either directly or indirectly. Land combat is described from roughly the regiment / brigade level down to the individual character's experiences.The plot - the reason the Russians unleash the dogs of war - was plausible in my opinion. Or at least plausible enough for a willing suspension of disbelief.Characterization isn't given short thrift either; characters are fleshed out fully and none are a cardboard cutout good guy / bad guy. (Besides several of the American protagonists, one of my favourite characters was Captain Apollo Arc-Blanchette of the French special forces.)Enthusiastically recommended to any fan of quality military action novels.