Ebook916 pages13 hours
Arc Light
By Eric Harry
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this ebook
In a scenario terrifyingly close to today's headlines, Harry's debut novel opens with a North Korean invasion of South Korea that leads, through a series of tragic errors and decisions, to a Russian nuclear attack on military bases in the U.S.
Like techno-thriller master Tom Clancy, Harry offers a sprawling narrative that focuses on a small army of soldiers, politicians and their families, American and Russian. National Security Advisor Greg Lambert must keep and tell secrets that may lead to Armageddon; Reservist David Chandler must leave his pregnant wife in order to drive a tank; U.S. President Walter Livingston, eager for peace, must endure the ignominy of impeachment; Russian General Yuri Razov must deal with the consequences of his initial decision to launch nuclear missiles. Ground, air and submarine battles alternate with scenes of anarchy stateside as exhausted leaders are forced to make instant decisions that might snuff out humanity forever. With a masterful grasp of military strategy and geopolitics, Harry moves his characters through nightmares of blood and death; his intricately detailed scenes of nuclear devastation are particularly horrifying. Told through a series of rapid-fire climaxes, this novel, a political and military cautionary tale of considerable power and conviction, will keep readers riveted.
—Publishers Weekly
Like techno-thriller master Tom Clancy, Harry offers a sprawling narrative that focuses on a small army of soldiers, politicians and their families, American and Russian. National Security Advisor Greg Lambert must keep and tell secrets that may lead to Armageddon; Reservist David Chandler must leave his pregnant wife in order to drive a tank; U.S. President Walter Livingston, eager for peace, must endure the ignominy of impeachment; Russian General Yuri Razov must deal with the consequences of his initial decision to launch nuclear missiles. Ground, air and submarine battles alternate with scenes of anarchy stateside as exhausted leaders are forced to make instant decisions that might snuff out humanity forever. With a masterful grasp of military strategy and geopolitics, Harry moves his characters through nightmares of blood and death; his intricately detailed scenes of nuclear devastation are particularly horrifying. Told through a series of rapid-fire climaxes, this novel, a political and military cautionary tale of considerable power and conviction, will keep readers riveted.
—Publishers Weekly
Author
Eric Harry
Eric L. Harry is an American novelist and lawyer. A graduate of Vanderbilt University (with a BA, an MBA, and a JD), Harry is the author of four novels.
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Reviews for Arc Light
Rating: 4.166666666666667 out of 5 stars
4/5
12 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Arc Light is quite a broad novel with some parts being politics, some parts being large scale nuclear attacks, some parts being first person military fighting, amongst other things. It does many things very well and has crisp and straight forward prose that draws you right in even if not up on the intricacies of the US political system.The book is about a fictional world war 3, a nuclear exchange between Russia and America, with the following conflict leading to the disbanding of NATO and a Russian attack on parts of Europe, and an American retaliation. It's quite well done with a bit of a spellbinding quality to it, it's very easy to lose an enter afternoon when you start it after lunch for a bit of a read.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The book way way underplayed the devastation of a sudden nuclear attack of this size and scope
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fantastic story! I felt part of a worldwide tragedy. I lived a terrible experience as a soldier and a civilian.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Tough book for me to rate; here is why: Bought and read "Arc Light" when it first came out in 1994. I really loved it and at that time would have given it 5 stars. I remembered the book so fondly that I decided to reread it this past summer (2009). It was not nearly as enjoyable this time around. The thing I found most laborious was all the technical depth and description of weapon systems; really seemed to bog down the story. I did not remember this as having gotten in the way during the first read. What I had remembered so fondly were the characters and the trauma the events inflicted upon their lives. That was still there on the second reading, but not as deeply felt as remembered.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I liked this book. It's about an atomic war between the USA and Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. Events roller-coaster along leading to an "exchange" that ends in a nightmare.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The politics rings true. John Dean's first hand account of a presidential crisis in "Blind Ambition" makes everything here credible and on the military side I'm mostly convinced. An awkward part of the plot is that the Russians (even after a coup) could mistake a Chinese missile strike for an American one. Having attacked China with nuclear weapons their monitoring would be looking very closely at Chinese and American responses, but even without this the first strike possibilities seem real enough.So altogether a warning against political nationalist machismo.
Book preview
Arc Light - Eric Harry
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