Red Phoenix Burning

Bond and Carlson’s sequel to Red Phoenix offers a fascinating and plausible scenario of North Korean regime change. After North Korea’s hated Kim dynasty collapses in a military coup, Col. Rhee Han-gil leads his Special Forces “Ghost” Brigade across the DMZ to secure the North’s fearsome WMD stockpiles, accompanied by American Col. Kevin Little. A stalemate battle with North Korea’s Gen. Tae Seok-won for control of the capital, Pyongyang, leads to an alliance against hostile Kim loyalists and advancing Chinese forces. Meanwhile, Cho Ho-jin, a North Korean spy for the Russians, abandons his surveillance mission to aid American relief worker Kary Fowler. Cho subsequently assists Rhee and Little in a thrilling climactic battle against a potential last-minute nuclear strike by DPRK holdouts. Too-quick victories and forgettable enemies diminish the rousing battle scenes—though the naval skirmishes and aerial dogfights are standouts—but the emphasis on Korean factions rather than American players distinguishes this from the typical 38th-parallel thriller. [em](BookLife) [/em]