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Show of Force
Two men stand in the darkened control rooms of their ships. David Charles and Alex Kupinsky are worried because, as the admirals of the two largest, most powerfully equipped naval fleets in history, they may be responsible for all-out nuclear war. They are also concerned because once, a long time ago, they were the best of friends.
Show of Force speaks of a time when men become warriors and all the world is a battlefield.
Show of Force speaks of a time when men become warriors and all the world is a battlefield.
346 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
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61 people want to read
About the author
Charles D. Taylor
27 books10 followersCharles D. Taylor is an American author known for his technothrillers, particularly the Bernie Ryng series, which presents Cold War-era naval conflicts set in the near future. His writing emphasizes action at sea and geopolitical tensions.
His Bernie Ryng series includes First Salvo, Choke Point, Counterstrike, and Deep Sting. He has also written standalone novels such as Show of Force, which explores the brink of World War Three, as well as Silent Hunter, War Ship, Boomer, Shadow Wars, Sightings, and Summit.
Taylor's work is marked by detailed military strategy and a focus on naval warfare, reflecting his deep knowledge of the subject.
His Bernie Ryng series includes First Salvo, Choke Point, Counterstrike, and Deep Sting. He has also written standalone novels such as Show of Force, which explores the brink of World War Three, as well as Silent Hunter, War Ship, Boomer, Shadow Wars, Sightings, and Summit.
Taylor's work is marked by detailed military strategy and a focus on naval warfare, reflecting his deep knowledge of the subject.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
December 10, 2020
When I was growing up, my local library was one of my favorite haunts. It was by walking through their stacks and perusing their displays that I came across many of the books that I would take home to enjoy. One of these was Charles D. Taylor’s novel. Before Tom Clancy made his millions churning out stories of Cold War-era conflicts between the superpowers, Taylor published his tale about a battle between American and Soviet armadas in the Indian Ocean. I can still remember how I was drawn to the stark minimalism of the dustjacket, and how eagerly I devoured the description of the battles that waged between the opposing vessels. Recently I encountered a paperback copy at a used bookstore, and seeing it brought all those memories of reading it flooding back, inspiring me to reread it to see how well it well it has held up.
What stands out most today are the very elements I avoided when I first read it. More interested in the naval battle than I was in the characters, I skipped over Taylor’s development of the novel’s two central figures. Though commanding forces on opposing sides, the two men, David Charles and Alex Kupinsky, are both portrayed as honorable men who over the course of their careers develop a strong friendship towards one another. Taylor first matches them up against each other during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the two young lieutenants find themselves on ships facing off against one another in the blockade. They meet face-to-face over a decade later while stationed as naval attaches in London, by which time they have gone on to further distinction in their respective careers.
All of this is meant to add a layer of tragedy to the battle that the author situates at the heart of his novel. Yet for all of his effort Taylor fails to develop his two main characters beyond this. Instead they become little more than archetypes of great naval officers – smart, dedicated, brave, and patriotic leaders of men. Even the log entries and letters that Taylor inserts between the chapters don’t do a lot to differentiate them or flesh them out beyond the roles they perform. And these two represent Taylor’s most sustained effort to develop any of the characters in his book, as the rest are often little more than names or even just titles inserted to play supporting roles.
This matters when it comes to the action. It was here where the contrast with someone like Tom Clancy stood out for me; by developing his characters to the degree that he does, Clancy used them effectively to convey the emotional impact of the action in his books. By contrast, the action in Taylor’s novel comes across more as zapping targets in a video game, with little real emotional impact conveyed in the description of the thousands of men dying as a result of the battle. It all feels incredibly hollow and pointless, an excuse for writing up what amounts to a paper exercise hypothesizing what a 1980s naval battle might look like. The artificiality of the premise and the conditions only underscores this, as it’s all so Taylor can have his ships pounding each other to smithereens.
In retrospect, its easy to see why novels such as Taylor’s are not regarded as great literature. For all of the enthusiasm their authors bring to writing them, by prioritizing the action over the characters they leave out what it takes to make for truly gripping fiction. The result is little more than a series of descriptions of imagined battles that in this book are conveyed with all the enthusiasm and punch of the rattling off of a list of ships’ names in a column. It makes me realize just how much my appreciation of the book is tied up with nostalgia for my blissfully naïve youth, and how in the end this caused me to remember this book with more fondness than it deserves for its merits.
What stands out most today are the very elements I avoided when I first read it. More interested in the naval battle than I was in the characters, I skipped over Taylor’s development of the novel’s two central figures. Though commanding forces on opposing sides, the two men, David Charles and Alex Kupinsky, are both portrayed as honorable men who over the course of their careers develop a strong friendship towards one another. Taylor first matches them up against each other during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the two young lieutenants find themselves on ships facing off against one another in the blockade. They meet face-to-face over a decade later while stationed as naval attaches in London, by which time they have gone on to further distinction in their respective careers.
All of this is meant to add a layer of tragedy to the battle that the author situates at the heart of his novel. Yet for all of his effort Taylor fails to develop his two main characters beyond this. Instead they become little more than archetypes of great naval officers – smart, dedicated, brave, and patriotic leaders of men. Even the log entries and letters that Taylor inserts between the chapters don’t do a lot to differentiate them or flesh them out beyond the roles they perform. And these two represent Taylor’s most sustained effort to develop any of the characters in his book, as the rest are often little more than names or even just titles inserted to play supporting roles.
This matters when it comes to the action. It was here where the contrast with someone like Tom Clancy stood out for me; by developing his characters to the degree that he does, Clancy used them effectively to convey the emotional impact of the action in his books. By contrast, the action in Taylor’s novel comes across more as zapping targets in a video game, with little real emotional impact conveyed in the description of the thousands of men dying as a result of the battle. It all feels incredibly hollow and pointless, an excuse for writing up what amounts to a paper exercise hypothesizing what a 1980s naval battle might look like. The artificiality of the premise and the conditions only underscores this, as it’s all so Taylor can have his ships pounding each other to smithereens.
In retrospect, its easy to see why novels such as Taylor’s are not regarded as great literature. For all of the enthusiasm their authors bring to writing them, by prioritizing the action over the characters they leave out what it takes to make for truly gripping fiction. The result is little more than a series of descriptions of imagined battles that in this book are conveyed with all the enthusiasm and punch of the rattling off of a list of ships’ names in a column. It makes me realize just how much my appreciation of the book is tied up with nostalgia for my blissfully naïve youth, and how in the end this caused me to remember this book with more fondness than it deserves for its merits.
April 22, 2015
Fun, but dated.....then again, given the current state of US-Russia relations, maybe not so dated after all?? Published in 1980, a full 4 years before Tom Clancy's first novel, "The Hunt for Red October." Exciting hi-tech (yes, still fairly hi-tech even though the book is now 35 years old) naval action on a par with the sea battle scenes from Clancy's "Red Storm Rising," transpiring over an obscure island in the Indian Ocean where a (not-so) secret American missile base is located. A huge human interest story is provided by the fact that the two leading adversaries, USN Vice Admiral David Charles and his Soviet counterpart, Admiral Alexander "Alex" Kumpinsky, had been the best of friends (as were their wives), Cold War superpower rivalries notwithstanding, years earlier when they were naval attaches assigned to London.
Entertaining, but a few technical and plot development gaffes that prevent me from giving a higher rating:
--multiple typos throughout the book (to name just one example, "excape" instead of "escape"), which shows poor editing on somebody's part.
--the backstory of the two main characters (Charles' story starting as a freshly commissioned Ensign during the JFK Administration and continuing on as an O-3 Lieutenant and PBR skipper in the "brown water" of Vietnam, Kupinsky's as a young lad in WWII) is fascinating and intriguing, but it takes a LONG time to develop, about a third of the novel, and it's a bit distracting from the main "present-day" storyline, and moreover, the author bounces back and forth between past and present without any transitional markers for the reader to immediately discern the jump between past and present.
--In Russia and the other (now Former) Soviet Republics, the correct diminutive (pet name or nickname if you will) for Alexander or Aleksandr is "Sasha," not the Westernized "Alex." I wouldn't nitpick this one so much if it were just the American characters like David Charles and his wife Maria using it, but Kupinsky's fellow Russians use "Alex" too, which is not culturally correct.
--While David Charles is definitely a high-speed officer, it still strains credulity that he'd make VADM after barely 20 years time-in-service.
--p. 290: Did F-14 Tomcats, being designed as long-range interceptors for carrier defense, ever actually carry air-to-surface ordnance, particularly anti-submarine warfare (ASW) rockets? I imagine that besides the helicopters (which the author does describe in detail), the S-3 Viking and the P-3 Orion would be the airframes primarily geared toward ASW work.
--p. 294 Tomcats use rotary Vulcan **cannons**, not true "machine guns" per se as the author describes them. Semantics, I know, but I expect a bit more technical accuracy for a techno-thriller like this one to have more credibility
--p. 322: "Federation of Arab Emirates" should be "United Arab Emirates (UAE)"
--the author mentions the Soviets using "Gatling" guns. While I'm sure the Russians had (and still have) rotary cannons that employ the same mechanics at the Gatling, I seriously doubt that they would use such an "imperialist Western" label like Gatling and rather use a home-grown and native-named equivalent piece of ordnance.
Still worth reading though...and with a cruel, ironic twist of fate at the end (I'll leave it at that, to avoid the spoiler effect).
Entertaining, but a few technical and plot development gaffes that prevent me from giving a higher rating:
--multiple typos throughout the book (to name just one example, "excape" instead of "escape"), which shows poor editing on somebody's part.
--the backstory of the two main characters (Charles' story starting as a freshly commissioned Ensign during the JFK Administration and continuing on as an O-3 Lieutenant and PBR skipper in the "brown water" of Vietnam, Kupinsky's as a young lad in WWII) is fascinating and intriguing, but it takes a LONG time to develop, about a third of the novel, and it's a bit distracting from the main "present-day" storyline, and moreover, the author bounces back and forth between past and present without any transitional markers for the reader to immediately discern the jump between past and present.
--In Russia and the other (now Former) Soviet Republics, the correct diminutive (pet name or nickname if you will) for Alexander or Aleksandr is "Sasha," not the Westernized "Alex." I wouldn't nitpick this one so much if it were just the American characters like David Charles and his wife Maria using it, but Kupinsky's fellow Russians use "Alex" too, which is not culturally correct.
--While David Charles is definitely a high-speed officer, it still strains credulity that he'd make VADM after barely 20 years time-in-service.
--p. 290: Did F-14 Tomcats, being designed as long-range interceptors for carrier defense, ever actually carry air-to-surface ordnance, particularly anti-submarine warfare (ASW) rockets? I imagine that besides the helicopters (which the author does describe in detail), the S-3 Viking and the P-3 Orion would be the airframes primarily geared toward ASW work.
--p. 294 Tomcats use rotary Vulcan **cannons**, not true "machine guns" per se as the author describes them. Semantics, I know, but I expect a bit more technical accuracy for a techno-thriller like this one to have more credibility
--p. 322: "Federation of Arab Emirates" should be "United Arab Emirates (UAE)"
--the author mentions the Soviets using "Gatling" guns. While I'm sure the Russians had (and still have) rotary cannons that employ the same mechanics at the Gatling, I seriously doubt that they would use such an "imperialist Western" label like Gatling and rather use a home-grown and native-named equivalent piece of ordnance.
Still worth reading though...and with a cruel, ironic twist of fate at the end (I'll leave it at that, to avoid the spoiler effect).
June 3, 2019
I'm always up for a good Navy thriller, and when I saw the fairly accurate depiction of USS Long Beach and USS Enterprise on the cover I figured this would be a more or less authentic yarn. I wasn't wrong. It's a corking good story of battle on the high seas between the Russian and American fleets at the height of the cold war. Still there were a few nagging details that leads a reader to suspect that the author might not have researched his subject as well as he could have. For example the misspelling of the name of USS Truxtun and referring to its forward launcher (the ship had a launcher aft, and a 5-inch gun mount forward); and the nearly unforgivable (to a sailor) gaffe of giving a ship's speed in "knots per hour".
April 11, 2018
enjoyed this book to great worriers.
December 28, 2020
A little confusing as the premise to set up the story wad a little confusing.
And please, will someone proof the copy and fix tge typos and spelling issues
And please, will someone proof the copy and fix tge typos and spelling issues
April 9, 2021
Good writing by Charles Taylor, but it sure shows the stupidity of war.
April 22, 2015
Fun, but dated.....then again, given the current state of US-Russia relations, maybe not so dated after all?? Published in 1980, a full 4 years before Tom Clancy's first novel, "The Hunt for Red October." Exciting hi-tech (yes, still fairly hi-tech even though the book is now 35 years old) naval action on a par with the sea battle scenes from Clancy's "Red Storm Rising," transpiring over an obscure island in the Indian Ocean where a (not-so) secret American missile base is located. A huge human interest story is provided by the fact that the two leading adversaries, USN Vice Admiral David Charles and his Soviet counterpart, Admiral Alexander "Alex" Kumpinsky, had been the best of friends (as were their wives), Cold War superpower rivialries notwithstanding, years earlier when they were naval attaches assigned to London.
Entertaining, but a few technical and plot development gaffes that prevent me from giving a higher rating:
--multiple typos throughout the book (to name just one example, "excape" [sic] instead of "escape"), which shows poor editing on somebody's part.
--the backstory of the two main characters (Charles' story starting as a freshly commissioned Ensign during the JFK Administration and continuing on as an O-3 Lieutenant and PBR skipper in the "brown water" of Vietnam, Kupinsky's as a young lad in WWII) is fascinating and intriguing, but it takes a LONG time to develop, about a third of the novel, and it's a bit distracting from the main "present-day" storyline, and moreover, the author bounces back and forth between past and present without any transitional markers for the reader to immediately discern the jump between past and present.
--In Russia and the other (now Former) Soviet Republics, the correct diminutive (pet name or nickname if you will) for Alexander or Aleksandr is "Sasha," not the Westernized "Alex." I wouldn't nitpick this one so much if it were just the American characters like David Charles and his wife Maria using it, but Kupinsky's fellow Russkies use "Alex" too, which is not culturally correct.
--While David Charles is definitely a high-speed officer, it still strains credulity that he'd make VADM after barely 20 years time-in-service.
--p. 290: Did F-14 Tomcats, being designed as long-range interceptors for carrier defense, ever actually carry air-to-surface ordnance, particularly anti-submarine warfare (ASW) rockets? I imagine that besides the helos (which the author does describe in detail), the S-3 Viking and the P-3 Orion would be the airframes primarily geared toward ASW work.
--p. 294 Tomcats use rotary Vulcan **cannons**, not true "machine guns" per se as the author describes them. Semantics, I know, but I expect a bit more technical accuracy for a techno-thriller like this one to have more credibility
--p. 322: "Federation of Arab Emirates" should be "United Arab Emirates (UAE)"
--the author mentions the Soviets using "Gatling" guns. While I'm sure the Russkies had (and still have) rotary cannons that employ the same mechanics at the Gatling, I seriously doubt that they would use such an "imperialist Western" label like Gatling and rather use a home-grown and native-named equivalent piece of ordnance.
Still worth reading though...and with a cruel, ironic twist of fate at the end (I'll leave it at that, to avoid the spoiler effect).
Entertaining, but a few technical and plot development gaffes that prevent me from giving a higher rating:
--multiple typos throughout the book (to name just one example, "excape" [sic] instead of "escape"), which shows poor editing on somebody's part.
--the backstory of the two main characters (Charles' story starting as a freshly commissioned Ensign during the JFK Administration and continuing on as an O-3 Lieutenant and PBR skipper in the "brown water" of Vietnam, Kupinsky's as a young lad in WWII) is fascinating and intriguing, but it takes a LONG time to develop, about a third of the novel, and it's a bit distracting from the main "present-day" storyline, and moreover, the author bounces back and forth between past and present without any transitional markers for the reader to immediately discern the jump between past and present.
--In Russia and the other (now Former) Soviet Republics, the correct diminutive (pet name or nickname if you will) for Alexander or Aleksandr is "Sasha," not the Westernized "Alex." I wouldn't nitpick this one so much if it were just the American characters like David Charles and his wife Maria using it, but Kupinsky's fellow Russkies use "Alex" too, which is not culturally correct.
--While David Charles is definitely a high-speed officer, it still strains credulity that he'd make VADM after barely 20 years time-in-service.
--p. 290: Did F-14 Tomcats, being designed as long-range interceptors for carrier defense, ever actually carry air-to-surface ordnance, particularly anti-submarine warfare (ASW) rockets? I imagine that besides the helos (which the author does describe in detail), the S-3 Viking and the P-3 Orion would be the airframes primarily geared toward ASW work.
--p. 294 Tomcats use rotary Vulcan **cannons**, not true "machine guns" per se as the author describes them. Semantics, I know, but I expect a bit more technical accuracy for a techno-thriller like this one to have more credibility
--p. 322: "Federation of Arab Emirates" should be "United Arab Emirates (UAE)"
--the author mentions the Soviets using "Gatling" guns. While I'm sure the Russkies had (and still have) rotary cannons that employ the same mechanics at the Gatling, I seriously doubt that they would use such an "imperialist Western" label like Gatling and rather use a home-grown and native-named equivalent piece of ordnance.
Still worth reading though...and with a cruel, ironic twist of fate at the end (I'll leave it at that, to avoid the spoiler effect).
August 3, 2016
I first read this a thousand years ago, back in the bleak days of the early 1980s. It's a fine, galloping read--- a fine techno-thriller. It came out right in 1980, making it four years earlier than "Red October" and six years before "Red Storm Rising". Fine use of technical detail--- in other words, weapons systems are noted and briefly described, without the author becoming lost in technical detail. The political background is a bit awkward--- finding a plausible reason for a naval clash, finding ways to keep it from escalating into a nuclear exchange ---but the combat sequences are excellent. Well worth reading on a long weekend night. And I will note that, even thirty-six years on, the technical details aren't as obsolete as one might think.
November 21, 2015
Super Sailors-in-Training
I am an avid reader, and this is one of the best-researched; best-told novels I have ever read. The story develops through the eyes of two Sailor-Leaders at progressing times in their exciting Navy-life experiences. The ending will take your breath away; it certainly did mine!!
I am an avid reader, and this is one of the best-researched; best-told novels I have ever read. The story develops through the eyes of two Sailor-Leaders at progressing times in their exciting Navy-life experiences. The ending will take your breath away; it certainly did mine!!
November 12, 2015
Best read in years
This is the best read I've had since Das Boot back in the 70's. Non-stop action with some realistic and vicious twists and turns. I must confess that it's not my typical historically accurate or biography read, but I couldn't stop.
This is the best read I've had since Das Boot back in the 70's. Non-stop action with some realistic and vicious twists and turns. I must confess that it's not my typical historically accurate or biography read, but I couldn't stop.
March 22, 2016
A great read. Carry and sobering.
This was my first book from this author and I am glad I picked it. The plot is fiction but this is possible. A great account of what could happen if governments lost control.
This was my first book from this author and I am glad I picked it. The plot is fiction but this is possible. A great account of what could happen if governments lost control.
June 17, 2014
too long
April 12, 2015
Great story with many plots
Sometimes story lags but overall an excellent read .it deserves all 5 stars and more. The sea times are spellbinding to say the least.
Mike
,
Sometimes story lags but overall an excellent read .it deserves all 5 stars and more. The sea times are spellbinding to say the least.
Mike
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews