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Red Heroin #2
Red Dragon
Engineer and vietnam vet Paul Crane finds himself once again recruited by the CIA, this time to pretend he'll negotiate the sale of classified information on nuclear weapons to Chinese infiltrators. The CIA doesn't want the FBI to know of this domestic operation, which means Paul is practically on his own in this high-stakes and dangerous game. Sequel to RED HEROIN, which Robert A. Heinlein called "a hell of a good yarn... the most realistic counter-espionage story I've read in a long, long time."
- GenresThriller
161 pages, Paperback
First published November 29, 2012
3 people are currently reading
36 people want to read
About the author
Jerry Pournelle
264 books548 followersDr Jerry Eugene Pournelle was an American science fiction writer, engineer, essayist, and journalist, who contributed for many years to the computer magazine Byte, and from 1998 until his death maintained his own website and blog.
From the beginning, Pournelle's work centered around strong military themes. Several books describe the fictional mercenary infantry force known as Falkenberg's Legion. There are strong parallels between these stories and the Childe Cycle mercenary stories by Gordon R. Dickson, as well as Heinlein's Starship Troopers, although Pournelle's work takes far fewer technological leaps than either of these.
Pournelle spent years working in the aerospace industry, including at Boeing, on projects including studying heat tolerance for astronauts and their spacesuits. This side of his career also found him working on projections related to military tactics and probabilities. One report in which he had a hand became a basis for the Strategic Defense Initiative, the missile defense system proposed by President Ronald Reagan. A study he edited in 1964 involved projecting Air Force missile technology needs for 1975.
Dr. Pournelle would always tell would-be writers seeking advice that the key to becoming an author was to write — a lot.
“And finish what you write,” he added in a 2003 interview. “Don’t join a writers’ club and sit around having coffee reading pieces of your manuscript to people. Write it. Finish it.”
Pournelle served as President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1973.
From the beginning, Pournelle's work centered around strong military themes. Several books describe the fictional mercenary infantry force known as Falkenberg's Legion. There are strong parallels between these stories and the Childe Cycle mercenary stories by Gordon R. Dickson, as well as Heinlein's Starship Troopers, although Pournelle's work takes far fewer technological leaps than either of these.
Pournelle spent years working in the aerospace industry, including at Boeing, on projects including studying heat tolerance for astronauts and their spacesuits. This side of his career also found him working on projections related to military tactics and probabilities. One report in which he had a hand became a basis for the Strategic Defense Initiative, the missile defense system proposed by President Ronald Reagan. A study he edited in 1964 involved projecting Air Force missile technology needs for 1975.
Dr. Pournelle would always tell would-be writers seeking advice that the key to becoming an author was to write — a lot.
“And finish what you write,” he added in a 2003 interview. “Don’t join a writers’ club and sit around having coffee reading pieces of your manuscript to people. Write it. Finish it.”
Pournelle served as President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1973.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 14, 2011
I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. On the surface, it's a straightforward espionage story with plenty of action and chases. However, what moved it from a two-star to a three-star rating was the vivid descriptions sprinkled throughout the book.
Pournelle is a grand observer of life and he sprinkles his observations throughout the book. The book takes place in Seattle, the Pacific Coast (as two characters sail from Seattle to Los Angeles), and the areas around Los Angeles. In each locale, Pournelle drops in vignettes that serve to illuminate the scene and bring the characters to life. He comments on everything from 1970's-era hotel design, to the fashion choices of hippies, the perils of British manufacturing, the pleasures of a well-built sailboat, and the interesting characters one might see walking through the cities of Southern California.
One of my favorite little pieces is from a description of Venice, California:
Whether humorous or poignant, these vivid descriptions definitely moved from the book from an ordinary 2-star adventure story to a much more memorable 3-star story. (I give out few four-star ratings and almost no five-star ratings, so the number of stars shouldn't be taken as a criticism of the book. Quite the opposite, in fact.)
Pournelle is a grand observer of life and he sprinkles his observations throughout the book. The book takes place in Seattle, the Pacific Coast (as two characters sail from Seattle to Los Angeles), and the areas around Los Angeles. In each locale, Pournelle drops in vignettes that serve to illuminate the scene and bring the characters to life. He comments on everything from 1970's-era hotel design, to the fashion choices of hippies, the perils of British manufacturing, the pleasures of a well-built sailboat, and the interesting characters one might see walking through the cities of Southern California.
One of my favorite little pieces is from a description of Venice, California:
Venice was swarming with people of all shapes and sizes, old Italians and Jews living on retirement in houses they'd bought when they were the only people here, or clustered in former resort hotels converted to homes for the aged, anterooms for the funeral homes that sprouted like ghouls.
Whether humorous or poignant, these vivid descriptions definitely moved from the book from an ordinary 2-star adventure story to a much more memorable 3-star story. (I give out few four-star ratings and almost no five-star ratings, so the number of stars shouldn't be taken as a criticism of the book. Quite the opposite, in fact.)
March 20, 2019
This sequel to "Red Heroin" recycles that middling novel's formula with diminishing returns. All of the faults present in "Red Heroin" are in evidence here, but they grate that much more the second time around. Given the lightweight nature of this tale, an action story which deals with counterespionage against the threat of Chinese communism in the early 1970s, it is surprisingly padded with filler. At just barely more than 200 pages in length, devoting several entire chapters to the minutiae of small craft sailing, as well as numerous passages describing the geography of car chases and other action elements, leaves a story which could easily have been condensed down to a tightly-packed (and much more compelling) short story. All of the same cliches play out in their gratingly dated manner as well: the misogyny, the derision toward the counter-culture, the "tough guy" ethos, none of these have survived the intervening decades unscathed. (The praise from Robert Heinlein featured on the cover pretty much says it all.) Although Pournelle leaves this tale open for a sequel, it is not surprising that he did not extend this series into a trilogy. Casual readers should probably stick to the author's sci-fi. For completists only.
July 9, 2018
I loved the rich detail that Pournelle delivers here. I going to admit that the story itself wasn't the best I've ever read. But the telling... the telling is masterful.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews