Book Review – Larry Bond’s “Vortex”
The other day I finished reading Larry Bond‘s epic novel, Vortex. This 896-page book takes you into South Africa of the early 1990s with the idea of a radical seizing control of the country, going as far as launching a full-scale military attack against neighboring Namibia.
Vortex takes you back to the days near the end of the apartheid government and racial clashes throughout the country. The country is on the verge of changing when a hardline Afrikaner and his radicals assassinate the South African president and gain control of the country. The new regime launches a military attack against Namibia, which causes the Cuban troops stationed there to retaliate, launching their own campaigns from Namibia and Mozambique into South Africa.
Vortex feels like two books in one, with the first story being an adventure, suspense story and the second one involving global strategy and hardcore military action.
The first have of the novel feels like an espionage story filled with suspense and moments of action as we follow an American news reporter figure out what exactly is happening in the previously quiet and sleepy country. Once he gathers evidence of the current regime being behind the terrorist attack that assassinated the president, it’s a cat-and-mouse game of smuggling the footage out of South Africa and make his news reports while trying to avoid the government brownshirts and media blackout/censorship.
It’s in the first half of the novel where we follow along with the South African military as they fight against the Cubans defending Namibia. Bond paints a vivid picture of what was considered modern warfare at the time of writing (1991). It’s violent and bloody as forces clash in the arid region.
The middle part of the novel is where we face a transition of being a suspense story and one of global strategy. The United States government has to figure out a way of stopping the radicals without the situation escalating into a regional war. The Cuban military gains an upper hand (thanks to backing from the Soviet Union), and they begin their push into South Africa with goals of capturing the capital as well as valuable gold mines, seizing an important victory for Communists around the world.
It really isn’t until the last quarter of the book until the American military gets involved in South Africa. We see a daring attack by the U.S. Army Rangers as well as some very cool action involving a battleship. By the time the Americans make their invasion, it isn’t long before combat in the region finally concludes.
One of the key things about South Africa in this novel is that at the time of writing (1991), South Africa was a nuclear-armed country. The Cubans had access to chemical weapons. In the story, the two met and used their weapons considered too evil for warfare.
What sets this story apart from other military thrillers from other authors is that Larry Bond took the action to the next level. Instead of a big buildup of forces and nearly breakout of war, most authors have their hero save the day and stop war from occurring. That’s not the case here. In Vortex, we see large-scale combat operations involving everything from armies fighting to artillery bombardments to aircraft making strafing runs to special forces to ship-to-shore combat with a battleship!
And of course, we do see a nuclear and chemical weapons in action.
This story shows warfare at its worst.
That’s part of what makes Larry Bond’s stories so interesting. He’s not afraid to take it to the next level or the next one after that. Red Phoenix was an outstanding story that brought war back to the Korean Peninsula, and Vortex took military combat to South Africa. At some point I’ll read Cauldron and see how Mr. Bond handles situations in Western Europe.
My only complaint with Vortex is that we don’t see a bigger clash between the American and South African and Cuban forces. The American forces easily shift the balance of power in their direction (to be fair, the Cuban army was using outdated equipment), picking and choosing their skirmishes until they invade the country. This story could have been spectacular if the Soviets also committed their forces and threw all of southern Africa into the battle.
Nonetheless, Vortex is still a great military story. It feels like an endurance run going through a novel that long, but the story kept moving and there was plenty of action mixed with adventure and suspense. At times the story feels like reading a history book, looking nearly twenty years back in time at a South African country that has seen change since the days of living in apartheid.
If you’re looking for a great military warfare story, don’t miss out on Vortex!