BOOK REVIEW: Red Tide: A Novel of the Next Pacific War
By M.P. Woodward /Naval Institute Press
Reviewed by: Bill Harlow
The Reviewer —Bill Harlow served as chief spokesman for the CIA from 1997 to 2004 and was Assistant White House Press Secretary for National Security from 1988 to 1992. A retired Navy captain, Harlow is the co-author of four New York Times bestsellers on intelligence and is the author of Circle William: A Novel.
REVIEW — Next month will mark the 41st anniversary of the publication of the U.S. Naval Institute Press’s first work of fiction, The Hunt for Red October. It was written by an obscure insurance salesman named Tom Clancy. The debut launched a legendary career and lit a fire under the “techno-thriller” genre.
This week USNI published a new novel called “Red Tide: A Novel of the Next Pacific War” by M. P. Woodward, a former Navy intelligence officer whose later civilian career included running international distribution marketing for Amazon Prime Video.
It is no coincidence that “Red Tide” builds on “Red October’s” legacy – although the plot bears more resemblance to Clancy’s second novel: “Red Storm Rising.” Woodward owes more to Clancy than just a similar publishers and genres – he is also a prolific author who has contributed to the Clancy franchise, most recently writing “Tom Clancy: Terminal Velicity: A Jack Ryan Jr. Novel” (published earlier this month by G.P. Putnam’s Sons.)
But for the purpose of this review – we’ll focus just on Red Tide. The book is a near-future techno-thriller about a Pacific war scenario with the U.S., China, and Taiwan at the center of the conflict. Like Clancy, Woodward blends geopolitical analysis, cutting-edge military technology, and human drama.
The novel carries an unsettling chill of plausibility. The centerpiece is a high-stakes competition between the United States and China over Taiwan’s critical semiconductor industry which, through happenstance and miscalculation, quickly bleeds into brutal combat in the Pacific. The reliance on fragile supply chains and the vulnerability of modern weapons systems without key components seems not only plausible – but likely for the near future. Readers familiar with today’s debates about semiconductor dependence, freedom of navigation, and cyber vulnerability will find the novel eerily relevant.
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In keeping with the techno-thriller genre, Woodward displays great familiarity with a wide range of current and near future weapons systems. The action sequences such as missile duels at sea, undersea insertions, and jet fighters pushing into Taiwan’s airspace are choreographed with cinematic clarity.
The novel combines sweeping geopolitical stakes with intimate personal stories. While the weapons systems are critical – the stars of the novel are the people on the pages. Most central is Admiral Will Cole and his extended family, including two seagoing sons, and an aging Taiwanese semiconductor tycoon Sam Chang and his heir. There is also an eclectic collection of Australian and Taiwanese civilians and, quite naturally, a plethora of Chinese military characters providing a broad spectrum of perspective. And key to the story is a somewhat odd venture capitalist who happens to also be a reserve naval officer. In novels like this one, I welcome the inclusion of a “principal characters” list in the book’s frontmatter – to help avoid confusion.
The novel blends meticulous technical detail about submarines, carrier operations, and semiconductor manufacturing with the personal stories of the characters caught in the crossfire. As the conflict unfolds, the book highlights the fragility of global supply chains, the precariousness of deterrence, but mostly the immense human costs of great-power rivalry.
Woodward’s background as both a novelist and former intelligence professional shows in the novel’s authenticity. When he occasionally strays from literal real-world precision, he confesses in a “letter to the reader” before the book opens, it is a conscious decision to value storytelling over technical accuracy. One example: throughout the novel the war in the Pacific seems to be almost totally conducted by decision making by the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet command. There is not a single mention of the joint Indo-Pacific Command which, as the regional combatant commander, would likely be running the show. Few readers will miss INDOPACOM’s absence.
Beyond its technical detail and geopolitical heft, Red Tide is also a very readable novel. Woodward keeps chapters lean and scenes fast-moving, often ending with cliffhanger moments that propel readers forward. The pacing generally balances large-scale strategy sessions with kinetic action sequences, preventing the narrative from ever bogging down. This accessibility makes the book appealing not only to die-hard military thriller fans but also to general readers curious about how today’s tensions could spiral into war.
Red Tide is a taut, informed, and unsettling vision of what easily could be the next great-power war. Like Clancy’s Red Storm Rising for an earlier generation, it dramatizes a conflict that everyone hopes never happens, but no one should ignore. Woodward combines technical skill with storytelling craft, making the novel both excellent entertainment and a cautionary warning.
For readers who enjoy military thrillers, geopolitical speculation, or simply a smartly told story about the precariousness of peace, Red Tide would be an excellent addition to their bookshelf. It grips readers with action, grounds them with detail, and leaves them pondering just how close fiction may be to reality.
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