SEA OF RED

The U.S. and China square off at sea in Bultema’s debut military novel.

U.S. and Malaysian naval forces are conducting joint military exercises in the South China Sea when, out of nowhere, a Chinese destroyer appears alongside them. The ship ignores warnings to keep its distance, instead sending back its own ominous message: “Attention, all military vessels, this is Chinese territory. China has sovereignty over these islands. You are in violation of our region. The Chinese government demands that you leave the area immediately.” The U.S. and Malaysian ships retreat, and no guns are fired…for the moment. It’s clear that it’s only a matter of time, however, until China’s increasingly aggressive tactics lead to open war. As sailors across the American Navy prepare for conflict—from a lowly recent Annapolis graduate to the president of the U.S. himself—China’s top officials believe that a decadeslong goal is finally within their reach: the conquest of Taiwan. This will require them to launch what one Chinese general calls “our version of Pearl Harbor”: the complete neutralization of the American Navy through the use of hypersonic glide missiles. Can American forces scramble fast enough to preserve their domination of the seas, or will this hot spot boil over into the next world war? Bultema’s prose is as straightforward as the characters who populate his pages, like the typically stoic Captain John “Hard Ass” Samson: “Like a shark who never stops moving to stay alive, the captain of the Nimitz was highly uncomfortable being tied up to land…No, he preferred the open seas where the big carrier was most at home and could use its horsepower to outrun almost any threat.” The cast is large—and, to some extent, interchangeable—with less focus on individuals than on the hardware and protocols that govern their lives. This is a book for true military buffs, for whom the deadly dance of two superpowers requires little ornamentation in terms of interpersonal relationships or psychological drama.

A military thriller with slight characters and high stakes.