Mick Ryan’s ‘White Sun Star’

By Christopher Miskimon

Taiwan has been a potential flashpoint for conflict between the United States and communist China since the 1950s. In this new novel, that simmering tension explodes into open warfare when China invades Taiwan in 2028. Fighting rages on the ground, at sea and in the air as well as the relatively new frontlines in both orbital space and cyberspace. New weapons come into play, such as drone swarms, robotic fighting vehicles and hypersonic missiles. At the war’s heart, however, are thousands of Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen and Space Guardians. They plan, control and deploy the new weapons and for some, still face the enemy on the battlefield.

With tensions between the United States and China seemingly on the rise, this novel provides the reader with a view of what a conflict around Taiwan might look like. The author is a retired Australian Army general with long experience in the Pacific region and the narrative incorporates his extensive knowledge of how such a war might occur. The book is written partly as though it is a history created after the war ended, and the author clearly understands the changes in warfare which the latest technology creates. Parts of it are reminiscent of the classic 1978 bestseller, The Third World War by General Sir John Hackett, updated for the 21st Century.

White Sun Star: The Campaign for Taiwan (Mick Ryan, Casemate Publishers, Havertown PA, 2023, 340 pp., maps, $22.95, softcover)

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