THUNDER ON THE RIM On the South China Sea an oil rig erupts in flames--as AK-47 tracer rounds stitch the night and men die in pools of blood. The SOSUS underwater network catapults news of the attack to Washington--while ChiCom troops mass on the Vietnamese border. Ten divisions of Chinese shock troops blast their way south, overrunning the U.S.-U.N-led Emergency Response Force. But the West's best warriors fight back. U.S. Special Forces, British SAS, and the legendary Gurkhas, their Kukri knives drawn, go toe-to-toe with the invaders. Tomcats and F-18s pulverize the jungle. And the Military Sealift Command hurls Aegis cruisers and Wasp-Iwo Jima, and Spruance-class attack ships--spearheaded by Sea Wolf subs--into the South China Sea. From Japan to Malaysia, the Pacific Rim is ablaze--in a hell called . . . WORLD WAR III "Superior to the Tom Clancy genre, with characters that came alive . . .and the military aspect far more realistic." --The Spectator