White Sun War: The Campaign for Taiwan

by Mick Ryan

Overview

After decades of poising on the brink, the United States and China finally go to war when China invades the island of Taiwan, battling for global supremacy in all domains—even space and cyberspace.

After decades of poising on the brink, the United States and China finally go to war when China invades the island of Taiwan. Deploying their most futuristic technologies in this grand strategic competition of the 21st century, the stakes could not be higher. Not only the future of the Taiwanese people but the fate of the world lies in the balance.

In an era when humans no longer just use machines, but partner with them in all aspects of military operations, this fictional account views this future war through the eyes of the American, Chinese, and Taiwanese caught up in the maelstrom, revealing the heartbreak, courage, leadership, and despair of high-tech warfare played out on land, at sea, in space, and in cyberspace.

White Sun War asks readers to ponder anew an essential question for the future of security in western Pacific and the entire Indo-Pacific region: is a war for Taiwan winnable?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781636242514
Publisher:	Casemate Publishers
Publication date:	05/04/2023
Series:	Casemate Fiction
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	135,517
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Mick Ryan is a strategist and retired major general from the Australian Army. A distinguished graduate of Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, as well as the USMC Command and Staff College and USMC School of Advanced Warfare, he is a passionate advocate of professional education and lifelong learning. In a 35-year military career, he commanded at multiple levels in the Australian Army and served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and East Timor. His first book, War Transformed, was published in 2022.

Table of Contents

Author's Introduction
Preliminary Operations
The Massacre

Phase I
1 Flood and Fire
2 Knife in a Space Fight
3 The Successors Dilemma
4 Lethal in the Littoral
5 Stormfront Approaching
6 Grey Wizard
7 Overall Defense Concept
8 The Beetles
9 Tiger of the Land, Dragon of the Sea

Phase II
10 What Happens in Nevada…
11 The Butchers Bill
12 Retreat, Hell
13 Adaptation Battle
14 The High Ground
15 Break In
16 Resolve
17 Courage and Wisdom
18 Remote War

Phase III
19 Save Our Dream
20 New Strategy, Old Strategy
21 Transition
22 Monsoon
23 The City
24 The Pledge
25 Battle for Taichung
26 Battle for Taichung II
27 Mors Honesta
28 Morakot the Second
29 The Bitter Plain

Editorial Reviews

The author's professional background equips him well to describe changes in military technology and tactics, and these areas are covered well in the narrative.

Army Rumour Service

"Ryan’s novel should be used as a teaching tool for U.S. forces as well as for a general public that wants to better understand the strategic environment in the western Pacific and how technology, climate, and geopolitics can affect all of us."

Proceedings

"A gripping account of future war that is equal parts entertaining and sobering. Mick Ryan writes with a credibility and authority that transforms this techno-thriller into a provocative wartime narrative that belies its fictional roots. White Sun War reads like a collaboration between Asimov and Clancy, an entirely plausible scenario that presents readers with a chilling vision of a not-so-distant future. An absolute must read."

Steve Leonard

"White Sun War is a must read for military leaders and security professionals concerned with contemporary and future warfare, especially with China. This book would be especially useful as a case study for professional military education to provide fictional concreteness, so to speak, to discussions of potential challenges inherent in the battlefields of tomorrow."

Parameters

White Sun War is a thrilling novel that allows readers to easily imagine the pace, excitement, fear, and trepidations of those involved in the conflict, but also makes them realize the dire consequences of war.

Modern War Institute

"White Sun War reminds us that while great nations continue to chase the dream of short and decisive wars, they cannot escape the reality that great power wars are long and tiresome...an accessible, satisfying must-read for students and practitioners of modern and future conflict."

DODReads

Mick Ryan is an outstanding military analyst, innovator, and advocate of fiction to teach about both what is enduring and what is changing in warfare. How wonderful he set himself the task of a novel — and added fabulous storyteller to his achievements.

Kori Schake

"White Sun War is a first-rate techno-thriller. It is an enjoyable read in and of itself, but its concept-driven narrative is what sets it apart from other books. The characters and their interactions illuminate ongoing debates about the future of war and how a conflict between the United States and China could well play out."

Diplomatic Courier

"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."

WWII History Magazine

" As a keen observer of the Russian war in Ukraine, Ryan takes many lessons from the conflict and applies them to White Sun."

Aether: A Journal of Strategic Airpower & Spacepower

"...[offers] policymakers and military leaders considerable fodder to ruminate about conflict in a world where great power conflict is back with a vengeance and how it might play out in an Asian theater of particular American concern."

PRISM

"To be successful, future war fiction requires an author who is militarily expert, has literary skill and an imaginative gift. Mick Ryan has all those qualities in abundance, and the result is a book that is entertaining, thought-provoking and quite possibly prescient. Not just an engaging tale but a warning of things to come."

Eliot A. Cohen