Red Storm Rising

1. Book by Tom Clancy. Published in 1986.

A chillingly authentic vision of modern war. Red Storm Rising is as powerful as it is ambitious. Using the latest advancements in military technology, the world's superpowers battle on land, sea and air for ultimate global control. It is a story you will never forget. Hard-hitting. Suspenseful. And frighteningly real.

2. Computer game developed by MPS Labs. Released by Microprose. Released in 1989.

RSR, the game, is a submarine simulation. Though it features very basic graphics it remains one of the best submarine simulations ever. In it, the player can control a submarine in an individual battle or in a campaign. The campaign follows the events from RSR the book as the player participates in various battles in the North Atlantic. Among the game's designers are Sid Meier.

RSR (the book) remains a great war book; however, by 2000, the technology is quite dated. The most obvious case of this is in the description of the US Air Force's stealth bombers -- instead of the nearly-flat triangular shape that was actually selected some time after the book was published, Clancy instead used one of the other candidate designs, one with the frontal cross-section appearance of a Frisbee. (In the book, the planes were actually nicknamed "Frisbees".)

One other key note is that, although he was not credited on the book cover, Larry Bond contributed heavily to the book. In Clancy's notes at the beginning of the book, he stated that he felt Bond deserved co-author credit.