I hadn't realized this was fiction until I got to the end. Hard to know how realistic it is, although it sure had me fooled.

Fills in the transition from Mao to the modern era nicely. He certainly brought China a long way in 15 years.

A gripping story about modern India. I'd like to talk to someone from India who's read this and hear what they thought about it.

Kind of reminded me of Tom Clancy's "Red Storm Rising" except with newer tech. Some of the same "missile offense vs missile defense" themes. Good use of drones, which is what you'd expect from Singer given his earlier book "Wired for War".

A brutal walkthrough of the misery of North Korea. A tough read, but a good one.

Having been both a soldier and the prime minister of Israel gives Chaim Herzog a unique perspective from which to write this book. One interesting thing was his position that by executing air strikes deep into Egypt, Israel drove them into the arms of the Soviets. So it was a tactical success but a strategic failure. This reminded me the CIA station chief's opinion in "Charlie Wilson's War", that is, that the US should not try to help the Afghans defeat the Soviets but instead just give them enough to tie up the Soviets in place. The personal anecdotes are really something; he'll say in a matter-of-fact manner "at this point an attack was launched to disable the SAM battery; the author of this book participated in that assault".