Have any of you read or are aware of the novel? I have a copy and it is terrific (like the movie).
As I recall, in the novel there are like 800(!) soviet troops up against about 50-60 national guardsmen. The TV producers just didn't have the budget for such a large scale production, but it is even more exciting then the film especially the final battle at the pumping station.
"Real, Real...Boom Boom"
What is the name of the book and who wrote it? I remember hearing about this a long time ago. Please let me know, Thanks!
I'm a vehemently anti-nuclear, paranoid mess, harbouring a strange obsession with radioactive sheep
WORLD WAR III
Brian Harris, Robert L. Joseph
Apparently there are several versions:
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?isbn=9780671442934
there's one on eBay right now.
I remember one part of the novel - they bury 55 gal drums of fuel in the snow as booby traps (mines) for the Soviets and assign their best marksman to set them off. Caffey (David Souls character) tells them to make sure he has the best rifle and the response is "he has the best rifle!"
They mark the locations in the snow with small pine tree branches for the marksman. Later the Soviets come on the site and Vorashin says there are booby traps in the area - 55 gallon drums of fuel buried in the snow - his second in command is astonished and asks how he knows to which Vorashin replies "because you're standing on top of one!"
I remember hearing that the forces on each side were much larger. The US might have 200 or more soliders?
"I'm a vehemently anti-nuclear, paranoid mess, harbouring a strange obsession with radioactive sheep."
I got the book last week on Ebay. I'm halfway through reading it.
There are 90 men in the American force and 900 Soviets invading.
I'll post more details (spoilers will be red lined so if no wants to know) when I am done.
"I'm a vehemently anti-nuclear, paranoid mess, harbouring a strange obsession with radioactive sheep."
Hmmm, guess the Soviets took him out...they took him out.
shareIt's been decades since I read the novelization, but they were clearly working from an older draft of the script or else were under the belief they could take a lot of liberties in terms of what they could do in print that they couldn't do on TV. There's a ton of profanity for instance (at one point, an irate Caffey tries to get through to Washington demanding to talk to "The head fxxxing asshxxxx."), Gorny is not killed by the KGB though he is still manipulated by them, and at the end Caffey's forces have actually beaten back the Soviet force but because of a communications failure, neither Washington or Moscow learn this, and thus with both sides assuming Caffey failed and the Soviets control the pipeline, events go over the edge to the same finish.