Cauldron

Fans will no doubt lap up the latest techno-thriller from Bond and Patrick Larkin, the team responsible for Vortex and Red Phoenix . In late 1997, world order has been destabilized by recession and extreme nationalism. The French foreign minister creates ``EurCon,'' a European Confederation led by France and Germany that will rule Europe. EurCon's attempt to assimilate Eastern Europe meets with resistance, particularly from Poland, and soon the U.S. and Britain are pulled into the struggle. The war and its build-up are reported by various observers: the senior CIA field man in Moscow, the private advisor to the U.S. president, a French intelligence agent, a Hungarian police commander, a Russian intelligence man, a CIA economist (the lone woman and hence the ``like'' interest) and officers of the American, German and Polish armed forces. The French are definitely the bad guys here, albeit dim ones who don't see the writing on the wall when the Americans wipe out their nuclear capability two-thirds through the book. The prose serves the galloping plot and technology well, if humorlessly; maps, dramatis personae and a glossary also help. But the last chapter--``New Beginnings''--is too warm and fuzzy and should have been dropped. Major ad/promo. (June)