He compared the intelligence task to solving a jigsaw puzzle, except that you didn’t get the box cover, so you didn’t know what the final picture was. And you got only a few pieces at a time, not all of them. And even worse, you always got a bunch of pieces from some other puzzle thrown in.

The book hypothesizes about an invasion of United States, namely Hawaii, by China in near future. While the concept is great and well researched, the story itself is highly dramatized, mostly following personal stories of some characters in Hawaii (Chinese, Russian and American) and the patching, development and fighting of a US warship (with an unique gun) and several of its crew. The book is full of drama and action, with many overlapping stories.

The strength of the book is the initial concept of China invading US, the actual tactics used and the immediate strategic consequences. This indeed is food for thought and a unique selling point. The tactics refer to how to actually bring troops to the US islands, neutralize the naval and air force, and all the logistics that make US formidable. A tall order, but the authors have well reasoned responses to this task.

The title of the book comes from the idea that mothballed, old ships (the Ghost fleet) are reinstated into service and bring much relief to the decimated US forces. However, except the story of one such ship, which is more or less, followed throughout the book, no much is mentioned about these ships.

There is little discussed by the authors in terms of overview developments following the invasion and even the US counterattack is left in limbo in terms of conclusions. We know nothing of how it ended, which feels like the book is missing a intermediary chapter.

Nevertheless, the book is exceptionally well-researched for correct military vocabulary, latest war machines and tactics. It gives a glimpse into contemporary lines of military technique.

It was an engaging book, but it felt quite a downfall in intellectual quality after the initial chapters. Nevertheless, it managed to keep me reading until the end.