 In "Red Storm Rising", the Soviets decide to seize Middle Eastern oil reserves to prevent crippling energy shortages after an Islamist terrorist attack on a major Siberian oil refinery, and decide to seize Western Europe to prevent American retaliation; the novel subsequently depicts a Soviet invasion of West Germany devolve into a bloody war of attrition due to NATO air superiority over Europe, and a Soviet occupation of Iceland turn the tide by allowing Soviet navaland aerial supremacy in the Atlantic Ocean.It ends with the reopening of the Atlantic after the liberation of Iceland, and with the Soviet Army overthrowing the Politburo before it can resort to the use of nuclear weapons.Soon after the Cold War ended, techno-thriller novels changed from stories about fighting the Soviet Union to narratives about fighting terrorists.