Larry Bond is 45 and lives with his wife Jeanne and daughters Katie
and Julia in Virginia outside Washington DC. He is the designer of
the Harpoon and Command at Sea gaming systems and several supplements
for the games. He also co-authored Red Storm Rising with Tom Clancy
and has recently finished The Enemy Within, published by Warner Books
in hardcover February 1996, and softcover February 1997. He has three
other novels to his credit, Red Phoenix, Vortex and Cauldron.
Larry's writing career started by collaborating with Tom Clancy on
Red Storm Rising, a runaway New York Times bestseller that has been
called one of the best-selling books of the 1980s. It depicted a hypothetical
conflict between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, drawing heavily on current
analysis of what such a conflict would be like. It has been used as
a text at the Naval War College and similar institutions.
Since then, Larry's books have depicted military and political crises,
emphasizing accuracy and fast-paced action. Red Phoenix , Vortex,
and Cauldron were all New York Times bestsellers.
Red Phoenix was set in South Korea and depicted an invasion of the
south by a decaying North Korean government. Vortex told the story
of a reactionary Afrikaner government trying to roll back the clock
in South Africa. Cauldron showed a financial crisis in Europe that
grew out of control, leading to a military confrontation between France
and the United States.
Larry's Harpoon gaming system was first published in 1980. Designed
as a general-purpose air, surface, and submarine naval simulation,
it combines playability with a wealth of information on modern naval
weapons systems. Designed for the entry-level player, it has found
acceptance in both the commercial market and the professional naval
community. It is used at the Naval Academy, several ROTC installations,
and on several surface ships as a training aid.
Now in its fourth edition, Harpoon has won the H.G. Wells Award, a
trade association honor, in both 1981 and 1987 as the best miniatures
game of the year. It is the only game to win the award twice. The
computer version of the game first appeared in 1990, and won the 1990
Wargame of the Year award from Computer Gaming World, an industry
journal. An updated version of the single-player game has been released,
and a multiplayer version is in preparation.
Command at Sea is Larry's latest game, and is an adaptation of Harpoon
to the WW II era. Like Harpoon, it emphasizes both playability and
historical accuracy, drawing on many contemporary sources.
Graduating from St. Thomas College, St. Paul, Minnesota in 1973 with
a degree in Quantitative Methods, Larry worked first as a computer
programmer for two years before being selected for Officer Candidate
School in Newport, Rhode Island. He was sworn into the Navy in 1975
and graduated from OCS the following year.
Larry was in the Navy for six years, serving four on a destroyer and
two on shore duty in the Washington DC area. He served in the reserves
for two years with the Naval Reserve Intelligence Program. After leaving
the Navy he worked as a naval analyst for defense consulting firms
in the Washington, DC area. He now writes and designs games full-time.
Larry is an avid wargamer and modeler.
Published Work
Harpoon First Edition, 1981, Adventure Games Incorporated.
Resolution 502, 1982, Adventure Games Incorporated.
Harpoon Second Edition, 1983, Adventure Games Incorporated.
Red Storm Rising, with Tom Clancy, 1985, Putnam
Harpoon Third Edition, 1987, Game Designer's Workshop
Battles From the Third World War, 1987, Game Designer's Workshop
Red Phoenix, with Pat Larkin, 1989, Warner Books
Computer Harpoon, 1990, Three-Sixty Pacific, Inc.
The Harpoon SITREP (20 issues - 1989 to 1994)
Harpoon Data Annex 3.2, 1990, Game Designer's Workshop
Harpoon Captain's Edition, 1990, Game Designer's Workshop
Vortex, with Pat Larkin, 1991, Warner Books
Cauldron, with Pat Larkin, 1993, Warner Books
Command at Sea, with Chris Carlson and Ed Kettler, 1994, Clash of
Arms
The Naval SITREP (10 issues - 1995 and continuing)
Command at Sea Player's Handbook, with Chris Carlson and Ed Kettler,
1995, Clash of Arms
Command at Sea Second Edition, with Chris Carlson and Ed Kettler,
1995, Clash of Arms
Harpoon Fourth Edition, with Chris Carlson, 1996, Clash of Arms
E-mail ----- LLBond@aol.com
Web Page -
[Previous Bio] [Bio
Page] [Next Bio]