Kevin McDonald's A Nation Interrupted: An Alternate History Novel

So, what happens when the Confederate Army finds out that their plans have been intercepted at Antietam BEFORE the battle, changes their plan, wins the war and the Confederate States of America becomes an independent country? How does the future change? World War I? World War II? Think about it: It took the United States and the engineers that built the Transcontinental Railroad to dig the Panama Canal. What happens if the United States doesn't do the work? What then?

ESPECIALLY World War II. What happens when the United States are not united anymore? What changes when the country that needs to save Britain isn't as big a nation and doesn't have the same population, wealth and industrial base? What happens if the United States makes a more tempting target than the Soviet Union? What then?

Those are the questions answered by Kevin McDonald in A Nation Interrupted. It's well written and, in places, terrifying. I could see this happening. He's done his research and it shows. And it's weird because a solid grasp on some of the problems his Germans would face, but he doesn't let that stop him or them. He finds a way around things the same way a real world general would have to. He makes it believable. His grasp on the effectiveness of strategic bombing is spot on as well. 

This is a book with an epic cast, although they seem to all be Americans. That works though, especially in today's day and age where many people would be offended if he had included the German point of view. It does lend a certain cardboard feeling to the villains of the piece but, let's face it, they are literal Nazis. Still and all, things may have worked a mite better if we had gotten an opposing viewpoint. 

On the other hand, it's good to see an author who doesn't kowtow to the Leftist stereotype of Americas as Nazis. The Americans in the book, for the most part, are strong, patriotic and opposed to the assholes that have invaded their shores. (Oh, did I fail to mention that the Germans invade New York city? I guess I should've mentioned that little tidbit earlier. Forgive me. It's Monday.)

McDonald pulls no punches in his depiction of Hitler's Final Solution to the Jewish Question conducted on American soil. There are chunks of that part of the narrative that are quite frankly heart rending and more than just a little disgusting. That's why they work. McDonald has done some real research here. He also does his best to resolve a real-world controversy about how the Allies should have responded to the death camps. I like this. First, because it's necessary but also because his resolution matches with my own take on the issue. 

I have a sneaking suspicion that McDonald my have consumed more than one Harry Turtledove novel because A Nation Interrupted has a very similar feeling to a lot Turtledove's work without the repetitive dialogue. The shifting viewpoints, the strategic acumen and the grittiness of the characters and situations remind me a lot of Turtledove, whose work I've been reading for over twenty-five years now. I enjoy Turtledove's work and, honestly, there's not really a bigger compliment that I could pay to an Alt-Hist novel. 

Don't tell him that. He'll think I'm calling him old. Nope, the old dude in this story is moi.

Anyway...

The action in this book is intense. We find ourselves flying along with bomber crews. We find ourselves sneaking past Nazis. The tension level in A Nation Interrupted is sky high and it stays that way. This is a very quickly paced book. It builds and builds and if you you're not squirming in your seat for the majority of the end of the book you're not paying attention. There is a lot here and the possibility of catastrophic failure is never very far away. 

That's once it gets started though. A Nation Interrupted takes a minute to get started. When I first started reading this, I kind of assumed that it was the first book in a series. It's not. It's a standalone novel, but it works well that way. I do kind of feel like McDonald could have slowed down the pace a bit and given us a trilogy here though.  

There are large chunks of time skipped over with a quick overview of the progress of the war. This works because it keeps things moving and tells the reader what they need to know. It is, also, a missed opportunity in my opinion. It kind of feels like McDonald was in a big hurry to finish a story that probably could have made him a bunch more money if he had allowed it to develop further and turned it into a series.

I don't want to take this too far though. My favorite season of Babylon 5 was the fourth season. What made it so great was that J Michael Stracz...

Strazi....

Strazy...

Uhh...

The guy who wrote the series didn't think it would get renewed for its fifth season, so he condensed the last two season into one season and it was freaking amazeballs. When the action gets thick, fast, and furious my eyes light up. There was a lot in A Nation Interrupted and it happened very quickly. I liked that.

And, let's face it, there are a lot of things you can say to an author that are worse than, "Well gee, Mister, I really wish I had more of your work to read, and I would've paid to do it." It's also not like McDonald hasn't published other stuff. I definitely plan to read it. I just kind of wish that it would've been more of this story instead of a completely new one. 

Truth be told though, I'm a little bit bitter. I just read a book that went with one of my favorite books of all time and not only did I spend my whole weekend reading A Nation Interrupted instead of reviewing that, this review forced itself out of my head before I could get the other one written. I blame McDonald for it. As punishment you should all buy his book and make him figure out who to spend all of that money. That'll show him!

Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Fiery Crashes

A Nation Interrupted: An Alternate History Novel
Kevin McDonald
Braveship Books, 2020

A Nation Interrupted: An Alternate History Novel is available for purchase at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon, I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.

A Nation Interrupted

The Romanov Rescue by Justin Watson, Kacey Ezell and Tom Kratman

 

There have always been times in history where things didn't go the way they should have. Sometimes it's a matter of luck. Sometimes it's a matter of bad actors. And sometimes, sometimes, one or two moments can lead to the slaughter of millions. One of those moments happened in Russia in 1918. The Bolsheviks, led Vladimir Lenin, seized power from the Russian monarchy and, as Leftist governments always do, proceeded to slaughter millions over the next several decades while simultaneously subjecting anyone who voiced an unapproved opinion to at least Cancel Culture and possibly imprisonment. But here's the thing: It didn't have to be that way. And The Romanov Rescue by Tom Kratman, Justin Watson and Kacey Ezell shows an attempt by Tsarist elements within Russia to end Communist rule only months into their reign with the only symbol that could have been adequately used against them; The Romanovs, Russia's royal family.

There is a lot to The Romanov Rescue and I loved the complexity of it.  The authors gave us interpersonal conflict, military conflict, lots of challenges to solve, plenty of action and just a touch of romance. It's all there. The characters feel real. The conflicts that started the mess contained within the pages (IE World War I and The Russian Revolution) both actually did exist and seem to be, as far as I can tell from my limited research into both, dead on. (Now some history professor is going to read this and argue with me about the spelling of a city's name when the original name was written in another alphabet. You only think I'm joking.)

Something that you can appreciate in a tome like The Romanov Rescue is that all three authors are military and this is, like most Alternate History, a work of military fiction. Tom Kratman and Justin Watson are both retired Army officers and Kacey Ezell is a currently serving Air Force chopper pilot and a Major, last I heard. I get complaints from military people on occasion, upset about the lack of a true military feeling in works of fiction written by people who haven't served. You will not have that problem here. These are people who have been there, done that and gotten the t-shirt. When you crack this bad boy open it's going to be the real deal.

It occurs to me that I'm kinda because I didn't review this book for my annual Memorial Day event, but I suppose I should just get over myself.

Something I really like about The Romanov Rescue is that it's not just a shoot 'em up novel. I mean, you get some combat, but there's more to it than bullets and  blowuptuations. We get a good look at what it was like to plan and train for an operation at the end of the Great War. From the construction of ranges, to feeding the troops to finding horses and donkeys to haul stuff around while keeping them healthy and on and on we see the real side of things. Yes, the troops who do the shooting are important but so are the people who get them the guns and the bullets to shoot with. The authors have done a terrific job of making sure that all gets in here. That's not to say that the book bogs down. We get to be in on a few of the discussions and get a solid idea of what's needed to pull the mission off, but we don't have to watch all the paperwork get filed.

I spoke a bit about interpersonal conflict earlier, but TRR features a lot of inTRA personal conflict too. Some of the characters aren't sure about their assignments. Others think their assignments might be changed in a way they find objectionable. It's part of the life and it's in there. It also adds a lot to the characters because members of the military, regardless of whose military, are not simply automatons that follow their programming. They are actual flesh and blood human beings with likes, dislikes and qualms. Yes, the physical challenges are real. The mental challenges are no less real.

It feels weird typing thins, but I'd recommend The Romanov Rescue to any military historian out there. It's not for the works scholarly value but for what it reminds us all of: That people who serve in the military really are people. That's a point that frequently gets lost in historical writing where, at best, you might talk about one or two generals as individuals. Reading something like this every now and again is both a brain massage and a reminder to keep those people in mind. Oh, and war does make for strange bedfellows. I'm just sayin'.

The action sequences tend to be short, sharp, and violent and that's just how I like them. Some of the action takes place as part of training and functions as both entertainment and a warning that training to do dangerous things is in and of itself frequently dangerous. A bit of overt gun-geeking does take place, but in a book about a military operation, it fits. We need to know what the troops are using and how it works. If I actually enjoyed the discussion well, the point of reading the book was to enjoy it, right?

In short, I'd recommend The Romanov Rescue to anyone who likes to read things that are fun and interesting. I mean, if The Scarlet Letter is your thing, I don't see TRR as being for you. Dull and depressing have their place in classrooms, but I like to read things that I enjoy. I found someone I could root for (and if you're not a fan of feudalism I get it, but they were fighting Communists.) I found a group of villains I could root against. I got to spend some time with some people I'd love a chance to meet, if only they actually existed. Then again, I wasn't surprised. I've loved both Kratman and Ezell as authors for quite awhile now and, if this was my first experience with Watson, I think he at least lived up to the company he was in and, from me, that's high praise indeed.

Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Flashbangs

The Romanov Rescue
Justin Watson, Kacey Ezell and Tom Kratman
Baen Books, 2021

The Romanov Rescue is available for purchase at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon, I get a small percentage at no extra cost to you.

Eric Flint's 1632

 

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Ok, so maaaybe I'm a guy who grew up in Detroit, but has family in West Virginia, and maaaybe I've squeezed the trigger on a pump shotgun a few times. It's even possible that I've played the odd wargame in my life. I even grew up listening to my dad tell stories about a cave in that happened in a coal mine when he was kid and "a bunch of crying women." (Yeah, I came by my "that guy" streak honestly.) So, it's entirely possible that I may have a few more reasons than some people to love Eric Flint's 1632 and that most of them have nothing to do with how easy it is to type the title. (I am, after all, pictured in the dictionary next to the term "man, lazy".) 

 Still and all though, it's a book worth buying and reading, even if there are a whole bunch of other books that come afterward some of them with amazing co-authors (I originally read 1632 because I wanted to read 1633  due to the fact that David Weber's name was on the spine and I don't read out of order if I can help it.) and it's probably going to want you buy all of those and read them too...

Look, if you didn't want an enabler for your Speculative Fiction habit you wouldn't be here. 

Anyway...

 One day some cool stuff is happening and the totally fictional town, well sort of totally fictional town of Grantville, West Virginia and next thing you know - hey presto!- the town and all of the people and things in it are transported to Germany in the year 1632. If you're familiar with that time and place then you're familiar with the problem here. If not, that puts them in the middle of the Thirty Years War and surrounded by the fighting. It's not a friendly place. It is, however, a good place to be armed with a modern firearm if you happen to have one.

This book has it all. It's got action and adventure. It's got romance. It's got sex. Heck, there's even a nerd who gets laid. Seriously. There's even some politics. Actually, there are a LOT of politics because a town full of modern-day Americans who aren't in modern-day America anymore have some things they need to deal with. That could have been a problem for me because, put bluntly, I have about as much in common with a self-avowed Communist politically as I have with an alien from the planet Zargon, where voting rights are determined by how often you bud to create another Zargonian.

And yet...

Flint, unlike many of his co-religionis..  errr... fellow Marxists, is actually not in a hurry to throw the bill of rights away. Yes, I really mean that. If you're really interested I can send you something I wrote about it. Anyway, there's a lot of it. Flint's stereotypical conservative is kind of a douche, and Flint appears to be as unwilling as any of his fellow leftists to admit that the right actually does differentiate between legal and illegal immigrants,  but hey it's his book and honestly there are a lot of other things going on. It doesn't really detract from the book for more than a second or two. 

 Honestly, I think the part of 1632 that I like the most is that the government is so small. Even in a town of only a few thousand, it's not the top down society envisioned by most Leftists. The government doesn't try to control everything. Part of that is because the people running the government are smart enough to know that they can't and therefore don't try and that puts them ahead of at least ninety-eight percent of today's Democrats. A certain amount of government is necessary, even if it is a necessary evil. Too much is just evil and Grantville doesn't have the layer of bureaucracy that modern governments are so enamored with. That's why it works.

More important is the society that is built and the way it's done. Even Flint's far left radical finds herself forced to compromise. This is a good thing. It's inevitable and it's realistic. I talk about this a lot but it's something that I think has to be in good fiction: Flint's characters have realistic and understandable motives. Now, the reader my not always AGREE with the motives of the characters in the book but  you can tell why they do what they do.

Yes, Flint's people are people and they live a breathe on the page. There are three young guys in particular who, aside from their love for motorcycles, remind me a lot of myself at the same age. Mike Stearns is a man who I could respect even if I wouldn't agree with everything he does. His wife Rebecca is a scholar's scholar and a woman I have a lot of admiration for. Mackay, the Scotsman, well...

My family is actually Clan MacKay so maybe I'm a bit biased here. I'd still buy him a beer if he actually, like, you know, existed. The thing is that it almost feels like he does.

As the guy with the history degree, I have to point out that what Flint wrote matches up with what I know about the time period in which the majority of 1632 takes place. Granted, I'm not all that familiar with the Thirty Years War as I do mainly US history starting at around the mid eighteen hundreds, but it all works. His depiction of the standard battle tactics of the day is sound. The nobles in the books are all legitimate. He admits to creating a German town that never really existed but 1632 _is_ a work of fiction after all. I also believe that he may have read a book or two about World War I tactics and the effects of machineguns on massed troops, but what do I know?

But for the most part, 1632 is really just a rollicking good time. This is a story that moves from beginning to end and never drags. It's one of those "UGH, STOP GIVING ME RUNS!!! I'M TRYING TO READ AND I DON'T HAVE TIME TO MAKE MONEY RIGHT NOW!" kind of books. That's why I finished it for the third time on my one day off after working seven in a row and why I felt compelled to blog about it. Now go forth and read it!

Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Pump Shotguns 

1632
Eric Flint
Baen Books, 2000

1632 is available for purchase at the link below. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon, I get a small cut at no extra cost to you.

Eclipse: The Girl Who Saved the World by George Phillies.

Have you ever read a book (or watched a TV show or movie for that matter) that wasn't quite what you expected, but loved it anyway? I mean, it was a really good story, well paced, well written and thoroughly entertaining, but it didn't quite scan the way you thought it would? To the point where you'd read or watch it again but you're still kind of feeling like it's not quite in the genre you expected? I find myself at that point with Eclipse: The Girl Who Saved the World (The Shining Sea Book 1) by George Phillies. Don't get me wrong. I loved the book. It's just that...

Well...

I went into this expecting a Young Adult novel. And, to my complete, absolute and totally non-shocking sense of rightness, the main character and most of the important side characters are indeed teenagers. Some of their problems are things only teenagers would have to deal with. It's totally believable if you don't hold the fact that they have superhero powers against them  They are the main storyline of the book and they're all well-formed and entertaining people. It's just that well...

Eclipse has enough political intrigue and side drama to make a good Harry Turtledove or David Weber novel. Being a fan of both writers, I mean that as a compliment. I don't want to give too much away here because that's not what I do, but there are some damn good reasons for the intrigue and political feuding at the highest levels. It makes all kinds of sense and honestly the book wouldn't work without it, but it just doesn't feel YA to me.

Now that I'm done whining like a punk...

Yeah, it was a good book. I seriously enjoyed Eclipse. I've always loved international intrigue. Eclipse mixes in some alternate history as well and that's something I've always enjoyed. The point of historical departure of this one seems to be too deep in the past for me to find out what it would be precisely, but I am well aware that there are several polities here that did not exist either simultaneously or at all. I really enjoyed trying to figure out who went where though and if if you have a sense of world history well enough developed to pass a sixth grade history class you'll get the joke.

Phillies has a rather unique take on superheroic powers as well. It almost has a LitRPG feel to it. The way he talks about levels of powers and summoning power really feels almost like a game. It's something that anyone who has played any type of video game or tabletop RPG should find both enjoyable and easy to follow, but without feeling derivative and boring. I've never seen it done quite this way and I like it.

There are many action sequences in Eclipse and they are well thought out, well written, entertaining and internally consistent.  I want to see this thing on film. Well, I mean, not if I have to pay for all of the special effects myself, but I'd totally buy a ticket or two. I might even splurge on some popcorn, and maybe a DVD after it hit. Granted, I've got a fairly decent imagination, but some of these scenes are so well described and planned that I could see them in my head when I was reading the book. And if I'm left wanting to throw plasma bolts myself, well, what geek has never wanted to throw a plasma bolt? Or fly through space? Or teleport sans benefit of Mr. Scott? (Note: That's not a slam against Scotty. I'm a proud Scots-Irish lad and I love that guy.)

Our heroine is the titular Eclipse. I like this girl. At age thirteen she is one of the best educated, most intelligent heroes I've ever read. If the history she knows doesn't match ours that's because she comes from a different dimension and the history there _is_ different. She speaks several languages and collects books so rare that it makes a nerd like me jealous. Not only that but she manages to put her book collection together herself without assistance from any adults. She is caring, daring and brave. In short, she's the kind of girl I'd like my daughters to be with the added benefit of having having superpowers. Don't misunderstand: It would be cool to see Riley or Sealy take off  and fly outside the atmosphere under her own power, I just know it'll never happen.

Phillies spent a lot of time building the world I was whining about earlier and he did a fine job of it. The world is almost recognizeable. The United States is almost recognizeable. The differences are real enough to keep things interesting and to avoid confusion. He didn't do things by half. I truly enjoyed the geopolitical rivalries and the way things broke down. I think this might be part of what I mentioned earlier though.

A lot of modern day Americans (as in a HUGE supermajority) and especially younger Americans,  don't know much about history. I mean that seriously. They don't know American History. They don't know World History. They've been taught that Military History doesn't matter and they have no chance at all to understand the intersection of the three. That much having been said, the political stances taken by the US in Eclipse are much closer to what you would have expected out of the US in 1900 than in 2020. I worry that a lot of what made me enjoy Eclipse so much is going to make it hard for its intended audience to find it believable.

Having said that, I'd urge anyone over the age of probably twenty-five to check this thing out. I haven't conducted any surveys, but I'd be surprised if that didn't include the vast majority of my audience. So check this one out. I did. I'll be picking up the sequels as well. There are at least two of them that I know of.

Bottom Line: 4.5 out of 5 Namestones

Eclipse: The Girl Who Saved the World (The Shining Sea Book 1)
George Phillies
Self Published, 2018

Eclipse: The Girl Who Saved the World (The Shining Sea Book 1) is available for purchase at the following link. If you click it and buy literally anything at Amazon I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.

Kacey Ezells' The World Asunder (The Psyche of War Book II)

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Dammit Kacey Ezell! I didn't want to like this chick. I mean I really, really, didn't want to like this chick. They thought she was dead in the first book. I thought she was dead in the first book. I was HAPPY about that fact. But not only did Adalina Sucherin survive in Minds of Men, she is the main character of Ezell's newest work, The World Asunder. I knew that going in and it almost made me not buy the book. Why? BECAUSE I HATED THAT BITCH! Of course, I'm a member of the CKP Facebook Group, and I mentioned this there and was reassured by none other than the factory boss himself.

Apparently, I'm even more forgiving than even I thought I was because I honestly did end up liking this chick. Of course, it helps that the only thing worse than a Nazi is a Communist and chick starts out the story being oppressed by Communists. Enemy of my enemy and all that. Oh, and she's helping to take care of a family of innocents caught in the aftermath of World War II. I guess that makes up for a lot, especially since there were a bunch of daughters. I have daughters, so I therefore have a soft spot FOR daughters.

Okay, so maybe there was more to Lina than I saw the first time around. Maybe, just possibly, she wasn't the ginormous [redacted] I thought she was. I mean, I could have missed something. Things happen and sometimes I don't reach my normal heights of absolute brilliance. I guess.

I'll say this much though: Having read her story, which starts in East Berlin during the Berlin Airlift, I am actually a big fan of one Miss Sucherin. It took her a bit to win me over, but that's not surprising. I wasn't ready to give this character the benefit of the doubt. What I'm going on about here is that Mrs, Ezell has done one hell of a job building a very flawed and believable character and making her believable. Seriously. Lord knows if she were my girlfriend I'd never allow her around a body of water bigger than a Dixie cup.

Lina is also a woman who has been through a lot. That makes sense. If anyone knows what the Soviet troops did in Berlin after they conquered it that makes sense. Any conquered city is going to suffer, but Berlin had one of the worst fates of any city in modern warfare and it's women suffered worse that its men. Russians raped every woman they could get their hands on and were perfectly happy to rape young girls if they couldn't find a woman. (Seriously, if you don't believe me, read A Woman in Berlin. )


Of course, Sucherin is not the only character in the book. This is a good thing. Characters grow a lot more when they have other characters to interact with. A lot changes for Lina throughout The World Asunder. It's actually pretty amazing how much she remains herself after all of the changes. Lina is a strong woman and that hits home for me. When my daughters were little, I used to ask them what kind of person they were. I made them tell me that they were Proud, Strong, Smart, Tough, and Brave. I wouldn't leave them alone until they did. Lina is all of the above and that makes her the kind of woman I really respect.

I want to be careful here. There is a family that Lina is staying with at the beginning of The World Asunder. They are totally believable. There are a lot of other characters too, but I don't want to go too far into them because the way this thing is laid out, I'd have to reveal the plot to show where everyone fits in. Suffice it to say that  they all make sense in context. Even when someone  did something I did't want them to do, I knew why they did it. I like characters whose actions make sense according to their own motivations. Ezell apparently gets human nature. And actually, the girls in that family have all of the traits I taught my girls to have too. Maybe that's why I liked them so much.

Speaking as a historian with a fancy sheepskin, I'd like to compliment the author on her historical research. The backdrop of this story is about as perfect as you're going to get from a work of fiction. There were many things that went on after the Second World War that the average American doesn't know much about. Many of them are things that I find regrettable. In The World Asunder, Ezell features some of them. The United States really did bring people into the country who were complicit in some of the Nazi atrocities perpetrated during the war. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't right. I happened though, because it was necessary. Ezell gives about as balanced a portrayal of these actions as I've ever read. Kudos to her.

I will, however, stress that you should not go into a novel like The World Asunder thinking you already know what's going to happen. As a matter of fact, a smart reader will keep their head on a swivel because you never know what's coming next. I'm not saying that the book takes a lot of weird jumps. It's written in a logical manner, but there are surprises aplenty if you're paying attention.

Paying attention....

Hmm...

Not going to spoil anything.

It's possible that I missed something somewhere though. This is actually a good thing for the author. It's good for The World Asunder as a work of literature. I'm just saying that it might be possible that one of the surprises would have been a little bit less surprising if I hadn't had my cranium inserted into my third point of contact. Then again, since I am a member of the Facebook group, I've seen other people post vaguely, and have reason to believe that they missed the same things. It was a lot of fun once I figured it out, and someone out there is the note-taking type who is going to figure it out early, but if you're not that one percent of all nerds supernerd, it will come as a shock and it's more fun that way.


So, I enjoyed The World Asunder so much that I'm afraid I'm going to be forced to nominate it for the Dragon Award for Alternate History. I'm afraid that I have not consulted Mrs. Ezell to find out if she has room for one on her mantle, but that is quite frankly not my problem. If she doesn't have room, I guess I'll just store it for her. Or sumfin.

Seriously. Buy it. Read it. Nominate it. Thank me later.

Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Boiling Beakers

The World Asunder (The Psyche of War Book II)
Kacey Ezell
Theogony Books, 2019

The World Asunder (The Psyche of War Book II) is available for purchase at the following link:



Oh, and I meant it when I recommended A Woman in Berlin. You can pick up a copy of that here:

Chris Kennedy and James L. Young Present Those in Peril (The Phases of Mars Book 1)

Welcome to the third and final installment of this year's Memorial Day Event, Day Late/Dollar Short Edition. My apologies, but as a Lyft driver in Detroit during the Movement Music Festival weekend, I was wiped by the holiday and, seeing as I hadn't done my review ahead of time the way I had planned it out months ago, I ended up sleeping when I should have been writing. I assure you I hadn't intended for that to happen, but I also had slept an average of about four hours a night for three days in a row and, when I got home from a memorial service on Memorial Day I sat down for "just a minute" and woke up five minutes after I should have left for work. Oops.

At any rate...

Today's review (that should have happened yesterday) is Those in Peril, and anthology edited by Chris Kennedy and James L. Young. I did Chris's Bio on Sunday and I'm extremely lazy, so you can feel free to look there if you want to know more about him. If you haven't read it, you probably should. He's an impressive guy.

The other editor of the anthology is James L. Young. He served in the Army after completing his degree at West Point. He served from 1997 to 2003. He was an armor officer, attaining the captain at the end of his career and was the Executive Officer of the First Stryker Brigade (C 1/14). He says he was stationed in both Korea and Germany. I wonder if he got any cool electronics for cheap, being that close to Japan. I would have if it would've been me.

Oh, and just to take note, the following authors of stories in Those In Peril are veterans or currently serving:

Kacey Ezell (her bio is actually here) is active duty US Air Force.
Stephen J. Simmons is a veteran of the US Navy.
Joelle Presby is a US Navy Veteran.
Phillip Wolrab is a veteran of the US Army.
Doug Dandridge is a veteran of the US Army.
Philip S. Bolger is a veteran of the US Army.
Justin Watson is a veteran of the US Army and a West Point graduate.

If I missed anyone, it is because I didn't see a reference to your service in your bio and I didn't do any real research. If this happened it is totally my fault and I apologize.


So first, a few thoughts on Those in Peril as a whole: I really enjoyed it. Then again, it's an Alternate History anthology featuring navies and naval combat and I've loved Alt Hist since I was first introduced to the concept. With the exception of the first story, it appears to have been set up in chronological order. I loved that about it. There is no continuity per se as each story has a separate Point of Departure and they don't work as a continuous story. That's okay though, and it's a lot easier to follow a bunch of different stories if they're in a definable order and you can get your brain to follow things in a logical order, if that makes sense.

Anyone who follows this blog ought to know that I'm a big fan of the Dama. She's one of the main authors in the Four Horsemen Universe and I'm a member of the fan club.  So when Those in Peril opened with "Naked," a story by Kacey Ezell I got excited, especially since I really liked Minds of Men, the first book in her Pscyche of War series and this is a story set in the same universe. I was not disappointed. Psychic women and warfare go together like peas and carrots or Forrest and Jenny. I read this one twice just because I could.
her Pscyche of War series and this is a story set in the same universe. I was not disappointed. Psychic women and warfare go together like peas and carrots or Forrest and Jenny. I read this one twice just because I could.

Up next is "Captain Bellamy's War,"by Stephen J. Simmons. a story in which the English pirates in the Bahamas declare independence and found their own nation. You can't beat a story that includes the phrase "Admiral Blackbeard." It's just not physically possible. But...

But...

It's a short. It needs to be a novel.

I WANT THIS TO BE A NOVEL.

*POUT*

*SIGH*

I guess Mick Jagger was right.

I can't always get what I want.

*WHINE*

NOT FAIR!!!

Well...

If Stephen J. Simmons gets it written and published, I promise him one guaranteed sale.

After that, we get "A Safe Wartime Posting" by Joelle Presby. It's the story of a guy sent out to keep the president's nephew from getting himself in trouble and features a setting with the US and Germany allied in fighting World War I. I really enjoyed this one. I could totally see Woodrow Wilson pulling a stunt like this, too.

"Beatty's Folly" by Philip Wohlrahb is another story about the US fighting against the British during World War I. It features an angry Theodore Roosevelt and that's a concept that should be more than a little bit frightening. It's predicated on the fact that France assisted the South during the US Civil War and kept the fighting going until 1867. The US supports a rebellion in Ireland. Lots of stuff goes boom. It's a good time.

"Martha Coston and the Farragut Curse" by Day Al-Mohamed is the story of Martha Coston and her invention of signal flares. I like this story because it brings up a good point about naval warfare and history in general: It is often the usung person that saves the day. In this case, it's a woman who knows a lot of chemistry. It also helps that she's no one's fool and pays attention to what is going on around her. Hold on: Could I have enjoyed this story so much because I like sciency females? Nahh...

"The Blue and the Red: Palmerston's Ironclads" is another story about the English and Americans trying to kill each other on the water, only this time with a twist: The main character is a reporter who gets captured. I had fun  with this one. Often in military history and/or fiction we read about the bond between all warriors but something that nearly always gets left out is that people outside the military form bonds too. This is a story (at least in some ways) about the bond between reporters. It features plenty of fighting to keep your bloodlust sated too.

"Far Better to Dare" by Rob Howell is the US vs. Spain ala the Spanish and American War only later in history and with better technology. We get a view from the deck of an American battleship. I find it interesting as well that they Americans in the story are able to identify only the class of their enemies and not the exact ships. It's the type of thing I'd seen in Star Trek a million times but I hadn't considered that it would work that way in the real world. That's a good bit of added realism that was really cool.

"Off Long Island: 1928" by Doug Dandridge is the story of a British and American war set in the late 1920s and a particular battle contained therein. I like this story a lot, both for the action and because the author included a conversation at the beginning that really helped place this story in context of a war that never actually happened. I really wish that there was a novel to go with this one.

Ahoy! A new Sarah Hoyt novel has been sighted off the port bow! That has me excited because I'm a fan and it's been awhile. "For Want of a Pin" is the story of a young girl from Portugal (where Hoyt grew up) fleeing an invasion by France and headed to Brazil. It's more character driven than combat driven, but I've always liked that about Hoyt's writing and this story is no exception.

"Nothing Sufficient Can Be Said to Describe It" by Meriah Crawford is the story of a man and his Grandaughter conversing about a battle he has been researching. Maybe it's just the historian in me, or maybe I'm going soft in my old age, but I really enjoyed this one. This story really has an episodic feel to it because of the letters and the breaks between them. I enjoyed it.

"Corsairs and Tenzans" Philip S. Bolger is the story of the US and Japan united in Alliance against Nazi Germany. I find the concept of an "Oahu Pact" to be fascinating. This is another one I'd like to see turned into a novel. I don't really like Germany's chances in a naval war against either country, quite frankly, but it'd be fun to watch them get taken down. Yamamoto Isoroku having a conversation with Chester Nimitz gave me goosebumps.  Well done Bolger!

"For a Few Camels More" by Justin Watson is the story of a Japanese submarine and her crew doing mercenary work after the end of the Second World War. This one has plenty of suspense and intrigue to go along with some actual combat. I have a soft spot for mercenary stories to begin with but this is a good story because of more than just that.

NATO Capitalist Running Pig-Dogs versus the Soviet Red Menace! "Per Mare Per Terram" by Jan Niemczyk is a story of the fight I wanted as a kid. It is also the story of the fight I feared would come as a kid. I'm from Detroit and we were a major industrial target. The thought of extreme heat followed by a mushroom cloud was on that freaked me out from way before I was old enough to actually be thinking of any such thing. Niemczyk may have set his story a couple of decades later, but it still scratches that itch for me.

Reading the blurb after the story, I realized that this was part of a novel. I went to Amazon to buy said novel. Then I realized that it wasn't there because it's a web novel, so I clicked the link. I couldn't get access. Does anyone know how I can access this novel? I need to know how it ends.

Anyone who reads the blog knows that I'm a James Young fan. Stories like "Fate of the Falklands" are why. The Falklands War is not something that is well known by American audiences but it should be. The fight doesn't turn out the way you'd expect (I mean, it's alt hist right?) but this is a damn good story. I've read it twice. I'll probably read it again.

All in all I really enjoyed this anthology. There may have been a few more stories centered around a war between the US and UK than was technically necessary, but I think that's just me whining because it made the work harder to review. (Seriously, two stories about the US and UK fighting are easy to differentiate if you've read the whole story. They're not so easy to differentiate in a paragraph as part of a review. Hopefully I did a decent job.) That much having been said, it's still a great book that's worth your time and money. I'm really looking forward to To Slip the Surly Bonds, the next anthology in the series.

Bottom Line: 4.5 out of 5 Sixteen Inch Shells

Those in Peril (The Phases of Mars Book 1)
Chris Kennedy and James L Young ed.
Theogony Books, 2019

Those in Peril (The Phases of Mars Book 1) is available for purchase at the following link:

Kacey Ezell's Minds of Men

(Due to the fact that I pretty much suck at life, Kacey Ezell got left out of my Memorial Day promotion featuring works written by veterans of the United States Armed Forces and featuring the US Military in action. I didn't get word to her quickly enough and by the time she inquired about submitting, I didn't have time to read and review the book. My fault, not hers. My bad, Kacey. At any rate, Kacey is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy (class of 99). She flew the UH-1N and Mi-17 helicopters. She had at least one deployment to a war zone, that being Iraq.)

Psst.... Hey, you. The one reading the blog. I see you there. You think I'm talking to someone else. Listen, I need you to work with here, okay? I'm about to share with a review about a book named Minds of Men by Kacey Ezell. But uhh... well...

*Jim looks over both shoulders*

It's umm... Alternate history. And I've got a history degree. And if one of my old professors were to find out that I read a book that they'd consider to be historical fiction, I'd be in deep doo-doo. If they found out I enjoyed it, I'd be in even deeper doo-doo. And if they found out I featured it on my blog and encouraged others to read it, I'd get to find out if it was possible to impeach me and take my degree away. So, I mean, yeah, Minds of Men kicks ass, but if you talk to any history professors from Oakland University (where I got my BA) especially, or Wayne State University (where I did some graduate work but never finished) then you didn't hear how good this book was from me. K? I mean, you can still say you read and enjoyed it if you don't mind the inevitable backlash. Just don't tell them it's my fault. I've got kids.

On the other hand, Minds of Men is a really excellent book. Kacey did a great job of creating a world where things are close enough to be recognizable but just far enough away to be considered fiction. She sucked me into this thing quickly. I really did enjoy the premise of this story. It gets going and doesn't stop. Ezell knew what she was doing when she wrote this. This is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, her first published novel, but it doesn't read like it was written by a rookie. It's entertaining as hell and holds together well.

The premise of the book is that some very few rare women are able to communicate telepathically. By using this ability they can effectively create a network among people. The Women's Army Corps recruits twenty of these women to send on bomber missions during World War Two in Europe. They end up flying in B-17s. This results in faster communication and saves lives and improves accuracy. The real joy of the book is in the characters as always, but the telepathic networking is what holds the story together and it is fascinating.

I have to say this: In order for the premise of the book to work, you have to give Ezell about ten pages or so. It's not a lot and it makes more sense once you see what they're doing in action. I was a bit skeptical at first. I mean, radio was in common use by every side in World War Two. I didn't see how telepathic communication would be any faster or work any better. I kept reading though and I'm glad I did. The difference between radio and psychic networking is the difference between dial up internet and a gigabit connection. It just takes a bit of patience to let the characters explain it to you. Oh, and without going into massive amounts of spoilers, let's just say that networking isn't the only thing these ladies are capable of. Seriously, read the book if you want to learn what all they can do. There is an awful lot there and almost all of it makes sense.

Minds of Men is well named. It turns out that they psychic women can bond better with men, even though (or maybe because for all I know) men don't have psychic ability. Our heroine, Evelyn "Evie" Adamsen, bonds psychically with her crew (and yes, she becomes as much a part of the crew as any of the men because she earns it) and goes through hell on Earth with them. Seriously. I've often thought (as someone with zero combat experience) that in all of the wars in history and all of the places that humans have fought and all of the specialties of the people who have fought, the worst job literally ever would be to end up hanging in the sky over Europe in a plane flying straight and level about to drop bombs with nowhere to hide and no way to dodge. Knowing that someone is trying to kill me would be bad enough. Making it easy for them so that I can get my job done is probably a bit more than I could get through. Evie does it though, and so does her crew.

There is more to Minds of Men than simply bomber missions though. I don't want to spoil the book, so I'll just say that possibly the most harrowing part of the work doesn't happen in the sky. Ezell, having been a pilot herself, shows us what I would expect most pilots nightmares to look like. This aircrew goes through some bad stuff. They come out of it okay-ish though, and a lot of that has to do with Evie herself. Her gifts save them all.

Speaking of Evie, she's a damn well written character. I watched part of a video earlier today about the problems with women in fiction. The vlogger (whose name I don't remember and am too lazy to go look up) spoke about a dichotomy between the wilting violet type and the utter badass type. Weak feminine characteristics versus masculine women. Evie is neither. She doesn't straight up bitchslap dudes, and she doesn't just fold up and die and wait for the men to come and rescue her. Evie uses her abilities and keeps her guys alive but she is not the physical threat that some women are, despite differences in muscle mass and size that most women would face in the real world. I really enjoyed her.

Oh, and the cover says it's book one of The Psyche of War. That means we've got more coming from Ms. Ezell. I'm stoked. This is some seriously good stuff and I'm in for the next one. Whenever it gets here. Of course, I'd never be that fan and actually bother an author about when the next one's coming. I wouldn't dare tell someone to shut up and take my money or anything. That's just not me.

Now, I guess it's time for the disclaimer: If you're a feminazi who can't stand the thought that a woman might need some help from a man at some point in her life then maybe this isn't the perfect book for you. Conversely, if you're a whiner who wants to pretend that a female MC is some kind of political statement, like the guys who whined about the women in the new Mad Max, maybe you should spend some time doing manly stuff instead. I mean, it does include members of the Women's Army Corps. So, if you're a whiny little bitch on either side of the line then, assuming you can't develop the maturity to handle a good book based on its merits and not your politics, I would suggest something else. On the other hand, if you have at least as much mental and emotional maturity as the average eight year old, buy this book and read it.

Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Stars

Minds of Men
Kacey Ezell
Theogony Books, 2017

Minds of Men is available for purchase at the following link:

Memorial Day Post: John R. Taylor's Return to Normandy

(Yes, I know that I'm a day late and a dollar short but this is my annual Memorial Day post dedicated to all of those who went off to fight for the United States of America and didn't make it home. "Home of the Free because of the Brave" is a cliche but it's true. This post is also dedicated to anyone who has lost a loved one in the service of the USA. Let's not forget that every service member who passes leaves a family behind.)

There is very little in the world as satisfying as reading a work of military science fiction written by a veteran. They can portray things in a manner that is believable and authentic because they've been there. The relationships between the characters work on a level that can't be faked. The tactics make sense. The characters are neither cowardly nor psycho gung-ho and eager to die. They are, in short, just like members of the real life military. All of this is true of John R Taylor's Return to Normandy. He nailed it. I really enjoyed this book.

The premise of the book is pretty simple: In celebration of the seventieth anniversary of the D-Day invasion, several of the nations that participated in the battles on D-Day, including the Germans, send paratroopers to drop on Normandy. This actually happened in the real world. In Taylor's version the lead plane is filled with American paratroopers who are transported back in time to June 6, 1944 and arrive before the invasion troops. They have period weapons and uniforms as part of the festivities, but no ammunition. Things get interesting quickly.

Our heroes don't know what to do at first but that makes sense. They were planning on landing in a wide open field in front of a huge crowd of spectators and instead they're getting shot at by Germans at night. I can't help but think that confusion is the only possible reaction. It's not like this was some kind of experiment intended to transport them. I mean, when they first hit the ground they don't know when or where they are. Once they figure it out they can't figure out how they got there and a few members of the platoon reject the idea. It's natural and believable.

I don't have the details of Taylor's actual military service (his bio lists him as having served in the 101st Airborne just like his characters) but I'm guessing he never made high officer rank. He seems to have a healthy dislike of those who give orders and get soldiers killed. That makes sense too. According to his Amazon bio, Taylor served in combat in Vietnam and obviously lost some buddies. I can't blame him for being bitter. High command was hated in Vietnam and for good reason: A lot of the men giving the orders behind the lines had no clue what conditions were for the troops they were issuing orders to. They understood the war they were fighting from an academic point of view but not what it was actually like since they hadn't been in those conditions.  I'd hate to be the officer he patterned some of these characters on but that's neither here nor there.  It does bring up a good point though.

I'm as big a fan of stories like the Honor Harrington saga as anyone, but sometimes it can get a bit frustrating when everything is told from the top down. One of the things that I really enjoyed about this book is that it's told from the point of view of the common soldier. The main character is the lieutenant but he's still a man in the field facing the same dangers as his men. I love that. He gives the orders but he's no Dwight Eisenhower, leading from hundreds of miles away. That is, in my opinion, the best way to tell a story.

I don't do spoilers, but I'm going to this time. Taylor's men meet up with the men from Easy Company, a la Band of Brothers. Talk about a good time. They actually know who they're meeting up with since they've seen the show. It's a good time for them and for the reader as well. I found myself grinning like an idiot when it happened and it fits so well that it didn't throw me out of the story at all. I got a big kick out of it.

Getting back to the point about officers: At one point, Lieutenant "Spike" Wilson gets an order to take out a mortar emplacement. It should be a good order. Americans are dying because they're taking shells and someone needs to take it out. He's told that there should be a company defending the mortars and that he's supposed to take them out with sixteen men while massively outnumbered. He's a soldier so he follows his orders - right up until he realizes that the enemy is in battalion strength and he has no chance of success. Once again, what we're seeing is the battle between officers in the field and their commanders . One knows what's going on and the other doesn't. As someone who has studied the Vietnam War (but has no actual combat experience) this seems to match up with what I've learned about the way things worked there. The realism here is palpable.

My only complaint about Return to Normandy is a weird one. The first chapter of the book takes place in Afghanistan. I get it on an intellectual level. It focuses on an elite airborne unit in the modern US military that would have deployed into combat zones for obvious reasons. It sets up the relationship between Spike and his platoon. Spike shows how much he cares for his men and that is key to the rest of the story. I should be okay with it, but...

It threw me. I was looking for a story in Normandy and I ended up in the rock pile. I felt lost and disoriented for a bit. It's not that it was poorly written. In actuality it was very well done and entertaining. It just wasn't what I expected. I actually went back and checked to make sure I had ordered the right book. (Yes, most of my reviews come from people who have sent me their books in exchange for a review but I didn't have anything that would have worked for a Memorial Day review so I bought one. I'm glad I did.) All in all though, this story still kicks ass. It just took a few more minutes to get through the first chapter than it would have ordinarily.

(Yes, I know that I'm a day late and a dollar short but this is my annual Memorial Day post dedicated to all of those who went off to fight for the United States of America and didn't make it home. "Home of the Free because of the Brave" is a cliche but it's true. This post is also dedicated to anyone who has lost a loved one in the service of the USA. Let's not forget that every service member who passes leaves a family behind.)

There is very little in the world as satisfying as reading a work of military science fiction written by a veteran. They can portray things in a manner that is believable and authentic because they've been there. The relationships between the characters work on a level that can't be faked. The tactics make sense. The characters are neither cowardly nor psycho gung-ho and eager to die. They are, in short, just like members of the real life military. All of this is true of John R Taylor's Return to Normandy. He nailed it. I really enjoyed this book.

The premise of the book is pretty simple: In celebration of the seventieth anniversary of the D-Day invasion, several of the nations that participated in the battles on D-Day, including the Germans, send paratroopers to drop on Normandy. This actually happened in the real world. In Taylor's version the lead plane is filled with American paratroopers who are transported back in time to June 6, 1944 and arrive before the invasion troops. They have period weapons and uniforms as part of the festivities, but no ammunition. Things get interesting quickly.

Our heroes don't know what to do at first but that makes sense. They were planning on landing in a wide open field in front of a huge crowd of spectators and instead they're getting shot at by Germans at night. I can't help but think that confusion is the only possible reaction. It's not like this was some kind of experiment intended to transport them. I mean, when they first hit the ground they don't know when or where they are. Once they figure it out they can't figure out how they got there and a few members of the platoon reject the idea. It's natural and believable.

I don't have the details of Taylor's actual military service (his bio lists him as having served in the 101st Airborne just like his characters) but I'm guessing he never made high officer rank. He seems to have a healthy dislike of those who give orders and get soldiers killed. That makes sense too. According to his Amazon bio, Taylor served in combat in Vietnam and obviously lost some buddies. I can't blame him for being bitter. High command was hated in Vietnam and for good reason: A lot of the men giving the orders behind the lines had no clue what conditions were for the troops they were issuing orders to. They understood the war they were fighting from an academic point of view but not what it was actually like since they hadn't been in those conditions. I'd hate to be the officer he patterned some of these characters on but that's neither here nor there.  It does bring up a good point though.

I'm as big a fan of stories like the Honor Harrington saga as anyone, but sometimes it can get a bit frustrating when everything is told from the top down. One of the things that I really enjoyed about this book is that it's told from the point of view of the common soldier. The main character is the lieutenant but he's still a man in the field facing the same dangers as his men. I love that. He gives the orders but he's no Dwight Eisenhower, leading from hundreds of miles away. That is, in my opinion, the best way to tell a story.

I don't do spoilers, but I'm going to this time. Taylor's men meet up with the men from Easy Company, a la Band of Brothers. Talk about a good time. They actually know who they're meeting up with since they've seen the show. It's a good time for them and for the reader as well. I found myself grinning like an idiot when it happened and it fits so well that it didn't throw me out of the story at all. I got a big kick out of it.

Getting back to the point about officers: At one point, Lieutenant "Spike" Wilson gets an order to take out a mortar emplacement. It should be a good order. Americans are dying because they're taking shells and someone needs to take it out. He's told that there should be a company defending the mortars and that he's supposed to take them out with sixteen men while massively outnumbered. He's a soldier so he follows his orders - right up until he realizes that the enemy is in battalion strength and he has no chance of success. Once again, what we're seeing is the battle between officers in the field and their commanders . One knows what's going on and the other doesn't. As someone who has studied the Vietnam War (but has no actual combat experience) this seems to match up with what I've learned about the way things worked there. The realism here is palpable.

My only complaint about Return to Normandy is a weird one. The first chapter of the book takes place in Afghanistan. I get it on an intellectual level. It focuses on an elite airborne unit in the modern US military that would have deployed into combat zones for obvious reasons. It sets up the relationship between Spike and his platoon. Spike shows how much he cares for his men and that is key to the rest of the story. I should be okay with it, but...

It threw me. I was looking for a story in Normandy and I ended up in the rock pile. I felt lost and disoriented for a bit. It's not that it was poorly written. In actuality it was very well done and entertaining. It just wasn't what I expected. I actually went back and checked to make sure I had ordered the right book. (Yes, most of my reviews come from people who have sent me their books in exchange for a review but I didn't have anything that would have worked for a Memorial Day review so I bought one. I'm glad I did.) All in all though, this story still kicks ass. It just took a few more minutes to get through the first chapter than it would have ordinarily. Heck, I've already picked up

Oh and, for the record, I'm pretty bitter. If I had read this before I did my Dragon nominations I'd have put it up for Best Alternate History. Oops. That's just plain bad timing on my part.

Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Missed Drops

Return to Normandy
John R Taylor
CreateSpace, 2017

Return to Normandy is available at the following link:

Michael Z. Williamson's A Long Time Until Now

Once in awhile a book comes along out of nowhere and hits you with a setting that you weren't quite expecting. I mean, think about it. We're Science Fiction and Fantasy fans. We've been on a million starships, seen a million alien worlds. We've walked through the gates and into the throne rooms of more medieval kingdoms than we can even count. Each is unique and special but it's all been done and even the surprises really aren't that surprising. As exciting as the action and the characters can be, settings are just regurgitated tropes. Well, unless you're reading A Long Time Until Now by Michael Z. Williamson. Then things get different in a hurry.

The story opens with convoy in Afghanistan. Then there's a noise. The next thing we know, everything has changed, only nothing has. Our heroes (several members of the Army who were part of the convoy) are sent hurtling back in time to, well, we're never really certain when. Call it a few millennia give or take. That part is fairly standard. What makes this different is mix of peoples that show up. Prehistoric Afghanistan becomes a mixing bowl of people and time periods. We're treated to dealings with prehistoric cultures from two different places and eras, Roman legions with Indian allies from a later period and visitors from our future.The Americans are at the top of the pile due to their technological advantage right up until they're not. I don't want to give too much up here, but things do get rather interesting in that regard.

The interesting part here, to me at least, is that Williamson freely acknowledges the humanity of his characters. The young woman who decides all the men are going to rape her because she's the only woman around is believable and even understandable. The older characters (in their thirties and forties) and their aches and pains. Several have medical problems that require medicines that aren't manufactured in ancient Afghanistan and have to figure out how to take care of themselves. It's not always easy for our lost soldiers and then it gets, well... not worse, but weirder.

Dealings between cultures are always going to be weird. It's all well and good to respect someone else's culture. It's even good to try to adapt to other cultures when necessary. It's never easy though, and it gets worse when the two sides don't even have a language in common. Mad Mike nails it though. His characters are smart enough to know that they don't know how another culture works. The try to figure things out. Sometimes they succeed. Sometimes they fail miserably. Fortunately, they have a linguist with them that can help figure things out.

The amount of research that went into this book is unreal. Williamson is able to take us through the construction of an eighteenth or nineteenth century wilderness fort step by step using modern tools. He acknowledges a lot of organizational issues and addresses them. Unlike a lot of others, this book makes sense. The fort is produced by work. The tools are what the troops could reasonably expect to have. Food is gathered or hunted for by people who are aware that they are going to run out of rounds eventually. Their personal hygiene supplies run out and people get bummed out about it. It just works.

In any story, the characters are what hold interest. Williamson does a damn good job with those.  There were times in the story where I wasn't sure if I wanted to hug these guys or get them good and drunk, but they were all people I could get along with. They were well trained and motivated, yes, but they reacted right in other ways. I have a vision of a writer out there somewhere working on something similar. In this alternate story though, the people who get marooned just embrace the suck and get the job done. Williamson's characters do get the job done, but they do it while acting like real people. They mourn for their lost loved ones. They have porn downloaded to their phones. (Yes, there is a realistic way to charge them.) Life sucks when they first get there because the food is bland. It all works together. These characters live and breathe.

That brings me to my first complaint. It's not the first time I've written this. Sometimes it seems just a bit too coincidental that a group that gets lost has an exact mix of the bare minimum in skills needed to survive. I get that it's necessary for the story but for me it stretches the bounds of believability when every skill you need is present and there are no slackers around. Seriously Mr. Williamson, where is the shitbird? Every unit has one. Even more than that though, we get a lecture on how the Roman legions were so fearsome because they were so well organized and then find out that the person giving the speech has an MBA. Don't get me wrong. I'm not some idiot leftist who thinks that the only reason people enlist in the military is because they're too stupid to realized that they could get hurt in a war. But that doesn't necessarily add up to a ten man element having an organizational expert, an expert in husbandry, an expert in botany and someone who knows how to forge metal into tools in it. I know it fits the requirements of the story and it doesn't really pull me out of the story when I'm in it. A Long Time Until Now is a good book though, and I found myself thinking about it when I wasn't reading. The effect was that it took me longer to get back into the book when I picked it back up than I would have otherwise.

My only other whine is about the ending. It's plausible per the standards of the story, but if feels a bit deus ex machina to me. I know that there was no way the characters were going to find their own way out of the problem given their technical know-how and what they had available but it seems like a bit of a stretch to me. All whining aside though, this was a damn fine book. I'm looking forward to Williamson's next one.

Bottom Line: 4.5 out of 5 M4 rounds

A Long Time Until Now
Michael Z. Williamson
Baen, 2016

A Long Time Until Now is available at the link below:


   

James Young's Acts of War

It's almost Memorial Day here in the States and what is a SF/F reviewer to do? How about reviewing an alternate history set in World War II? It works for me and I am, after all, the blog owner. Maybe next year I'll do some space marines, but this year it's James Young's Acts of War. Oh, and yes, Alt Hist IS a facet of SF, at least on this blog. Honestly, I may be cheating a bit because I love Alt Hist but it most definitely has a speculative quality to it and the S in SF/F often does refer to Speculative right? So yes, this stuff has a home on my blog and this was a good one to start on. When Young asked me to review this, he specifically asked if I considered alternate history to be SF, so I thought I'd mention it. I never knew there was a controversy here. I mean, I've been finding my Harry Turtledove books in the SF section for almost twenty years now.

Acts of War takes place in a world where Germany forced Great Britain into an armistice before the United States enter World War II. This somehow results from the umm, "accidental" isn't quite the word I'm looking for but it will have to do, death of Adolf Hitler when a British Bomber dropped a bomb on him. Changes in Germany's government led to the gassing of London by the Luftwaffe. Germany uses the "peace" to rearm. Britain does nothing to improve its military. Japan is talked out of antagonizing the United States and doesn't bomb Pearl Harbor until spring of 1942. New countries join the Axis. Things look bleak for the United States, which is fighting the war with only the members of the British Commonwealth at its side.

Under no circumstances would I present myself as an expert in naval warfare, but I have done a lot of reading (both fiction and non-fiction) on the subject. Some of the earliest history I read on my own were non-fiction accounts of World War II naval battles and I'm a huge fan of David Weber and others who have written works of fiction that include naval combat. Tora Tora Tora and Midway were both movies that I have watched many times and own on DVD. They're both entertaining and have been praised by experts on the period for the historical accuracy.  That much being said, the battle sequences in this book are pretty epic. Young has clearly done more studying on the subject than I have and it shows. When he tells the story of a battle it all hangs together and just works. I could picture the shooting, the explosions, the bombs falling, the torpedoes moving toward the water and the gruesome injuries cause by all of the above.

Young also shows the best and worst of the US military. His heroes are heroic. More than one of them gets decorated and it's not hard to believe it. They fight hard. Some of the others, well... Every military force has members that have gotten their position through politics and family connections and Young's US Navy is no exception. The good news is that at least one of the bastards gets precisely what he deserved. The other good news is that Young managed to make me hate that guy badly enough to want him dead. An author's job is to provoke an emotional response and he has done that.

 The family ties in the book are excellent and something that I've often seen left out of this type of story. The majority of the tome follow the exploits of the Cobb family, many of which appear as members of the military. Their sister is also a central figure, as are many of their girlfriends. The romances don't always go as planned, but that's something we've all lived through, military or not. The effects of war on those left behind gets heavy treatment and that's a good thing.

Not everything here is wine and roses though. There are a few things which honestly confuse me. For one, the point of historical departure (that's where an Alternate History story diverges from the real world timeline) takes place in Europe when Hitler dies, but most of the action centers on the war in the Pacific. Either way works but both together creates a cognitive dissonance for me. After the first twenty or so pages Europe gets mentioned only sparingly and is nearly forgotten until a briefing near the end of the book. I just don't get that. Also, there are times when the portions of the book that don't involve combat drag a bit. It definitely gets better the longer the book goes on, but it's there. There is also a huge twist regarding the British government that doesn't get resolved and seems to be beside the main thrust of the book. Oddly enough, this volume reads almost like two separate books to me as well, with the run up to the start of war being one story and the prosecution of it afterward reading like another one. Don't get me wrong, they're both enjoyable but I remember being about halfway through this thing thinking that there was a mistake in the page count on my Nook.

Acts of War appears destined for a sequel and I'm hoping that when it comes it will clear some of this up. AoW is the second in a series and appears to be setting up something bigger to come. I want to read it because I'm hoping that a lot of what got left out here will find its way into the new one. There are a lot of threads left hanging at the end of this one and I can't wait to see Young tie them up.

Bottom line: 4.25 out of 5 sinking battleships

Acts of War
James Young
Createspace, 2014

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