All Posts

A really good book in the GWOT timeline. It details some adventures the author went through and really shows the "Other side" of PMC work, as opposed to military stuff. It's interesting to read from this perspective, because I need some material for stories, and this has fit the bill with an arc that I'm writing for my military science fiction. What this book doesn't (unlike another book I read on the same subject) do is glamorize the life of a PMC operator. Sure, there's som

Another good story down. As the series progresses, it's good to see the characters develop and have their own desires and needs. While it doesn't cover EVERY character, it's good enough to keep you focused on the MC. That shows a great sense of development, and the input for how he thinks and so on didn't get wasted on the story. There is a bit more death than I thought, but when you write military stuff, somebody is going to die. How the MC reacts to it is kinda how I would.

I'm "DNFing" this book. I thought about it long and hard, and the subject is that it's not for the weak-stomached, which I apparently have. The last 5% that I read, I had to stop and bear it. The book is well done (no pun intended, seriously) about Black people and during slavery times, the cannibalism and homoerotic stuff that they were put through. The original author did a great job on the subject, just that I've read horror books tamer than this. I'm sorry, I'd like to fi

I really don't read clean scifi, not because of some misguided belief that it should always have curse words or violence, but more because that's what I know. Overall, though, this was a good start to a series, of which I'll be following from now on. The book is good, it's not overly heavy on the details, and it flows pretty nicely, giving you an invested feel for the characters. There is some violence, but that comes from a relative, and not some (as of yet anyway) shadow or

Honestly, I skipped the intro to the book because I really can't stand a brag sheet. Once I got past it, though, it's a great book on effective communication. Sure, a Republican does it, but these days, people could use some learning from this book. It's down-to-earth and an easy read. It describes what works, what doesn't work, and what you should do to be an effective communicator. Sure, it's slanted to the Republicans, but even the Democrats get some nods, so it's not too

It definitely deserved the Pulitzer Prize, but the "but" is that it seemed somewhat disjointed, and the plot flow in the book was somewhat disjointed as well. It's a good read, don't get me wrong, but overall, I felt that the way it flowed needed some work. I can't think more than that, and can see how it's controversial, how a Black person was "shot trying to escape" and such, and how the defendant wasn't guilty, but still was considered guilty by the jury. I guess it is a p

It's not as great as the other books, but it's not so much the writer's fault; it's the position of the MC. As little as I know about the Marines, the Gunny isn't in much of the fight as when he or she was a Corporal, and even in the Army, I had to accept the fact that not all the "cool stuff" would always happen. I patrolled as much as I could, and so on, but at the level I was at in Afghanistan, I had Soldiers to do the work. So it would be unfair to give this book four sta

"Meh" is the term I ascribe to this book. I mean, it has action, and good ol' Nam writing. The book, as it's written, could be better, a lot better, and perhaps expanded. As such, it is a book about war, and therefore, I can't knock it too much, hence a three-star rating. It has its good points; the author either served or conducted thorough research, as there is little to poke holes in the descriptions. He even included the difference in sound that the AK and M16 made, which

You know, when you read a lot of fiction regarding mercenaries, you sorta get an idea of what goes on in the real world. I have to admit that as a writer of mercenary fiction (in the military science fiction vein), I had some ideas, but this book helped me realize more about what to do and how. The book is not exhaustive, but it offers a wealth of information on current PMC and mercenary operations and how they mesh with the real world. Such as PMCs during OEF, and my ignoran

Overall, I enjoyed the book. It got a little boring around the middle, but then the action picked up, and therefore gave it five stars. I think some of the things, like the confrontation towards the middle, could have been written out more, but given the MC's predilections, I believe, in hindsight, it was best to write it that way, even if it was anticlimactic. Anyway, the book is good, and as someone who served as a "squad leader" before getting out, I feel the weight of com

I got to 50% and decided to DNF. It was getting too over the top with the MC's abilities and while a similar thing happened in the Sentenced to War series (the MC got nano augmentations and such), this is getting to be a little much, even for me. I just don't want to read any further because of the way it handles things, and feel it's best left alone because I'm kinda tired of the one who looks like a deceased royal is somehow going to convince me that the author has a benefi

As a reader of counterinsurgency, and having written numerous fictional stories on what I thought was effective counterinsurgency, I was largely incorrect in some respects, stemming from my personal experiences in Iraq in 2004 and Afghanistan in 2008. Many of the things we did as a nation were not the right way to do things, but despite our intentions, we continued to fail. It's not always wanton destruction of a host nation, but the amount of mistakes and missteps that we en

A lot of the material in here works well for the individual Soldier or operator, wondering what's next? After two decades of COIN and other tasks, SOF needs to figure out what to do with itself, now that we're facing near-peer warfare, rather than strictly counterinsurgency. This book does help to answer that question, and it's a pretty good read, too. While I'll never serve in special operations, this book does help me ask questions for my own fiction writing, as I have a ne

I think not every book you write always hits right. I'm sure some people have walked away from my series and thought some books could use...

Initially, when I received this book, I felt that I could learn something new from it. There are some good takeaways, to be sure, but the...

At the start of the book, I thought this was going to be just a rant. Regardless of gender, race, or creed, I don't read rants. It's just...

Overall, a good story. As I go along, though, and in reflection before finishing the book, the IBHU concept is a bit well... far-fetched,...

I mean, it could have been longer; I was prepared to read to about sixty percent, given the style. However, the book is concise, yet it...

It's a good book, well-researched and informative. What I couldn't get past, however, was that the author used some other font for the...

I like this series. It's not too heavy with tech, and the warrior spirit is shown in these stories. The series itself so far indicates a...