OT - Book (Fiction) Review/Recommendations Thread

[Matt Wiser]

I've got the Graphic Novel of Team Yankee: very well done, and faithful to the novel. Only things missing are the several scenes showing the Russians' POV. Other than that, nothing's missing.

[Raellus]

I've got the Graphic Novel of Team Yankee: very well done, and faithful to the novel. Only things missing are the several scenes showing the Russians' POV. Other than that, nothing's missing.

How's the artwork

[rcaf_777]

[QUOTE]First Clash: Combat Close Up in World War III-the Canadian 4th Mech Brigade vs. the Russians in West Germany (there was a sequel but I haven't found it-yet)[QUOTE] The book or CF battle plan is was based on

[Matt Wiser]

Raellus: The artwork is excellent.

rcaf_777: The book, as I understand it, was originally written as a training tool by Kenneth Macksey, but was released as a future-history book sometime in the mid '80s, about the time Red Storm Rising came out.

[Legbreaker]

Wolf and Iron by Gordon R Dickson to me describes the T2K, or more accurately a post apocalyse world, very well.

[Raellus]

Raellus: The artwork is excellent.

Cool. I'll have to find a copy somewhere.

Leg, is that the same author who wrote the Dorsai books I read a few of those in high school.

[Targan]

Leg, is that the same author who wrote the Dorsai books I read a few of those in high school.

I loved the Dorsai books when I was a teenager. Thanks for reminding me Raellus.

[Littlearmies]

• Red Army and The War in 2020 by Ralph Peters
  

I really enjoyed Red Army when it came out - a real antidote to the "our technology and better training is going to trounce their brute force" attitude of so many other books from the period. The books hypothesis is essentially what if the Russian Army performed pretty much as intended against NATO in Europe

Looking him up on Amazon he also writes ACW detective fiction as Owen Parry as well as more factual military / political analysis (I'm assuming this is the same guy). I'll be keeping a look out for War In 2020.

Off the WWIII / EOTWAWKI genre I've particularly enjoyed reading a couple of thrillers by a Swedish author Stieg Larsson, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and The Girl Who Played With Fire - I'm mortified that the final volume, The Girl Who Kicked Over A Hornets Nest will not be translated into English and published until January 2010.

I'd also highly recommend A Sense Of Honour by James Webb about cadets at Annapolis in the closing days of Vietnam (Webb also wrote Fields Of Fire, a fictionalised memoir of his tour in Vietnam which is extremely good) and Something To Die For which revisits one of the central characters from A Sense Of Honour when he is serving as CO of an MEU operating in the Horn of Africa.

[Marc]

I've recently read two novels about the post-apoc backround, one of them discovered thanks to this forum. The first one is "The road", by Cormac McCarthy. Strangely I was planning to buy it trough Amazon after reading a recommendation from Kato but while I was bored in the queue of the supermarket I realized that the unknown novel exposed in one desk near the cashdesk and titled "La carretera" was, in fact, "The road". Ah! The fate and its own strange mechanisms...Ok, here you have the original thread:

http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.phpt=142

And, as Kato stated, 5 out of 5 mushrooms clouds... Only small advice: Don't expect to find any explanation about the cause of the apocalypse. Just read the book, suffer (and enjoy).

And, as a "bonus track", the trailer of the film. Personally I've found it too long and it seems that the director has added some clues about the cause of the end of the civilitzation...so...only for precaution...read the book before see the story trough the eyes of others...

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=hbLgszfXTAY

The other book I've read is "Wasteland, stories of the apocalypse", about 20 short stories, gathered together, all of them playing with the end of the civilitzation. This book is more in the sci-fi genre. Some of its stories are settled far away in the future, thousands of years after the collapse. Others are about the collapse process itself. It's possible you will find here some story you have previously read. In my case, I've found one story from Orson Scott Card and its book "The Folk of the Fringe".
A recommendation: "When Sysadmins ruled the Earth".

The links to Amazon for more information:

http://www.amazon.com/Wastelands-Stories-Apocalypse-Stephen-King/dp/1597801054

http://www.amazon.com/Road-Cormac-McCarthy/dp/0307265439

[Raellus]

I love The Road. I'm manly enough to admit that it's the only book that's ever made me cry- both times I read it!

Based on recs from this forum, I just read The Forever War (military-themed sci-fi) and was not disappointed. Great book; very creative. So much of what goes on in the novel is relatable to what's going on with America's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I plan on reading Heinlein's Starship Troopers soon for the pro-war counterpoint.

I'm currently rereading Neuromancer by William Gibson. Great near-future sci-fi. It's amazing how prescient it seems.

[Targan]

I recently finished reading World War Z, also as a result of reading recommendations here. Loved it. The author is obviously no military expert and he got a few things wrong about military hardware that the characters making the comments would have got right but it was good story telling.

[Marc]

I love The Road. I'm manly enough to admit that it's the only book that's ever made me cry- both times I read it!

Based on recs from this forum, I just read The Forever War (military-themed sci-fi) and was not disappointed. Great book; very creative. So much of what goes on in the novel is relatable to what's going on with America's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I plan on reading Heinlein's Starship Troopers soon for the pro-war counterpoint.

I'm currently rereading Neuromancer by William Gibson. Great near-future sci-fi. It's amazing how prescient it seems.

I liked "The Forever War" and I prefer it to "Starship troopers". I remember that the controversial about if "Starship troopers" was (or not) a pro-war novel was a good material for our chats in the pub. As an anecdote, we had the great luck that the library of the the Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya (Polytehcnic University of Catalonia), had a large section devoted only to science-fiction novels. This university even has its own contest for sci-fi short stories that produce one yearly publication with the better jobs. With the guidance of a good friend (both of us studied in that university) I discovered great novels like Neuromancer (your mention of the book has remember me the sci-fi library of the University).

About Heinlen, I've recently read "Farmer in the sky", about the colonists of a new settlement in Ganymede. A very good book about adaptation, survival and about the choice of left behind everything you know except for 26 kg of equipment and begin a new life in an unknown world.

[Raellus]

Upcoming Title

Ralph Peters, the author of the superb Cold War era novel of WWIII, Red Army (written from the Soviet soldier's POV), is putting out a new novel which looks like it could provide some inspiration for T2K (all iterations) campaigns. It looks like it's about a post-nuclear exchange conventional war where the fighting as devolved to a decidedly low-tech level. I haven't read it yet so I can't give it a review but it looks pretty interesting and I really enjoyed Red Army.

It's called The War After Armageddon. Here's a link to Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0765323559/ref=s9_intb_gw_tr02pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0MZXQ3ZTRTA162HCQDD1&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

BTW, I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I'm just now reading Starship Troopers for the very first time. I'm enjoying it so far. I also just finished reading Ender's Game, another sci-fi novel exploring war in the far future. It's targetted at young adults but I found it pretty intense and mature in tone and content. Both it and Forever War are essentially anti-war novels so it's interesting to read Heinlein's novelistic counterpoint.

[Targan]

I also just finished reading Ender's Game, another sci-fi novel exploring war in the far future. It's targetted at young adults but I found it pretty intense and mature in tone and content. Both it and Forever War are essentially anti-war novels so it's interesting to read Heinlein's novelistic counterpoint.

If you like Ender's game then you've got a lot of reading ahead of you because there are a bunch of novels set in the same universe which come afterwards. I've read four of them and I'll get to the rest eventually. All good so far.

[Littlearmies]

Has anyone tried this It came up as a recommendation for me on Amazon - evidently it's pretty recent.

http://www.amazon.com/One-Conrad-Williams/dp/0753518104/ref=sr_1_4ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250432766&sr=1-4

Malcolm