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Review – The Red: First Light by Linda Nagata

I was recommended this from reading Charlie Stross's blog as the Linda Nagata is guest blogging while Charlie is down under. Military Sci-Fi is something that I tend to enjoy, so much so that I've written some of it and regularly wargame in that genre. This one was a very compelling near future story, told in a first person narrative by a not entirely volunteer US Army Lieutenant. The protagonist is the leader of a 'linked combat squad' who are a sort of specialised infantry with an exo-skeleton controlled by an external skull cap that can read (and affect) their brain states. From what I know of current and proposed military capabilities this is an entirely believable future, just a little into future from now (perhaps a decade or two, but happily non-specific so that we don’t fall into the…
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Games of Thrones by George Martin – Book Review

A bit like the curate's egg really. However the good parts don't excuse the bad in my opinion. What I liked about it was the fact that it was a good political/dynastic story and that we saw things from many different character points of view. This is sufficiently unusual in the fantasy (and in fact in most fiction) genre that it should really get a lot of praise, and I think that might be what made it so popular. However I didn't like the blatantly misogynist viewpoints of some of the characters (at first I thought it was the whole tone of the story, but I realised on persevering with it that it was simply a majority of the male characters). While I can see that this is probably a realistic viewpoint for the characters in that setting, I didn't…
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Allies at Dieppe – 4 Commando and the US Rangers by Will Fowler

This is an excellent history of a small unit action set in the wider context of the war, and well explained for those not steeped in military history or the second world war. IWM caption : THE DIEPPE RAID, 19 AUGUST 1942 Lt Col The Lord Lovat, CO of No. 4 Commando, at Newhaven after returning from the raid. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) The author starts with setting the background, explaining the grand sweep of the war and the events that lead to the formation of the commandos in mid-1940 and then a high-level overview of the commando training and the early operations so that you understand what commandos are all about, and the strategic context that lead to the assault on Dieppe in late summer 1942. The build up to the attack is well covered, based heavily on the account…
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Book Review: Farewell Horizontal by K W Jeter

Excellent thought provoking and very well put together science fiction with a little twist, which left me wanting a little more from it. Ignoring the setting for a moment this is really a story about the rat race and how it affects people. It is set in a strange, slightly unbelievable, environment on the side of a massive building in a dystopian post-apocalyptic future, probably on another planet. However none of that really matters, and the point of the story, which is well crafted, is that sometimes you need to stop and think about things rather than just striving for the next payday. The primary character is a freelancer struggling to make enough income to cover all his costs, and on the point of bankruptcy. He lives on the outside vertical space of the building while he attempts to make…
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Book Review – To Reason Why, by Denis Forman

This is more than just an infantry officer's memoir. Denis Forman was closely involved in the Battle School movement that transformed the British Army's infantry training during the second world war. He then went on to serve alongside Lionel Wigram (the primary proponent and intellectual leader of the Battle School movement) in Italy. The story is as much about Lionel Wigram as it is about Denis Forman himself. However one of the stand out pieces for me is the honest treatment of how men deal with battle. The psychological impact and how unreliable things become is often not mentioned in most memoirs, there is an unspoken need not to embarrass anyone, or bring up things better left to lie. This book manages to discuss it without shaming anyone. Also, the appendices have copies of the reports into the lessons from…
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