Review - A Nation in Conflict: Canada and the Two World Wars by Andrew Iarocci and Jeffrey Keshen

This is a book which is really only secondarily about war. Rather, it is predominantly focused on the social and cultural effects, and attitudes which rippled through the Canadian population throughout the course of the First and Second World Wars. There have been many books written about the conduct of the wars, and this was a interesting break from the usual for me.

As an Australian, I was interested to see the war from one of the other 'small time' players among the allies, who also happened to be a member of the commonwealth. I think the authors did a nice job of blending the story of what was happening with the war in with the conflicts which were occurring on the home front.

The action is covered in moderate detail in chapters divided up between the air, sea and land war. But I don't think that people looking to read this book should come expecting detailed descriptions of Canadian involvement in certain actions. These were more descriptions of flashpoints, or drawing the story back to the effects of life for civilians.

It is not without its flaws however. The book has a tendency to try to draw too many parallels between the two world wars, and there were times when the "compare and contrast" style got a bit hard to follow.

Nevertheless, as a political and social history book, A Nation in Conflict is certainly an interesting read. What it sets out to do, it achieves - for the most part - with a fair degree of success, and does not have any pretenses to cover in the same level of detail the actual war part of the war, which has been dealt with by other authors.

I would like to thank Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

4/5 stars

p.s. Incidentally, people looking for books more focused on Canadians in action during the wars could do worse than Mark Zuehlke's excellent series of books which cover particular battles which predominantly featured Canadian units, or focus on Canadian units within greater battles.

Review - Operation Paperclip by Annie Jacobsen

History is a funny thing - the more you know, the more you realise that you don't know. Prior to reading this book, I considered that I was a reasonably well-read person on the ins and outs of World War 2, and I was aware on some level of the Operation Paperclip (originally named Operation Overcast) activities following the defeat of Germany in World War 2.

Undeterred by this, I was interested to learn more, particularly given that this was a recent title, rather than something written contemporaneously. From reading the book, it is now apparent that with the passage of years, and the declassification of many documents, more of the whole sordid story is coming to light.

I'm not going to lie, the deeper I got into this book, the madder I got. Not at the book, or the author, but at the actions of the US military, as depicted in these pages. It is somewhat difficult to maintain the moral highground, I feel, on the one hand trying many war criminals at Nuremberg, while recruiting, or attempting to recruit many many more, because they were useful, or could provide valuable skills for the US's own war making.

Probably the most well-known, or most celebrated of the Operation Paperclip scientists recruited and brought to the US was Werner Von Braun, whose wartime V2 rockets essentially were the basis for America's journey into space. One might look at his post-war achievements, and all that these brought to the US, and humanity generally, but it is hard to overlook the fact that he was a member of the SS, and worked in plants and factories which were responsible for the deaths of prisoners.

But Von Braun is only the beginning of the story, and there were many other scientists, and engineers who were spirited out of the country, or left to work in secret in country. People with horrendous, criminal track records, many of which were white-washed for the sake of military convenience.

I suppose looking back that the argument could be made, and is addressed by the author, that if they weren't recruited by the US, then they would have been by Russia. And that they were doing the only expedient thing by doing this. Certainly there is some merit in preventing the other side from gaining access to the scientists and creators of such technology, but I can't help feel more than a little anger at what was done, or overlooked, nonetheless.

Operation Paperclip is an excellently researched, up to date history book, and is very educational with respect to the conduct of war, and the conduct of peace. I certainly look forward to reading more books by this author.

5/5 stars

Review - The Last Warrior by Andrew Krepinevich

This is a very weighty tome, and definitely not for the faint of heart. I was interested in this book, as it tracks many of the developments in the military-industrial complex, and think-tanks which carried America through the Cold War and into modernity.

I will admit having never heard of Andrew Marshall before - and this seems to be due to the nature of the man himself, rather than any failing on my part - and to be honest I had him slightly confused with George C Marshall of WW2 fame when I first saw the book.

I was reminded in parts of the book Legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner, about the horrendous mis-management and intelligence failures at the CIA. By comparison, the work of Marshall and his team, as portrayed in this book, smacks of something like competence.

The real problem with the book is that it just isn't that engaging. This is not the story of the front line, of the nitty gritty of intelligence or military work, this is about backroom machinations, and political manoeuvrings.

The Last Warrior is a moderately interesting book about the life and work of an otherwise-little known man, who has obviously had a huge influence on military policy at the highest levels for decades. One for students of political history, and true history buffs, but not for the casual observer.

2.5/5 stars

Review - A Land Divided by K M Ashman

Disclaimer: I received an ARC from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

A Land Divided is a historical novel set in 11th century England, Ireland and Wales. Although it is based on real events, the author has taken certain liberties, largely for the sake of plot convenience. It tells the story of a family, and a nation divided by a civil war.

It is a very well-written book, with epic brutal, fast-paced action scenes, where I understood what was going on most of the time. But it is also a book filled with lovely quiet moments, particularly around the Queen and her daughter. In fact, I would say that the female characters are the most well-developed in the story, and certainly the most interesting.

It is not without its flaws, however, and this may be a case of my not being used to Welsh names, but so many of the major characters just seemed to all roll into one. There's Gruffyd king of Gwynned, and Rhys ap Tewdwr (mostly called Tewdwr), and a whole bunch of other names who held similar titles or positions on opposing sides, I often struggled to remember who was who. There is a guide to pronunciation at the beginning, which helps with understanding how their names are pronounced, and it may have been useful in a hard copy book as a point of reference, but with an ebook I really should have made a bookmark.

A lot of these problems clear themselves up towards the end of the novel, as through natural attrition the number of characters are diminished. (war is hell, right?) All in all, I enjoyed the book, and look forward to reading more of the series.

3.75/5 stars

Review - The Angel by Mark Dawson

The Angel is a very modern thriller, dealing with many of the big issues facing the intelligence community, as well as the community as a whole. There is a multi-faceted teerrorist attack in London, told mostly from the perspective of the young (and not so young) terrorists as they carry out the attack.

I haven't read any of Mark Dawson's novels before, but was pleased to see that this was the start of a new series, rather than trying to play catchup from the middle of a series. I felt like the characters were well fleshed out, but they followed many of the tropes of other military thrillers.

For instance, there is the disgraced military/intelligence officer who is demoted by politicians just before some great catastrophe occurs which requires his expertise. He goes through the novel being praised as a hero by all and sundry, and modestly denying it all.

There are seemingly random cutaways to the life of a young woman in Morocco, who seems to be going about her randomly random daily life, and it only becomes apparent later that she is the eponymous character of the novel's title.

The story also follows the recruiter who appears to be the real force behind the terrorist attack, and then gets out of the country. Unfortunately, I anticipated that the majority of the novel would revolve around the natural search for that.

I might have missed the connection - it seemed a little vague - to why the intelligence agents have to recruit a girl in her teens - who seems entirely too competent for someone that age - to spy on the son of someone, while studying at a high class high school in Switzerland.

Because that won't seem strange and obvious at all...

What follows is an extensive description of the life of a new student at a strange boarding school; with the awkwardly trying to fit in, and the going to parties, and the shopping trips in to town to buy expensive watches and... stop.... just stop...

The woman who was portrayed in the random spots of randomness does not seem to bear any relation to the girl who is in the second half of the novel. And frankly it was a little annoying, and distracting from what was otherwise a fairly competent thriller novel. I didn't understand what the connection was between the boy, his father, and the terrorist plot, or how they intended her to plant some sort of bugging device.

At the end of the day, I think the author managed to waste the potential of the woman he had built up to be the hero. While I am somewhat interested in seeing the direction the series is going in, I don't buy "The Angel" story as it is currently presented.

I felt that it was a reasonably competent, if by-the-book thriller novel, but I felt that it was let down by failing to be a complete story in itself.

3/5 stars

Review - The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher

I will admit to being an enormous Jim Butcher fan, and so when I found out that there was a new book out, I was immensely excited. Needless to say I was not disappointed with this book.

The Aeronaut's Windlass is Butcher's take on Steampunk, with his own twist. There are airships galore, and battles that are some of the most exciting and engaging I have read in a while. I'm not going to lie, it's not the most originalof concepts, and there are all of the typical tropes of the genre here, but they are done well, with his typical polish.

The characters are extremely well-crafted, and come across as individuals. Whether they were human, half human, or fully cat, their voices were unique and interesting. I really enjoyed the cat society that he built, and the attitudes and behaviour he ascribed to the feline members of the cast of characters were very catlike.

I was intrigued by the magic system that Butcher is using in this series, and the people who wield the power are some of the most interesting in the book. Folly was the stand out personality of the whole novel for me, much more than some of the other cadets.

Although it is clearly aimed at a younger audience than his Dresden Files, The Aeronaut's Windlass would appeal to readers of all ages, and is well worth a look. I can't wait to see where this series goes next.

5/5

Review - Fate of the Union by Max Allan Collins

This novel is your standard "former national hero secret service agent who took a bullet for the president-of-the-future receives a phone call from his friend who needs to talk, but before they can talk his friend dies in mysterious circumstances leading said agent to uncover a possible serial killer who turns out to be part of a giant conspiracy" story.

It's full of your typical thriller cliches like...

- Dead friends.
- Dead friends' wives as possible love interests.
- Billionaires
- Incompetent local cops
- Incompetent federal cops
- Female Federal Agent sidekick who defies all orders to work with the hero of the story.
- Conspiracies involving large corporations and the government.
- Mysterious technology.
- Geeky genderless sidekick available via "phone a friend"
- Strippers. (who may not actually be strippers)
- Transvestites. (who may not actually be transvestites)
- Transphobia.
- Main hero as a Social Justice Warrior.
- and more...

But seriously though... this book was not bad, with all of that said. It just felt as though I had read this thing all before, by so many other authors, and so so much better. It was like the author took all of the cliches of this genre, inserted their characters' names, and changed some of the minor details.

At least 60% of this novel involves the main characters following red herrings all over the country, while I was deeply suspicious about the people who wound up being the bad guys.

In spite of all of this, I was actually prepared to give this novel a fighting chance, because it was at least engaging, and somewhat entertaining. That was until I hit the ending. But first, the climax of the story had the potential for such interesting tension, involving bombs, and threats and whatnot, but it was over in one sentence and a goddamned cheesy line. And that was before we got ending.

To say that the ending was a deeply unsatisfying, exposition-heavy talk-fest, followed by a convenient wrap, would be an understatement.

*sigh*

2.5/5 stars... just. Just go read the latest Lee Child novel, he does it a lot better.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Review - Warmth by Sam Wolfson

Do you enjoy reading books with “gripping” dialogue where almost every sentence ends in an exclamation mark for dramatic tension!!?!!?!!! This is definitely the book for you.

Do you enjoy reading books where there are endless passages of info-dumpy dialogue with brief passages of confusing action? This is definitely the book for you.

Do you enjoy political thrillers with shadows organisations with names like Them, Deluge, DG, YD, tERROR, the IDF, and many many more? This might be the book for you.

Do you enjoy searching Wikipedia for something and waking up 2 hours later with 200 Chrome tabs open, and no idea what you were originally looking for? This might be the book.

Sigh…

Warmth had a lot going for it – an interesting premise, hot-topic politics, and world inundation… or domination… or maybe both. But it really wasted its opportunity with boring talk-fests, confusing plotlines and interchangeable, forgettable characters who all sound the same.

And then there’s the exclamation marks. Sweet baby jesus does this author love his exclamation marks. Early on in the novel he limits himself to single exclamation marks at the end of his dialogue, but as he passes the mid-point he becomes aware that his novel mostly involves people sitting in small groups explaining things in exotic locations like London, London, Country England, Paris, London… I don’t really know… the only way he seems to come up with to ramp up the tension and drama is to keep adding more exclamation marks.

I shall attempt to explain the plot. 

The year is 2027, and there has been a worldwide rise in sea levels.

John is a political advisor to some politician in Australia. He discovers his boss is involved in some sort of global conspiracy that gets his boss killed, him kidnapped and framed for his boss’ murder, then in the middle of the kidnapping he gets re-kidnapped by a group of people who appear to be the ‘good guys’. An extended tour of the Conspiracy Theory pages of the Internet ensues as the group find themselves taking on a new world religion, led by some bloke named Clive, a mysterious organisation called Them, and assorted other random bad guys.

Oh, and the new religion is called The Delugion. The author manages to limit himself to one little joke about people being Delugional, but that pun was far too little, far too late.

The problem with writing about events which occur in the near-future is that current events are bound to quickly overtake the plot. Wolfson references contemporary events in Australian and world politics, and this might appeal to people who believe in conspiracy theories, but I didn’t care about any of the characters, many of whom seem to wander in and out of the novel for extended periods of time. 

As a parting note, I received a copy through NetGalley in return for an honest review, and the copy I received may be an ARC, it was sorely in need of a proofreader, and someone to delete 99% of the exclamation marks before it was published.

Barely 1/5… because I actually finished it in a bit over a day and a half. 

Review - The First Great Air War by Richard Townshend Bickers

The First World War has been sliced and diced just about as many ways as it can be, and in some ways I feel like authors need to find a 'new' angle to catch my interest. I realise this was published some time ago, but received a copy for review through Netgalley from the publisher.

I recently finished a similar - although much more focussed - book called Fighting the Flying Circus, by Eddie Rickenbacker, which gave an insight into a particular aspect of the air war. This book, by contrast, was much wider in scope, but managed to maintain the personal aspect of the war, bringing it down to earth (no pun intended) by relating personal insights and stories with historical detail, and technical information about the ongoing developments in air power.

I also enjoyed the comparison to events and characters in the Second World War - particularly the Battle of Britain - which I understand the author has also written extensively about. This book brought home to me just how widespread the war in the air was, not just limited to the war over France.

I thought the book was well-paced, informative, and easy to read.

4/5 stars