HE RAISED AN ARMY
AGAINST THOSE WHO
TOOK EVERYTHING FROM HIM
They should have picked their enemies more carefully.
Five centuries from now, on a remarkably Earthlike planet that is mankind's sole colony in space, religious fanatics called the "Salafi Ikhwan" have murdered the uncle of former colonel Patrick Hennessey. That was their first mistake, because uncle was rich and Hennessey was rather a good colonel. But they also murdered Hennessey's wife, Linda, and their three small children, and that was their worst mistake for she was the only restraint Hennessey had ever accepted.
From the pile of rubble and the pillar of fire that mark the last resting place of Linda Hennessey and her children arises a new warrior—Carrera, scourge of the Salafis. He will forge an army of ruthless fanatics from the decrepit remains of failed state's military. He will wage war across half a world. He will find those who killed his family. He will destroy them, and those who support them, utterly, completely, without restraint or remorse.
Only when he is finished will there be peace: the peace of an empty wind as it blows across a desert strewn with the bones of Carrera's enemies.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
In 1974, at age seventeen, Tom Kratman became a political refugee and defector from the PRM (People's Republic of Massachusetts) by virtue of joining the Regular Army. He stayed a Regular Army infantryman most of his adult life, returning to Massachusetts as an unofficial dissident while attending Boston College after his first hitch. Back in the Army, he managed to do just about everything there was to do, at one time or another. After the Gulf War, and with the bottom dropping completely out of the anti-communism market, Tom decided to become a lawyer. (Big mistake, way big. Chilluns, don't do it.) Every now and again, when the frustrations of legal life and having to deal with other lawyers got to be too much, Tom would rejoin the Army (or a somewhat similar group, say) for fun and frolic in other climes. His family, muttering darkly, still puts up with this. His novels for Baen include A State of Disobedience and two collaborations with John Ringo, Watch on the Rhine and Yellow Eyes.
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Product ReviewThe best conservative military sci-fi I've ever read!
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Product ReviewSolid, if predictable (BAMF's family is slaughtered, said BAMF opens a can on the perps) plot, good character development, excellent action and military technogeeking, even some gripping moral dilemmas. Hampered by blocks of awkward exposition that doesn't move the story along. More story and less political commentary would have been great.
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Product ReviewI particularly enjoyed the subtle rip on Cat Stevens.
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Product ReviewNot too bad a read. Good action sequences, pretty decent character development, lots of background and plot development.
Too much of the good-guys-always win, predictable enemies (although his depiction of the savagery of the mujadeen is spot-on).
Very accurate analysis of the importance of family in the middle east, and he ties it in well to the story.
Maybe I'm too accustomed to the masters of SF (Heinlin, Drake, Weber, Lieberman et al), but the very graphic and detailed blow-by-blow descriptions of sexual encounters (Pun intended, Kratman seems rather obsessed with oral sex) are not necessary to the story and are jarring when encountered.
I might more than one of of his other books. Depends on what I find in his next one.Posted on
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Product ReviewVery good read
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