Summer Books so far

I always have a book on my night stand that I’m reading. There are two shelves overflowing with books yet to read. I’ve been like that since middle school. My wife says books are boring. But for me they are a good escape in fiction and a good teacher in history.

To feed the history nut, I received two books from Bookmooch. One is _Fast Movers_ by John Darrell Sherwood. The other is _The Ultimate Battle: Okinawa 1945--The Last Epic Struggle of World War II_ by Bill Sloan.

_Fast Movers_ brings together the stories of Air Force, Navy & Marine jet fighter pilots during the Vietnam War. A crazy time when hundreds of aircraft were shot down & pilots captured. A place where the villagers found themselves in a very tough spot, between the forces of the North on the ground and the US planes sent to bomb them. A glimpse is given to the life of fighter pilot, asked to do a tour of 100 combat missions before being able to rotate back home. For some, 100 missions was less than six months. Others wouldn’t last more than a few, victims of SAMs. As the book put it, North Vietnam was the densest anti-air cover in all the world. MiGs wouldn’t come out to play very often, as there only a few of them. But those that did knew their planes very well and those of their adversaries. MiG-19’s fought in the horizontal - they could out turn anything in the sky. F-4’s on the other hand fought in the vertical - their afterburning engines could rocket them up through the clouds with a velocity the underpowered MiG’s could never match. The lessons learned on both sides paved the way for the modern fighters of today. But hopefully the lessons of how deadly air combat can be lives on too (throwing men and machines into the combat zone without tactics will lead to a ruinous end).

_Okinawa_ is a different slice of history. The battle for Okinawa during the spring and summer of 1945 was the last large invasion fought anywhere in the world, with over 100,000 troops on each side. It was a place of mistakes and poor intelligence. The Japanese fought nearly to the last man, designing their defensive lines in such a way so they could give ground while inflicting the most casualties. The book is told mainly from the American point of view, with numerous interviews with veterans. Some information is known from the Japanese side from the letters and orders of the officers found in the rubble. My interest in this island is two-fold. One, it’s the closing chapter of combat in a time that only knew fighting. Two, I lived there for three years and my sister was born there, as my Dad was in the Air Force. We lived on base at Kadena and Mom still tells of what Naha was like in the mid-1970’s.


For something fun, check out Joel Shepherd. He’s an Australian Science Fiction writer that wrote an awesome trilogy following the adventures of Cassandra Kresnov. Take Heinlein’s _Friday_, mix with Gibson’s _Necromancer_, add a dash of Aussie terms (take-away, java, and the British spelling of terms like colour) and mix with gusto. Start with _Crossover_, then into _Breakaway_ and finish with _Killswitch_. Which is what I did last night, finished the series and it’s a good sign an author has it nailed for characters and universe when you want it to keep going. The books dig into numerous topics, central is what it means to be human. Cassandra is an artificial person, created by the League to fight their wars. But she is also made with a high degree of intelligence, which allows her to be deadly as commander of an elite special ops unit. She comes to realize that the ideology that she fights for she no longer believes in and thus makes her way to the Federation, where humans may be augmented with neural links, but all have been born. Conflict, some of it running & gunning, some with coming to grips that Cassandra is entitled to pursue her dreams like any other citizen. All on a world that is well realized, a place that feels like it really exists. Plus I like Aussie authors (they have the British flavor I enjoy, but with more flair).

Awesome stuff. Now I’m into the latest P.I. Garrett novel from Glen Cook & a business book called _The Blue Ocean Strategy_.

-Mike M.