A riveting tale of war that stumbles a few too many times.
The lives of three very different men intersect on an aircraft carrier in this Vietnam-era military thriller.
At the end of 1967, the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga is stationed off the Vietnam coast. Onboard are Ogilvy Osborne, a former combat veteran, the ship’s chaplain; Lt. Augustine “Ti” Campbell, a hotshot aviator; and Lt. Robert Cannon, an up-and-coming staff officer. As Campbell flies missions over the Ho Chi Minh trail on the Laos-Vietnam border, Cannon is being groomed for advancement. The only problem: The FBI has taken notice of his fiancée’s anti-war activities at Columbia University. Meanwhile, the war is taking a turn for the worse. North Vietnam’s army attacks the city of Hue during the traditional Tet New Year’s truce then begins a six-month assault on the U.S. Marine combat base at Khe Sanh. Campbell is shot down and suffers horrific deprivation in a prison camp as he plots his escape. Cannon’s temper gets him in trouble with his superiors, threatening to derail his career. Ogilvy transfers to Khe Sanh to minister to the besieged Marines. The author of two previous military thrillers, Partel (The Chess Players, 2011, etc.) served on aircraft carriers from 1965 to ’68. The military details and dialogue are thus impressive, giving palpable authenticity to the story and the characters’ interactions. Partel illuminates not just the war but the internal conflicts of those who had to fight it, from religious doubt to social upheaval. The result is a ripping, visceral read. Unfortunately, the book is held back by some substantial defects. There are several typos and usage errors—e.g., “flaunt” for flout, “deport” for comport, etc.—and the military jargon is often overused and unnecessarily confusing. Also, Heart of Darkness took place in Africa, not the Amazon. More importantly, there is an overreliance on dialogue to carry some of the action scenes; more visual descriptions would better orient the reader. Finally, the religious inner dialogues of Osborne and Campbell often come across as stilted and unconvincing.
A riveting tale of war that stumbles a few too many times.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2014
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 357
Publisher: Navy Log Books
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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