THE LAST RUN: The Mission Continues. . .

A gung-ho, war-as-a-fraternity-sport follow-up to Scott's 1985 Vietnam novel, Charlie Mike. Like Charlie Mike, Scott's current offering is practically a commercial for the US Army Rangers--his young soldiers don't stand up and sing ""Be all that you can be. . ."" but they get pretty close. Since almost all the characters in Charlie Mike were killed in Cambodia in 1969, Scott follows another group of Rangers from the same unit in 1970. Their job is to infiltrate a valley being held by a large NVA unit, pinpoint it for saturation bombing, and maybe even assassinate wily General Binh Ty Duc while they're at it. Leading our heroes are tough-guy Sergeant Matt Wade, Lieutenant J.D. Gibson, and other warlike clones. They get the job done in a wild melee, blood and guts flying, and come home wounded and honorable heroes, scott then leaps ahead in time to the dedication of the Vietnam War Memorial: ""Gibson sang out: 'Here we go! All the Way! One Way! Ranger! Ranger!'"" The literary equivalent of a spatter movie (""The sickening, bone-crunching thud wasn't heard by Gibson as he screamed crazily and struck the smashed face again and again""), strictly for those seeking cheap thrills and comic-book action. More serious readers interested in Vietnam fiction might turn to Scott Ely's Starlight (p. 155).