I've been doing more reading lately, and have posted my review of the new book, Without Warning. The year is 2003 and the Iraq War is on the verge of kicking off when the majority of the USA is suddenly wiped from the face of the earth... There are some great wargaming scenarios in here-- from a Marine brigade defending Guantanamo Bay and the remaining part of Cuba against Chavez's power grab, to the troops of France's illegally-installed head Sarkozy battling a civil war against the "loyalists" allied with the arab intifada in the streets of France, the remnants of America's invasion forces defending themselves in the Middle East, and Israel's launch of Operation: Megiddo...

I just posted my Amazon review of the classic Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I thought it was a pretty good book. Very different from the movie, but I thought it felt a tad dated, being 40 years old already.

I've always meant to get around to reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. I came across it again the other day, and decided now was the time. I haven't seen Blade Runner for many years, so I felt sufficiently distant from it to give the book an honest read.

The movie was a fair bit of a departure from the book, as many other people have noted. The androids of the book, other than Rachael, have only brief appearances. Roy Baty was much more exciting in the movie-- here, he is simply used to show the lack of empathy in androids and then quietly destroyed. Still, Dick did a very effective job of describing how similar to us the androids were, due to their high intelligence, yet still how alien (and dangerous) due to their lack of empathy.

The biggest difference between the movie and the book is the book's emphasis on the quasi-religion of Mercerism. Humans are able to use empathy boxes to share each others' emotions, and also those of the quasi-diety Wilbur Mercer. The androids, lacking empathy, are unable to participate in Mercerism, and seek to discredit and destroy it. I thought this was a great conflict based around the central theme of the book, but was confused by the actual physical manifestation of Mercer and what that was meant to imply. I also got the impression that Isidore was actually Mercer, or that might have just been the results of him fusing with the Mercer personality? That was a little strange.

Still, a good book, highly recommended. Complex enough that it probably deserves a second read.

Hey! Dan Abnett of Eisenhorn fame has a blog. Seems like all the cool kids are doing that...

I just posted my review of the 40k novel Eisenhorn on Amazon. In short: I liked it a lot, 5 stars.

I'm a bit of a picky reader, and while I prefer Science Fiction, I am, in general, strongly turned off by the idea of churned out fiction set in somebody's IP, like Star Wars or Star Trek. I'd heard a lot of good things about Eisenhorn, but I couldn't really bring myself to buy it. However, I found a friend with a copy, so I borrowed it and read it.

I found myself immersed in the book, and wound up reading the trilogy in about a week. The story has a knack of seemingly small, innocuous events and characters becoming more and more important as the story progresses, and I found myself making excuses to my family to sneak back and read further along to find out what happened.

You would probably benefit from having some knowledge of the 40k universe before reading this, but most important topics are explained in sufficient detail that a newcomer could read this book. As an Inquisitor in a world where magic is real, it reads like a supernatural mystery. The stories were, I thought, somewhat reminiscent of the Lovecraft mythos-- Eisenhorn meets supernatural evil that corrupts humanity and is powerless to stop it-- but with the twist that he has a choice to make-- the choice to maybe use a small part of that corruption to actually defeat the larger evil.

I was pleasantly surprised. I will be picking up my own copy of Eisenhorn and will recommend it to my friends. I might even go so far as to read another Black Library book...preferably something written by Dan Abnett.

I love the premise and it's not a terrible book, but it's just not worth the effort to finish. I've read about half of the book so far, and here's what I think.

First, it's supposed to be an "oral history," right? I have no problem with that. It's broken up into a bunch of 3-4 page vignettes. I have no problem with that. But, it's either an oral history or it's not. There are a few vignettes that really read like an oral history, but most are just stories written first person. I mean, complete novel-style writing, little to no interaction with the interviewer, just a teensy story from the first person.

Second, it's the politics. He doesn't knock you over the head with it, but it's pervasive enough. It seems like World War Z is his liberal Jewish fantasy. I have nothing against liberals or Jews (I'm a big supporter of Israel) but what, exactly, is the bigger fantasy-- that the dead come to life, or that the one nation who foretells the disaster is Israel, and their solution is to withdraw from all their settlements, withdraw from Jerusalem, and open their borders to all Palestinian refugees, most of whom are too foolish and suspicious to actually take up Israel on their offer? The Bush bashing is very subtle and, frankly, acceptable, but it's there nonetheless. Now I'm reading some chapter about recreating FDR's New Deal--

"If my father had been alive, he probably would have laughed at my frustration. He'd been a staunch New dealer, working closely with FDR as comptroller of New York State. He used methods that were almost Marxist in nature, the kind of collectivization that would make Ayn Rand leap from her grave and join the ranks of the living dead. I'd always rejected the lessons he'd tried to impart, running as far away as Wall Street to shut them out. Now I was wracking my brains to remember them."

The upper class survivors are all, to a man, completely worthless and unskilled in the "new" economy, and are retrained by the blue collar masses to do the things they couldn't-- fantastically ridiculous things like repairing houses and having gardens. I can see the point-- there are few machinists and gunsmiths, that would be a real problem and is a great thing to add. But to him, it's the entire upper class that is completely worthless:

"You should have seen some of the 'careers' listed on our first employment census; everyone was some version of an 'executive,' a 'representative,' an 'analyst,' or a 'consultant'...The first labor survey stated clearly that over 65 percent of the present civilian workforce were classified F-6, possessing no valued vocation...In short, we needed to get a lot of white collars dirty...Anyone F-6 but physically able became unskilled labor: clearing rubble, harvesting crops, digging graves."

If there had been any contrary stories so far, to give the impression that these were just survivor opinions and not the author's, I might have been able to finish it, but there haven't and I really don't have any faith that there will be at this point.

I mentioned earlier about liking Charlie Stross's The Atrocity Archives. I'm reading the sequel right now, The Jennifer Morgue. OMG, I'm laughing my butt off sometimes. Alan Turing discovered that mathematics can do Lovecraft-style magic-- hence his subsequent suicide. Now it's ten years before the "stars are right," a.k.a. codename GREEN NIGHTMARE, and Capital Laundry Services, the UK's anti-supernatural government agency, is on the job. The main character is Bob Howard, and hacker who stumbled into the realm of magic and was given a job offer he couldn't refuse by Capital Laundry. Turns out, his middle names are Oliver Francis. B.O.F.H. Yeah. He's reading Tanenbaum for fun. And some fun quotes: "Just as it's possible to write a TCP/IP protocol stack in some utterly inappropriate programming language like ML or Visual Basic, so, too, it's possible to implement TCP/IP over carrier pigeons, or paper tape, or daemons summoned from the vasty deep." "...and while I know all the POSIX options to the kill(1) command, doing it with my bare hands is beyond my sphere of competence." Hah! What a hoot. It's still worth reading even if you don't get a lot out of the geek jokes, though. All the Lovecraft mythos is turned on full blast, only in a modern setting. The main plot is very X-Files, with a dash of James Bond (and Kernighan and Ritchie!)

That reminds me, I also finished two more books-- The Cunning Blood and The Android's Dream.

Both were pretty good, I would rate them at 4 out of 5 stars, and worth getting.

The Cunning Blood is a very interesting story about a future Earth dominated by risk-adverse nanny staters and their lost, electricity-deprived penal colony. Nanotechnology and emergent intelligence also features prominantly. I liked it a lot, you can read more about it here, but it had a few downsides. The penal colony faction, the Moo Moos, was an unrepentant, one-dimensional stereotype from start to finish, and was occaisionally cringingly bad. The other was that I thought it was just a bit too long. Still, not enough to keep me from recommending it.

The Android's Dream was the latest offering from John Scalzi, the author of the really incredible Old Man's War. The Android's Dream is very tongue in cheek, and sounds like it was created as a dare based off of Philip K. Dick's book title, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. All in all, the book is quite nice, although there were a few outlandish moments which made me wonder how it would read-- notably, the very first chapter. There's action and intrigue, plus some twisted humor. It's worth reading.

I'm currently about half-way through Sergeant Lamb's America, and really enjoying it.

So, part of my recent resolution was to read some books. Here's what I've read so far:

The first book of the promised five was Real Food by Nina Planck. This book appealed to me because of its traditional food, eat-like-a-farmer mindset. However, there's a lot of information in the book about how foods affect cholestorol, much defying convential ideas. I have really outrageous cholestorol (my first test had Triglycerides in the 700s. 200 is considered high.) In fact, at a recent checkup my scores were bad enough that instead of returning in a year, I was to return in three months. So, I started to largely eat according to the book.

This meant basically no industrial food (or, with lesser emphasis, recently used oils. Imagine eating no ingrediants not eaten a hundred years ago). Note that this does not mean to just buy organic-- while organic meat may not be given antibiotics and such, the book advocates meat from animals allowed to graze and not cooped up and fed an "unnatural" diet. I bought organic meat at Earthfare (probably not free-grazing, but you take what you can get), free-range organic chicken eggs, whole milk, bread from a local bakery, etc... and just ate what I wanted. My triglycerides came down to 200, which isn't bad for me, but more interestingly, my HDL came up to 45, which is about the highest it has ever been. It's a little harder to buy food, and food is a little more expensive, but I feel like I'm eating better and it seems to help my cholestorol. Plus, you can eat organic food and not feel like a gaia-worshiping hippy.

The second book I read was Up Front in Vietnam by Reed. I found it at a local library book sale for $2.00, I think. It was a collection of 1-4 page vignettes, not all combat related, that the author had seen or heard about as he travelled Vietnam in 1967. It was interesting, but the very short chapters meant lots of blank pages, and I finished this book in about 24 hours without much effort. It was worth about what I paid for it.

The third book, which I am not quite finished with yet, is The Cunning Blood by Duntemann. This is a very good, fairly hard Sci-Fi book. About 3-400 years in the future, Canada leads a risk-averse nanny-state world government which has largely stunted technology development and halted space exploration. Almost 2/3 of the male population is barred from serving in the government due to a propensity for violence recognized by such acts as school-yard brawling. Violent criminals are actually shipped off-Earth to Hell, an Earth-like planet which uses current-seeking nanobots to keep the level of technology low. Illegal nanotech development continues through several groups modelled on secret societies. The plot involves a member of one of these secret societies and his hidden "smart blood," an emergent illegence nanobot system in his body, being condemned to Hell as part of a plot and what he finds on Hell. It's really great, one of those books you stay up too late for and read on your lunch break. I figure I'll finish it tonight. I highly recommend it to SF fans.

Andy Watkins has an exensive listing, rating and very brief reviews of many wargaming related books. Hattip: Miniature Wargaming.

The Military Book Group has been created, with the idea that members will vote on one military-related book a month, read it and discuss it together. Sounds interesting!

Frontiersmen: Warfare in Africa since 1950 gives a broad but shallow overview of conflicts in Africa from 1950 to 1997.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
   
2. Independence wars 1950 to 1962
   
3. Independence wars 1962 to 1980
   
4. Wars of integration and disintegration I: 1960 to 1980
   
5. Southern Africa to 1983
   
6. Southern Africa 1984 to 1997
   
7. Wars of integration and disintegration II: 1980 to 1997
   
8. Conclusion
   

I found Frontiersmen to be a pretty readable overview of modern Africa. The major conflicts, such as Algeria and Angola, are convered in some depth. It seemed pretty comprehensive, convering all the conflicts I'd heard of to some degree, and several I hadn't. Some small conflicts had only a few paragraphs describing them, but they were there.

I don't have a thorough knowledge of most of these conflicts, so it was rather beyond me to fact-check most of the information presented. The one odd thing that stood out to me was Clayton's description of Somalia. He describes only one Blackhawk crash incident, which involved AC-130 support. It appears that this book was published about the same time as Bowden's Black Hawk Down, so Clayton probably lacked that seminal reference, but the lack of AC-130 gunship support does appear to have been one of the key points of that engagement. I know there was a previous Blackhack crash involving the 101st Airborne, and I don't know if perhaps they had AC-130 support (it would seem unlikely to me), but still, why mention that crash and ignore the Rangers' firefight? Like I said, strange. Overall, though, this seems like a worthwhile book to read.

Frontiersmen: Warfare in Africa since 1950 Anthony Clayton UCL Press Limited, 1999 ISBN: 1-85728-525-5

Me Against My Brother: At War in Somaila, Sudan and Rwanda is the first-hand accounts of Scott Peterson's reporting from these locations in Africa during their periods of conflict. Scott also discusses the events that transpired to bring about these conflicts.

Table of Contents
Part I
SOMALIA: Warlords Triumphant

1. Laws of War
2. "City of the Insane"
3. A Land Forgotten by God
4. "Club Skinny-- Dancers Wanted"
5. "Camp of the Murderers"
6. The Fugitive
7. Bloody Monday
8. Mission Impossible
9. Back to Zero

10. Divided By God
11. War of the Cross
12. The False Messiah
13. Darwin Deceived

14. A Holocaust
15. "Dreadful Note of Preparation
16. Genocide Denied
17. In Perpetuum

I very much enjoyed this book. It's Scott's story of covering these conflicts as a professional journalist, but he also devotes a fair amount of time to the world events that surrounded them. Most of this analysis is devoted to the failures of participants in these conflicts to either act or take appropriate actions. Examples would be the failure of US leaders to adequately appreciate the reactions of Somalis to their actions, leading to the inaction of US leaders on the issue of genocide in Rwanda. Blame is not only heaped upon the Western powers, though, and the crimes and inadequacies of African players are also highlighted.

This book is written at a fairly high level, there is little by way of actual on-the-scene tactics. However, Scott does spend a lot of time discussing unconvential strategic techniques used by the combatants in these conflict, such as manipulating aid agencies to gain access to relief supplies for troops. Anyone running a modern African wargaming campaign would benefit greatly from reading this book.

Me Against My Brothers: At War in Somalia, Sudan, and Rwanda Scott Peterson Routledge, 2000 ISBN: 0-415-92198-8

Wargames Campaigns by C.S. Grant is a broad work covering the many aspects of wargaming campaigns of any era. Being so broad, though, it lacks depth in any particular area.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction-- 'Why Have a Campaign?'
   
2. The Start Point
   
3. Maps
   
4. Movement
   
5. Armies
   
6. Playing Mechanics
   
7. Personalities
   
8. Casualties and Hospitals
   
9. Prisoners
   
10. Recruiting
    
11. Weather
    
12. Rivers, Boats and Bridges
    
13. Politics
    
14. Finances
    
15. Campaign Diaries, Journals and Book Keeping
    
16. Scenarios, Settings and Ideas
    
17. Postal Campaigns
    
18. Orders and Communications
    
19. Campaigns at Sea
    
20. Campaigns in the Air
    
21. Random Happenings
    
22. Technology and Wargame Campaigns
    
23. Computers and Campaign Wargaming
    
24. The Use of Board Games
    
25. Seiges in Campaigns
    
26. Other Aspects
    
27. End Piece
    
28. Bibliography
    

At 153 pages and 25 chapters, plus intro, end piece and bibliograph, each section has an average of about 5 and a half pages. This is short, and I really noticed this while reading the book. It does give a very broad view of wargaming campaigns, though, and would be a good introductory book.

As an example, consider the Politics chapter. It weighs in at exactly five and a half pages. Grant first gives an introduction stating that Politics in a campaign are a very optional area, although very useful in campaigns with an umpire. Then there is a full page giving an example chart to generate the random political climate for the ruling government and opposition in a country. Another page gives a sample chart to generate randomly the relationship between two countries. Grant then gives a paragraph on alliances, a few sample conspiracies, some repercussions of civil unrest, an overview of investment, commerce and industry, and ends with a very brief summary. This is enough to get you thinking about these aspects of your campaign but, like the rest of the book, you rarely get to see examples of these topics used in an actual campaign.

Overall, it's a worthwhile book as long as you're looking for an overview of wargame campaigns. It left me, however, feeling my appetite had only been whetted, not satisfied, and that this is an area that could use a larger, more in-depth work.

Wargame Campaigns
C.S. Grant
C & S Publications, 1995
ISBN: 0-9525146-0-5

Chaim Herzog has been involved in every major Arab-Israeli conflict since joining the Haganah as a teenager in the '30s. This book is a high-level overview of each stage of conflict starting with the War of Independance in 1948.

Table of Contents

1. The War of Independance, 1948-1949
   
2. The Sinai Campaign of 1956
   
3. The Six Day War, 1967
   
4. The War of Attrition
   
5. The Yom Kippur War, 1973
   
6. The War Against Terrorism: Entebbe
   
7. Operation 'Peace For Galilee'
   
8. Conclusion

The Arab-Israeli Wars is a great primer on the various conflicts in the Middle East. While concentrating on the conflicts themselves, the intertwined politics of the region are also discussed. Each conflict is given enough background that it is presented in the context of its time, and a brief chapter is devoted to the results arising from each conflict.

The conflicts themselves seem to be discussed thoroughly but at a fairly high level. For the most part, high-level troop movements are discussed and mapped out, with smaller important actions presented as well. Equipment is discussed when necessary to understand its affect on the conflicts, such as the Soviet provided SAM missle shield the Arabs used. There aren't really any TO&Es or detailed OOBs, but enough information is given for wargamers to get started with. The maps given are nice. It seems to be a reasonably fair book, praising the successes and criticising the failures of both sides.

I bought this book for the discussion of Lebanon, and decided to read the whole thing so that what I read could be put into context. It was a very interesting read. The major affect really was a strong desire to game the Yom Kippur war in micro-armor rather than Lebanon!

The Arab-Israeli Wars: War and Peace in the Middle East from the War of Independance through Lebanon
Chaim Herzog
Vintage Books, 1984
ISBN 0-394-71746-5

The Defense of Hill 781 is a 1998 book in the same vein as the 1905 classic The Defense of Duffer's Drift by Swinton. While Duffer's Drift concentrated on small unit tactics, however, Hill 781 uses an '80's US reinforced mechanized infantry battalion. There are six different vignettes given in Hill 781, with a concentration on modern combined arms tactics. The book is on the US Marine Corps Commandant's reading list.

Table of Contents

1. First Impressions
   
2. Dawn Attack
   
3. Change of Mission
   
4. Defense in Sector
   
5. Deliberate Attack
   
6. Night Attack
   
7. Battle Position Defense
   
8. The Fruits of Victory
   

Author James R. McDonough states the lessons learned from the original Duffer's Drift as the inspiration for this book, and keeps it in a humorous setting much as the original. In Hill 781, the officer is Lieutenant Colonel A. Tack Always, an Airborne Ranger who, in life, chided his fellow non-Airborne soldiers and avoided commanding heavy infantry, as he felt two jeeps were too much trouble to keep running in the field.

However, one day, to demonstrate to his soldiers that one could eat three MREs in one day and survive, Always expires and awakes to find himself in Purgatory. Purgatory turns out to be the US National Training Center in Nevada, where Always must atone for his arrogance in life by commanding a reinforced mechanized infantry battalion through a series of confrontations. Only by performing well will he be allowed into Heaven.

Chapters 2 through 7 detail missions given to Always' battalion. Each time, it details the process through which the plan is created. Two maps are given, the first of the objective and Always' troops and planned movements; the second as above, but with the enemy's forces on it. After each mission, the success or failure of the mission is discussed, and inforative points of the mission are stressed.

I enjoyed the book. While primarily intended as educational, it wasn't a dry textbook and was easy to read. It gives interesting insight into the planning and execution of an action as well as well as the myriad things that might go wrong.

The Defense of Hill 781 is currently out of print, but is easily found at Bibliofind, Biblion, or abebooks.com.

The Defense of Hill 781: An Allegory of Modern Mechanized Combat
James R. McDonough
Presidio Press, 1988
ISBN: 0-89141-310-3