Warlord: An Alex Hawke Novel by Ted Bell

This is your basic 'ultra cool, dangerous, spy guy (except he is British so he is perfectly mannered and spoken) saves the world from evil bad guy' novel.  Now typically, these are right up my ally.  This one, however, asks you to suspend the old disbelief a tad too much.

While our hero is a little annoying (he is Lord Hawke, after all, how could he not be a bit of a d-bag?), the true problem is our villain.  This dude is so good, he carries off unbelievably heinous crimes over a 30 year period and they have no idea who he is.  Some are ridiculously complicated, some so simple as to be moronic.  Hell, dude apparently could have killed every man, woman, and child in the British Empire without getting caught had he been so inclined.  Then, our hero gets him in the end so easily you wonder what took him so damn long.

Basically, this book was o.k.  Read it, don't read it, I don't really care.....

Nats

Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes

I like books on the Vietnam War.  They remind me what a bunch of pussies left wing, liberal, commie sympathisers can be as well as why Jane Fonda should rot in hell as well as why I hate UC Berkley (Cal to the average college sports fan).  But I digress....

This book takes our hero on his trip through his first tour of Nam as a United States Marine.  The lingo is fascinating, the drama intense, and it gives you a look at some behind the lines aspects of the war that we are rarely privy to.  There is one aspect of this book that kept me from enjoying it, though.  The Battalion Commander absolutely abused one of his Companies throughout the piece.  Hell, he did more damage to his men than the enemy did.  I can't imagine this happening.  Then again, that may be because I have never been in the military and don't know what I'm talking about.  Anything is possible.

Anyway, give this one a read and let me know what you think.  I enjoyed it.

Nats