The Other Half of the Blog Title

I am attempting to rectify two wrongs with one post today. The first is that I intend to post something fresh every Wednesday, and I took a few weeks off there, which I followed up by posting on a Monday. So here is a Wednesday posting! The second is that I realize that this blog’s title would perhaps lead one to believe that there would be a lot of information about literature, but that the past three articles have had next to nothing to do with books. Here is my Wednesday post about literature. Congratulations.

I read a lot of espionage, crime, and military thriller books. Mostly novels, but I do have a good number of nonfiction and autobiographical works as well. Household author names like Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn, and Lee Child dominate the book shelf that stands prominently in my apartment. All of the aforementioned authors write exciting, entertaining books that I enjoy (although Lee Child, does make some really technically asinine remarks about firepower that I might talk about later as the blog matures). Despite enjoying the stories these bigger names churn out, there is a new class of author, writing a sub-genre of book, that is growing rapidly that I really have been enjoying: Veteran Military Fiction.

For those of you who enjoy books from the likes of Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn, Brad Thor, and the countless others similar to them, I would highly recommend trying out some books from this sub-genre. Specifically, my three favorites are (in no particular order) Chris Hernandez, Peter Nealen, and Jack Murphy. All three authors write for different online periodicals, or their own blogs as well as writing their own books.

Chris Hernandez has two books out in both paperback and kindle editions. His first book, Proof of Our Resolve, is about a National Guard infantry platoon deployed to Afghanistan. His second book, Line in the Valley, follows some of the same characters during a fictional terrorist attack/invasion of Southern Texas. Both books are very good, well thought out, and relatively quick to read for those of you who do not have much time on your hands for leisure reading.

Peter Nealen has a series of three books out in what is called The Praetorians series: Task Force Desperate, Hunting in the Shadows, and Alone and Unafraid. All three books follow a team of private military contractors as they take on missions that the United States is unable, or unwilling, to undertake. These books are also available in paperback and kindle versions.

Jack Murphy has a series of books and short stories that are contained within the same timeline. The short stories, the PROMIS series, are only available on kindle, and follow the father of full-length book series’s protaganist through his adventures in South East Asia and South Africa. Murphy’s full length books, collectively known as the Deckard Novels, follow protagonist Deckard as he leads a shadowy Kazakh mercenary company against an even grimmer threat. The books, in order are Reflexive Fire, Target Deck, and Direct Action.

Obviously, as military novels the books all have a good bit of violence in them, however Murphy’s and Nealen’s books have a good bit more in them than Hernandez’s first book. I will admit that none of them are probable contenders for any major literary awards, but that does not mean that the books are any less entertaining.

For me, part of what makes these books so enjoyable are the details. All of these guys go to great lengths to make sure their stories were technically proficient. This was undoubtedly a result of professional pride coming from a group of veterans, and it definitely helps avoid some of the ire that gets thrown at this genre of books when an author clearly doesn’t know what they are talking about. For some, the details get tedious and perhaps overwhelming. If you are looking for a lot of books to put on your kindle because you have a long flight, or, I don’t know, have some sort of surgery coming up that will keep you pretty sedentary for a while, I would recommend each of the books above, and for those of you who have read the books, I would like to hear what you think of them. Either way, I hope you enjoy what you read here. I realize it is a bit shorter than the usual, but I’ll get a nice full length one going for next week Wednesday.